I was perusing Etsy the other day when I stumbled upon Geneva Designs. This is a great little business with lots of homemade good such as vintage aprons, kids styled aprons, sewing kits and hot pads.  But it was these adorable cupcake ones that they have just loaded onto Flickr that grabbed my attention!  I love how bright and fun they are!

Given Christmas is only just around the corner, my eyes are alert for the best Xmas bargains I can find.  These would be perfect for any baker or cupcake maker!  You can never have too much in the way of hot pots or hand towels especially if they are covered in cupcakes or, as the second ones are, the tools of the trade.

Got a no shoes policy at your home? or just want to provide a great take home gift for your girlfriends?  There is something so fun about these socks!

Okay if you don’t know what I am talking about, it is Grippy Socks, you know those great winter socks that you can safely wear around the house (that is you’ll stay upright).  But these are even better because they contain cupcakes on them and they can be personalised.

Instead of bird seed or a plastic take home gift from your wedding, you could provide something really useful and super fun in these socks!  Or generate your support for your cupcake cause or organisation by creating your own branded cupcake home footwear.  I am not sure though that they can replace shoes just yet in your bakery, but hey!

You can get these socks from ATC Sponsor Diva Entertains and best of all you can write text in both the top part of the sole and the bottom part as shown above.  Don’t forget that you can also choose the colors of both the socks and the text!

The recent movie Despicable Me was all the rage here in the last school holidays and it was hard for anyone in our family not to absolutely adore it.  I totally loved the little girls Margo, Edith and Agnes, and Gru was fantastic in his evil lovable way!  But for the kids, the best thing of all was of course the clumsy, funny and always hard working Minions that won their hearts!

So what to create for a kids birthday party?  Well why not a super cool birthday cake of one of the girls, and surround it with many many Minion cupcakes!

Cococake Cupcakes did just that recently for one of their customers, and I adored how they came out!

Today I am privileged to be able to share with you two awesome cupcake tattoos from our readers!  The first is not so much an angel looking tattoo but one that symbolizes a wonderful girlfriend who passed away.  Amanda was devestated by the loss of her best friend, but wanted to find someway to remember the fun and special connection they had shared.  So she chose something girly and delicate in the form of a cupcake, sprinkled with color.

Amanda’s cupcake tattoo is located on her arm and is something she gets much joy out of.

The second tattoo is more angelic in its design, given it has angel’s wings!  This tattoo on Jana was done about five years ago by Jennifer Knox from Hold Fast Tattoo, in Seaside, OR.  Jana wanted a tattoo to celebrate self acceptance of who she is and selected on the angel cupcake given it was fun and daring.  Jana describes herself as “a big curvy girl with an appetite for life” and wanted to show that in her tattoo choice!

Thank you to both Amanda and Jana for sharing their cupcake tattoos with us!  Remember if you are planning on getting a cupcake tattoo All Things Cupcake has a huge gallery of cupcake tattoos!

Over at Bake and Destroy you will find a lot of action at the moment as the cupcake apron competition draws to a close.  The competition set was to design what you would like to see in an apron.  The images are a collection of ideas and other pictures to create a story board of inspiration for the apron itself.

There are now six finalists, nautical, peacock, bad spice, bones, cherry rockabilly and lucha libra.  Here we feature the Peacock design by Lisa Chen, but you can see all the designs here.  To vote simply leave a comment and given there are prizes for voters too, why not!?

For me, I can’t decide!!!  I love the Nautical design and the Cherry Rockabilly!

Voting closes on the 12th November.

Well why not mix your cocktail and your cupcake?  And at Cocktail Cupcakes in Atlanta they do just that!!

You would be more likely to find this list of flavors in a bar than a bakery, but the cupcakes they offer are:

• Patron
• Champagne
• Mint Mojito
• Lemon Drop
• Strawberry Daiquiri
• White Russian
• Baileys Irish Cream
• Pina Colada
• Margarita
• Cosmopolitan
• Chocolate Martini
• Caramel Appletini
• Strawberry Margarita
• Amaretto
• Tequila Sunrise
• Malibu Rum
• Vanilla Martini

Who would have thought to turn a game of chess into cupcakes!  These cupcakes come from the fantastic Sweetopia blog where they used a chess chocolate mould to make a series of white and brown chocolate chess pieces.  They then made up two batches of cupcakes one set in vanilla with white frosting and the other in chocolate with chocolate frosting.  The chess pieces were then added to the top.

