What A Croc!

Now is this a scary bunch of cupcakes or what?

I made this guy Saturday to celebrate John's birthday at my weekly Saturday night crop. His birthday was actually in July, but he had pneumonia and then I was on vacation, so we're playing catch up now.

I took this idea out of the Hello Cupcake! book that has been in all my baking thoughts lately. There are so many cupcakes in this book that I still want to make.

I had much more success with these cupcakes than I had with the Shark Attack cupcake carnage.

In fact, if it wasn't for the ingredients list, I would have been home free, they were so easy. The problem ingredient was Newman's Own Alphabet Cookies. They're basically square chocolate cookies and you cut them in half diagonally and use them to form the reptilian scales on the crocodile's back.

Between Peanut Head and I, we went to six different stores looking for them. The second to last place I looked had something close.



I figured if I couldn't find the alphabet cookies, then I could improvise and use these Pepperidge Farm Chessmen. I think they would have worked just fine, but I finally found the Newman's cookies at Fred Meyer.



Here's what they look like in case you ever go looking.

I almost didn't find them at Fred Meyer even. They were in the health food section with all the organic food. I wonder if the other stores we looked at had them as well, and maybe we were just looking in the wrong section?



This isn't the best picture because of the glare, but I like the angle. His snout is just so long.



Here he is from above.



One last view. I have to say I had a heck of a time getting the frosting tinted the right color. I was trying for the green in the book, but I didn't come close.



Here's the professional version. Isn't he a pretty green? At least I didn't end up with Croc Carnage.