I love this turtle cupcake cake! This just goes to show that you can make pretty much anything you want out of cupcakes, and it’s a whole lot easier (and less mess) than cutting the shape out of a sheet cake!
Okay, I admit it — I’m kind of a hippie, and I’m kind of raising a hippie daughter, which is why I am so inspired by these “tie-dyed” (air-brushed) cupcakes from Simply Sweets!
On Thursday, June 30 from 4 pm – 6 pm, all Washington, D.C. military and their families are invited to “Cupcakes for Courage” at Hello Cupcake at their new location on Barracks Row (705 8th Street, S.E., WDC). An R.S.V.P. is requested.
Hello Cupcake Goes Patriotic
According to the e-vite: “Families will decorate patriotic themed cupcakes, meet with friends and celebrate Independence Day early. Light fare from Matchbox Restaurant and Zest Bistro will be provided.”
Hello Cupcake is also serving charitable cupcakes from June 30 to July 4, when a portion of the proceeds from the sale of patriotic-themed cupcakes will be donated to Camp Desert Kids, a program under Military Families United that helps service members’ children. This 2 minute YouTube video about this special camp will more than inspire you to participate in this fundraiser.
I thought this idea looked fun and tasty for the 4th of July. The cupcakes themselves are made with a yellow cake recipe, and the frosting uses cream cheese with just a bit of lime. Cut out stars and stripes from waxed paper, lay the templates on the cupcakes, add red and blue sprinkles, remove templates with tweezers, and you have a nicely decorated and patriotic cupcake!
I recently discovered Fantasy Cupcakes on line, a lovely UK bakery that won a gold heart prize in the North West Fine Foods Awards, beating out 400 entries in the general foods competition.
Vegan Mudpie Cupcake
So I e-mailed Fantasy Cupcakes to ask for their secrets at taking a vegan cupcake into the mainstream. The owner, Melinda, thought that the bitterness of the chocolate was the primary flavor of the cake and that it lingered on the palate.
Here’s a list of Melinda’s tips for vegan mud pie cupcakes:
Melinda said the frosting recipe was an adaptation from a recipe for a vegan chocolate torte which was a family favorite for years.
For my two pence, I’d recommend using Cadbury’s cocoa powder. It’s make in the UK and has more bite to it than its US Hershey counterpart.
After going to see Katy Perry in concert a few weeks ago and reading a bit further into her interests and fashion sense, I read that she loves doing her nails! This has inspired me to be a bit more creative with my nails, which I usually never paint!
As I was doing my nails tonight (still in the middle of them) I said to myself – “CUPCAKE NAILS!!” I thought to myself there has to be tutorials out there somewhere. Low and behold, I found some Cupcake Nail Art!
I found these great nails and a Cupcake Nail Art Tutorial from the blog, Cupcake Clothes! Check out the rest of Georgia’s blog, she has some AMAZING nail work.
A Dr. Seuss Display
As a mother to a nearly six-month-old son who loves looking at (and trying to eat) any book he can get his hands on, the Iron Cupcake Madison Challenge definitely got my attention! Bakers and cupcake enthusiasts gathered this past Sunday at Basie’s Restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin to eat and vote on mini-cupcakes, which were all based off of popular children’s books. The proceeds from this event will benefit the Literacy Network. Read the rest of this entry »
The weather here in Maryland is quite dreary today so I went looking on Etsy for something cupcake that would make me smile. Check out this adorable Scrabble tile pendant. It is made by Etsy crafter FrillyChili and their shop is full of happy little pieces of art. This truly brightened my day!
LGM cupcakes
I remain an enthusiastic fan of Disney’s Toy Story series and its LGMs (the “Little Green Men”). Here is the classic out-take of LGMs with “the claw.”
Needless to say, this recipe for LGM cupcakes is a keeper in my book.
In fact, this Disney family website has an entire section of recipes with several terrific cupcake recipes such as Lightning McQueen from “Cars,” Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Owl from “Winnie-the-Pooh,” panda bears from “Mulan,” and more.
