Pupcakes

Our niece Lizzie was looking through my copy of Hello, Cupcake! a few weeks ago and decided the next time she and her sister spent the night that we had to make these cute pupcakes. I was a little anxious because I’m more of a big-picture person—details that require patience aren’t my thing. However, I am “the best aunt in the world,” so before AC and Lizzie came over yesterday, I had collected all the ingredients we needed.

The book recommends using cake mix and canned frosting—neither of which taste very good to me. I did go with the book’s recommendations and am glad I did. The consistency of canned frosting is just right for this application, and because the girls continually licked their knives and fingers as we worked, eating the cupcakes wasn’t appealing!

The usage of candy is so creative! For floppy brown ears, melt Tootsie Rolls and caramels in the microwave. For the pink tongues, melt strawberry Starburst. For noses, cut chocolate JellyBellys in half. For eyes, use brown mini M&Ms. To build up part of the cupcakes for the noses, place mini marshmallows in a cluster and cover in icing.


Our menagerie of puppies includes: two Chihuahuas, two Dalmatians, two chocolate Labs, two beagles (one black and one brown), one Fran (our dog), one Caroline (the girls’ dog), one Yorkie, and one Schnauzer. We had so much fun and think our pupcakes are precious! Now that I understand the techniques, we’ll definitely try some more.