Cupcake Poop! (picture courtesy of the Cupcake Project)

I was a little confused when I saw the word “poop” titling a post with a picture of delicious looking crispy cookies.  But I guess everyone has their own terminology for the little bits of batter that end up on the edges of the cupcake pan and get cooked up into tasty crispy treats.

Cupcake Project gives us the scoop on the poop, or rather, how to bake it up on purpose rather than just relying on serendipitous accident:

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There are few comfort foods as efficiently comforting as cheesecake. 

That might be why St. Louis Today choose to feature cheesecake cupcakes on Saturday! 

Check out how simple this is:

You will need:  15 to 18 vanilla wafers, 2 (8-ounce) packages of cream cheese (softened), 2 eggs, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla, 1 (21-ounce) can cherry or blueberry pie filling

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake liners in muffin tins, Read the rest of this entry »

I know it’s not the right season for wool, but I found the Cherry Cupcake Hat so adorable that I had to post about it anyway, out of season or not.

ZINSpirational Knits on Etsy offers this cap in 100% merino wool in a variety of colors, in big people and baby sizes too. Now that’s just too cute for words – matching family cupcake hats!  It’d certainly be a distinctive way to keep track of everyone during the next family visit to anywhere large and crowded :)

Who out there in Cupcake Fan Land is going to be in the Chicago area on July 17th? Well if you are then you might want to sign up for this Vegan Cupcake Eating Contest! The Bleeding Heart Bakery out of Chicago Illinois will be having their First Annual Cupcake Eating Contest on July 17th at their new Lakeview location.

If you do not want to participate stop by and root everyone on! There will also be raffles, random competitions and a bake sale to benefit research for Children with Autism.

How many cupcakes do you think YOU would be able to eat in this competition?

Check out The Bleeding Heart Bakery Facebook page

The Cake Boss (image from TLC)

Do you fill your spare time baking cakes, cooking up pastries or elaborately decorating cupcakes?  If so, you could be just what the Producers of ‘Cake Boss’ are looking for.

They want up-and-coming bakers who want to kick it into the big time.  The media release says:

“TLC and Buddy Valastro (The Cake Boss) are looking to launch the career of a promising cake decorator and baker on a new baking competition series.”

“This new baking competition series, hosted by Buddy and team will feature weekly lessons, challenges,and eliminations. 10 hopeful contenders will vie for cash and prizes. No culinary experience required!”

So if you believe you may have what it takes to out bake the competition apply now! Email [email protected] with your story and recent photos.

PS:  If you do get chosen, don’t forget to let us know so that we can all cheer you on!

Edited to say: Mia, they are looking for you, so you need to send them your story about why and how you bake, and photos of your cake creations.  If chosen you will then compete against others for cake design supremacy! :)  And thanks for your comments! Good luck!

Just saying Chocolate Olive Oil Cupcakes makes my mouth water! They sound so moist and decadent. I have cooked with Olive Oil before and everything comes out lighter and fluffier.

Jenni from the blog In Jennie’s Kitchen test drove these cupcakes for us! Click here to see her recipe!

I recently went looking for a baking cookbook for a friend and found a great site called Snubbr,  a recommendation site.  You ask them for recommendations, and they’ll find an expert to give you advice on what to buy.   Check them out here.

I decided on one of our fan favorites (and mine too!),  Hello Cupcake! 

I love this book and am amazed by the clever use of ordinary food.  The step by step photos allow those visual learners (like me) to succeed in making wonderful looking cuppies.   My personal favorites are the spaghetti and meatballs and the pumpkins!  So many cupcakes for so many different ocassions.

This week we are giving away a free cookbook of your choice (could be baking, cupcake, whatever), thanks to the kind folks over at Snubbr.com.  First,  click here  to see what books you can choose from and then leave a comment in the comment area below telling us the title of the book (must be under $30), and a reason why you want to read it.  We’ll choose our favorite comment on July 4th, and announce it here.

No idea what cookbook to get? Why not head over to Snubbr.com?

Check out AliCakes Blog, where she shows off her Tiffany cupcakes! 

Helping to decorate for her friend Tiffany’s bridal shower, she thought, 

why not create some Tiffany & Co. themed cupcakes for table centerpieces!   

  And what a great idea it was! 

Check these out! 

How many of you have been to the famous Magnolia Bakery? I waited in line for I don’t know how long, but it was great and totally worth the wait. I even took some home in my suitcase for my parents. They were kind of squished by the time I made it back to New Hampshire, but yummy none the less.