The answer to that question is….OF COURSE! Just because you’ve decided to eat healthier or go on a diet doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to your favorite treat. I found some great recipes and ideas to add a healthy twist to the traditional cupcake. Whole-wheat flour, potatoes, fresh fruit, unsweetened applesauce and reduced-fat dairy products are some of the ingredients you can use to add some nutrition to your favorite cupcake recipes without sabotaging the flavor. You can click on each photo below if you want to see the recipe.
1) Blueberry Cupcakes: These have a potato added to the whole-wheat batter to add some extra nutrition and create an interesting texture. The potato flavor is masked by other ingredients. Plus, blueberries are a great source of vitamins and anti-oxidants.
Melanie Couch
Wow! It was not easy to pick one design but my son’s 16th birthday is the next party here so I pick the Monogram Designs. His theme for the party is red, black and white and those would be perfect on top of cupcakes with the letter B for his name!!! :)
Congratulations! Please email your mailing address to [email protected]. A big “thank you” to Cake Sugar Designs for sponsoring this week’s topper giveaway.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake
Let’s chat on the subject of peanut butter cupcakes, like this lovely one from the Baker Street Bakery.
Smooth or chunky?
I have never met a peanut butter cupcake made with chunky peanut butter. Have you?
Here’s a sampling of what I could find. Some recipes create a peanut butter cupcake base and go so far as to say “smooth.” Other recipes put the peanut butter in the frosting and indicate “creamy.” Going over the top is a recipe that not only uses peanut butter, it also uses Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
And I did manage to find one recipe that specified “creamy or chunky.”
Hallelujah! I finally made it to the beach today. I live on an Island and you think that getting to the beach would be easy, but with a busy summer so far and a handful of rainy weekends it has been a lot harder than expected. While I was at the beach, I was wondering if there was any cupcake bathing suits out there. And there are!
Pink Cupcake Halter Top Bathing Suit from AMI Clubwear
I also found this great Pink Cupcake Swimsuit Cover Up
These baby rattle-shaped cupcakes look like a perfect treat for your next baby shower. They are sure to impress your guests but are relatively simple to make (how-to video and instructions here). Other than cupcake mix and a tub of frosting, you will need gumdrops, lollipop sticks, ribbon, tubes of decorating icing and sprinkles. Of course, if you have a particular cupcake or icing recipe that you really love, then you could use that instead of a store-bought mix. What a cute and fun idea!
In case you’re in the neighborhood, the first ever “Cupcake Throwdown and Artist Cakewalk” is happening TODAY from 3 to 6 p.m. at Antenna Gallery, 3161 Burgundy St., in New Orleans!
Artists and bakers will compete to produce the most creative confections in a range of categories, followed by a benefit cakewalk. Art and cupcakes. What could be better? Free cupcakes for kids in costumes! All proceeds benefit the nonprofit programs of Antenna/Press Street. Admission to the event is free.
With a Rose, Mother
I’m glad that there are such places as La-Tea-Da Tea Room, where women and girls can get together, put on hats and frilly bits, and sit down to tea in proper teacups.
I have such fond memories of my mother serving various desserts on pretty, china plates, sitting with her lady friends at the diningroom table, and sharing light laughter.
This particular post is one to say thank you to my mom for those memories. I selected this cupcake with a red rose on top as a way of sending a flower. And, for the photograph, I paired it with the sugar and creamer from one of her dear friends, Dora, who has since passed. Thanks, Mom. xx
With the release of Mozilla’s Firefox 5 web browser, Microsoft sent its competitor Mozilla a cupcake to congratulate them, and perhaps spark some friendly competition. This isn’t the first time that Microsoft has sent Mozilla a sweet treat to congratulate them on a new software release. They sent them an entire cake back in 2008 with the release of Firefox 3, and a smaller cake back in March when they released Firefox 4. A cupcake seems pretty appropriate, though, given their popularity these days. I just want to know how the Mozilla team went about sharing the one cupcake? Sounds kind of cruel to me…
"Strawberry Lime Daiquiri"
Ooooh! About three weeks into blogging for this site, I finally have my Facebook and Twitter sufficiently loaded with cupcakeries that I’ve scored these yummy photographs from the Little Cake Bakery in Atlanta, Georgia. These were just uploaded into Facebook in a new album titled “Test Kitchen.”
Who wants to report live on location to our cupcake community whether these cupcakes taste as good as they look and sound?
