Lions and tigers and bears? Oh my! If your baby is turning one and you’re looking for a really fun first birthday party theme, Wild One is a great option. These Wild One birthday cupcakes are a combination of a few different animal cupcake recipes I’ve been making plus a super easy cupcake with chocolate letters and a toothpick party hat!
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Once you know how to decorate each of them, you can create your own Wild One cupcakes for a party that’s sure to impress. They’re also the perfect cupcake design for a Two Wild birthday party or Young Wild and Three party. In this article, we’ll reference our other recipes for: Tiger Cupcakes, Bear Cupcakes, and Lion Cupcakes so you can make the whole set!
How To Make Wild One Cupcakes
Bake Cupcakes
Bake a batch of your favorite box cake mix. You can use the same batch of cupcakes for your lion, bear and simple blue cupcakes. If you want your tiger cupcakes to be tiger striped cake on the inside, they will need their own separate batch.
Mix together 3 eggs, ½ a cup of vegetable oil and one cup of water with one box of chocolate cake mix 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
Make your vanilla buttercream frosting with 1 cup of unsalted butter and about 4.5 cups of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 2 teaspoons of whole milk or cream. Blend it in a large bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer until it’s completely mixed.
If you’re using this same batch of frosting for Lion Cupcakes, Tiger Cupcakes, and Bear Cupcakes, you’ll need to separate the frosting out into multiple bowls. Lion and Bear cupcakes use the same colors (brown and light brown/yellow). Tiger cupcakes use orange frosting and these simple blue cupcakes use blue frosting. You’ll also need to set aside about 1-2 tablespoons of white icing for the lion’s face details. Check out the links to each recipe for full frosting details.
For these blue wild one cupcakes, you can take the entire portion of frosting you’ve set aside for them and put it in a separate bowl. Add one drop of blue food coloring at a time and mix thoroughly before adding more; this way you’ll be able to see how dark the shade is before you decide to go darker.
Make Wild One Chocolate Letters
I used a silicone chocolate mold and some chocolate candy melts to make letters that spell ‘wild one’. This can be done ahead of time so they are all ready to go when it’s time to decorate your cupcakes.
For best results, put your melted chocolate into a plastic bag or piping bag and cut off the tip of a corner. Use this piping bag to put chocolate into each letter you need. Then let your chocolate mold cool off at room temperature. Putting chocolate in your fridge or freezer can cause it to sweat when it comes back out and warms up.
Frost Cupcakes
Spread blue icing over the top of your cupcakes and then roll the frosted cupcake on a plate of light blue sanding sugar sprinkles.
Decorate Your Wild One Cupcakes
Add your chocolate letters that spell ‘wild one’ to the top of your simple blue cupcake. Then put a toothpick party hat on top for an extra fun look.
Check out the full recipe for Lion Cupcakes here.
Check out the full recipe for Bear Cupcakes here.
Check out the full recipe for Tiger Cupcakes here.
Wild One Cupcake Tips
- Bear and lion cupcakes use the same shades of frosting and are very easy to make at the same time.
- You can use any color you like for the Wild One cupcakes. I chose blue, but you can use green to match a jungle theme or pink for a little girl for instance.
- All of these cupcakes can be made using the same batch of cake mix. You can use either vanilla cake or chocolate cake. If you want your tiger cupcakes to have orange and black cake inside, you’ll need a separate batch for them, but that’s optional.
- You can also purchase cupcake toppers that look like a little sign that says: wild one or 1st birthday if you’re not interested in making chocolate letters.
- I used black cupcake wrappers, but you can go with just about anything that matches the rest of your party supplies. You can even get animal print cupcake liners like these ones from Amazon.
Wild One Cupcake – Ingredients and Materials
These are the ingredients for the just the blue cupcakes with chocolate wild one letters. For the ingredients needed for lion cupcakes, bear cupcakes, and tiger cupcakes, please check out their recipes.
- 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
- Blue food coloring
- Chocolate candy melts
- Materials
- Bowls
- Spoons
- Piping bags
- Grass piping tip
- Round piping tip
- Parchment paper
- Cupcake pans
- Cupcake liners
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
- Silicone letter candy mold
- Party hat toothpicks
Final Thoughts on Wild One Cupcakes
I’m not a professional baker or cake decorator. I’m just a mom making fun treats and coming up with cool party ideas. These Wild One Cupcakes would pair perfectly with this recipe for raspberry nice cream, just like ice cream but better because it’s healthy, delicious and vegan! You should also check out this easy recipe for Strawberry Turnovers your whole family will love. If you’re looking for a healthier, dairy free alternative, check out these first birthday cupcakes that are allergy friendly too!
With the right tools for the job and a bit of patience, you, too, can absolutely make awesome cupcakes for birthday parties for your loved ones! All the wild things at your birthday party are going to love the dessert table. It might just be the highlight of your themed party!
Wild One Cupcakes
Equipment
- bowls
- spoons
- piping bags
- Parchment paper
- Cupcake pans
- cupcake liners
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
- Silicone letter candy mold
- Party hat toothpicks
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
- Blue food coloring
- Chocolate candy melts
- Blue sanding sugar/sprinkles
Instructions
Bake Cupcakes
- Bake a batch of your favorite box cake mix. You can use the same batch of cupcakes for your lion, bear and simple blue cupcakes. If you want your tiger cupcakes to be tiger striped cake on the inside, they will need their own separate batch.
- Mix together 3 eggs, ½ a cup of vegetable oil and one cup of water with one box of chocolate cake mix 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
- Make your vanilla buttercream frosting with 1 cup of unsalted butter and about 4.5 cups of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 2 teaspoons of whole milk or cream. Blend it in a large bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer until it’s completely mixed.
- If you’re using this same batch of frosting for Lion Cupcakes, Tiger Cupcakes, and Bear Cupcakes, you’ll need to separate the frosting out into multiple bowls. Lion and Bear cupcakes use the same colors (brown and light brown/yellow). Tiger cupcakes use orange frosting and these simple blue cupcakes use blue frosting. You’ll also need to set aside about 1-2 tablespoons of white icing for the lion’s face details. Check out the links to each recipe for full frosting details.
- For these blue wild one cupcakes, you can take the entire portion of frosting you’ve set aside for them and put it in a separate bowl. Add one drop of blue food coloring at a time and mix thoroughly before adding more; this way you’ll be able to see how dark the shade is before you decide to go darker.
Make Wild One Chocolate Letters
- I used a silicone chocolate mold and some chocolate candy melts to make letters that spell ‘wild one’. This can be done ahead of time so they are all ready to go when it’s time to decorate your cupcakes.
- For best results, put your melted chocolate into a plastic bag or piping bag and cut off the tip of a corner. Use this piping bag to put chocolate into each letter you need. Then let your chocolate mold cool off at room temperature. Putting chocolate in your fridge or freezer can cause it to sweat when it comes back out and warms up.
Frost Cupcakes
- Spread blue icing over the top of your cupcakes and then roll the frosted cupcake on a plate of light blue sanding sugar sprinkles.
Decorate Your Wild One Cupcakes
- Add your chocolate letters that spell ‘wild one’ to the top of your simple blue cupcake. Then put a toothpick party hat on top for an extra fun look.
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