Like many children, Natalie Hope started out in the kitchen watching and helping her parents. But unlike many children, Natalie continued on her own, experimenting and advancing her skills. With the help of Food Network programming and parents willing to be guinea pigs for her creations, Natalie entered and won the She Expo’s cupcake competition last month. What makes the 10-year-old’s accomplishment so impressive is the fact that the competition had 63 other participants, a mix of professionals and amateurs. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know about you but I never seem to buy the right number of cupcake liners for when I’m baking. I always end up with too many. It’s like the hot dog and bun conundrum where liners aren’t sold in the same units as the number of cupcakes people generally bake them. With all the different patterns available to customize your cupcakes for holidays or events, it’s easy for the paper or foil liners to accumulate in the cabinet. Luckily, there are many other options for how to use those leftover liners, ranging from kids’ crafts to useful tricks. Read the rest of this entry »

Forget the $45 cupcake from Australia. There’s a far more expensive cupcake available in the United States. Appropriately, the decadent $750 cupcake can only be found in Sin City.  Sweet Surrender at The Palazzo in Las Vegas, which requires 48 hours to prepare the expensive treat, find this extravagant cupcake satisfies big spenders’ sweet teeth. For most of us, the only way we could justify spending that much on a single treat would be if Lady Luck were generous enough to smile upon us.

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During the summer’s hottest and most humid days, there are times when you want a cooler alternative to cakey cupcakes with thick and sugary icing. Those muggy days are where cheesecake cupcakes can be the perfect substitute. Their density isn’t overly sweet and they’re usually at their tastiest when served chilled. While cheesecake cupcakes work with or without toppings, the fresh fruit of summer is often the perfect finishing touch. So here are recipes for several cheesecake cupcakes to try.

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A group of young ladies in Wisconsin have turned to the power of cupcakes to help them in their quest to raise money for charities. The Girls Bake Club was created by Madison Cloutier, Alysha Nelson, Cynthia Manson, and Ajia Hayden when they wanted to raise money for the Go Bo! Foundation. Baking cupcakes with orange frosting to match the foundation’s color scheme. Selling the cupcakes in local stores, the girls were able to raise over a thousand dollars for the charity. Wanting to continue what they started and help other worthy causes, the Girls Bake Club is reaching out with further cupcake sales. Read the rest of this entry »

When it came time for the city of Myrtle Beach to celebrate its 75^th anniversary, they decided they wanted to do it with cupcakes. 7,500 cupcakes to be exact. Katherine Berman and Sophie LaMontagne of Georgetown Cupcakes and TLC’s DC Cupcakes collaborated with the city of Myrtle Beach to not only bake more than 7,500 cupcakes, they planned a cupcake tower to rival all those that came before. And just this week, their achievement was confirmed. The cupcake tower created to celebrate Myrtle Beach’s 75^th anniversary is now officially the Guinness World Record holder for Tallest Tower of Cupcakes at 20 feet and 5 inches tall. Read the rest of this entry »

At a different end of the spectrum from the other day’s Nerdy Nummies Do-It-Yourself cupcaking, we have Craftsy’s understated but valuable tips to achieve professional cake decorating effects through simple means. With their Project Cupcake videos, in less than two minutes you can learn how to turn gelatin and food coloring into edible sequins to decorate a cupcake (turns out it just requires a textured acetate sheet and a hole puncher). Or learn how to create a gorgeous ruffly fondant flower to sit atop delicious icing (it only takes a few cookie cutters, a shaping tool, and some piping gel).

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It looks like cupcakes may be on Oprah’s list of favorite things. The OWN section of Huffington Post has, well, posted a slideshow of fantastic cupcake recipes. Several are twists on old favorites. Adding a swirl of caramel to a simple vanilla cupcake is an easy way to shake up the classic. Or adding a dash of cinnamon to the cream cheese frosting that traditionally sits atop red velvet cupcakes. The candy pie cupcakes are more of a decorating idea with the linked recipe using a standard vanilla cupcake but substitutions should be easy. In fact, a blueberry cupcake or cherry cupcake that coordinate to the colored M&Ms could taste like chocolate dipped fruit. Other flavors featured, are a little more involved. Read the rest of this entry »

