I work with a group of people who are fans of Cupcake wars. At work hot dogs and freeze pops are significant. Would it be possible to combine those two flavors into a single good tasting cupcake, or should I focus on hotdog cupcakes and freeze pop cupcakes separately. I'm trying to imagine the combination tasting good and even with caramelizing the hotdogs I cannot quite believe it will taste good. Advice?

Instead of hot dog as a flavor, why not a cake shaped like a hotdog? Or cupcakes decorated with them? I wouldn't touch a hotdog flavored cupcake... but maybe your co-workers are the daring type. You know, the kind who'll do that baby shower game where you pick the nastiest baby food for people to try and identify? On a side note, my brother is one of those people.... so it would work well with him, ha ha.

I would focus on the freeze pops and hot dogs separately.  I think that you could fine dice the hot dogs and fry really crispy and sprinkle on top of a maple or chocolate cupcake similar to how you would bacon.  I don't think it would be that bad.  The freeze pops are fruity and sweet so I think you could pretty easily turn those into some awesome cupcake flavors !!  I'm excited to see what you come up with and how it turns out !  I love being creative and adventurous !!!

I'm with craftybanana on this one.  I'd suggest making tiny little sugar replicas of hot dogs out of modeling chocolate or fondant or molded chocolates (if there is such a mold....), and placing those on top of the cupcakes based on freeze pop colors and flavors.

This reminds me of the time my brother and I made my mom cry....  (about 45 years ago).  She was a very traditional, plain cook, but every now and then she'd try something she saw in a magazine.  One morning she went with a magazine idea and put hot dog pieces in our pancakes.  Oh, the horror!!!  My brother and I made all sorts of gagging sounds and poked a lot of fun at those awful pancakes. 

To our [real] horror, mom starting crying and said something like, "I was just trying to make something special for you kids and you..... you ...... and we don't have a lot of money .... and ...."

It was [really] awful.  We made our mama cry.  [BRUTES!!!] 

My brother and I never ate pancakes so fast in our entire life, then we hugged her like crazy and said we were sorry.   After about an hour or so when she'd calmed down, she made some of the pancakes for herself.  One bite and she spit it out and started laughing with us.   Whew.....

Thanks for the memories...

Nothing to add to the cupcake advice. But Apti, what a cute, heartwarming story!

I agree with the others. If they want weird flavors, they can have pickles, peanut butter and icecream(lol). Apti that is a hilarious story. One summer, when I was a child, my parents took us kids to visit my uncle and his family his wife cooked breakfast we had pancakes and fried hot dogs me and my sisters looked baffled. My oldest sister asked"where is the bacon

Thanks all for the advice (and stories - reminds me of mom's meatloaf with cow mien noodles in it. . . .) I am really thinking two separate flavors now. Gut instinct was not alone!

Thank you all for the confirmation that my gut instinct was headed in the right direction. And the great stories too!

What about a freeze pop flavor cupcake with a hot dog fondant topper