Hot Dog Cupcakes!

Although my brother has an apartment for college, its fairly close so he stops by pretty often; especially for dinner. I love that of course because I enjoy cooking and we have a good sibling relationship so its great. He is actually one of my best friends. A little while ago when his girlfriend was visiting from her school in North Carolina, he wanted to do something fun at our place. His girlfriend happens to be a big fan of hot dogs. Can't say we are on the same page when it comes to hot dogs as I do not care for them, but we thought it would be fun to have a "hot dog night" for the two lovebirds. With all of the holiday entertaining and family gatherings we attend, my mom has a menagerie of small cooking appliances and crock pots; one of them being a hot dog roller like one you would find at a fair. She handled that part as well as the cute plastic holders with checkered napkins. I had the task of making something for afterwards and I decided to create "hot dog cupcakes". Don't panic, by that I don't mean the flavor, the cupcakes themselves were homemade chocolate, i'm talking the decoration here. And yes, typically that last clarification would be obvious but considering some of the wild flavors of cupcakes I guess you never know..

Here is the end result. I giggled a good part of the time putting these together and I must say that despite the fact that I have never made "hot dog" cupcakes I was pleased with how they turned out. My brother and his girlfriend raved over them and the family had a good night together.

The cupcakes were homemade chocolate but I cheated and piped on purchased frosting. The hot dog itself was a tootsie roll that I warmed in the microwave for a few seconds so I could easily roll it into the correct shape. The hot dog bun and plate were made out of fondant that I colored. To top it off I made a quick confectionery icing that I tinted the appropriate colors for mustard and ketchup as well as used as is (white) to attach the hot dog. Again its odd that much of what I just mentioned was in regards to a cupcake but hey, aren't they cute?