Cupcake Day for the RSPCA - Pupcakes!

As mentioned previously, Monday 17th August 2009 is Cupcake Day for the RSPCA. I decided to participate thanks to a bit of gentle persuasion from a certain person. I love the idea of it, it's such a cute and fun way to raise money and everyone can get involved. So I quickly registered to be a cupcake cook on their website, and received a Cupcake Kit in the mail a couple days later with posters and balloooons!

Since this was my first year participating, I had to go with the obvious cliche, animal cupcakes. Someone jokingly mentioned "You should do pupcakes!", and being the big cheesy person that I am, I just had to do it!

Many ideas were explored, but I decided to keep it simple. Lemon cupcakes adapted from my foolproof cupcake recipe, with maple cream cheese icing (a huge hit on top of my sweet potato cake recently).

The only extra bit of flair came from some persian fairy floss to make them a bit furry looking, an idea that came to me while enjoying dessert at the Gazebo Wine Garden, which included a fairy floss topped brownie. It was a bit fiddly, but each pupcake got its own unique hairstyle.

This one looks like a bit of an Einstein don't you think?

The thing that pleased me most was that these are really yummy, as well as looking super cute. A light, moist, crumbly cake with the heady scent of lemons and a smooth, rich icing with a hint of maple syrup. Hopefully everyone will think these make it worth forking out the money for a good cause!

Mmm marshmallowy...

Pupcakes!
(Adapted from my foolproof cupcake recipe)
2 eggs
125g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
225g self-raising flour (I usually make this by mixing plain flour and baking powder using the instructions on the baking powder pack if I don't have self-raising flour)
1 large lemon
1 mandarin
Cupcake papers

For the icing:
125g cream cheese, softened
200g icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp maple syrup

For the decorations:
Brown m&ms (1 per cupcake)
Dark chocolate chips (2 per cupcake)
Strawberry Starburst Fruit Chews (about 1 for 3 cupcakes)
Optional: Persian fairy floss

Preheat oven to 180C and line a cupcake tray with paper cases. Zest lemon and set aside the zest. Juice lemon and top up with mandarin juice (if necessary) to obtain 1/3 cup juice. Cream butter and sugar together using an electric beater until light and smooth. Add eggs at a time and beat in well. Add the juice, lemon zest and flour and quickly mix until combined, avoid overmixing the flour.

Pour cake mixture in paper cases, filling them about half to two-thirds full. It's usually easiest to use a table spoon to scoop the batter and then drop it into your paper cases. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are dark golden brown and cakes are thoroughly cooked through. Cool for a couple minutes in the tray then remove carefully and cool completely on a wire rack.

When cakes are completely cooled (I baked them the night before), cut marshmallows in half for the noses of the pupcakes. Place half a marshmallow on close to the centre of each cupcake.

Beat the softened cream cheese in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Add the sifted icing sugar and beat until well combined. Add maple syrup and beat until combined. Use a small spatular or the back of a spoon to smooth the icing over the top of the cakes and over the marshmallow snouts.

Place a brown m&m on the top of the centre of each icing-covered marshmallow to finish off the puppy nose. Use two chocolate chips for the eyes.

Place a strawberry fruit chew between two sheets of baking paper and carefully flatten with a rolling pin to about a millimetre or so thick. Cut into the shape of a tongue and place underneath their marshmallow snouts.

Grab a tuft of persian fairy floss (can be bought from Persian grocery stores and the Essential Ingredient) and arrange above the eyes for the puppies hairdo. If you can't get this, you could also place half oreo cookies (to make ears) on the top of the cakes at the same time as the marshmallow and cover with icing.

Voila! You have puppie cakes! Some may have some dodgy haircuts, but oh well...they're pretty cute aren't they?

Pupcakes waiting for their eyes and hair...a bit creepy, no?

I'm a bit buggered since this took a lot longer than I thought it would. Me & my kitchen are covered in icing sugar and fairy floss but I think it was worth the effort!

So tomorrow I will be hauling these little pups into work, in an attempt to sell them to my poor workmates who have become quite used to getting my baked good for free! The only thing I can't decide is how much to charge for them. What do you reckon?