Sasha's Kitchen: Pupcakes! Pug Puppy Cupcakes

Most of my food posts are recipe oriented.  I like to encourage readers of this blog to try new recipes that have worked well for me and made my family happy.  However, I also enjoy exploring the link between food and art.  I recognize that some of my cupcake recipes are probably not the most practical for those of you at home to try out, but are fun to read about nonetheless.  In exploring the link between food and  art, I previously did a series of pop art cupcakes where I replicated different modern art paintings by putting them into cupcake designs.  Over the weekend, I had a couple extra s'mores cupcakes from my most recent cupcake recipe, and decided to create a couple of one-off cupcakes that personified an important member of my family -- my dog, Dakota.

I have a pug, and I absolutely adore the breed.  Between the snorting, affectionate but playful antics, and the cute wrinkly faces and compact bodies, I think pugs are one of the greatest breeds of dogs on the planet.  Mine is sweet and spunky and an integral part of our family.  Her second birthday is coming up in April, so in honor of that, and in the spirit of creativity, I decided create pug puppy cupcakes -- which I refer to affectionately as "pupcakes."

My pupcakes were created using ready-made colored fondant in neutral colors.   I have not made my own fondant -- yet (it's a matter of time, really).  However, I have a series of cupcake projects planned that require large amounts of different colored fondant that are probably going to necessitate making it myself to get the colors right.  For this project, though, I purchased a package of Wilton neutral fondant from NY Cake.  The package came with fondant in two shades of brown, black and a peach fleshy color.  These are the perfect colors for making pugs!  I think that my pupcakes personify what I love best about pugs - that sweet wrinkly face, the big eyes and so much dog in such a small package.