Happy New Year all you cupcake lovers! As I was out to dinner with my dear friend Heidi celebrating New Years Eve here on the great Island of Martha’s Vineyard we were walking by a candy store and I saw some sort of cupcake decoration from the window. As soon as I saw this I knew I had to make a pit stop there. The store is Good Ship Lollipop in Oak Bluffs, MA on Martha’s Vineyard.

Bake & Decorate Cupcake Set

Lovely Cupcake Magnets(which I am now a proud owner of one thanks to Heidi)

Cupcake Eraser

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me

Six Geese a Laying

Five Gold Rings
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Goose cupcakes were surprisingly hard to find, but I was able to find a fantastic assortment of Mother Goose Cupcakes from A Baked Creation.

As I was brainstorming of an idea to do for a blog tonight for my last day of Holiday Cupcakes,  I was searching and thinking … what do we drink on New Years Eve,  Champagne!!! And just last year I made a simple Champagne Cupcake with strawberry frosting. Here is the recipe that I used.

Shopping List

• 1 box white cake mix (no pudding in mix)
• Bottle of champagne
• an Orange
• Strawberry Jam
• Eggs
• Vegetable Oil
• Confectioners Sugar
• Milk
• Clear Vanilla
• Butter
• Shortening
• Fresh Strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line the cupcake tins with liner.

In a large bowl combine cake mix, 1 &  1/3 cups champagne, 3 egg whites , 1/3 cup vegetable oil, and the zest of one orange. Beat with an electric beater for 2 minutes. Spoon batter into cupcake liners,  fill either one half or 3/4 of the way full for the perfect cupcake.  Cook for 18-20 minutes.

While cupcakes are cooling you can start on the frosting.  In a bowl cream 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and mix well. Gradually add 4 cups sifted confectioners sugar. Once that is all mixed beat in  2 tablespoons of milk. Stir in 1/2 cup of strawberry jam to the frosting … add more to taste if needed.

Once cupcakes are cooled you can frost them. Garnish with halved strawberries.

So yummy & moist!

Here is a photo of the cupcakes i made last year

I find that this time of year is particularly hard for cupcake hunters like me. It seems that many stores use cupcakes in the Valentine’s decorations so now they are popping up everywhere just screaming for me to take them home! I have to use extreme self-restraint because they are all so cute!

 Here’s what I found at Target:

Oven Mitt and Pot Holder Set and Jar

Target also had kids utensils, divided trays and plates with cupcakes on them.    

And Kohl’s had even more sweet items:

My Kohl’s store also had cupcake welcome signs, table runners, picture frames, large bowls, hand towels, cookie jars, adult aprons, kid aprons and jar candles. They are all between 30%-50% off their price this week.   I must resist!

OurFacebook Fanpage started up just three weeks ago and we already have almost 400 fans! If you haven’t already fanned us, we’d love to have you join in the fun and also share the link with your friends.  I encourage readers to post their own cupcake photos or leave us a message when they find cupcake items.  We  have also had cupcake questions and comments posted by many of you.   Here are some yummy photos posted recently by one of our fans, Jayne.

Thanks Jayne!  Keep those cupcake comin’!

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

And the winner is… Terri!
Congratulations! Please email us at [email protected] or go to sassybellewares Etsy shop and email her directly. Thanks to all who entered and commented on her wonderful items. Our next giveaway will be mid-January. Special thanks to sassybellewares for sponsoring this giveaway!

On the third day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas

My true love sent to me

Two turtle doves

and a partridge on a pear tree.

On the first day of Christmas

My true love gave to me

a partridge on a pear tree.

Merry Christmas ATC readers! Make sure to enter this week’s giveaway sponsored by Etsy crafter sassybellewares.  The winner will get to choose one item below and it will be made into a pin or bracelet.  Contest ends on Sunday, so please click here to enter!

You all are never going to believe these sweet decorations I found on Bakerella today.  I want her to come decorate my house next year.  These are just a few of the photos so head over to Bakerella to see the others.  I am absolutely speechless…

Over the past few years, I have been on a cupcake collecting mission. I love cupcake clothes, books, stickers, bags; pretty much anything that has a cupcake on it begs to be in my collection.  My friends and family have graciously helped me by giving me numerous treasures or calling me to tell me where they have seen cupcake items.   I also loved making my own cupcake crafts and buying other handmade cupcake items from Etsy. 

Recently my sister-in-law asked to borrow some of my cupcake collection to display in her library’s children’s section.  Here’s the display:

She added some great literature to the display to encourage others to read about cupcakes.  She is helping to build the next generation of cupcake lovers!  So if you live in New Jersey, stop by the Monmouth County Library Headquarters in Manalapan and say hello to all my cupcake stuff and my sis-in-law.  My collection will be there through the end of  January.  I am happy to share my cupcake collection with others but boy, do I miss them!

Visitstayhomecupcake’s Etsy shop.

Ahhh … finally home with my family in good ol’ New Hampshire. After a long day of traveling yesterday I was ready to get back to my parents house and settle in with a cup of hot chocolate, or maybe eggnog or even hot mulled apple cider, that would be perfect! But what if you could have any of these in the form of the Cupcake? Well no need for you to look up the recipe, I have done that for you.

