Kung Fu Panda Cupcake Movie Night + Giveaway

I adore Pandas. I’ve been slightly obsessed with Bei Bei, the Panda cub who was born in August 2015 at the National Zoo. The zoo’s panda cam gives viewers a unique experience into the world of Bei Bei and his mom, Mei. Another panda that I love is Po from Kung Fu Panda. He loves to eat, loves kung fu, and, of course, is voiced by the awesomely-talented Jack Black. And believe me when I say Jack is awesome. I’ve met him a couple of times and he’s just as cool in person as he is on screen. Kung Fu Panda is back for a third installment and honestly? Kung Fu Panda 3 is my favorite out of the three films so far. Why? I love the storyline and we get to meet a whole new village of Pandas!

In celebration of the new film, we held a Kung Fu Panda family movie night, courtesy of the Fox Insiders Network. We decided to sweeten things up and make cupcakes instead of the traditional popcorn. My daughter and I found a recipe online at Bakerella.com for mini Panda cupcakes. Bakerella is one of my favorite sites for baking inspiration… BUT truth be told our Panda cupcake didn’t look like Bakerella’s. Ours had more of a “nailed it” feel to it. Ha! Still, my daughter loved them and they were yummy.

If you want to make your own mini Panda cupcakes, here is the recipe we used. First, we used a mini cupcake pan to create 24 little bite-sized morsels of deliciousness. We baked our chocolate cupcakes (any box mix will do or if you’re motivated feel free to start from scratch!). Let the cupcakes cool before topping them with vanilla frosting. For a smooth finish press the top of your cupcake into a thin layer of sugar. Doing so will flatten the frosting, and the sugar gives the cupcake a shimmering dimension. Next up, create the Panda’s face with mini chocolate chips. Use a couple for the eyes and a couple for the ears. Sprinkles work best for the mouth. These cupcakes turned out to be a super simple and fun mommy/daughter cooking project. Next, we set our cupcakes up at our Kung Fu Panda themed table. Table cloth, napkins, and cupcake holders were some of the decorations we received! Finally, we grabbed a cupcake and a stuffed Po and turned on Kung Fu Panda. We saved Kung Fu Panda 2 for the next day. Seeing the two films prepared us for #3!

Do you have a Kung Fu Panda fan in your house? Use these ideas for your birthday party planning or your next family-movie night! The first two movies are available on DVD and Ku Fu Panda 3 is in theaters on January 29th!