The cupcake world has been all aflutter with the news about TSA confiscating a woman’s cupcake before they would allow her to get on the plane. TSA has now coined the event Cupcakegate. Well, Wicked Good Cupcakes, the creator of the criminal cupcake, is not the only cupcakery capitalizing off the event. The Silver Spoon Bakery of Providence, RI is now offering the TSA Compliant Cupcake. The $4 cupcake comes with a (fake) boarding pass, and is topped with exactly 3 ounces of frosting and sold in a TSA-mandated clear, quart-size plastic blag. The accompanying photo of Richard Nixon saying “I am not a gel” is optional. The cupcake has already been tested, by a fan of The Silver Spoon Bakery, and it did make it through security!

My son turned a year old this week, so of course I have been busy making cupcakes.  We chose to use the popular children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? as his party’s theme.  For example, we made “Red Bird’s Tomato Salsa”, “Blue Horse’s Blue Corn Chips”, “Black Sheep’s Black Bean Salsa”, “Brown Bear’s Party Mix”, “Goldfish’s Golden Cheese Dip” and my most favorite, “Yellow Duck’s Banana Quack-Cakes”.

Since my baby’s favorite food is bananas, I thought it was appropriate to make banana cupcakes.  I found this incredibly yummy recipe online.  The cupcakes were extremely moist and they were also super easy to make because you can just dump everything into one big bowl.  The cream cheese frosting was also very simple and delicious.  Most importantly, they were a winner with my son, who is oftentimes a very picky eater.  He loved these and ate up most of the cake!  I would describe these as a more sugary version of banana bread, and I would definitely make them again!

We know you want to take your cupcakes everywhere, but don’t take them on a plane! Recently, a Massachusetts woman’s cupcake was confiscated by TSA when she tried to take the cupcake through security. We wrote about it here too. Her cupcake was in a jar, and the security agents said that the frosting was a liquid that exceeded the legal limits of 3 ounces.

The TSA wrote on their blog, “Unlike the thin layer of icing that resides on the top of most cupcakes, this cupcake had a thick layer of icing inside a jar.” In other words, this was a good cupcake! Who is out there handing out cupcakes with “thin layers of icing”? That’s just sad! The TSA blog also called this woman’s cupcake “the newfangled modern take on a cupcake.” Wow, that just really makes me want to take a bite of it!

Wicked Good Cupcakes, where the woman bought the cupcake, is planning to capitalize on the publicity of this pastry confiscation! They now offer a cupcake on their menu called “National Security Velvet” (pictured above). Yum!

In all seriousness, we don’t mean to make light of the importance of airport security. We know these security officers work hard to keep us all safe, and we are grateful. The moral of the story is definitely to just eat your cupcake before getting on the plane!

If this doesn’t make you hungry, then nothing will. I just found this amazing photo on the Flickr photostream of Guzzle & Nosh. The cupcake is from Joan’s on Third, a Gourmet Marketplace, Café, and Full Service Catering and Event Planning Company in Los Angeles. Yum!

Fred Flare is ready for Valentine’s Day with a section of the website already dedicated to Valentine’s Day items perfect for the one you love!  I really like the fortune cookie cupcakes!  The $15.95 kit comes with 75 cupcake liners, 30 wrappers with fortunes, and a recipe book! The kit is actually versatile, it could be used for the chinese new year, or any occasion really!  The cupcake shower cap that costs $10 just makes me laugh! I wouldn’t actually wear the shower cap but it would be fun to give or receive as a joke.

If you have a young one in your family, odds are you have visited Build a Bear for them to make a furry new friend.  But here’s a great reason to go back and get something for yourself! 

This new “I Heart Cupcakes Confetti Cupcake Bear” is shown with all these optional accessories for $45 but you can buy just the bear for $20.  They have several other cupcake birthday animals and this adorable animal carrier.  I wonder if I might get strange glances walking around the mall wearing this cupcake carrier with a cupcake bear in it? 

Visit StayHomeCupcake on Etsy.

I love eating food off of a stick…shish kebabs, fruit kebabs, caramel apples, cake pops and the list goes on. For some reason it’s just more fun that way.  I’m sure that these snowmen cupcake skewers are no exception…they look very tasty and cute, the perfect treat to bring some cheer on a gloomy winter’s day.

Before Christmas my family and I attended Durham North Carolina’s Rock and Shop Market.  It’s a really fun event that combines craft vendors, food trucks, and local musicians.  One booth that I made a purchase from was Magic Bean Buyer who specializes in collectible keepsake clay figurines and illustrations.  For $8.00 I bought one of Magic Bean Buyer’s gray kitty cupcake toppers to give as a Christmas gift.  The cupcake toppers come in three additional colors including brown, black tuxedo, and siamese.

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Do you spoil your dog with special treats and toys?  Here at my house we definitely spoil our one year old dog.  He loves treats and I’m sure he would love these Gourmet Tails Cupcakes with Sprinkles.  The dog treats are available in vanilla and carob flavors for $4.79.  There are also 6 packs of cupcakes for dogs available in three flavors, carob mint, vanilla oat flake, and peanut butter.  If you’re unsure about feeding your dog cupcake treats there is a Valentine’s Squeaky Cupcake toy for $3.99.  All of these fun dog treats and toys are available on the Petco website.

I am all about getting my craft on this winter! I am finding so many good DIY ideas and tutorials, that my bookmark folder runneth over! To stop my my folder from busting at the seams, I have decided to share some of my ideas with you. But of course, they have a cupcake twist!