"Chocolate Curry with Coconut"
"Chocolate Ginger Toffee"
I was so excited to discover this cupcake kit that I couldn’t seem to come up with blog post title of reasonable length. I cannot wait to play with this kit, and make my own cute little yummy cupcake-cheeseburgers. The kit, available from Cupcake Crafts, contains all you need to decorate like a professional: papers, icing tubes, tips, spice drops, taffy, sesame seeds, sprinkles, toothpicks, and pastry bag. And of course, you get comprehensive instructions! The kit comes in two sizes and if you opt for the “Full Meal Deal” option, you get cake mixes too!
Little Baking Cup Dress
Kara Miller is taking cupcake art to the world of fashion.
For her Senior Art Gallery Show at Ramapo College (NJ), Miller created a dress called the “Little Baking Cup Dress,” made of hundreds of pink and white cupcake wrappers with Sarovski crystals sewn along the bust line. Miller also made a tiara with royal icing and Swarovski crystals.
Quick! Somebody invite me to a baby shower! I need to buy these for someone!
Only $7.99 on Amazon, these little slip-ons are available in sizes up to 18 months. Sigh. Maybe I should just have another baby.
Crumbs' Apple Cobbler Cupcake
This just off the cupcake Tweet wire: today only, Crumbs Bake Shop is asking you to help a family in need through the purchase of two cupcakes for $8 using NY Daily Deals. I called their main office and you can also walk in to their Brooklyn Heights location to make an in store purchase, too – just let them know that you’re buying for the Bond family charity.
Elisa, 36, was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer on 2/23/2011 and – only 9-days earlier – her husband Nathan, 38, was diagnosed with Stage III cancer. Parents of an 18-month old little girl, Sadie, this family is now facing all things medical.
Here’s the blogspot, including a YouTube video put together by their friends. Have a tissue ready, and then get on that Daily Deal or to the Brooklyn Heights Crumbs and let’s share the love of our cupcake community.
Crumbs Bake Shop – Brooklyn Heights location
109 Montague Street, Brooklyn
(718) 935-9600
Red Velvet Razorback
This morning when I typed in “cupcake” to Google News, I was pleasantly surprised that the second search result featured a cupcake cafe in my own hometown! I’ve been meaning to try their cupcakes for quite a while now, and I decided this was the perfect excuse to check them out!
Bliss Cupcake Cafe is located just off the downtown square in beautiful Fayetteville, Arkansas. It was tough to decide on a cupcake with yummy options like cinnamon roll and chocolate milkshake, so I decided I’d break the tie by going with one of their local favorites, the ‘Red Velvet Razorback’ (red velvet cupcake and cream cheese frosting), in honor of the University of Arkansas’ mascot. It was absolutely delicious! Read the rest of this entry »
I am all about the do-it-yourself crafts lately! I like to keep myself busy and these DIY are just the thing for that.
Within the next few weeks, I will be documenting and sharing a new DIY venture! I am unable to have real flowers in my apartment, my fur child will eat them, so I will be making flowers out of cupcake liners! Such a great idea! I just need to find the perfect liners and all the supplies to go with it. I live on an island and sometimes certain things are hard to find, or just really expensive.
So while we are all eagerly waiting my tutorial, here is another one to keep you busy!
Cupcake Purse Tutorial from Everyday Chaos
What’s in a label? We all know the answer to that question: jobs.
So I started to wonder if the cupcake industry should be declared the gold star of American business for creating local jobs. Cupcakes from The Cupcake Shoppe Bakery in Raleigh to the Little Cake Bakery in Atlanta are baked fresh daily in our local bakeries. This part of the argument seemed easy enough.
But are supplies made in the USA also easy to find?
Cupcake Couture
How about these lovely cupcake holders from House on the Hill, made in Seattle Washington, that they put on their website under “Cupcake Couture?” Or, check out Wedding Fads for their baking supplies, like cupcake stands the size of wedding cakes – all made in the USA. Global Sugar Art has a multi-page list of supplies, including lovely, lacey cupcake wrappers that are laser cut in the USA.
Just by adding “made in the USA” to your search strings for supplies and suppliers, you can join in the patriotic parade.
