Pup-cakes

Kozmo and I have been lucky enough to meet some wonderful people through dog socialization. We were really looking forward to the Valentine themed “Yappy Hour” this week. In addition to the regular hour of dog socialization, the plan was for the humans to bring food to share, special Valentine treats for the dogs, AND a special Valentine photo opportunity for the dogs!!

Seriously, how could anyone not be excited about this?

One of my first thoughts was, what should I bring? Normal people probably think of something easy or their regular specialty for covered dish occasions.  Especially when this event is on a weeknight, after work. I started thinking, what could I make that is edible for the humans but looks like a dog?

I decided the only possible solution would be to make cupcakes and decorate them to look not just like a dog, but look like Kozmo.

If you know me then you know that once I get an idea in my head I am on a mission and rationale and logic do not apply. I entered into the research phase.  I spent an embarrassing amount of time online looking at how other people decorated cupcakes to look like dogs.  It’s also worth noting that I am not a baker. I firmly believe that there are highly trained professionals who make amazing desserts and it’s much better to buy a quality dessert than for me to attempt it.

Once I attempted to bake a cake for my mom’s birthday. It was the driest cake ever and the lemon flavor was very strong. My poor mom ate a piece to be polite and started asking me how I made the cake. It was from a box. I missed the step where you add water. I screwed up a box cake.

Another time I made brownies from scratch and took them to a family party where my uncle Bob asked me just how I could make brownies that dry.  It turns out the brownies were made to perfection. I screwed up and left the pan on the over burner on an electric stove that acted as the vent for the oven while I baked something else. So the brownies actually got baked twice.

I have not attempted to bake anything in years. I'm a pretty good cook, but I do not bake. I can not explain why I decided I had to make Kozzy Kakes, but once the idea got stuck in my head there was no getting it back out again. In my research I found some of the best-looking pup-cakes used fondant icing. For some reason, fondant really intimated me. I felt like it was something professionals used.  As I got further into my research I learned fondant is not vegetarian, it contains gelatin.

I ended up with several online photos of pup-cakes that used various types of candy and icing for decoration. I wasn’t sure exactly how this was going to work but I wanted to combine a few ideas for Kozzy Kakes. I gathered my supplies.

I knew exactly what type of cupcake I wanted to bake. A very dear friend of mine is known to some as “the cupcake lady” because she makes these amazing chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese and chocolate chips in the center.  I decided this was the perfect recipe. Not only is it yummy, it’s also black and white like Koz. Making the cupcakes was easy.

Decorating the cupcakes to look like Koz or any type of dog was when my plan got a little tricky. I knew in my head what I wanted but didn’t know how to make this happen with the supplies I had on hand. I decided to use Tootsie Rolls for the ears. When melted and shaped they seemed to look like floppy ears. It took hours and I produced 3 prototypes. I was hung up on the spotted ear. Making a cupcake look like your dog is not easy.

Finally I came up with the brilliant idea that we should use part of a marshmallow to make the snouts. This simple solution changed everything.

Since it was getting close to midnight on a weeknight the I had to let go of the idea that each cupcake had to look like Kozmo and just make pup-cakes. I tried not to be a perfectionist and just created an assembly line.

What I think are pretty darn adorable (and yummy) pup-cakes for the Valentine “Yappy Hour” were successfully completed.  I think it is safe to say I was more excited than Kozmo for this week’s socialization.

If you have any crazy ideas about how you might like to replicate these pup-cakes. I used melted Tootsie Rolls for the ears, melted Starburst for the tongues, marshmallow and Raisnettes for the nose, store bought candy eyes, and alternated between large chocolate chips and Tootsie Rolls for the spot behind the one eye. I apologize for the photo quality, all photos were taken with my phone.