The board is a vinyl one, which was the perfect size for the standard cupcakes, and I totally adore the cupcake wrappers used.

You can find the recipes and instructions for these cupcakes on the Sweetopia blog.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Today I thought I would bring you three great last minute Halloween Cupcake ideas!  You may have heard of it already, but Zilly Rosen recently released her book Zombie Cupcakes in the UK.  It is coming to America soon, but the best news is that you don’t have to wait as Made for Moms features three ideas complete with recipe and decoration directions!  There are the Zombie Rising Chocolate Mud Cakes, the Brain Food Honey Cupcakes and last but not least the Bludgeon to Survive Pumpkin Cupcakes.  Check out each of them by clicking on the links.

My favorite?  I can’t go past the Bludgeon to Survive cupcakes shown here, especially as you need to make crowbars, baseball bats and shovels!

But alas, I have already made my cupcakes for this year, zombies with with chocolate ganache filling!  Yummy!

On November the 6th the first Wine & Cupcake Bar in Baltimore will be opened.  The venture is a collaboration of Emily’s Desserts and Pizzazz Tuscan Grille which will see the restaurant transformed into a wine and cupcake bar on Friday and Saturday nights.

But do wine and cupcakes really go together?

Don’t get me wrong, I love both, but I cannot think of a time when I have actually had them together.  Even when I eat out, I will always finish my wine with the main meal before commencing on dessert, and if I do drink with dessert it is usually a port or something sweet, like the aptly named ‘dessert wine’.

But then I could be wrong, I sometimes am (just don’t tell my kids), and wine and cupcakes could be perfect.

For more information, to get an invite to the grand opening, or to browse the wine and cupcake pairing menu, see Emily’s Desserts here.  If you do happen to go and try some of these wines and cupcakes, let me know!  I would love to hear how it goes!

Okay I’m a little over the traditional round cupcake, I’m looking for something interesting, where are our square cupcakes, our star cupcakes, our oval and rhombus cupcakes?  Lets have diamonds and fleur de lys! We have giant, and we have mini, but lets see some more variety in the shape and design!

I guess the thing that is limiting is that the cupcake pan or muffin pan as it is more commonly known has round circles and although you may be able to find one that differs, you just can’t find the liners which means lots of greasing the pan in a desperate hope that your cupcakes will come out cleanly.  So what is the solution?

Simply Caked's Choc Fudge and Peanut Butter Frosted Cupcakes

Well I found one cool new product the other day on the Simply Caked blog, okay, so it is still slightly a circle, but I commend the design for a few key reasons.  It is different, with an interesting thick wobble edge, but also the liners are strong enough that you don’t need your pan!

Thats great, so you can create your cupcakes in a cool new shape.  If I had these I would make toad in the hole cupcakes – I think it is the wobble edge that gives me the idea of jelly molds and water!  So imagine, bright blue water cupcakes, frosted with a blue butter cream and a chocolate frog in the centre.  It is like a jelly toad in the hole only better, because it is cupcake!

Simply Caked didn’t go a watery theme, instead they went with a chocolate fudge and peanut butter frosting.  They look sooo yummy!  You can get these cups from ATC Sponsor Simply Caked here.  If you make some interesting cupcakes out of these, definitely let us know!

If you are completely done with all the traditional Halloween cupcakes, of ghosts, witches and pumpkins and are looking for something very different, why not take your inspiration from PepsiNZ and create horror movie cupcakes!

She went all out creating heaps of different cupcakes, but you could choose your favorite couple and go with a theme!  I particularly love this one here!

You can see all the horror movie cupcakes on her website Random Crap here.

If you are, then taking a quick trip across to the Cupcake Cauldron might be the answer for you.  Ashley’s blog is a mix of her current creations with a few great cupcake recipes thrown into the cauldron so to speak!  But it is Halloween that she does best, and here are two of her creations.

These show how much magic you can create by just adding a topper!  Of course the cupcake flavor choice is all important as well.  Ashley has used vanilla cake with fudge frosting for Pumpkin and for Skull she used a devil’s food cake with a mini peanut butter cup on the inside and peanut butter frosting on top.

Can’t believe Halloween is now just over a week away!

