Brown Teddy Bear Cupcakes

 

Party at Build-A-Bear = bear cupcakes, right? Well, I wanted brown teddy bears and I couldn’t find any simple ideas for them. There were white polar bears and panda bears, there were paw prints, and there were the cutest  sculptured teddy bears made out of Tootsie Rolls and other candies, but there were no easy brown bear ideas that I liked. :( I started touring the craft store cake decorating aisles and made up my own with things I found on the shelves, and since I’ve gotten so many good ideas from the lovely ladies who share their ideas on Pinterest and blogs I decided I would put instructions for my brown teddy bear cupcakes up for others to use too. These are so quick and easy, and even the littlest kids can help make them. Sarah was my helper this year and even my perfectionist self could let go enough to let her help. I think they turned out to be adorable.

1. Bake your cupcakes and let them cool. Choose any flavor you want since the cake part doesn’t show. Flatter top cupcakes will be easier to decorate, so don’t overfill the muffin cups.

2. While the cupcakes are cooling, collect your decorating supplies. Here is what I used:
Milk Chocolate Frosting
Wilton Light Cocoa Candy Melts
Wilton Brownie Crunch Turtle Sprinkles
Caramel Creams
Sixlets, black 12mm
Festival Candy Eyes
Wilton black Food Writer, or black decorating gel
optional: pink or red frosting or decorating gel

3. Frost the tops of the cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

4. Pour Turtle Crunch Sprinkles into a bowl and dip the top of the frosted cupcake into the sprinkles making sure to cover the whole surface. Add more sprinkles to the bowl as needed.

5. Unwrap a Caramel Cream candy and gently flatten it with a rolling pin until it is about a quarter inch thick. Put a small amount of frosting on one side of the flattened caramel and place it on the top of the cupcake near one edge. If your cupcake tops are rounder, gently shape the caramel to fit the curvature before sticking to the top.

6. Push 2 candy melt discs into the cupcake at a small angle at the opposite edge of the attached caramel to form the ears. I pulled the discs out and added a bit more frosting on the edge before reinserting it into the cupcake to more firmly attach it, but if you were in a time crunch you could probably do without that extra step since the cupcake is already frosted and they seemed to be fairly secure when first pushed in.

7. Put a dab of frosting on the backs of 2 candy eyes and place them on the cupcake between the caramel and ears.

8. Put a dab of frosting on a Sixlet and place on top of the caramel for the nose.

9. Draw a mouth on the caramel under the nose with a Food Writer or decorating gel.

10. Optional: You could add a tongue and/or pink to ears with frosting or decorating gel.

 

I made 2 dozen cupcakes and still had about a third of the Crunch topping leftover, so a 5 oz. jar should cover 3 dozen cupcakes.

The cupcakes transported to the party well, and the kids loved them.

These cupcakes have so many customization options depending on what decorating supplies you can find and what type of bear you want. Build-A-Bear bears come in a rainbow of colors and patterns. I found all of my decorating items at local craft and big chain stores on the shelves- Michaels, JoAnn Arts and Crafts, Hobby Lobby, and Wal-Mart- but the selection available in different areas might vary.
*Dark brown bears: use dark chocolate frosting and Brownie Crunch Cookies and Cream Sprinkles, dark chocolate candy melts, and flattened tootsie rolls for the muzzle. You could use chocolate jimmies in stead of the crunch sprinkles or just leave them off to let the frosting color show.
*Colored bears like the Sweet Cuddles Teddy, Autism speaks bears: use white or colored  frosting and cover with colored sugar sprinkles. Match the color of the candy melt and Sixlet (or M&Ms would work too for the nose!) to your bear color, and use flattened fruit flavored Tootsie Rolls or Starbursts for the muzzle.
*For multi-colored bears like the Furever Hearts, Lucky Clover, Rainbow Hugs, Champ  and Camo bears, use a mix of colored sugars. You can mix the colors for a random color look or layout specific lines or swirls of the colors in the bowl.
*For looks like the Cele-BEAR-ation, Pink Flurry, Colorful Stars bear, use white frosting and colored sugar, then add shaped sprinkles to the top before adding the face features.