It is no secret that children love animals. These easily piped versions work well on brownies, cookies and the ever-popular cupcakes. With a few simple motions you can create a variety of attention-grabbing animals, such as lobsters, hippos, bears and even a monkey. Keep details and icing colors to a minimum to help save time. All of the piping is done with tip No. 12 unless otherwise noted.

Teddy Bear
1. Pipe a large white circle for the head; add a flat disc of icing for the snout, and pipe two ears. Pipe a horizontal line for arms, and two “L” shaped vertical lines for the legs and feet.

2. With pink icing, pipe two small circles for a leotard. Then, use an up and down motion to pipe the ruffled tutu. Add ballet slippers and a bow on the head.

3. With a cut tube, accent the bow with purple. Add black eyes and a heart shaped nose with a cut tube.

Two bears
1. Pipe a large circle of brown icing for a bear's head, a small disc on the lower portion of the head for a snout and two pointed ears.

2. Do the same with pink icing to create a female bear to complement the male bear.

3. Create a red heart between the two heads by piping the two teardrop-shaped halves with a cut tube.

4. Pipe a pink arm on each side of the heart.

5. On the outside of the pink arms, add two brown arms, so the male bear is hugging the female bear.

6. With a cut tube, pipe two eyes for each bear and a heart-shaped nose on the snout of each bear.

Birds
1. Using grass tip No. 233, stripe a bag with various shades of green and pipe a nest. Pipe two yellow teardrops for the bodies of two birds.

2. Pipe a circle of yellow icing at the large end of the teardrop for each bird's head. On the outside of the bodies, pipe smaller teardrops for wings.

3. Use a cut tube to pipe an orange beak on each bird as well as blue eyes.

Fish
1. Fit a pastry bag with tip No. 10, stripe the bag with orange icing and fill it with yellow icing. Pipe a large teardrop shape for the fish's body.

2. Use the same tip and bag to pipe a “v” shaped tail as well as several fins along the top of the fish's body. Pipe a swoop on the body for another fin, and add puckered lips.

3. Pipe a white circle on the fish's body for an eye, and add white dots above the fish for bubbles. Use a cut tube to pipe a black pupil on the white eye.

Hippo
1. Pipe a large circle of purple icing and indent the center for the hippo's mouth. Add another circle at the top of the first circle to create the head. The second circle should be slightly taller than the mouth.

2. Add two spiked ears to the top of the hippo's head.

3. Pipe two white teeth at the end of the hippo's mouth and two eyes at the base of the head. Use a cut tube to add the black pupils, eyebrows and nostrils.

Cow
1. Pipe a large dollop of white icing and indent the center with the piping tip. Add a pink semi-circle.

2. With a cut tube, pipe two white horns. Then, use a ruffle motion to add ears that flop over slightly.

3. Add the black spots, eyes, nostrils and mouth using a cut tube.

Crab
1. Use a cut tube to pipe the eight legs of a lobster. Then, add pincers to the inside legs on one side to create the lobster's claws.

2. Pipe a large circle of red icing on top of where the lobster's legs meet for a body. Then, add two dollops for eyes at the front of the body.

3. Pipe two discs of white icing at the front of the eyes. Use a cut tube to pipe black pupils and a semi-circle for a mouth.

Pig
1. With pink icing, pipe a large circle for a pig's head. Top with a smaller dollop for the pig's snout.

2. Use a cut tube to pipe two ears that curve over at the ends.

3. Pipe black details, such as eyes, eyebrows, nostrils and lips using a cut tube.

Monkey
1. Pipe a large circle of brown icing for the monkey's head. Add a smaller circle of tan icing for the mouth. Add small strips of brown icing for ears and top with small discs of tan icing.

2. Use a cut tube to pipe the black facial details, such as the eyes, nose and lips.

Theresa Torrealba, head decorator at Great Dane Baking Co., Los Alamitos, Calif., has been decorating for 29 years. She has been with Great Dane for more than 10 years. After beginning in the baking industry dipping cookies, Torrealba worked her way up to cake decorating. The 2007 Pillsbury Grand Champion at RBA's 7th Annual Creative Decorating Contest, she showcases her talents at several demonstrations and conventions throughout the year.

See the images of the critters step by step.