I am a dog person. I have been a professional dog trainer for the past 12 years before taking some time off to raise my two young children. So it made sense for me to make some puppy pops!
I skipped taking pics of how to make the basic cake pops. If you want to learn how to make a basic cake pop, go
here.
I dipped the pops in different coatings: white chocolate, milk chocolate, and peanut butter coating. The interior of the cake pops is chocolate. Let me say that the peanut butter coating with the chocolate cake is divine!!
I like the look of a multi-colored dog cake pop. It's so easy to do! First, make your initial dip of the whole cake pop in a coating. Then with another type of coating, be creative and dip your pop at an angle. Here you can see how I dipped at angles on the side of the pop.
And here is a tri-colored pop!
Here is a puppy pop, all dressed up and ready to eat! A red Life Saver was glued with extra melted candy coating on the bottom through the stick to make a collar. In the future, I think I will use gummy Life Savers instead. The regular ones are too crunchy for this treat.
The ears and nose were created with... wait for it...
Tootsie Rolls! Tootsie Rolls can be softened and molded into just about any shape. And they can be made to defy gravity quite well! The white ears are vanilla Tootsie Rolls, the brown nose is a chocolate Tootsie Roll. The rest of the face was drawn on with an edible ink pen.
Ready to see more?
I really like adding different expressions to the faces just by adding eyebrows. Again, as in the photo above, the ears were created with vanilla Tootsie Rolls.
Gravity-defying ears! So cute!
I love how some dogs have a single spot over one eye. The spot could be made with fondant, or, like with this puppy, I used vanilla Tootsie Roll.
So would anyone care to adopt one of these puppy dogs? :)
I am a dog person. I have been a professional dog trainer for the past 12 years before taking some time off to raise my two young children. So it made sense for me to make some puppy pops!
I am working on my daughter's second birthday party (which, of course, is mostly for the adults!). She loves dogs, though, so I was trying to come up with something cute and different -- I love this idea so much!
ReplyDeleteWith the tootsie roll features, how far ahead do you think these could be assembled? Do you think thy would to be assembled the day of the party?
If you are planning a party, you should give yourself two days BEFORE the event to get these pops together. I've made these in a day, but it took me all day to do it. I was pretty grumpy at the end of that day from all the work!
ReplyDeleteMy recommendation? I would not make these the day of the party. You want to enjoy your daughter's special day, not stress out over the cake pops! (Also, I've found that when I've rushed making cake pops, they turn out very messy. It's no fun if you have to rush these guys!)
Day one would be baking the cake and assembling the cake balls, allowing overnight to refrigerate. Day two would be dipping and decorating. (Day three would be the party!) If you're using a store bought cake mix and store bought frosting, these pops should be good at room temperature for about two weeks.
A very happy 2nd birthday to your daughter, and kudos to you for making her birthday so special!
That makes sense -- I should have been more clear that I would plan to make the pops all ahead -- I was mostly wondering about whether the tootsie roll features would stay on and stay perky if I did them ahead. I'm not planning on doing a bunch of pops, so I thought I could prep all the features and then attach them the day of the party. But if you think they'd hold their shape for 24 hours, that is always preferable! :)
ReplyDeleteYes, the tootsie roll features will stay on and stay perky for quite awhile! When the tootsie roll is warm, it's easy to mold and manipulate. When it cools, though, it's fairly solid. For the batch featured in this blog post, I remember that they all held shape for at least three days. I wouldn't know if they would have lasted any longer because they were all eaten!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your helpful advice! One thing you don't mention in the post -- how did you attach the tootsie roll features to the pops? Just some extra of the melted candy wafers?
ReplyDeleteThanks again! I'm excited to make these for the party!
Yep, just an extra dab of melted candy coating using a toothpick is all you need to attach the ears. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteI have a horrible time with the edible pens either not writing well or not drying and smearing. I do not chill them before writing on but always the same problem. Any tips for us? thanks
ReplyDeleteAhhh, the pen problem! So many people have trouble with the edible markers, so don't feel alone. I even have trouble with mine from time to time!
ReplyDeleteYou don't need to do anything special to your pops in order to make the pens write nicely. Well, except to make sure that your candy coating isn't oily. Edible pens don't write very well- if at all- on oily candy coating. Thinking about it, this could be the problem with your ink not drying well for you and smearing. And how would one get oily candy coating? By adding too much shortening or liquid oil-based substance to thin out the coating when it's melted. I use paramount crystals, and I don't have a problem with them making my coating oily at all. And no problems with ink drying times, either.
Make sure you're using a good quality edible ink pen. The Wilton ones, well.. they suck. I've tried them once, and then immediately tossed them all into the trash. I love the pens made by Americolor (Ateco sells the same pens, just another name). You can find them on Amazon in a 10 color pack and also a 2-pack of black ones. Local cake supply stores usually carry them or are happy to order them if not in stock.
Now, sometimes my pens get finicky (they don't flow very well). Especially if I haven't used them recently or are brand new. Want to know my trick to get them flowing? BTW, I discovered this technique out of frustration one day, and I didn't care if I destroyed the pen entirely- I just wanted ink to flow!
I do what I do to a ballpoint pen that isn't flowing well- only with a ceramic plate, not paper. I take my fussy pen and mush the tip at an angle just a little bit on the plate, drawing in a small circle. (FYI, the ink never stains my plates.) This seems to get the pen working well, and it doesn't destroy the fine part of the nib of the pen. Crazy, huh? And if I notice that my pen is losing its 'flow', I just rescribble in a small circle back onto the plate I was using before until it is flowing nicely again.
Oh! One more thing: If you have access to a fine paint brush and airbrush food coloring (a steady hand doesn't hurt, either), you can also use those to 'draw' onto your cake pops. This method isn't as easy as using a pen, but it is very reliable!
Hope this helps you overcome your edible ink pen struggles.
Cheers!
What did you use for "peanut butter coating"?
ReplyDeleteThe peanut butter coating is just a variety of Wilton's Candy Melts. They make it in the peanut butter flavor, and it's tan in color. I bought mine online at joann.com, but you can also find it at the wilton.com site as well. I haven't seen the peanut butter candy melts available in stores locally.
DeletePeanut butter candy melt coating is one of my favorites!
Cheers!
These are absolutely adorable! What creativity! <3
ReplyDeleteI'll be making these for my son's first birthday party in October! Thank you for being creative!
ReplyDelete