DIY with Foil Baking Cups from HeyLook

Garland

Backdrop

Gifts

Here in Chicago we still haven’t gotten much more than a dusting of snow this winter.  So, since I haven’t gotten the chance to go out and play in the white, fluffy stuff, I figured at the very least I could build some snowmen cupcakes.  These are super cute, and the really nice thing is that you can stay warm while building these snowmen!

http://youtu.be/pEO2gmdqExI

On an episode of the Nickelodeon show Victorious the characters build a giant cupcake float for the “parade parade”.  The group runs into trouble when the cupcake float they are riding inside gets a flat tire on their way to the parade.  To make matters worse, they are stuck in a bad neighborhood wearing candy pajamas.  You can watch the episode titled Terror on Cupcake Street on YouTube.

Like Stayhomecupcake, I too went to Target this week and spotted some great, cheap cupcake finds.  For only $1.00 you can get the extra large cupcake valentine’s day card! I also love the cupcake straws that include four different colors in a pack.  The straws can be purchased online for only $2.00!

Target does it again! In their dollar area I just found these cute cupcake bins, cards, erasers and felt bags. They also had gift bags, window gel stickers and plastic plates.  I love dollar finds!  I also found cupcake birthday party items in their party area.  Not a dollar but still great prices! 

Looking for the perfect treat to make with your kids on a snow day (or before they go back to school if they haven’t already)? These penguins sure are cute!

They are also very simple to make, which is a must for short attention spans.  Simply ice a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting, place three chocolate cookie halves on top, add three small triangles of dried apricot for the beaks and feet, and stick on some mini m&ms for eyes. Adorable!

Growing up in Connecticut I remember it was always fun to visit the Stamford Connecticut mall.  The mall had crazy escalators that seemed to float in mid air as they transversed from one level to another across the center of the mall.  The mall had an A&W All American Food which as kids seemed like a special treat.  Most importantly, located inside the mall was an FAO Schwarz toy store.   As a kid, it was hard to beat a toy store, especially one as great as FAO Schwarz, which is now one of the oldest operating stores in the US.

The FAO Schwarz store is long since gone from the Stamford Mall but the New York City and online stores are still open.  I was looking around the online store and was excited to find some awesome cupcake items.  My top favorite is the FAO Exclusive Pinkalicious 12.5 inch cupcake backpack!  Although it’s small the $14.99 backpack is really cute and I know little girls would love the backpack shaped like a cupcake after having had a heart shaped backpack when I was little. Read the rest of this entry »

My friend’s birthday is coming up and while I have already purchased her gift I have yet to wrap it.  I have my eye out for cupcake wrapping paper and I spotted this cupcake wrapping paper on Perpetual Kid.  The faces of the cupcakes remind me of the Bad Cupcake bag I got at Cal Poly Bookstore two years ago.  It’s $3.99 for two sheets of 20X30 inch paper.

Cupcakes presented art gallery style is how I would describe MORE cupcakerie in Chicago. Smoother-than-silk frostings.  Sculpted icings.  Chocolate curls as tight as Shirley Temple’s.

And the flavors?  MORE’s list of cupcakes includes a blackberry, salted caramel, and chocolate mint (pictured).

I’m thinking Chicago Museum of Art, stroll along the lakefront, and some downtown deep dish pizza, followed by MORE, MORE, MORE.

Get it while you can …Eat a Cupcake Poster from AllPosters.com is on sale for $.98. You can get this great cupcake poster for yourself or for another cupcake lover for under a dollar!

   

Placemat

Cookie Jar

 These are just a few of my favorite items.  Kohl’s also has towels, bowls, platters, tableclothes and many more sweet items!

Hope you didn’t wear yourself out shopping for the holidays! Because when you visit the new website Cupcakes and Tea Ceramics, you’ll want to fill up your shopping bag: trinket boxes, vases, cupcake clocks, even chandeliers…and my favorite? The cupcake nightlights! It’s a cupcake lover’s dream store!

So my theme word of the year is “sparkly,” and what better place to start than with sparkly cupcakes!

There are cupcakeries named “Sparkle Cupcake Company.”

There are cupcake products with “sparkle.”

And then there is “Sparkle and Hay” with step by photo step illustrations of how to make these beautiful, sparkly cupcakes.  Their website and Facebook are all about rustic country chic weddings, so kick up your heels and get into your kitchen, turn on a little Sugarland, and start the new year off with sparkle!

I think we can all agree that there is no better way to spend New Years Day than eating and baking cupcakes! If you agree with me,  than I have found a great recipe for you to try from the blog La Mia Vita Dolce.

Hot Fudge Sundae Cupcakes

These look so fabulous and they are visualually stunning!

Happy New Year!

To kick 2012 off right, I just purchased myself my first set of silicone baking cups at a nearby health food store. (You can get Casabella silicone muffin cups on Amazon too.)

I am quite impressed! A set of 6 reusable cups will run you about $8.99, but the way we go through cupcake wrappers around here, they’ll likely pay for themselves soon. I’ve already broken them in, and they worked beautifully. My cupcakes took a little bit longer to cook, so be prepared to be flexible, but the cupcakes were cooked evenly, and the silicone cups peeled away from them beautifully.

In the end, these baking cups are a great idea, and I look forward to trying to wear them out. They are also super easy to clean, especially if you have a dishwasher! And they come in jumbo size too!