With all the Halloween cupcakes and creations, I was cruising one of my new favorite blog’s Bake Happy when I stumbled onto the funniest of posts, which featured, very literally, ‘wicked cupcakes’.

I thought these were fantastic fun, as is her open letter, and it is so refreshing to see a poster cover of something other than the front page of the first Twilight book (not that I don’t like Twilight! lol).

Anyway, Aikko’s blog is well worth a look, she has some fantastic cupcake designs!

If you are after a new pair of super soft and comfortable shoes that are as unique and individual as you are then these are the shoes for you!

Not only are these Cupcake High Top Keds fun and funky, but you can make all the adjustments you want to personalize them before you buy them.  Here you will see that I have selected red lace for mine!

You can also change the lining color, upper binding color, toe cap design, eyelet color, tongue binding color and stitching colors!  There is also an option to choose between black and white upper and lower midsoles and the toe bumper.  All of which means you can have really cool cupcake shoes that are unique and funky.

Best part though is the price, they are only $65 from Zazzle (this link takes you to their WIDE variety of cupcake shoes! There are heaps to choose from!).

Decapitated Head Cupcake by PepsiNZ

I think I need to explain myself!

Well I was cruising Flickr today when I stumbled upon this rather gross cupcake by PepsiNZ.  Actually it is a very funny mix of really awful and really cute, the face is adorable!  But it would make the most awesome Halloween cupcake, especially that is if you have older boys!

She is quite talented with her cupcake creations, but before you race off and check out her photostream, be warned it is not all G rated!

The thing I love about art is there is no right and wrong, anything and everything can be explored and the emotions it provokes in a viewer are as unique and individual about the art itself.  Even the cupcake is becoming quite a feature in paintings and drawings, for example who doesn’t know about the very popular CakeSpy who has a huge following of fans.

It seems that Cupcake stores and Bakeries are starting to catch on, adding an ever changing kaleidoscope of color to otherwise plain walls.  In addition, it gives patrons something to look at while they wait, and lets face it, if you have waited in a 15 minute queue for your cupcake you deserve a bit of eye candy along with your cupcake!

Above we feature the talented Jonathan Arras who is an artist who has created a number of colorful pieces of art which he is currently showing at Common Ground Cupcakes for the next month.  Some of his art features cupcakes such as the image above titled ‘Two Animals in Search of A Cupcake” but all are bright and colorful and perfect for a cupcake store.  His art is on sale in the store which is located in Renton WA or you can see his work on his website, Spirals In Love.

What do you think?  Do you want to see more art in cupcake stores, or is the cupcake counter your only focus?

Cupcakes are fast becoming more than just a tasty little dessert or afternoon treat but a key trend in design and decor.  More and more we are seeing more people adorn themselves with a super cute cupcake tattoo, wear a cupcake apron, have funky cupcake shoes, and dress their bed in cupcake covered sheets and blankets, but where will it end?  Personally I have no idea, I think we are still just on the edge of the cupcake mountain, and it appears that Angel Heart Designs agrees with me with her latest creation – cupcake drawer pulls.

But there is an interesting story behind these pulls, as they actually were originally created as a magnet that Angel Heart Designs, ATC Sponsor used to send to customers as a little thank you gift.  One customer however decided that her fridge was not the perfect place for it and glued it instead to a cabinet door handle.

It looked so good, that she requested more and the range of cupcake door pulls in a range of colors, flavors and custom designs was born!

So today cupcake door pulls tomorrow…

If you answered yes, then I have to inform you, that David Letterman disagrees with you, but don’t worry, “he is just nuts”.

Well that is what David Letterman said on air this Friday after he blasted Rachael Ray with a barrage of complaints about the number and type of cupcake shows on the air at the moment.  What Rachael had to do with these cupcake shows is not clear but I am guessing the link may be that there are a lot of cupcake shows at the moment, and Rachael also has a lot of her own shows.  Forgive me I might be wrong, but it was the only thing I could see that could possibly give reason for David to direct his annoyance at Rachael.

Before Rachael even got out to stage David said “You realize there’s a billion people in the world starving every day, and there’s a group of assholes having fights over cupcakes. They’re fighting over cupcakes! … Does that seem right to you?”

I guess we can take from this that David Letterman doesn’t like cupcake shows, but surely censorship is not the answer to the worldwide hunger problem?