Eggnog Cupcakes from Baking Bites

Hot Cocoa Cupcakes from The Food Network

Apple Cider Cupcakes from Epicurious

Eggnog Cupcakes

Hot Cocoa Cupcakes

Happy Holidays! Enjoy one another during this holiday season!

Work has been soooo busy that I had time trying to fit in my Christmas Wrapping, but I am happy to say that it is all done and in honor of that I have found some gorgeous easy to make Bright Bow Cupcakes from the Wilton Website!

These are easily made by flattening spice drops into long strips! Easy way to decorate with a great outcome.

I know this is going to sound crazy, but I just ate my first Candy Cane of the season at my holiday work party today – soo yummy! In honor of this Candy Cane I have found a great cupcake for the candy cane’s little brother, the Starlight Mint! Such a cute idea for a cupcake! Once again this is from the Wilton Website.

Pinwheel Mint Cupcake

This cute image of a deer approaching a cupcake is by Elizabeth Soule Photography.  While the image is from her “Little Zoo” series, it is the only one that features a cupcake.  The image can be ordered as a card, or various sizes of prints including 6″x6″ or 12″x12″ or two photo box sizes.  The prices range from $3.50 for the card to $70.00 for the largest print size option.

For our last giveaway of 2009, I wanted to make it a really special one.  I met this wonderful Etsy artisan a few months back and now sassybellewares is one of my favorites.  I believe she truly gets us cupcake crazy people here on ATC.  Check out this cute jewelry from her shop.

I own one of Sassybellewares pendants and love that not only can you wear it as a necklace, but you can take it off the chain and use it as a pin.  So clever!    This week sassybellewares is giving away one of her “I Speak Cupcake” items.   The winner will get to pick one of the items below and choose if they want it as a bracelet or necklace/pin. 

To enter this giveaway, go to Sassy’s two Etsy shops and come back to tell us what other item(s) was your favorite in the comment area below. 

sassybellewares

sassybellebuttons

 Contest ends Sunday December 27th so enter today!

And the winner is Jon Arntson!
Congratulations! Please email us at [email protected] or go to hopeNdew‘s Etsy shop and email her directly.  Thanks to all who entered and commented on her wonderful items. Be sure to enter our next giveaway coming later today.   Special thanks to hopeNdew for sponsoring this giveaway!

As I sit here literally snowed in on the island of Martha’s Vineyard I can not think of anything better to do today than to decorate cupcakes and Bake It Pretty has all of the instruments to do just that. Here are some of my favorite Christmas items they have.

Christmas Bulb Toppers

Snow globe Toppers

To see the rest of the Holiday Toppers click here …

Santa’s Sleigh Wrapper

To see more cupcake wrappers including more Holiday ones click here …

Snowmen & Christmas Tree Liners

To see more liners click here …

Jumbo Christmas Sprinkles

Too see more sprinkles click here …

Happy Holidays!!!

I have missed a day so i will be jam packing 2 posts into one today.

Holiday baking anyone? I know a lot of people who are starting their baking as we speak! And just as stayathomecupcake said the east coast is getting hit with a storm and what a better  time to start all that baking! Here are a few good recipes & decorating ideas to try.

First off we have a lovely cupcake to make with your children. The Claus Cupcake from Disney’s Family Fun website.

Here is another fun filled cupcake idea. This one is very simple but very appealing. I found this Candy Cane Cupcake idea on the Wilton website.

A few add ins you could do for this cupcake could be to add a little bit of mint extract into the frosting or to break up candy canes and add them to the frosting as well.

Well, we here on the U.S. East coast are in the midst of a large snow storm today that will allow us to have our first white Christmas in many, many years.   Have you noticed it’s also snowing here at ATC?  In honor of this snowy weather, I went to Etsy and looked up “snow cupcakes” and found some nice little treasures to share with all of you.  To all who are enjoying the white stuff out your window, stay warm and eat a cupcake!

Snowflake Cupcake Wrappers  Set $4

.

Christmas Tea Party Illustration $10

Just a little reminder that Sunday is the last day to enter the giveaway sponsored by Etsy seller hopeNdew. Please click here to enter to win the Snowbunny Cupcake.

I don’t think you would want to get in a Snowball fight with these cupcakes … it may get a little messy! But if you happen to please let me know what the outcome was! :-)

Martha Stewart’s Snowball Cupcakes

I found these icy sweet gems in Martha Stewart’s Cupcake Section of her Website!

I think sticking Mini Candy Canes in there would look great as well.

Happy Holidays!

For those of you who are last minute shoppers, here are some cute cupcake gift ideas from some skilled Etsy sellers. Only 9 days left until Christmas!

Christmas Cupcake Bib 3 for $19.99

Cupcake Christmas Tree Ornament $9.95

Cupcake Christmas Earrings $10.20

In honor of National Cupcake Day (yesterday) I wanted to share with you my favorite cupcake recipe.  It comes from Hershey’s and is more often used for cakes rather than cupcakes.  However, Hershey’s does give you info on how to modify it for perfect chocolate cupcakes.   This recipe is also on the back of all Hershey’s cocoa containers.  I make them ever few months and have found that doubling the frosting recipe is much needed for the frosting addicts in my house.   

Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake Recipe

Here’s my most recent batch.

If you have a favorite cupcake recipe we’d love to see it!  Leave a link to it in our comment area below or leave it on our Facebook fan page.