Place golden yellow buttercream in 2 piping bags fitted with a #103 and #12 piping tips. Pipe some buttercream onto the surface of a cupcake with the #103 piping tip and smooth the surface with a knife. Pipe a dollop of buttercream in the middle with the #12 piping tip as the nose. Pipe ears with the #103 tip and smooth with a knife. Use a mini chocolate chip for the nose, 2 regular chocolate chips for the eyes and a flattened piece of pink starburst for the tongue.

Place some light brown and medium brown buttercream into piping bags fitted with #233 piping tips. Place some light brown buttercream in a piping bag with the #12 piping tip and medium brown buttercream into a piping bag with a #102 piping tip. Pipe the light brown buttercream with the #233 onto 1/3 of the cupcake, working from the center outwards. Fill in the remaining space with the medium brown buttercream and #233 piping tip. Pipe the nose with the light brown buttercream and the #12 piping tip. Pipe ears with the medium brown buttercream and #102 piping tip, making squiggly triangles. Use a mini chocolate chip for the nose, 2 regular chocolate chips for the eyes and a flattened piece of pink starburst for the tongue.

Place medium brown buttercream into a piping bag fitted with #233 piping tip. Pipe short, vertical dollops of buttercream all over the surface of the cupcake, then larger dollops of buttercream for the ears. Pipe a final, generous dollop of buttercream in the center for the nose. Use a mini chocolate chip for the nose, 2 regular chocolate chips for the eyes and a flattened piece of pink starburst for the tongue.

Place white buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a #12 piping tip. Pipe some onto the surface of a cupcake and smooth with a knife. Pipe dollops of buttercream for the ears, forehead area and one large dollop for the nose. Use a mini chocolate chip for the nose, 2 regular chocolate chips for the eyes and red candies for the poodle’s bow.

Place white and light brown buttercream into piping bags fitted with #233 piping tips. Working from the center outwards, pipe the eye area with the light brown buttercream. Pipe the forehead, chin and cheeks with the white buttercream. Pipe the ears with the light brown buttercream. Use 3 regular-sized chocolate chips for the eyes and nose.

Place some peach buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a #12 piping tip and black buttercream in piping bags fitted with a #103 and #3 piping tip. Pipe the border of the pug’s snout and wrinkles with the peach buttercream. Draw the snout with the black buttercream and #103 piping tip and the details of the snout and nose with the #3 piping tip. Use 2 regular-sized chocolate chips for the eyes and pipe the ears with the black buttercream and #103 piping tip.