I find it hard to not think about yummy cupcakes at the best of times!  But how would you go with a cupcake tattooed on your wrist?

Earl Nixon is a tattoo artist in California and he has done many a cupcake tattoo, and sent us these fantastic designs from his collection.  These two were my favorite and capture Earl’s style which he describes as traditional, but a with a new school twist incorporating bright colors and crazy cartoon style.  But these are by no means the limit to Earl’s cupcake creativity!  His portfolio includes funky cupcakes with cherries and also a spooky cupcake with bat sprinkles and a little skull on top!

Today, I am opening the door onto the many adventures and disasters that is cupcake creation in the Apple Cupcake household!  We have three kids, Alan,15 aka Cupcake Demolisher, Zoe, 11, Cupcake Designer and Megan, 6, Baby Cupcake. Together we make mess!

These images are from two recent cupcake bake outs, the first was for Mother’s Day, that is we got my mum to bake for us, so we could have all the fun decorating!  The only problem was we ran out of cupcakes, so I started decorating the girls!  That pic is Baby Cupcake, poor thing, I had her wedged up against the coffee machine and she just had no where to run! (evil laugh).

One of our disasters was when I had the great idea to chop up chocolate bars adding them to the wrappers (we had all the favorites, Boost, Cherry Ripe, Picnic etc).  Unfortunately they glued themselves to the wrapper, and the picnic ones just tasted like burnt peanut! Personally I would have tossed the little critters, but the Cupcake Demolisher came to their rescue!

Then just the other day I gave Cupcake Designer icing pens, and along with her friend Emma, Cupcake Sidekick, they designed this batch of strange looking cupcakes!

Some of the things that bakers create are amazing!  Quite often I can find myself a little put off by the amazing work that the magazines and books display.  How is a humble baker like me supposed to create that?

Noelle however showed me that it is possible!  As her company’s ‘unofficial’ official baker, she was given the challenge of creating something for her mother who works in the same office.  But this was no ordinary birthday, it was her mother’s 50th,so she wanted to create something ultra special

Inspiration struck in the form of the May 2010 Food Network Magazine, and she took the idea and made it her own with these amazing topiaries!  The magazine used a 6 inch ball, but Noelle used upscaled to an 8 inch ball and covered it with red velvet cream cheese cupcakes along with a large cone shaped topiary base which she covered with Oreo cupcakes.  The combined topiaries had just under 200 cupcakes in total!

Apparently Noelle advises that the construction is not for the faint of heart, but that the end result was well worth it!

So this is a bit of a different post for me.  I was cruising some news items and happened across a headline in the Huffington Post ‘How a Cupcake Ruined My Day (and No, I’m Not On A Diet)‘ and I was intrigued.  The crux is that she was served her cupcake in an “excessively large plastic container,” and when she asked the man serving where the recycling bin was when she was finished, she was told “we don’t recycle”.

I understand her angst, doing what we can is important, everyone helping could make a difference. I understand commercial reality too, but supplying recycling bins shouldn’t be that hard.

Anyway instead of dwelling on the poor, I wanted to give a thumbs up to another bakery which is the opposite and while it may not be possible for every bakery to go to this extreme, there are certainly ideas a plenty on the Birdbath / Build a Green Bakery website!

Their cups are made of biodegradable corn, the countertop and shelves, from recycled paper, they are wind powered, their paper bags are not wax lined, the floor is reclaimed timber. They use organic flour, sugar and butter, deliver by bicycle-driven cargo rickshaw and compost their coffee grounds daily.  Also they offer a 25% discount to customers arriving on a bicycle or skateboard. Sounds very GREEN to me!

Recently I discovered Donica, an amazing woman and artist who is exploring art therapy and is enrolled in a Transpersonal Psychology program.  Simply put, transpersonal psychology is a form of psychology that studies the spiritual aspects of the human experience.  During this study she was introduced to Jung’s Archetypes, which effectively are differing but repeating patterns of thought and action that reappear time and again across people, countries and continents.

Effectively Jung indicated that we are all made up of basic archetypes, these represent a way of feeling and acting, for example ‘the mother’ – feeding, nurturing, soothing, or ‘the maiden’ – purity, desire, etc.  Jung’s Archetypes, are fascinating to read about.  Donica, has used her study to self-identify 12 archetypes which guide her.  Creatively she then matched each of these archetypes to 12 cupcake flavors, and then developed a menu of her cupcake archetypes and crocheted each.    Her cupcake archetypes are:

Warrior –  Red Chili Mango
Artist –  Starry Blueberry Night
Lover –  Strawberry Cheesecake Delight
Prostitute – Mint White Chocolate
Magical Inner Child – Funfetti Birthday Cake
Saboteur – Wild Berry
Victim – Uh-oh upside Down Pineapple
Femme Fatale – Titillating Tiramisu
Secretary – Pumpkin Danish
Messenger – Golden Angel Food Cake
Hedonist – Pink Lemondae Pleasure
Storyteller – Spicy Vanilla Chai Latte

From a small town in Brisbane, Australia, Westside News brings us the story of Emma Lulham who is baking up a storm!

However there is a difference about her treats, they are not for us two legged humans, but for our four legged friends.  Her company ‘Sweet Chops‘ is a small outfit dedicated to creating gourmet treats especially for spoiled dogs. And it is not limited to cupcakes! Emma also stocks a range of dog ‘lollipups’ and personalized birthday cakes.

