Pupcakes

Rubber Ninja.

That was my weird old pseudonym before becoming The Cake Mistress. When what started as a potpourri of posts about my new life in Melbourne evolved over time, exposing a fully fledged food obsession

Drafting this post got me thinking about why I, and others like myself, choose to spend so much time writing about food. The “Why We Blog” discussion was continued amongst 45 fellow food writers at Australia’s first food blogger conference, Eat Drink Blog, which I was fortunate enough to attend (I promise I’ll write about that awesome experience soon).

In the meantime I’ll cut my musings short and jump straight into today’s recipe.

When I moved my food content from Rubber Ninja to Cake Mistress, I didn’t realise I missed a post! How could I forget these fundraiser Pupcakes I created for Cupcake Day For The RSPCA.

So here’s the original how-to guide, yucky photo and all, updated with the newfound wisdom and skills that come with time. Wishing I’d taken step-by-step photos to help you piece the puppies together. Ugh, so much text! The things we learn….

YOU WILL NEED

12 Vanilla Cupcakes (back in the day, I was naughty and used a cupcake mix)
Vanilla Frosting (again, used a can of pre-made frosting)
12 Green patty tins
Green food colouring, liquid or paste
Brown food colouring paste
Green edible glitter (available from cake decorating shops)
Nose & Mouth: at least 12 Red and 12 Brown Mini M&Ms
Ears: 15cm Licorice Strap
Collar: 12 Musk Lifesavers
Black Confectioners Pen
500g RTR white fondant
Regular icing sugar, made into a thick paste, to use as “glue” if necessary.
A ridiculous amount of patience and a cup of tea.

DIRECTIONS

Prep Work

1. Make the cupcakes in patty tins. When cool, cut the tops off so you have a flat surface (I’m sure you’ll find a use for the scraps, tee hee hee!)
2. Tint the frosting green.
3. Set aside a 2cm white ball of fondant for the eyes and bones.
4. To the rest, knead in the brown colouring. Cover in plastic and set aside.
5. Grab a sharp knife and split the teeny tiny widdle M&M’s straight down the middle. Do not curse as they shatter one-by-one.
6. When your nerves return, pick up the knife again and this time cut 24 teeny tiny ears out of the licorice. Mine were roughly 4mm wide and 10mm long.

Puppy Assembly

1. Roll a 2cm oval of brown fondant for the head. Roll a 5mm ball for the muzzle. Press into the head. If it doesn’t stick, use a little bit of water.
2. Press half a red M&M underneath the muzzle and half a brown M&M on top of the muzzle
3. Press the licorice ears onto the sides of the head, slightly towards the front and 1/3 of the way down the side of the face. Use the white icing glue if necessary.
4. For the eyes, roll two teensy bits of white fondant into an oval between your fingers and press into the face. Use a confectioner’s pen to draw-in the pupils.
5. Gently press the head onto the lifesaver collar, using ‘glue’.
6. Roll a 3cm long oval for the body and stick the head on. You might need to “glue” them together, so you don’t get spontaneously decapitating puppies.
7. For the paws, roll two 1cm balls of brown fondant and press onto the bottom of the body. Using a knife, press three lines into each one.
8. Make a mini bone out of the white fondant, by rolling a small piece into a sausage. Roll four small balls of icing and attach two on either end.
9. Repeat 12 times.
10. In several hours time, once you’ve had a stiff drink or two, tint the frosting green for the grass and ice each cupcake.

PUT DOWN THE GLITTER TUB.

Yes, I know at this point you want to go to town with the sparkly-goodness, but you’ll regret it when you end up with sparkly puppies after all that work you just finished.

If you simply cannot resist, only put glitter on HALF of the surface or the puppy will commit puppi-cide off the cake when you try and stick him on.

1. While the frosting is still wet, press the puppy into the back half of the cupcake. Accessorise with a sugar-flower if so inclined. The other idea I had was to use a different coloured life-saver as a water-bowl and pipe blue-colouring frosting in the centre.
2. NOW you can go down to sparkle-town.
3. Press one bone into the frosting. You’ll understand why I said not to glitter everything till the end in the process. Delayed gratification rules, m’kay?
4. Have a Bex and a lie-down. Your job is done!