Pupcakes

From the decorators who brought you Vagina Cake, now come Pupcakes, a new birthday endeavor. These are from the book Hello, Cupcake!, which we think is pretty much the coolest thing ever (seriously, check out their Starry Night cupcakes and try to tell us that Van Gogh himself could do better).

We think of the below recipe as guidelines. You can use whatever candy, frosting, or cupcake that works best for you, but see below for how to construct the Westie puppy cupcakes. These cupcakes take a ton of frosting, so make sure to use one that you like. For simplicity's sake the book calls for store-bought cans, but feel free to make your own, which is probably tastier.


Westie puppy cupcakes
(the below makes three, but if you're baking a whole batch of mini and regular cupcakes, you'll easily make a lot more)

3 standard vanilla cupcakes baked in white paper liners
3 mini vanilla cupcakes baked in white paper liners
1 can (16 ounces) vanilla frosting
Brown, yellow, and black food coloring (we didn't have this, so we made our own colors with yellow and red food coloring and chocolate frosting)
1 cup dark chocolate frosting
6 mini marshmallows
1 tablespoon pink decorating sugar (we used the sugar from a Baby Bottle Pop)
9 black candy coated chocolate covered sunflower seeds (for us, just a dot of chocolate frosting)
1 red fruit chew, (Starburst)

Divide the vanilla frosting into thirds. Tint 1/3 of the vanilla frosting a golden brown with the brown and yellow food coloring, 1/3 light gray with the black food coloring and leaving the remaining 1/3 white. Spoon each color frosting into a separate ziplock bag (or if you want your dog to be striped, put two colors in one bag). Tape a bottom corner on each ziplock bag with the frosting. Flatten taped corner on each ziplock bag and cut out 2 small notches to make an “M” in the tape to make a small star tip.Cut 6 of the mini marshmallows in half and pinch the top for the ears. Press the cut sides into the pink sugar to coat. Cut the remaining 6 of the marshmallows on the diagonal to remove 1/3rd of the marshmallow. The larger piece is used for the muzzle. (Or, don't make this harder than it has to be. Just use a whole marshmallow for the snout. Come on, they're mini.)

For the head: Pipe a small dot of frosting with the star tip on lower half of a mini cupcake. Attach the large piece of marshmallow, flat side against cupcake and cut side toward bottom edge for the muzzle. Pipe several dots of vanilla frosting on opposite edge of mini cupcake and attach 2 sugared marshmallows as ears. Pipe several lines of vanilla frosting to cover the ears. Starting just above the marshmallow muzzle, pipe lines on either side to cover cupcake. Pipe smaller lines in the front to cover the marshmallow. Starting along the opposite edge of ears, pipe frosting “fur” over cupcake, 1/2 inch from edge. Continue piping rows of “fur” to cover the cupcake. Add the black candy sunflower seeds as the eyes and nose. Cut the fruit chew into quarters. Use one piece to shape into a tear drop shape as the tongue. Press a knife onto the fruit chew to create a crease and pinch one end. Add the pink fruit chew for the tongue under the nose.


For the body: Starting along the outer edge of a standard cupcake, pipe the vanilla frosting with the star tip about 1/2 inch from edge. Continue piping rows of “fur” to cover the cupcake. Place the decorated mini cupcake on its side on top of the standard cupcake. If you want to add a leash, stick a red licorice lace in the standard cupcake towards the back of the mini. Continue with the other colored frostings to make other dogs.

We took these to a birthday party at bar in Brooklyn and they were snatched up by hipsters, though everyone seemed to think they were too cute to eat. That is, until they had a few beers in them and pupcakes became the perfect drunk food.