More Minis

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Puppy Love … mini cupcakes decorated with pink and red heart sprinkles for little ears and noses. I love using sprinkles and candies to make faces. Remember these pandas ^[2] I made? I did something similar using chocolate chips for ears and noses. A candy challenge of sorts. It’s just fun for me to make something with what I have on hand. And make them easy at the same time.

And mini, too. More cupcakes. More cuteness.

I have to say, I’m not completely in love with these puppies. They’re cute, but they were cuter in my head. So keep reading and you can see how a quick candy edit can change them all together.

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You can use the cupcake recipe from the panda post ^[2]. It’s quick, easy and bakes yummy cupcakes. And I like that you can measure and mix everything in one bowl. And this basic buttercream recipe works great with it. After you frost the cupcakes, dip the tops in a bowl of sanding sugar to help even out the surface. When you add candies, add a little dab of frosting or even water to the back, so it will attach to the sanding sugar coated cupcake tops.

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This little guy. He’s pretty cute with hearts for folded ears.

Ruff.

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Red jumbo heart sprinkles ^[6].
I always have some of these on hand. They’re handy.

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Red Candy Shape Hearts ^[8]. Whenever I see these, (usually at Hobby Lobby or Cake Art) I grab them. Love the shape and thickness.

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This little guy is pretty cute with an upside down pink jumbo heart nose and a little bone bow tie.

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Funny Bone Candy Shapes ^[11].

Now I don’t always have these on hand, but I thought it would be fun to finally use them for these Puppy Love Cupcakes.

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And this little guy. He’s my favorite even though he doesn’t even have a heart shape to help make his face. So much for my puppy love idea. If I was just going to make one puppy, I think it would be him. He looks sweet.

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His ears are made of pink licorice pastilles.

I usually pick these up at the Fresh Market from the buckets of candy you can buy by the scoopful. You could also use Good n Plenty candies, but the pastilles are usually a little thinner which I like.

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Chocolate jimmies. You can use these for eyebrows and also for mouths.

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Black sugar pearls ^[16] for eyes and noses, too.

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Pastel confetti sprinkles ^[18]. I’d consider these one of my sprinkle staples. I have them in several sizes and shapes.

I used the pink ones for puppy tongues.

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And these candy eyes actually make great noses on small sweets. I find this size at Hobby Lobby. They’re in a jar and sold by Festival. You can also find other brands sold by the sheet like candy buttons.

So those are the add ons I used to make puppies.

Now, like I mentioned above, I didn’t completely fall in love with the puppies for some reason, but as I was decorating I noticed if you take away the licorice, the hearts, the jimmies, and the bones and add something new for the ears you will end up with an even more adorable cupcake.

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Polar bears.

A cute cupcake with even less candies. I like it…and love when you can create with minimum decoration and still be effective.

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The ears are 8mm edible soft pearls ^[22]. They look like snowballs to me.

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There, much better.

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Here they are in comparison to a regular size cupcake. I know it’s hard to tell size sometimes by the photographs but they are itty bitty.

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Now, I love these. They’d be super cute served at a winter wonderland party.

Puppies or polar bears. Which do you like prefer?

Either way, it’s fun to get creative with candies. Sprinkles, too.