Lion Cupcakes with "You Make My Heart Roar" Cupcake Wrappers

Turn Reese's Cups into adorably cute lions using caramel and heart sprinkles then use them to make Lion Cupcakes with "You Make My Heart Roar" Cupcake Wrappers for Valentine's Day.

Ever since I made my Teddy Bear Cupcakes using Reese's Cups, I've been thinking of other Valentine's Day cupcake ideas using the same technique.

I sat one afternoon and stared at a peanut butter cup for a while, looking for inspiration, and noticed that the jagged edges of a Reese's Cup look a bit like a lion's mane.

So, I grabbed candies and cookies and sprinkles and spent an hour trying to turn the chocolate into a lion.

All of the lions looked cute, but I just wasn't wild about any of them, so I took to the web and found a lot of pictures of heart-shaped lion head crafts.

The heart-shaped heads were perfect.

I crafted the lion's faces and ears using caramel then added heart-shaped sprinkle noses and drew on eyes, eyebrows, and freckles using a black food coloring marker.

Let's make Lion Cupcakes

Ingredients you'll need:

• Reese's Cups (.55 ounce peanut butter cups work best)
• caramels
• jumbo heart-shaped sprinkles
• black food coloring marker
• light cocoa candy melts
• conversation hearts

Supplies:

• small heart-shaped cookie cutter
• small round plunger cutter

To make these Lion Cupcakes, you'll need the following supplies which can be purchased from Amazon.com (commission earned for sales)

Decorate Reese's Cup Lions

• To make the lions, start by unwrapping the caramels and placing them in the microwave.
• Heat them on the defrost setting for 5 second increments, removing and kneading after each, until soft and pliable.
• Flatten out the caramel and cut out a heart shaped face and two small round ears. I used a small round plunger cutter to cut the ears, but you can simply pitch off pieces and roll them into balls if you don't have a plunger cutter.
• Press a large red heart sprinkle onto the caramel heart to create the lion's nose.
• Break another red heart into two pieces and press one with the rounded edge sticking out under the curve of the heart to create a tongue.

Draw on eyes and freckles.

• Use a black food coloring marker to draw eyes, eyebrows, and freckles onto each heart.
• Attach the caramel heart (lion's face) and ears to a chocolate peanut butter cup using melted light cocoa candy melts or clear piping gel.

Caramel Lion's Paws

• Create the lion's paws using more caramel. You'll need 1 caramel square to make one set of paws.
• Cut the caramel in half, roll each half into a ball then into a tear drop shape.
• Draw 5 claws onto each paw using a black food coloring marker.

Printable Cupcake Wrappers

You can make lion cupcakes for a birthday party or zoo-themed event, but if you want to make them for Valentine's Day, you can wrap them in custom-designed printable wrappers that say, "You make my heart roar."

I created these using a digital cupcake wrapper template that was designed by Cindy at Skip to My Lou.

Click on the link below and you can print these wrappers onto card stock. Then cut them out to decorate your own cupcakes.

"You Make My Heart Roar" Cupcake Wrappers - Print Now

If you want to serve these lion cupcakes at a zoo themed party, you can use Cindy's template to create your own printable cupcake wrappers.

Wrap cupcakes with printable wrappers.

• Print out enough "You Make My Heart Roar" cupcake wrappers to wrap around all your cupcakes.
• Cut them out and wrap them around the cupcake, taping the edges together.

Assemble the lion cupcakes.

• Add a swirl of frosting on each cupcake then attach one lion on the front of the top part of the swirl. You can use peanut butter frosting, caramel frosting, or just color white frosting tan to match the caramel lion's face.
• Add one conversation heart to the front of the cupcake and place one paw on either side of the candy.

What frosting did I use?

• I wanted to share a recipe for the frosting that I used, but I started by making dulce de leche frosting, which was too soft. I played with the recipe for a long time, adding more powdered sugar, then adding melted peanut butter chips and peanut butter, and it never got to a point where I could pipe a big swirl on top of my cupcakes.  It tasted great, but just didn't work.
• I was running out of time, so I grabbed a tub of Wilton White Frosting, added some peanut butter to it, and colored it using some brown and yellow food coloring. It worked perfectly and tasted really nice.

Printable Valentine's Day Cupcake Recipe

Print

"You Make My Heart Roar" Lion Cupcakes with Free Printable Cupcake Wrappers

Prep Time

30 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

Top cupcakes with a big swirl of frosting then add a Reese's Cup Lion and decorate them with a "You Make My Heart Roar" cupcake wrapper.

Course: Cupcakes

Cuisine: American

Keyword: lion cupcakes, reeses cup cupcakes, valentines day dessert

Servings: 6

Author: Beth Jackson Klosterboer

Ingredients

• 6 Reese's Cups
• 12 caramel squares
• 9 large red heart sprinkles
• black food coloring marker
• 1 ounce melted light cocoa confectionery coating candy melts or almond bark
• 6 cupcakes
• 2 cups tan frosting
• 6 conversation hearts

Instructions

1. Unwrap peanut butter cups.
2. Unwrap caramels and soften them by heating in the microwave on defrost for 5 second increments, kneading after each, until soft.
3. Flatten 6 of the caramels, and cut using a 1 - 1 ½ inch heart cutter.
4. Cut 12 small circles using a small round plunger cutter or pinch off pieces and roll into small balls.
5. Press one red heart sprinkle onto each caramel heart forming the lion's nose.
6. Break the remaining 3 heart sprinkles in half.
7. Attach one piece with the rounded side facing down, under the curved part of the caramel heart, creating the lion's tongue.
8. Draw eyes, eyebrows, and freckles onto each caramel heart using a black food coloring marker.
9. Attach one caramel heart lion's face and two caramel ears to each peanut butter cup using melted confectionery coating.
10. Cut the remaining caramel squares in half.
11. Roll each into a ball then into a teardrop shaped paw.
12. Draw 5 claws onto each paw using a black food coloring marker.
13. Wrap each cupcake in a printable "You Make My Heart Roar" cupcake wrapper.
14. Spoon frosting into a large pastry bag fitted with a large 1M star tip.
15. Pipe a big swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake.
16. Press a Reese's Cup lion onto the front at the top of each frosting swirl.
17. Press a conversation heart onto the frosting just below the lion's head.
18. Attach one paw on either side of the candy heart.

This recipe was originally published on February 13, 2016.

More Valentine's Day Cupcake Ideas

If you like these cute lion cupcakes you might also enjoy making these fun Valentine's Day cupcakes. See the links to the recipes below the collage of images.

• Author
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Beth Klosterboer

Hi, I'm Beth Jackson Klosterboer, a professional chocolatier & baker, cookbook author, and event planner. I love sharing recipes for happy occasions here on Hungry Happenings. I also create easy fudge recipes to share at HowToMakeEasyFudge.com, rice krispie treat recipes at HowToMakeCerealTreats.com, and easy cookie recipes at HowToMakeEasyCookies.com

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