All I can say is I fully respect how Rachael handled herself and as Letterman himself says she “had every reason to be alarmed”, he continues “I’m so sorry”.

View the interview here

View the apology here

Montrose Cakes by Grace are known to come up with some pretty fantastic cupcake design ideas, and when I saw their Halloween collection I was delighted!  These cupcakes all work so well individually or together. Death looks stunning as always!  By clicking on either image you can see all the cupcakes close up on Flickr.

I am sooooo looking forward to Halloween this year, so many cool ideas and cupcakes to experiment with!

Every now and then you stumble across something that is truly unique and fantastic, and that is exactly what happened to me when I stumbled across Alma’s website, called Spain In A Cupcake.

You see Alma until recently had never tasted the joys of the cupcake and it wasn’t until she was on a recent visit to London that she discovered their delicate goodness.  Now understandably she is addicted.  Since that visit she has taught herself how to cook and has a kitchen in which to experiment, which she is doing.

Alma may currently be spending a year living in Germany but her cupcakes are very Spanish influenced.  You see it is not just a name ‘Spain in a Cupcake‘ but also a concept.  Alma is letting Spanish flavor inspire her cupcake creations and coming up with some very unique and fantastic cupcake ideas.  So far we have the Sangria, Brazo de Gitano, Chocolate con Churros, Arroz con Leche, and surprisingly Chupa Chups!

This is just the start for Alma and her cupcake project, but it is one that I for sure will be watching with interest!  And did I mention they all come complete with recipes??

This is Crazy Pink Cupcake, just don't call him that!

I found this Etsy site the other day and it is fantastic!  The owner Karly, has only just re set the store up mid last month, and if these absolutely adorable clay figures are anything to go by she is going to do a roaring trade, I am so in love.  My favorite is this little dude here with the lifter fork thing, his name is Sprinklez.

You can check out all of Karly’s creations on her blog too.  All of these creations are currently available, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they move pretty quickly!  I am so eyeing you Mr Sprinklez! xxx

The cupcakes flank the ice cream dude!

Do you want to learn the secret behind 3D chocolate decorations?  Well I am about to tell you.  Well actually not me but The Lone Baker.

If you have not heard of her, she is worth finding out about.  Her whole website is dedicated to amazing tips and tricks to do with cupcake decoration and did I say she is amazing?

So to the 3D chocolate spirals, well, the trick is Vodka, but I don’t want to shatter the mystery, take a visit to her site to check it out.  You may have piped chocolate swirls onto baking paper before, but they are flat, two dimensional pieces, where as these, well you see!

Every now and then you find something unusual on top of a cupcake, and today was one of those days when I found Macbeth cupcakes by Clever Little Cupcakes in Bury, UK.

She explains that her son has been studying Macbeth at school and she wanted to do something to celebrate the occasion.  It really goes to show, with a little imagination you can achieve anything!  The cupcakes feature a bloodied hand, a sword, plaques with words from the Shakespearian text and Dunsinane.  Close ups of each cupcake can be seen on her Flickr account.

Of course these sword cupcakes would be brilliant for a range of different style cupcakes, including King arthur or any medieval style party!

The carrot cake has been around for ages as one of those classic staple cakes that your mom or your nan used to bake when you were a kid.  It is a cake that has stood the test of time and is still an autumn favorite.  The only problem, is when baked as a cake or as cupcake it just doesn’t really appeal like other cupcakes do.

Well The Crafty Penguin has the answer and you can use her fantastic technique on other cakes such as the banana cake or sponge, to take them from big and boring down to cupcake size, then pipe some life into them with the frosting.  The complete recipe is provided as is a guide on how to finish off the cupcakes with cute gumpaste carrots.  As you can see these little deserts would be a great way to end any dinner party!  See the full photo tutorial here.

I am sure we have all seen handbag cupcakes by now, they are appearing everywhere!  Well today I thought I would bring you some of the best handbag cupcakes around.  Personally I love them, they are cute, sexy and can define whatever mood you are in!  What do you think of these?

These ones are by Pretty, Cute Cupcakes on Flickr.  They are gorgeous Chanel bags and I love the color combinations chosen here, so delicate and pretty.

These ones are simply amazing and were featured on The Cupcake Blog, talk about detail!  I am in love with that red one!  These are by Anita Jamal.

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