It’s Girl Scout Cookie season again.  I think Girl Scout cookies are pretty great (although I was a Girl Scout myself, so my opinion is slightly biased), and I can’t imagine that one could go wrong with a Girl Scout Cookie Cupcake.  These Samoa Cupcakes look SO delicious, and Samoas just-so-happen to be my hands-down favorite Girl Scout cookie.  If I knew a Girl Scout, I would definitely have to buy a box (or two or three) just to make this recipe!

We all know that the New Year is often a time of setting new goals, oftentimes related to our weight and/or health, but that doesn’t mean that you have to give up cupcakes altogether.  Why not take your favorite cupcake recipes and tweak them a bit to make them a tad healthier?  Take a look at Betty Crocker’s Healthified Chocolate Frosted Cupcakes recipe.   With low or no-fat ingredients and the omission of egg yolks, it has 67% less fat than the original recipe and 46% fewer calories.

Christmas might be over, but you don’t have to take down your tree until after the New Year, so it’s not too late to indulge in some of these tasty treats!  (Or, you could just file away this idea for next year!)  Check out The Stir’s recipe.  It involves sugar ice cream cones, lots of green frosting, and candies of your choice for the ornaments.  Your kids (and you, too!) will love decorating these!

One of ATC’s sponsors, Angel Heart Designs, has some really great new cupcake items.  Consider them as you are doing your holiday shopping this year!  Here are some of the latest offerings…

Like cupcake trinket boxes…

This holiday cupcake night light…

And these beautiful holiday cupcake ornaments…

Are you wanting to go for a cupcake-themed Christmas tree this year, or just wanting to spruce up your current ornament collection with a few cupcakes?  I was at Target on Black Friday and I stumbled upon these cute cupcake ornaments.  For $10 you get a pack of 4.  I think they look both cute and classy!

We’re still waiting for that first snowfall here in the Windy City.  Maybe whipping up a batch of these snowman cupcakes would usher in the big snows!

It’s that time of year when I start seeing cranberries in the produce section and I start dreaming up all kinds of recipes that will make my kitchen smell like the Holidays.  Here is a recipe to help you make use of those cranberries!

Many bakeries and stores are offering deals today to people who have voted.  Just Baked, a cupcake shop in Canton, Michigan, was offering these sweet cupcakes today.  Did anybody else have cupcakes to celebrate the election?

Harajuku was not a word in my vocabulary until several weeks ago when a friend of mine showed me these amazing cupcakes that she made for a client here in Chicago.

In case you are like me and you don’t know, Harajuku is the name of an area in Tokyo, which is known for the different types of fashion that can be seen here (like cyber-punk, ganguro, and cosplay). Gwen Stefani helped popularize the idea of “Harajuku Girls” by dedicating her two solo albums and her clothing line to Harajuku fashion.

Enough about that, though.  Check out these awesome cupcakes!  And, if you’re in the Chicago area, consider looking up Karlie’s Cakes and Cookies on Facebook.  She has a lot of talent!

Do you need to make cupcakes and you need to make them right now?  I have never seen this before, but here is the quickest way to make your own cupcakes: Betty Crocker’s Shake-n-Pour Cupcake mix.   All you have to do is add water, and according to this review, it’s not half-bad.  I say it’s definitely worth a try if you are in a bind!

The countdown is definitely here.  If you haven’t figured out what kind of cupcakes you are taking to the Halloween party, the clock is ticking.  If your preference is spooky rather than silly, then here are some creepy cupcakes for you.

I personally like the Witch’s Cauldron cupcakes (hover your mouse over the picture and a box will pop up giving you tips for making these).  Use chunks of orange gelatin for the inside of the cauldron, candy bones and skulls, and licorice pieces for the handle and the spoon.

Owl cupcakes are always a good option this time of year.  This recipe suggests using store-bought chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and using oreos and m&ms for the eyes and beak.  I don’t think it gets much easier than this, and your cupcakes are sure to be a hoot with all your friends.

Needing to go dairy-free for your Halloween cupcakes?  These sound very tasty.  I have always loved the chocolate-orange combination, and orange and black just so happen to be Halloween colors, so this works wonderfully.

I love these Daddy Longlegs cupcakes.  The only extra ingredients you’ll need are mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, black licorice, and chocolate sprinkles.