So for all of you Magnolia lovers out there here is their famous vanilla cupcake recipe for all to bake!

Magnolia’s Vanilla Cupcake

Last Sunday was Fathers day and we have had the joy of seeing a number of great fathers day cupcakes.  Yesterday one of our readers Catherine from Sweet Surrender sent us this great cupcake!

Even though the big day for Dads in the U.S. has passed for another year we wanted to share it with you as it would be great for birthdays as well!

Sitting  here watching/listening to the TLC channel I hear the word ‘Cupcakes’ and I whip my head over immediately to see what all the cupcake commotion is. It was all about TLC’s new show DC Cupcakes!

DC Cupcakes is about Georgetown Cupcake, a cupcake shop in Washington DC owned by a sister duo! They traded careers in fashion and equity to pursue something a little different. They are both lifelong bakers inspired by their grandmothers. They opened their shop on Valentines Day in 2008, the first cupcakery in DC!

Tune in on July 16th @ 1o PM on TLC!

You’ve got to see this to appreciate it.  HeatherLynn already told you about this video a few days ago, but I just found a “sneak peek” that I was able to embed.  The lovely Katy Perry with giant cupcakes on her bra.  The infamous Snoop Dogg in a cupcake suit.  What is California coming to?  I don’t know, but it sure looks yummy!  (And I just can’t stop singing the song!)

View the full music video here!

64 Colors is an amazing collaboration of talented individuals who make art out of the unusual, and this is their latest creation, a commissioned 8 inch Dunny (a vinyl art toy produced by Kidrobot).  Their customer who is a collector asked them to produce the ‘Cupcake’ Dunny in their own vision, and they did a beautiful job.   As their website is under construction, if you like this, check out their flickr page for all their other creations.

The more I look at her adorable little face and sad stunning eyes, the more I want to rugby style tackle its owner and run off screaming “she’s mine, she’s mine!”

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Katy Perry decked herself in Cupcakes for her new video ‘California Gurls’.

Katie has also been seen wearing a cupcake purse as well, she is following the cupcake trend.

Snoop Dogg also wore a suit that had cupcakes all over it. I never thought that I would see Snoop Dogg covered in cupcakes!

Click here to see California Gurls video  by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg

This is my summer jam, I will be playing well into the summer!

Enjoy!

Sea Life Cupcakes! (photo by Ashley of The Cupcake Cauldron)

The BP Oil Spill is a disaster of such proportions that it can seem like there’s nothing people like us can do to help…until cupcakes show up on the scene. Ashley of The Cupcake Cauldron decided to do her part the best way she knew how – by making and selling cupcakes and donating the proceeds to help wildlife affected by the BP disaster.

Ashley’s delicious Sea Life Friends Cupcakes are available for $35 a dozen and all proceeds go to the National Wildlife Federation.  These ocean-friendly cupcakes come in any variation of chocolate or vanilla cake and frosting that you’d like, along with adorable Sea Life cupcake toppers.  Get ahold of thecupcakecauldron(at)gmail(dot)com if you’d like to have your cake and save the ocean too.

 This post might be a little PG-13.  Recently, two of our faithful ATC readers sent in pictures of their tattoos, each of which were, ahem, in, ahem, some interesting places.

About this one, Michael wrote:  A bunch of my friends and I were sitting around talking about silly tattoos. I offered the idea of getting a cupcake scuba diving right in my groin area. I went home later that night and drew the concept on the back of my Macy’s bill … It’s a great conversation starter!

And Jamie writes that these tattoos serve as her conscience!

Food52 was recently ranked as one of the top 50 mom bloggers by Babble.  Since they were awarded #2 best recipes and #4 best photography, in addition to being co-founded by a New York Times food editor, I knew I had to check out the website.  The site is impressive with a blog, videos, recipes, and even a shop.  Of course I had to check to see what cupcake recipes they might have come up with and I was intrigued by the Grand Gold Cupcakes. The description you will think these are “the best cupcakes ever,” even before you know the contain alcohol.   I think this recipe would be great to make this summer, especially for the 21+ crowd.  Adults like cupcakes too, especially those containing gold tequila and grand marnier! Below is the recipe but be sure to checkout their site for other recipes!

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Does the name Johnny Cupcakes ring a bell to anyone? Well if it doesn’t, it should and it will.

