After months of trying to find the right cookie for the neck I settled on ladyfingers.
I started by trimming down and shaping circus peanuts. The circus peanuts were then attached to the lady fingers with yellow chocolate.
Once the heads were connected to the necks I dipped the entire piece in to yellow chocolate.
Some little heads looked more giraffe-y than others. Some kind of looked like a weird Snoopy...
Once the yellow chocolate set, I painted on spots, eyes, nose, and a smile with milk chocolate. The entire piece was dusted with bronze luster dust. I loved the shine the luster dust added. I did a heavy strip down the bridge of the nose to provide some shading.
I carried the cupcakes separately from the heads and then assembled at the site.
The cupcakes were vanilla with yellow colored vanilla flavored butter cream frosting.
The fully assembled herd looked quite impressive on the dessert table.
And for the birthday girl I used a little mini-pan to bake a baby giraffe cake. It sort of looks like a llama - but she didn't care! (And even if she did care she's only 1 and can't talk yet.)