The Two RAs in front of their masterpiece

Last week I had the awesome chance to see a real Periodic Table of Cupcakes.  Some of my friends are dorm parents on the University of Chicago campus, and the RAs in their house went all out to make one for their weekly study break.  Not only were the cupcakes delicious (pretty important in my book), but there was lots of thought given to each cupcake.

This Periodic Table included vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting, red velvet cupcakes with nutella frosting, oreo-infused cupcakes with oreo frosting, peanut butter cupcakes, carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and funfetti cupcakes with vanilla icing.  All of these were made from scratch.

Each group of elements on the Periodic Table was represented by a different type of cupcake.  For instance, the transition elements (the largest group of elements) were represented by the red velvet and nutella cupcakes because nutella is such a popular item among the students .

Way to go, guys!  Inspiring, indeed!

Students Coming to Eat the Cupcakes

A close-up look at the cupcakes

This mini monster hardly looks like a cupcake, but it is!  This monster’s blue hair might disguise the cupcake, but it sure is a treat for all you icing lovers out there!  Just grab some round candies, red licorice and some circus peanuts and you have everything you need to put these little creatures together.

I am not a seamstress at all, so I am always on the look-out for Halloween costumes that require little to no sewing skills.  I would definitely give this one from the Food Network Magazine a try, but I’m not too sure how my little boy would feel about being dressed as a cupcake.

Halloween is coming up, and so is the fall camping season!  Both are a perfect excuse to make these “Just Bugging You” cupcake cones from the Betty Crocker website.  You can use the ideas pictured, or you can choose different types of bugs or outdoor creatures to make.

With fall on its way, I’m beginning to get excited about all the different flavors that go along with this season.  Pumpkins, raisins, apples, sweet potatoes, pecans, caramel, and many other lovely-smelling foods that I am forgetting.  I came across this interesting recipe for Carrot Oatmeal Raisin cupcakes.  Go ahead and bake some delightful-smelling cupcakes to kick-start the fall season!

Your kids will be pleasantly surprised when they take a bite of these cupcake nuggets.   These are certainly not what they look like.  They are made of cupcake pieces “breaded” with more cupcake and deep fried.  And the sauce? No, that is not barbecue sauce.  It is a raspberry sauce.  Yum!

Once again, the Huffington Post has some good ideas for the amateur cupcake artists out there.  Are you ever intimidated by the idea of frosting your cupcakes?  I don’t think I would have ever considered trying to swirl together two different colors of frosting, but now that I read this post, I’m not exactly sure what I was scared of.

Just pick two colors, get two piping bags and fill each one half-full with one of the colors, flatten the bags and stack them on top of one another, place them inside a large piping bag fitted with the decorating tip, and squeeze!

Are you looking for something sweet to bring along to your Labor Day picnic?  These hamburger cupcakes look savory, but they are really sweet.  The recipe calls for yellow cake mix for the hamburger buns, chocolate cake mix for the patty, shredded coconut dyed green for the lettuce, yellow fondant for the cheese, red and yellow frosting for the ketchup and mustard, and sesame seeds for the top of the bun.

I love how the top looks just like an ordinary cupcake with sprinkles, but from the side it definitely looks like a hamburger.

In celebration of New York Fashion Week, Magnolia Bakery in Bloomingdale’s on 59th Street will be selling these lovely treats.  If you live in New York, hurry over from September 10-16 to try one out.  The rest of us will just have to imagine how lovely they taste.

I know, I know…it’s not quite September yet.  But, it’s not too early to begin thinking about Halloween costumes.  Toys R Us has a new one this year, and it would be super cute for a baby girl’s first Trick or Treat.

If you’re like me, then you really love eating cupcakes, but the thought of decorating them scares you just a little bit.  It’s a lot of pressure to get the design just right, and if you’re making them for a party, then you don’t want a last-minute disaster in the kitchen.

I really like this tip that I found on the Huffington Post because it sounds pretty fool-proof to an amateur cupcake-decorator like me.  It’s also completely free if you have some lace or doilies laying around the house (or know someone else who does).  Next time you want a fun or elegant-looking cupcake, just lay a piece of doily or lace or something similar over your cupcake, dust with some powdered sugar or cocoa powder, and you’ve got a nicely and intricately designed treat.

Do be forewarned, though: you will need to dust them immediately before serving, as the dust gets absorbed into the cake over time.