Adorable Puppy and Kitten Cupcakes: Guest Post from Annie One Can Cook!

Hi All!  I'm Annie from over at Annie One Can Cook, a cooking and lifestyle blog that covers everything from food to weddings to life as a newlywed (my blog is "the funniest, sweetest and most entertaining blog on the net" -Carol, Annie's Mom). It's such an honor to be joining the Chirping Moms today!

If you're familiar with my blog, you know that I have a terrible sugar addiction--I can never get enough! The great thing problem is that when I make something sweet, it's usually just for my husband and me to enjoy. So I was so thrilled and honored when I was asked to make cupcakes for our local humane societies annual fundraiser. I knew right off the bat that it needed to be something animal related but I couldn't figure out what.

Until I was flipping through my Betty Crocker Just Cupcakes cookbook.. Look at what I found right away:

B.I.N.G.O. And these were the cupcakes I was gonna make--o!

Seriously, how adorable are these little guys? And they look like they'd be a cinch to make, right?

Wrong, Annie. Wrong.

I took the easy route and used boxed white cake mix (I usually do homemade but I was trying to save a little time). They came out beautifully from the oven.

Perfect, right?

Then I began to frost. And frost. And frost (I was making 3 dozen).

Whew, now the hard part was over. Time for decorating fun!!

*3 1/2 Hours Later*

Oh no.. they didn't look anything like the picture. Wa-wa-waaaa. I was so bummed..

Then my husband came home and gave me a little bit of a pep talk and I decided they weren't so bad after all. They were kind of cute in their own Betty Crocker fail sort of way..

By morning, I decided I was really proud of my cupcakes. This is the first time I've ever done any kind of dessert decorating like this (minus my 4H cake decorating fails--I was the only person in my division and I still placed 2nd or 3rd in my category). I guess you gotta start somewhere, right?

Here they are on display at the fundraiser. I got so many nice compliments on them and they went over very well!

If you're wanting to make critter cupcakes, here are the candies I used:

 Puppies

Mini Oreos--cut in half (for ears)

Chocolate chips (eyes)

M&Ms (nose)

Small gumdrop--cut vertically into thirds (tongue)

Kittens

Small gumdrops (ears)

Chocolate chips (eyes and nose)

Twizzlers--cut into 1 inch strips (whiskers)--cut additional tiny piece for mouth

Well folks, that does it for me! Please swing by Annie One Can Cook sometime to say hi! A huge thanks to the fabulous Julie and Courtney for letting me stop by today and share my cupcakes!