Buttercream Frosting

1. Spread white buttercream frosting over the bare cupcakes; substitute a different color if you prefer a zebra print with black and colored stripes. Spread it as smooth as possible with an icing spatula. Dip the spatula in a cup of hot water to help smooth out the icing. The hot spatula warms and melts the frosting slightly.

2. Insert a small, round decorating tip in a decorating bag. Fill the bag with black buttercream icing, and squeeze it to burp out air pockets. Look for black food coloring gel to achieve the truest shade possible.

3. Draw the outline of stripes all over the cupcake top, making the stripes different lengths. Hold the bag about 1/4 inch above the cupcake surface, and squeeze it with medium, constant pressure as you drag the flow of icing across the cupcake. The stripes should not be uniform, but instead, should be slightly wavy with a pointed tip and varying thickness throughout each stripe. It helps to refer to an image of a real zebra.

4. Use the round tip decorating bag to fill in the stripe outlines with black frosting. Smooth the frosting with a toothpick to eliminate the appearance of multiple thin, round frosting strands within each stripe.

Fondant

1. Dust a fondant cutting mat or counter with powdered sugar to prevent the fondant from sticking. Roll a ball of white fondant -- or a different color as desired -- to about 1/4 inch thick with a fondant rolling pin. Cut out a circle that measures the same size as the cupcake top, or slightly smaller. You can use a cookie cutter or even a drinking glass to cut the circles.

2. Roll a ball of black fondant to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out several zebra stripes approximately 1/2 inch wide with a fondant cutting wheel, a fondant blade tool or a precision crafting knife. Fondant cutting wheels look like miniature pizza cutters, and work in the same way.

3. Dip a small brush in water, and squeeze out the excess so it is only slightly damp. Brush the back of the black stripes with the damp brush to make the fondant tacky. Place the stripes on the white circles in the desired pattern, pressing lightly to ensure good contact between the black and white fondant.

4. Frost each cupcake with a thin coat of buttercream frosting to seal in any crumbs, and provide a layer that acts as a glue to bond the fondant to the cupcake. Set the circles on top of the cupcakes, and press down slightly to embed them in the frosting.

5. Brush the black stripes with a damp brush, if needed, to clean up any remaining powdered sugar left on the black fondant from the cutting mat or counter.

Frosting Sheets

1. Cut a frosting sheet with a zebra print design into circles roughly the same size as the cupcake tops. Skip this step if you have pre-cut frosting sheets in the correct size. These are often perforated or easy to peel off much like removing a sticker from a sticker backing sheet.

2. Frost the cupcakes with a level layer of buttercream frosting in your choice of color. The frosting can be as thick as you desire, but the top should be leveled off to accommodate the frosting sheet decoration.

3. Peel off the protective backing sheet on the back of each zebra-print frosting sheet circle.

4. Set the frosting sheet circle on top of the cupcake, lowering the center of the circle on first, and working your way out to the edges. Lay a non-textured paper towel on top of the decal, and roll your finger or a fondant rolling pin over the paper towel to smooth out the frosting sheet. Within about 30 minutes, the frosting sheet absorbs into the wet frosting so the two components become one.