Johnny Cupcakes all started when a young man named Johnny was given the name Johnny Cupcakes while working at Newbury Comics. He used this nickname as inspiration for designing t-shirts with the  name ‘Johnny Cupcakes’ on them, obviously the t-shirts had Cupcakes on them! (click here to read more about his story)

He started selling these t-shirts out of the back of his trunk, and people went wild for them. And people are STILL wild for them. He has 2 east coast shops, one in Hull Massachusetts and one in Boston Massachusetts. He also has a brand new store that just opened up on the west coast in LA.

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Before I start talking up the cupcakes.  I just want to say that I hate horns.

I am starting to dream that we are suffering a plague of mosquitos (millions of them) and am slapping myself awake at a very unfriendly hour!

If you do not know what I am talking about, then you obviously haven’t got a fever! :) World Cup Fever that is!  But some amazing bakers around the world have and they have been cooking up their support since the opening game on the 11th June!  And speaking of that game, Grace who bakes at Cupcakes by Design in South Africa created these for a client’s Friday Football celebration.

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Carrie Middlemiss with her couture

I’ve written before on ATC about how cupcakes can make jobs and how cupcakes can be classy. Because of the success of Bella Cupcake Couture, purveyor of chic textile-inspired cupcake wrappers, I now get to write about how cupcakes can do both at the same time.  BCC founder Carrie Middlemiss, formerly a marketing and events rep at the now defunct Washington Mutual Bank, went from “pink slip to pink frosting” when she was laid off early last year because of the bank’s collapse due to the economic downturn. Read the rest of this entry »

POM Wonderful recently sent us here at ATC some of their pomegranate juice to test to see how it works as an ingredient in baking cupcakes.  After looking around online to see what types of pomegranate cupcakes are out there (and one unsuccessful attempt* at replicating an online recipe) I decided to use an ingredient that compliments pomegranate juice.  I decided to bake banana cupcakes with pomegranate cream cheese frosting, topped with cocoa sprinkles.  I altered the banana butterscotch cupcakes from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans and cut down the POM cream cheese frosting recipe from the POM website. The end result was a unique and delicous cupcake, recipes below.

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And the winner is…

Kristina
June 20th, 2010 at 10:20 pm

Mr Big’s first name, John, was not revealed until the last episode of the last series. =D

Congratulations! Please send your mailing address to [email protected]. Thanks to all who entered and commented on the crayons. Special thanks to Screentours for sponsoring this awesome giveaway!

I don’t know why I haven’t thought of this before, but of course we can have cupcakes for breakfast!  Just call them something else!

According to SeriousEats.com, these cute little cakelets make the perfect brunch!

Brown Sugar Breakfast Cakelets

-makes 12-
Adapted from The Improvisational Cook

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs, preferably room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup whole milk mixed with 1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour a standard 12-cup muffin tin (you can use a bit of the melted flour and a teaspoon or two of the flour to do this).

2. Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and whisk well to combine thoroughly.

3. Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk until blended and frothy. Whisk in the sugar and beat until well blended, about 1 minute.

4. Whisk the flour mixture into the egg-sugar mixture, using as few strokes as possible and stopping just before the two are fully combined. Then whisk in the milk-yogurt mixture, the melted butter, and the vanilla. Pour the batter into the muffin tin; each well will be a little more than half full.

5. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a tester emerges clean. Set the muffin tin on a rack for 1 minute and then use a knife to flip each cakelet sideways in its well to cool completely.

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons plain yogurt

Procedure

Beat all ingredients together until uniformly combined, soft, and fluffy. Use immediately or store in refrigerator.

Reading about the new release of 4.3.2.1, an new gritty thriller-action style movie in which the main characters, four women, encounter diamond thieves I came across a cupcake loving actress. Jo, is one of the four leading women in the movie and is acted by up and coming American Emma Roberts, star of Hotel for Dogs and Nancy Drew.  Apparently she loved her time in London, especially visiting the Hummingbird Bakery.

Of course I was intrigued and had to check out their site, and it is mouthwateringly good. The red velvet cupcake is reputed to be heavenly, and it seems Emma Roberts agrees.  In a story on Music Rooms, she explains her lack of love for vegetables, and admits that in fact the cupcake diet was her favorite!  Who could disagree with that!

Check out these cute velour pants

embellished with a crystal cupcake,

available at Spoiled Brat.

A little pricey, ringing in at £155.00, which is about $225,

but it might be worth it to get to wear a sparkly cupcake on your hip?