Mmmm.  Here’s the cupcake for you to share with Santa by the fireplace:  mulled wine cupcakes.

Not familiar with “mulled wine?”  It’s wine, simmered with ingredients like cinnamon, allspice and cloves until the air smells as warm and inviting as the holidays.  Don’t be timid about experimenting with your wines or your spices.  Then trust your nose.  (Although sampling might be half the fun of being the chef for this one!)

If you’re looking for a fun and easy way to show off a plate of cupcakes, here is an idea that can be tweaked to your liking. These are festive, but require no more than cupcakes and a couple tubes of icing!

My daughter and I just made our first trip to The Cupcake Place, a new cupcakery in Winslow, Maine. My daughter chose the peppermint mocha cupcake (pictured), and I tried the chocolate strawberry shortcake cupcake. I was sooo pleased to learn, upon biting into my cupcake, that it was filled with actual strawberries. I quickly wished that I had purchased the rest of them to take home!

My daughter, after munching on her cupcake for a minute, announced, “Wow Mom, this frosting is way better than yours!” You can also visit The Cupcake Place on Facebook!

“May Bakes Cakes” of Corby, England has a Facebook page and she labels herself as “Artist.”  It’s the right label.  With creations like these snowmen, santa, and penguin, it’s the title I would confer upon her, too.

Novel in her approach using FB, May’s Facebook page also has a “snowman tutorial” with step-by-step instructions for snowmen that would be perfect cupcake toppers.

May is also so kind as to provide a separate Facebook page with a “penguin tutorial,” as well.

As far as I can tell, there is only one flaw:  who could ever eat such sweet treats?

May Bakes Cakes snowman tutorial

Have you tried Gigi’s Cupcakes?  Gigi’s cupcakes are a cupcake franchise and over the Halloween weekend I stopped by the Raleigh, North Carolina location.  Since it was Halloween weekend they had several cupcakes with Halloween decoration and were very crowded.  Sadly the pumpkin cupcake was sold out and most of the cupcakes were selling quickly.  I decided on the red velvet cupcake and the four year old I was with chose the scary boo Halloween decorated cupcake.  I have to admit that I almost didn’t get a cupcake and had a hard time finding a cupcake to choose. The cupcakes did not look appealing and after trying them I felt like they were lacking in flavor.

The cupcakes were topped with a huge pile of frosting.  I have realized from these cupcakes that there is an appropriate cupcake to frosting ratio that you should aim for.  In my opinion, if your cupcakes have more frosting than there is cake, that is too much frosting.  These cupcakes really had a mountain of frosting on top and we were shocked to find more frosting inside!  Also most cupcake shops have a design that they seem to trademark like the magnolia swirl, or the dollop that a lot of shops will use.  At Gigi’s there was no consistency with the frosting design, which affects the visual quality of the cupcakes.

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I’m going to put this under “cupcake,” even though I’m generally a purist and a round ball wouldn’t qualify as a cupcake.

But ’tis the season, I’m on a quest for the most beautiful of holiday cupcakes, and these cupcakes were created by Cupcake Envy, a bakery of “sculpted cakelets” by owner Amy Eilert.  Cupcake Envy’s Facebook photos sport so many great shots, you’ll have no shortage of inspiration.

You may also want to notice that Cupcake Envy sells “how-to” videos.  Not a bad idea, if you think that you’ve been nice!

My family usually gets out the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, but for those of you who haven’t yet strung the lights and hung the ornaments, here is a creative idea.  I love themed Christmas trees, and this one is no exception!

This picture is from one of our readers in the Philippines (you may remember her strawberry shortcake cupcakes from a while back).  Thanks for spreading the cupcake cheer!

For the past several years The Cupcake Bar has been a custom order bakery service for the North Carolina Triangle region.  They bake and deliver cupcakes to Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and some of the surrounding areas.  I have had the opportunity to try their cupcakes at their “Singles Nights” where individual cupcakes were available for purchase, you could buy only one cupcake instead of placing a whole order.  The Cupcake Bar has decided to expand and have decided to open a shop in downtown Durham, NC.  To help them open up their retail shop they’re asking fans of their cupcakes to be “bar backers.”  There is a catch to being a bar baker but it’s a good catch.  For each donation you make you receive something in exchange; for example, a $10 donation will get you one cupcake, a $25 donation will get you four cupcakes.  As the monetary amount increases, the exchange gift gets larger and you get more than just cupcakes T-shirts, donations to charity, letterpress prints, and invites to a special party are offered for larger donations.  I like the idea of getting something in return for given and supporting a cupcake company. Watch the IndieGoGo video and check out the website for more details.

Looking for a quick and easy decorating idea? Check out these inexpensive cupcake picks from Walmart. I found them in the holiday section, right beside the garland and tinsel! Take your pick of the picks! The ones in the center read, “Homemade for the Holidays.” I’m partial to the snowflakes.

GreenPartyGoods, one of ATC’s advertisers, has some nice Alice in Wonderland figurines.  The set of 18 characters is based on the original artwork of Sir John Tenniel in the book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.

These would make excellent cupcake toppers (all are 2.5 inches tall or less).  And, when the cupcakes have all been eaten up, they make a lovely display in your home.

Let’s face it.  We start strong.  We mean well.  But in a few days, we’ll be thinking, “Smile!” as we count the remaining hours.

I’ve found the perfect inoculation to the upcoming holiday stress:  cupcakes with bling!

Have you seen a more sparkly cupcake?  These darlings were created at The Voluptuous Cup Cake Company, down under in Perth, Australia.  Just clicking on this blog spot of her cupcakes is enough to cheer a girl’s heart.

What’s your most sparkly, glittery, magical cupcake topping for the holidays?

I just spotted these cupcake holiday tree ornaments at my local Walmart!

At only $0.97 each, I was able to spring for one of each color!

What’s a conifer without cupcakes?

Happy decorating!

I love going to Trader Joe’s! They always have delicious samples and great food products, I highly recommend the Pastry Bites with feta cheese and caramelized onions!  My sister told me they have giant peppermint cupcakes for the holiday season, I haven’t tried them yet but the next time I’m in Trader Joe’s I plan on picking one up!