Farm Animal Buns for Beginners


My 5yo and I made some Farm Animal Buns recently as part of our school holiday Farm Week. It was great fun and really simple to do.

These are the plans I sketched up (please excuse the drawing!)

Farm Animals Buns Plan

The plan!

You will need

Round cookie cutter

Icing cutters (we use this set)

Ready-made white fondant icing (supermarket own-brand is fine)

Food colouring (we use this set)

Palette knife (not essential)

Rolling pin

Icing Sugar

Butter

Milk

Plain Buns

Preparation

Bake buns beforehand

I definitely recommend baking and decorating them on 2 separate days. The decorating alone took about 1 ½ hours (it would be much quicker without a 5 year old involved but hey ho!). We used a simple vanilla cupcake recipe. Once the buns are made, you can freeze them until you’re ready (they should be OK for a good 4 weeks in the freezer).

Farm Animal Buns plain

Vanilla buns defrosted and ready to go

Colour fondant icing

Again, I’d do this the night before. Mixing food colouring and children is just asking for trouble!

Just pull off as much fondant as you need and squash it around for a bit. Then dip a cocktail stick into the colour you want and wipe it into the fondant. Keep folding and squashing the fondant until it is coloured through.

Wrap the coloured balls in cling film and leave in the fridge.

Farm Animal Buns colour fondant

Make your colours up the night before (we had to mix red and yellow to make the orange)

Make butter icing

Butter icing is simple; weigh the butter and then add twice as much icing sugar. Beat it together (preferably with an electric whisk unless you’ve got the muscles of a body builder!). Add milk to soften if necessary.

Make the Farm Animal Buns

I’m going to talk you through making the pig as an example.

Make the butter icing foundation

Put a dollop of butter icing onto each bun and smooth it off until it’s flat (ish). I use a small palette knife but the back of a table knife should be fine too.

Farm Animal Buns smooth butter icing

Smooth the butter icing onto the bun

Make the fondant icing disc

Sprinkle some icing sugar onto your bench to stop the icing sticking to it. Roll out the pink fondant until it is about 3mm thick and use a round cookie cutter to cut out a disc. Use one that is slightly bigger than your bun.

Farm Animal Buns rolling pin

Roll out the fondant onto icing sugar

Use a spatula to pick up the disc and place it on your bun. Gently press the edges into the bun.

Farm Animal Buns Disc on bun

Place the disc on the bun and tuck the edges in

Make the fondant features

Eyes: Pinch a tiny blob of black fondant for each eye and roll them into balls

Nose: Cut out a small circle for the snout and put 2 small dint in it for the nostrils

Farm Animal Buns nose

Pig nose

Ears: Use a flower icing cutter and then chop it up to make ear shapes

Farm Animal Buns ears

Pig ears

Attach the features

Butter Icing is the glue in this activity. Smear a tiny bit on the back of each piece, place on the disc, and then pat it gently so it sticks.

You’re done!

Farm Animal Buns pigs

Finished pigs

Additional Extras

The cow disc

You might have noticed the cow disc is a mix of 2 colours. Don’t panic! All you need to do is roll a few pieces of each colour and arrange them closely together on your bench. Then roll them out with your rolling pin and they should merge together. Then cut out your disc as normal.

Farm Animal Buns cow disc balls

Arrange the coloured balls closely together

Farm Animal Buns cow disc roll

Use the rolling pin to merge them together

Farm Animal Buns cows

Cows

The sheep

No set of farm animal buns would be complete without a woolly sheep! The sheep is made by using more butter icing at the beginning and heaping it up into a little dome shape. Stick the black face on and then push mini marshmallows into the butter icing. Simple!

Farm Animal Buns sheep heap

Heap the butter icing into a mound

Farm Animal Buns sheep finished

Sheep

That’s it! Easy Peasy!

 

Farm Animal Buns: Step-By-Step

Now you know what to do, here’s a snappier version of the steps for you to follow:

  1. Bake buns beforehand
  2. Colour fondant icing the night before, wrap in clingfilm, leave in fridge
  3. Make butter icing
  4. Put a teaspoon of butter icing onto the bun
  5. Use a spatula (or knife) to make the top flat and smooth
  6. Roll out the pink fondant icing and use a round cookie cutter to make a pink disc and place onto a bun
  7. Cut a smaller circle for the snout and put 2 small dints in for the nostrils
  8. Dob a tiny amount of butter icing onto the back and stick into onto the bun
  9. Roll 2 small black balls for eyes and mount on the bun with butter icing
  10. Use a flower icing cutter to make the ear shapes and such to the bun with more butter icing
Farm Animal buns ducklings

Ducklings

Farm Animal Buns Chickens

Chickens


Got an In The Night Garden fan? Why not have a look at my tutorial to make these fab cupcakes:

in the night garden cupcakes

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60 Comments

Add yours
  1. 5
    Talya

    Oh wow these are ridiculously cute! Not sure if these are beyond my skills but love them all the same. Thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub lovely x

    • 6
      Lucy At Home

      I’m so glad you like them. It’s the first foodie-type post I’ve done. I’m sure they’re not beyond you (this is only the 3rd time I’ve ever worked with fondant – it’s a lot easier than it looks). Thank you for commenting. L

  2. 53
    Kaye

    Love this, looks great and easy to do (which I need – anything manageable haha). My biggest would love making these I’m sure (if he doesn’t scoff the icing before we decorate). Thanks for linking up to #MarvMondays. Kaye xo

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