Pug Pops!

Where do I begin...My love for pugs is huge. However, my DH will only allow us to have one (dog) at a time. Its not that he's a mean old controlling grump, its that left unchecked, I would go pug crazy. There I said it, now you know one of my weaknesses. I see those little wrinkle...everything really....and just melt. Since I was on deck to do another Fun Friday snack for my daughter's class I decided to do cake pops. Months ago, my husband stumbled upon a website where someone had posted these little beauties (I'm pretty sure this was it: http://www.bakerella.com/pop-star-jenny-in-new-york/) As you may be starting to guess, I am not the only one in my house who is pug-sessed. Anyways, I decided what better way to occupy an entire Thursday evening (since this was a non-Girl Scout meeting Thursday) than to make pug cake pops. 

The website was not very helpful with detailed directions on how to actually execute these pops so I mostly had to wing it. I already had some Emerge-Cake mix, but did have to run to Walmart to pick up some extra cake pop sticks (disposable) and candies for the ears & collars). 

I made the cake pops in my cake pop pan using the recommended modifications. I added some pudding, substituted milk for water and added an additional egg. I was off and baking! My pan makes 18 pops at a time, and my daughter's class is exactly 18 students. I was planning for success on this mission. NO ROOM FOR FAILURE! While the pops cooled I melted some chocolate to dip the sticks in to help them stay in the pops a little bit better. 

Here's where the first thing I would change happened. I went ahead and put the gummy lifesavers (the dog collars) on at this stage. Looking back, they should probably go on last. Then once everything was stuck on and cooled, I dipped the pops in the melted white chocolate. Wilton's melting chips are great, but I added about 1-2 tablespoon(s) of vegetable shortening (while melting the chocolate in the microwave) to the entire bag of melts. Then I had to let all of the pops rest again while the chocolate hardened up.

I felt like the old dunkin donuts commercial..."time to make the donuts."

Onto the part I really had to figure out on my own: how to make that cute little pug mug. I melted some of the Wiltons brown chocolate chips and put that into a small squeeze bottle that came with my cake pop pan. 

I used the chocolate to stick the eyes to the pop (Thanks again Wilton for the ready made eyes-this busy mom says thank ya). The eyes really can go anywhere. These are pugs after all and those googly eyes know no right or wrong spot. Then I squirted and shmeared (technical baking terms here) some chocolate for the nose and mouth. I kind of just started in the middle for the nose and then went right and left. Kind of like when you were a kid and would draw a cat or dog mouth to go with your little stick person. But it should be said I had the best live model for inspiration: 

and because this is normally how he looks when he's not giving the camera his sexy face.....

 or sometimes pugs look like this...

but most of the time its....

Therefore, it was crucial to have a little tongue stick out the side of each pug's mouth. For that, I took a pink confetti (the round kind) sprinkle and stuck it to where the mouth (sort of) is. For the ears I used Hershey's chocolate drops. I simply did not have all night to go picking through a large bag of M&M's (which would have cost me about the same anyways) just for the brown M&M's. The Hershey drops were a little large so I didn't cut them exactly in half. I went in just a bit from the edge. I got two ears from each bite and then put the left over middle piece back in the bag for future use (most of the time). I stuck the ears on with just a little bit of chocolate. 

Now, if you notice your pug faces are starting to look different than they did in the beginning you may need to reheat the chocolate. I just put the whole bottle in the microwave (at half power) for a little less than thirty seconds to soften it back up.  I had some ready made bags and ties for the pops and once everything was dry (took about ten minutes for them all to completely dry) I bagged them up and put them in a little box for delivery. The kids loved them. Who wouldn't love a chocolate pudding cake covered in white chocolate that looks like the most awesomest little dog ever?