Do you have a wild party coming up? These lion themed cupcakes are easy to make, even for a beginner like me. I’m just a mom who likes making delicious cupcakes, not a professional, so you can definitely make these too.
These adorable cupcakes are perfect for baby showers and birthday parties that have a jungle theme and for kids who love animals.
If you’re looking for more party inspiration, check out this Bear Cupcake recipe. You can also mix these lion cupcakes with this Tiger Cupcake recipe and check out what they look like put together for some Wild One birthday cupcakes.
How to make lion cupcakes
Bake cupcakes
To make lion cupcakes, you can use vanilla or chocolate cake. Your favorite brand of cake mix or your favorite cupcake recipe can be used.
Mix together 3 eggs, ½ a cup of vegetable oil and one cup of water with one box of cake mix (or your dry ingredients) in a bowl. Fill your cupcake baking tin with cupcake liners and then spoon the cake mix in until each liner is about ¾ full.
Bake your cupcakes for 16-20 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit, depending on your cake mix instructions and oven. Cook them until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Take your cupcakes out of the cupcake pan and allow them to completely cool on a wire rack to room temperature before you start decorating them. Cold cupcakes are much easier to decorate! Try popping your cupcakes in the fridge for 10 minutes before frosting them.
Make frosting
You can either use chocolate frosting and a small amount of vanilla frosting or just use vanilla buttercream icing like I did and dye part of it brown.
Make your vanilla buttercream frosting with 1 cup of unsalted butter and about 4.5 cups of icing sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and 2 tsp of cream or whole milk. Mix the ingredients in a large bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer until they are completely blended and no sugar crystals remain.
Separate out two-thirds of your frosting into a separate bowl and add in 1 drop of brown food coloring at a time and blend it again to make sure the color is well mixed. It’s easier to start light and work darker, so take your time adding in the coloring.
Scoop out a small amount (2-3 tablespoons) of your white buttercream frosting into another separate small bowl and add half a drop of yellow food coloring and half a drop of brown food coloring; you’ll use this lighter shade for the lion’s face later. You might also want to check out this delicious recipe for peanut butter frosting. It’s the perfect shade of light brown if there are no nut allergy concerns at your party.
How to make lion cupcake ears
To make the ears of these lion cupcakes I used Canadian Smarties. You can also use other coated candy like M&M’s or Jr Mints. Alternatively, you can use another light brown shade of frosting.
Frost cupcakes
Use your yellow frosting to create a large round circle in the center of the cupcake. You can use a large round tip and smooth it with a cake spatula. It doesn’t have to be a perfect circle; the edges will be covered in the next step with frosting ‘fur’. Smoothing out the yellow frosting will look nicer and make it easier to decorate the face later.
Use piping tip #233, a grass piping tip, to give your adorable lion cupcakes a shaggy look. Fill your piping bag ½ full with brown icing. If you overfill your bag, it can be hard to get the right amount of pressure to use this piping tip correctly.
Start at the outer edge of your cupcake and work around the edge of each cupcake to put layers of shaggy frosting on your lion cupcake.
Squeeze, gently press into the cupcake, continue squeezing, then pull away gently to create the fur. Stop squeezing and pull away from the cupcake. The longer you pull away from the cupcake, the longer the brown frosting fur will be. Take breaks if your hands get sore during this step. Work your way slowly toward the middle.
Decorate your lion cupcake
Once your cupcakes have a yellow face and brown frosting lion’s mane around the outer edge, it’s time to decorate the cute faces with the eyes, nose, and mouth.
Place your candy ears on the top of the cupcake. Then put a tablespoon or two of white icing in a piping bag and cut a small hole in the tip so you can add two small circles of white icing to the center of the lion’s face. This is where the whiskers would surround the nose or ‘muzzle’ area of the lion and it’s a nice detail to add before the black nose.
Next, use black icing with a small round tip for the nose and eyes. I used a squeeze bottle of black royal icing with a very tiny hole cut in it. You could also use black gel icing or make your own black icing with food coloring at home.
You can use candy eyes but they give the cupcake a different look. The pupils in candy eyes are often quite small, giving it a ‘googly’ look. Large black eyes look cuter in my opinion. You could also use mini marshmallows and add black pupils with a decorating bag of frosting like I did in these Cookie Monster Cupcakes.
Lion Cupcake Tips
- If you can’t get your grass tip to work, take it off and poke through the holes with a toothpick to make sure they are clear.
- If your piping bag is breaking or you can’t get enough pressure to make your grass tip work properly, your frosting might be too thick or too cold. Try letting it sit on your counter longer or it will warm with your hands as you work with it.
- To thin out your frosting if it’s too thick, add a tablespoon of cream at a time. If you accidentally add too much liquid, just add more powdered sugar.
- I used Wilton Food Coloring and although it did dye my hands, the color washed off easily after a soak in warm water. You can also use chocolate frosting instead of dying vanilla frosting brown.
- It doesn’t matter too much what type of cake you use, chocolate or vanilla is fine. After you pipe frosting all over the tops of the cupcakes, you won’t be able to see the color of the cupcake underneath.