I know that Comic Con was a few weeks ago now and the summer blockbusters are winding down, but with the new television season is creeping up on the horizon and the promotions beginning for several major franchises’ autumn and Thanksgiving/holiday releases, my inner nerd isn’t going into hibernation any time soon. In fact, it seems to be spreading. Lucky for me, I found Rosanna Pansino’s Nerdy Nummies tutorials on YouTube and a new, tasty outlet has been opened for my nerdiness. Read the rest of this entry »

There are many different kinds of cupcake toppers out there to choose from if you don’t want more than just icing to entice. Some are like little toys that can easily be stuck into delicately piped mounds of frosting (or they can be used to cover up the sloppier last minute jobs before a bake sale you forgot about). Others are personalized for birthdays, anniversaries, retirements, weddings, etc. and allow you to slap dozens of copies of a loved one’s face onto treats that allow you to, literally, bite their head off. Then there are cupcake toppers like those produced by blogger Tikkido who has posted a number of cupcake topper tutorials. Read the rest of this entry »

Prohibition Bakery in New York City is celebrating one year of mixing cupcakes and cocktails at their Lower East Side storefront with more than just a little bubbly. After all, when boozy cupcakesare your business, no ordinary celebratory champagne cupcake will suffice and nothing says one-year anniversary like a cupcake inspired by Ernest Hemingway and called Death in the Afternoon. The self-proclaimed original alcoholic cupcake company decided to add a champagne filling to their champagne cupcake before topping it with absinthe frosting and a champagne and lemon cube. This particular flavor looks like it will only be available for a limited time while they celebrate their anniversary with fans and customers.

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Every once in a while there are some cupcake stories that aren’t as sweet as one would like. Unfortunately, these are of that less than savory kind. Unless you have a very open mind when it comes to the toppings you find acceptable for your cupcakes (though I’ve yet to meet anyone who would find deceased fruit flies or any rodent’s droppings acceptable anywhere near beloved frosted treats). When routine inspections from the Health Department visited the Little Miss Muffin facility in the Chicago area back in mid-July, the facility failed with rodent droppings and fruit flies only two of many citations they received. Read the rest of this entry »

Coffee cake already borders the boundary between breakfast treat and decadent dessert. It doesn’t take much to turn your favorite weekend brunch or late morning snacks into an excuse to have cupcakes for breakfast. Many of the recipes I found for coffee cake cupcakes labeled themselves “coffee cake muffins” but if the word “cake” appears anywhere in the description, I think calling them “muffins” is misguided. You can use a muffin pan, but they’re still cupcakes. Especially when they’re glazed or have any kind of icing. These three recipes rightly asserted themselves as cupcakes.

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It’s not the size of the cupcake but the size of the flavor that matters. At least, that’s the philosophy behind Batter Co.’s Sweet and Savory mini-cupcake bakery in Fort Lauderdale FL. While their cupcakes remain bite-sized, their business continues to grow. Beginning online, Shaun Hunte and Sarah Whalley will soon be opening a storefront in Pompano Beach. Purchasing a vending machine for their tiny treats and franchising are also in the bakery’s long-term plans.

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If you’re going to be in the Tampa Bay area tomorrow (August 17^th) and you’re interested in free cupcakes, then stop by the 3^rd Annual Great St. Pete Cupcake Contest. Organized by the Morean Arts Center of St. Petersburg, the money raised by the Great St. Pete Cupcake Contest is used to fund education programs run by the Morean Center, specifically their Connecting People With Art mission. There are eight judges for the two primary categories (professional and novice). The third and final category, People’s Choice, requires a one-dollar donation per vote. Sampling the cupcakes, however, is free. The winners for each category receive stunning handmade glass cupcakes as a prize.   Read the rest of this entry »

For some people, cupcakes and cake are just a vehicle for sugary frosting. For others, the frosting is the paint and the cake or cupcake serves as the canvas. Some of us cook or bake as a kind of therapy, a way to handle stress, to blow off steam (beating eggs and sugar lead to a much tastier mess than beating the feathers out of your pillow). Whatever the reason for pulling out the decorating tips and pastry bags, each cupcake is an opportunity for creative expression. As Penny Alexander of A Residence, blogger and mother of two, who had little regard for cupcakes discovered, the right materials and the right attitude can turn anyone into a cupcake fan. Read the rest of this entry »

The popular obsession with cupcakes continues to spread its influence around the world. Some Singaporean students were studying in Australia when they were introduced to the cupcake shop trend and brought it home with them to Singapore. After sixty years in business, the owner of a Chinese provision shop retired and the space in Tiong Bahru became available. The three friends, self-taught bakers, bought it and made the necessary renovations and fashioned it into Kisses Bakery, which officially opened its doors just over a month ago. Keeping aspects of the old shop like the signboard on the storefront and a cupboard in the shop, Kisses Bakery pays homage to the space’s past while bringing a delicious modern touch to their neighborhood.

