March 1, 2013 is Read Across America Day and kids all across the country will be fueling their imaginations with Dr. Seuss books (and other beloved children’s books).
Our favorite book is Oh, The Thinks You Can Think, a book about using your imagination. Our copy is extremely well loved and worn. This particular page about Peter the Postman (who every day crosses the ice and on Saturday’s twice!) is one of our favorites. My son has decided that Peter delivers the mail to the Jaboos living in the dark town (featured in the page before). Poor Peter, not only does he have to deliver the mail to a bleak and disma looking town, he has to cross dangerous ice full of scary looking walruses to get there!
This frosting is not fondant, its buttercream! A recipe by Cheryl @ Sew Can Do.
It was my first time making it, and I found the frosting to be slightly more difficult to work with than fondant, but overall I was really happy with the taste and the results. Cheryl uses coloring gel, but I wanted to try the food coloring drops from Nature’s Flavors. These are all natural and the colors are really vibrant.
My 4 year old son was more than willing to help me with this project. I think his walruses came out looking particularly scary!
To make the blue water, I rolled out 12 balls of about equal size, then we squashed them using the flat side of our chopper scraper tool. Gently peeled them off and laid them on the cupcakes.
The ice rings were cut using two different sized inverted glasses. One is about the size of a shot glass. I lifted them using the scraper and laid them around the water on the cupcakes.
Next, we made 12 orange balls and using our hands, rolled and molded them into various sized walruses.
Turns out, my son is an expert flipper maker. Who knew?
Here is one of the more scary walruses. (Peter tries to stay away from this guy.)
To make the mustaches, I just cut out yellow frosting triangles with a small knife, then made them look shaggy with more cutting.
I used an edible marker to color in the facial expressions. As an alternative, you could try to carefully paint the eyes, eyebrows and nose with a thick paintbrush and dark food coloring.
Oh my, this is one dangerous pod of giant walruses!
Head on over to your local library and see what kind of events they have planned. Enjoy those books!
(More Dr. Seuss Cake Student recipes.)
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon real vanilla extract
- 3-4 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar
- Food coloring
- Beat the butter and cream together in a mixing bowl using a paddle attachment. Add the vanilla and slowly add 3 cups of confectioner sugar.
- Now you need to use your judgement on the consistency, stop the mixer and carefully take a little frosting out to feel with your hands. If you want it thicker then add more sugar.
- !To make the colors for this particular Dr. Seuss cupcake project:
- Separate the into 4 sections. Color 3 of them with food coloring (orange, yellow, and blue). If the food coloring makes the frosting wetter, simply add more confectioner sugar.
- Ultimately, I used 4 cups of sugar total, but I also used food coloring drops which added more liquid. If you are using the food coloring gels then you may not need all the sugar.

These are CRAZY CUTE!! Great job!! And I am loving the looks of that frosting! I’ve made homemade (non-marshmallow) fondant, and it’s wonderful, but a little greasy. This looks just perfect!
Thanks Brooke, we had so much fun making these, it was like working with play-doh. It’s really tasty frosting and was relatively easy to make, give it a try!
Bellissimi, complimenti!
¡Gracias, July!
You rock! These are spot-on, the walrusus are exactly as I remember them being.
Thanks Kim, I was surprised by how easy they were to make and what a fun project it was for my son and I to do together. Great to “see” you again!
So thrilled to see what you made using my recipe! Just love these. I’ve shared them on the Sew Can Do Facebook page:)
Thanks Cheryl! It was a great recipe and provided an easy way for my son to help me decorate 🙂
Can you use crisco instead of butter
Hi Kim, I have never tried cisco with this recipe but I imagine you could I just don’t know if it would taste as good. If you try it out let me know what you think! Thanks for visiting.
Hello, Is there any reason that you cannot use shortening instead of the butter? I am anxious to try this recipe.
Hi Sandy, I haven’t tried shortening only because on http://www.sewcando.com website with the original recipe, Cheryl recommended not to substitute ingredients otherwise the consistency might not be guaranteed. That said, I know a lot of people use shortening instead of butter to make buttercream frosting so if you do try it out, please come back and let us all know how it worked out for you! Also, others who have used the recipe say it is not a good alternative to fondant when using it to drape over a cake to cover it because it is softer than fondant. It’s best when used to make sculptures/figures for the cake or like I did, on cupcakes.
Thanks for stopping by!