- You can store the lion cupcakes in an airtight container for a day or two before they start to get stale. Just make sure the royal icing is completely dry before you store them or the dye will start to run.
Lion Cupcakes – Ingredients and Materials
- Ingredients
- One box chocolate cake mix
- Three eggs
- ½ cup oil
- One cup water
- 1 cup Butter
- 4 cups Icing sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 tsp Heavy cream or milk
- Brown food coloring
- Yellow food coloring
- Chocolate candy (Canadian Smarties)
- Black royal icing
- Materials
- Bowls
- Spoons
- Piping bags
- Grass piping tip
- Round piping tip
- Parchment paper
- Cupcake pans
- Cupcake liners
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
Do you love these cute lion cupcakes?
Your guests are going to go wild for these perfect lion cupcakes. If you have the right piping tips, a bit of food coloring and candy, they really are simple enough to make even for a total beginner.
You can even pair these lion cupcakes with other animal themed cupcakes for a Wild One or Two Wild themed birthday party. Share this recipe with someone who would love these cute treats!
Cute Lion Cupcakes
Equipment
- bowls
- spoons
- piping bags
- Grass piping tip
- Round piping tip
- Parchment paper
- Cupcake pans
- cupcake liners
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
Ingredients
- One box chocolate cake mix
- 3 Eggs
- ½ cup Oil
- 1 cup Water
- 1 cup Butter
- 4 cups Icing sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 tsp Heavy cream or milk
- Brown food coloring
- Yellow food coloring
- Chocolate candy Canadian Smarties
- Black royal icing
Instructions
Bake cupcakes
- To make lion cupcakes, you can use vanilla or chocolate cake. Your favorite brand of cake mix or your favorite cupcake recipe can be used.
- Mix together 3 eggs, ½ a cup of vegetable oil and one cup of water with one box of cake mix (or your dry ingredients) in a bowl. Fill your cupcake baking tin with cupcake liners and then spoon the cake mix in until each liner is about ¾ full.
- Bake your cupcakes for 16-20 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit, depending on your cake mix instructions and oven. Cook them until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Take your cupcakes out of the cupcake pan and allow them to completely cool on a wire rack to room temperature before you start decorating them. Cold cupcakes are much easier to decorate! Try popping your cupcakes in the fridge for 10 minutes before frosting them.
Make frosting
- You can either use chocolate frosting and a small amount of vanilla frosting or just use vanilla buttercream icing like I did and dye part of it brown.
- Make your vanilla buttercream frosting with 1 cup of unsalted butter and about 4.5 cups of icing sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and 2 tsp of cream or whole milk. Mix the ingredients in a large bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer until they are completely blended and no sugar crystals remain.
- Separate out two-thirds of your frosting into a separate bowl and add in 1 drop of brown food coloring at a time and blend it again to make sure the color is well mixed. It’s easier to start light and work darker, so take your time adding in the coloring.
- Scoop out a small amount (2-3 tablespoons) of your white buttercream frosting into another separate small bowl and add half a drop of yellow food coloring and half a drop of brown food coloring; you’ll use this lighter shade for the lion’s face later.
How to make lion cupcake ears
- To make the ears of these lion cupcakes I used Canadian Smarties. You can also use other coated candy like M&M’s or Jr Mints. Alternatively, you can use another light brown shade of frosting.
Frost cupcakes
- Use your yellow frosting to create a large round circle in the center of the cupcake. You can use a large round tip and smooth it with a cake spatula. It doesn’t have to be a perfect circle; the edges will be covered in the next step with frosting ‘fur’. Smoothing out the yellow frosting will look nicer and make it easier to decorate the face later.
- Use piping tip #233, a grass piping tip, to give your adorable lion cupcakes a shaggy look. Fill your piping bag ½ full with brown icing. If you overfill your bag, it can be hard to get the right amount of pressure to use this piping tip correctly.
- Start at the outer edge of your cupcake and work around the edge of each cupcake to put layers of shaggy frosting on your lion cupcake.
- Squeeze, gently press into the cupcake, continue squeezing, then pull away gently to create the fur. Stop squeezing and pull away from the cupcake. The longer you pull away from the cupcake, the longer the brown frosting fur will be. Take breaks if your hands get sore during this step. Work your way slowly toward the middle.
Decorate your lion cupcake
- Once your cupcakes have a yellow face and brown frosting lion’s mane around the outer edge, it’s time to decorate the cute faces with the eyes, nose, and mouth.
- Place your candy ears on the top of the cupcake. Then put a tablespoon or two of white icing in a piping bag and cut a small hole in the tip so you can add two small circles of white icing to the center of the lion’s face. This is where the whiskers would surround the nose or ‘muzzle’ area of the lion and it’s a nice detail to add before the black nose.
- Next, use black icing with a small round tip for the nose and eyes. I used a squeeze bottle of black royal icing with a very tiny hole cut in it. You could also use black gel icing or make your own black icing with food coloring at home.
- You can use candy eyes but they give the cupcake a different look. The pupils in candy eyes are often quite small, giving it a ‘googly’ look. Large black eyes look cuter in my opinion.
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