All of her treats use natural ingredients, no sugar or preservatives and the treat decorations are made with carob or yoghurt, instead of chocolate.  Healthy and delicious! – for dogs!

Emma’s latest addition are paw shaped carob treats called ‘Box O’ Choco Licks’!  I am sure Noogie, her labrador and gourmet taste tester, is quite the envy of all his doggy neighbours!

Carolina Cupcakery wants to test your foodie skills in helping them create their record-breaking 150th cupcake flavor!

Carolina Cupcakery currently has 144 flavors and counting.  I couldn’t really contemplate 150 flavors of cupcake, until I visited their full menu.  It was a mouth-watering experience.  Each cupcake is sorted under a heading of chocolate, coconut, coffee, fruit/veggie, misc, nut, spice, vanilla/butter and special needs.  I have a special need for a cupcake now!

This isn’t the first time Carolina Cupcake has called on the public to be part of their cupcake design team.  Jaina’s ‘Raspberry’ cupcake was the winner of cupcake flavor 100, – a chocolate cake stuffed with raspberry mousse, drizzled with dark chocolate ganache. The photo below shows Jaina tucking into her creation and holding aloft her icing filled trophy.

Contest entries should be emailed to [email protected] and must be received before 9pm on June 9, 2010.  The contest winner will be announced on June 10, 2010, at the store’s second anniversary celebration. Click here for more information.

Hmm, I have a real craving now for the Apple Martini cupcake, it sounds divine!  Rather fitting huh?

Where would you place your tattoo??

We have received some really cool images this week of cupcake tattoos.  It got me thinking where I would put my cupcake tattoo if I wasn’t such a wimp when it comes to burning needles!  Also I have a huge tendency to change my mind, so anything that cannot be altered or modified five minutes later, is just no good.  But if I was to have one, where would it go?  I do like the ankle area, or perhaps on my tummy just along my pant line. Hmm, today it would definitely be chocolate with triple choc chip.

So where would you place yours – hypothetically of course!  I haven’t seen any head cupcake tattoos yet, but Jessica wins the shoulder one (well it is in the vicinity of her shoulder) with this gorgeous cupcake nestled under her arm.  I love the little red bow.

And no one has a knee one yet – if you do send it in.  However one of our readers did send in this little cherry dotted one on her foot.  A big hello to the Skull & Rose Gallery in Clintonville, Ohio, where these were done!

That’s right, this month the baker’s battlefield will be set.  Icing bags will be loaded and beaters revved as the Food Network launches its new prime time series ‘Cupcake Wars’. The first episode of this premier series will be aired on June the 15th at 9pm ET/PT when four of the country’s top bakers will go head to head, but it is not until the Tuesday 27th July when our very own sponsor Stefanie Gaxiola of Red Velvet Stefanie will get to show off her amazing stuff.

Each episode will feature a different theme, from a SeaWorld Birthday Bash in Round 1 to the Film Festival Face Off, in which Stefanie will need to beat her opponents Arleen Scavore of Sweet Arleens, Zoey Devail of Bee Sweet Bakery and Johnny Mangamiotis of Mr Cupcakes to feature her cupcakes at a film festival. Stefanie’s episode will air at 10pm on Tuesday the 27th of July, so lets cheer her on! You can read more about the all upcoming shows and contestants on The Futon Critic.

All of us here at ATC will be right behind Stefanie, who could see herself into the elimination rounds if she wins.  The overall prize for the best cupcake baker is $10,000 and the opportunity to showcase their cupcakes at the winning gig!

It seems that everyone is talking about nothing else but the big finale of Lost, after 6 seasons it all came to an end last week.  But  there is little agreement on whether the ending was all it could have been.  But for one cupcake baker it was!

Bonnie hosted her own Lost Party and got ultra creative in the kitchen after being inspired by MSNBC.com’s article on how to throw the “ultimate Lost finale party”. Letting her imagination run wild, she made a series of funky cupcakes to serve alongside her ‘Lost’ branded soda, chips and chocolate.

She wishes she had more time to create more of the iconic figures from the show, but at least she made Vincent.  Who incidentally is still a ‘survivor’ as she has not been able to bring herself to eat him.

As to the finale?  Bonnie give it a resounding thumbs up and I give her thumbs up on these awesome cupcakes!

Gnawing at your nails has never been so tasty!

Ditsy Daisies, our ATC sponsor has just alerted us to this adorable new cupcake manicure kit from Cupcakes and Cartwheels. Below is the apple green encased cupcake with a vanilla and strawberry topping, complete with cherry! But if you prefer your cupcake to be chocolate and strawberry or vanilla and chocolate, don’t despair as Ditsy Daisies provide three to choose from!

However, the best thing about these beautiful little cupcake cases, is that within their pastel lined interior they have everything to keep your nails in pristine condition.  All cupcakes contain a pair of nail clippers, nail file, tweezers, cuticle pusher and scissors, perfect to keep in your handbag for any and every nail emergency.

Every now and then we find ourselves hearing from someone who has an amazing story of survival to tell.  Alex is one of these people!  At just 14 she suffered from a serious eating disorder that threatened to destroy her life.

She underwent treatment, then while at boarding school met a wonderful woman who showed her how to appreciate and celebrate the person that she was.  Alex got this super cute cupcake tattoo to mark her success at coming home both stronger mentally and physically.  She is now 21, and lives by her motto ‘I am women’.