Tiger Cupcakes--They're Grrreat!

Looking through my Google Photos, I found some cupcakes I hadn't shared anywhere except Instagram!  I figured it's a good time to post these, since America seems to be hypnotized by a certain Netflix show to which I still haven't succumbed... 

I made these last year because the newly-built school where I'd be teaching Kindergarten had a tiger mascot, so I made tiger cupcakes for the orientation potluck!  Here's a little step-by-step, and I was thrilled with how they came out!  (You know when you have an idea for something and then you do it, and it matches with exactly what you'd pictured?  That's the feeling I got.  I DO NOT get this perfect match-up of expectation vs. reality all the time, which is why I was so pumped!)

Here's a photo of all the stuff I had ready (ended up not needing the yellow candy melts):

I started with a box mix (because sometimes you just want to decorate) of devil's food cake, and put some vanilla frosting as a base on top of the cupcakes. 

I then added a ring of orange frosting from a pouch, and smoothed it out/blended it with an offset spatula, leaving some white in the middle for the snout:

Next, I stuck on 2 orange Froot Loops for the eyes, black sprinkles for whiskers, 2 spots of black gel icing for eyes, and a big pink heart for the nose!

I then used the same black gel icing for one little, curved stripe along the sides, and 2 on the forehead:

And that's it!  I just had to do the same thing over and over a couple times to make my full set, and then pray the hot, humid weather wouldn't make the gel turn streaky!  But everything worked out just fine!  There were so many desserts, only a few people had my tigers, so I was able to share them with my local Starbucks baristas, since I was going there ALL THE TIME over the summer to make sure I got out of my apartment!  The best part of making cupcakes is sharing them with people!