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Most people remember the excitement the first time they put a lost tooth under their pillow before bed and discovered a quarter or a dollar in its place the next morning. The Tooth Fairy might not approve, but I think most of us would display almost the same level of excitement if we showed up to work and found that this Cupcake Fairy had visited our workplaces. Emily Knight, the owner of Half-Baked Bakery in Sheldon IA, has delivered hundreds of unexpected cupcakes to local businesses spreading smiles and cheer, all while successfully marketing her bakery through simple word of mouth. And who wouldn’t want to tell the world about such a delicious and kind surprise? Read the rest of this entry »

The craft and baking blogger known to many as Big Bear’s Wife has a few how-to posts for baking and decorating your cupcakes in a Disney (and Pixar) fashion. To accompany the recent release of Monsters University, there is a cupcake decorated to resemble the big, blue, and furry Sully. With a little advice from one of Disney’s own cupcake decorators, Big Bear’s Wife shares many of the tips and shortcuts she used in recreating the kid-friendly confections. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever had that dream where you go to grab some cash out of the ATM and all of a sudden the machine just starts spitting out… cupcakes? Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills, famous for being the first bakery dedicated to cupcakes, has had their trademarked Cupcake ATM next door to their flagship store for over a year now. Sprinkles Cupcakes is making progress on setting up the 24-hour treat dispensers at their other locations. Read the rest of this entry »

The time has come to raid Grandma’s kitchen for a pair of shoes that won’t hurt your feet. The cakes and cupcakes decorated by Amanda Amundson at Grandma’s Bakery in Cashton WI are frequently posted to the bakery’s Facebook page. While many of them are orders, Amundson doesn’t forget to have fun and try new things every once in a while. This past July, a photo of some fashionable high heel cupcakes that was posted to Facebook earned the bakery a lot of attention when the picture unexpectedly went viral. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you been looking for a reason to visit Queensland, Australia? Well, if you are going to be around and don’t mind spending $45 on a cupcake, you might want to consider adding a visit to Crave Cupcakes in Toowoomba to your itinerary. There you can place an order for one of the very limited edition two-dozen Golden Cupcakes that they will be baking. Of course, you only have until August 14^th to place the order and they must be picked up on August 17^th. But why would anyone want to spend $45 on a cupcake? Read the rest of this entry »

When the long days of summer end and it is time to board the yellow bus back to school, having a special treat can make the ride a little less bittersweet for both parents and children. Over at The Cup (an off-shoot of the famous Cakery in St. Louis), they aim to take the bitter entirely out of the end of summer vacation. Working with KidSmart’s Push for Pencils program, The Cup has two new cupcakes that will help send local kids to school better prepared for the days’ tasks. The limited edition school-lunch inspired peanut butter fluff and pb&j cupcakes will only be available through August 19^th.

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Sometimes you just want a cupcake. But, only one cupcake. And not everyone has a bakery close at hand where you can run in quickly to purchase the single cupcake you are craving. So, do you go without the cupcake you long for or do you waste time and energy baking more cupcakes than you really want or need? Japanese company, Daiso, has come up with a solution that means you do not have to settle for either of those options. They believe you can microwave your cupcake, and eat it too.

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There are so many restrictive diets out there but not all of them are entered into voluntarily. For those who suffer from allergies or sensitivities, sometimes the only solution is to cut something entirely out of your diet. For instance, it seems that more and more people are having trouble digesting gluten, a protein found in wheat based products like flour. For many sufferers, this means compromising the sweet tooth in some way or doing away with sugary treats, like cupcakes, entirely. But for a couple in Massachusetts, wandering from bakery to bakery in search of gluten-free cupcakes wasn’t going to cut it.

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