Layer Cake Shop has two fun cupcake kits for halloween.  The zombie cupcake kit includes 24 black and green cupcake liners, white bone sprinkles, royal icing eyes, and assorted zombie cupcake toppers.  Similarly the Halloween cupcake kit has cupcake liners, assorted cupcake toppers, orange sprinkles, royal icing pumpkins, and pumpkin bakery labels.

Be sure to look around the site, they have lots of other cupcake decorating products for Halloween and other occasions!

I know its a little earlyto even think about Christmas decorations, we havent even gotten through Thanksgiving yet let alone Halloween, but to a true Christmas-er it is never too early. And if you happen to be a Cupcake-er along with a Christmas-er then I have just the thing for you.

PLASTICLAND has 2 new items that are perfect for your Christmas tree topped with cupcakes–

Pastel Glass Cupcake Ornaments

Sweet Sparkling Cupcakes Garland

Cupcake Cuties are cupcake decorating kits for weddings, birthdays, holidays and other celebrations. And using them is really as easy as 1, 2, 3!  Each kit contains a 24 self adhesive themed sleeves and decorative garnish, so all you need is a frosted cupcake.  The kits also include easy to follow instructions and a picture of what the final product is supposed to look like.

We here at ATC were sent two cupcake cuties, the scary scull and the football.  For the scary skulls I made vanilla cupcakes and used vanilla frosting.  Once they were frosted I dipped them in the provided white sprinkles.  Then wrapped the sleeve around the cupcake and topped with an included spider.  For the footballs I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  As instructed I used a toothpick to draw a football then using the included white writing gel to draw the lines.  The kit also had green sprinkles to use as grass and a sleeve to finish the cupcake. Read the rest of this entry »

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!

I found these amazing chocolate trees with fall colored leaves on them and the are so easy to make.  Perfect for you to top your lovely cupcakes with. They are super easy to make and you could ‘branch’ off in so many directions with them. The ideas are a flowing!

Chocolate Tree Tutorials on the blog Crazy Delicious Food

Last Halloween we shared with you two options of Martha Stewart cupcake liners available at Michael’s Craft Stores.  This year, the Martha Stewart website offers 4 different designs for standard size liners and two additional options for mini cupcakes!  The prices vary depending on the design with some images, for example the vampire icon or blood spatter wrappers, costing as little as $2.47 for a package of 48 wrappers. Or the most expensive designs include the Happy Halloween mini wrappers which cost $9.40 for 96 wrappers in two designs.

Skull & Crossbones, Spider, Bat & More Stencil Kit

Martha Stewart also offers two options for stencil kits to decorate your cupcakes.  One version is the Vampire Cupcake Stencils which is only $3.93.  Or for $27.99 there is the Skull & Crossbones, Spider, Bat & More Stencil Set. Happy Halloween cupcake decorating!

My sister has always loved candy corns; so much so that my mom even made her a candy corn costume one year for Halloween.  When I saw these cupcakes I immediately thought of my sister and I think I’ll have to make them for her this year! The Curvy Carrot created these candy corn frosted cupcakes which are great because they are so simple yet festive!

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

My great friend Anne just shared this awesome cake she ordered from her Target bakery for her son’s seventh birthday.  The party had a mad science theme and the beaker pull-apart cupcake cake was a perfect fit.  This would be a great cake to make for a Halloween party too.   I wish my local Target had a bakery!

Happy Birthday Avery!

First we shared with you the sweet tea cupcake molds by Fred & Friends.  Then we showed you the gory numskulls cupcake molds.  Now we bring you the fun, Yumbots.  Included in each box are four robot cupcake molds in four assorted colors.  Yumbots are currently out of stock on amazon but other sites, like perpetual kid have them for $17.99!

Tweet Tweet Cupcake Set by Uncommon Goods

Cupcakes of a feather flock together!  Apparently, so does good cupcake merchandise, since this is my second great cupcake accessory find from Uncommon Goods.  The Tweet Tweet Cupcake Set is $12 and has enough wrappers and toppers for 24 cupcakes, which seems like a decent deal to me.  The folks at the Uncommon Goods labs were also kind enough to throw in the recipe for Orange Pineapple Sunshine Cupcakes in their blog post as well:

Orange-Pineapple Sunshine Cupcakes or Cake (Serves 21 or 16)
Cupcakes/Cake:

1 box yellow cake mix
1/4 cup applesauce
4 eggs
1 can mandarin oranges in light syrup (11 oz.)

Frosting:

1 8 oz. container Cool Whip (Lite or Regular)
1 pkg (3-4 oz.) INSTANT vanilla pudding mix
1 can (15 1/2 oz.) crushed pineapple in juice

1) Preheat oven to 350 deg. In a large bowl, stir together all the cake ingredients until moist. Beat by hand for 2 minutes. Chop up the oranges as you mix.

2) Line a muffin pan with cupcake papers or coat a 13×9 cake pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the papers/pan. Bake cupcakes for
25 minutes or bake the cake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.

3) Frosting: In a large bowl, mix together all the frosting ingredients until well blended. Spread over the cupcakes/cake. Store in fridge. Enjoy!

Toolkit for Tasty Filled Cupcakes :)

I was paging through the Uncommon Goods catalog the other day when I came across this cupcake corer and decorating set.  You can find decorating sets and kits all over the place, but I thought that the corer that’s included in this kit set it apart.  Getting just the right-sized filling hole in a cupcake can be fussy, possibly crumbling the cupcake in the process.

In case you’re skeptical about this corer’s usefulness or the quality of the kit in general, Uncommon Goods did a gift lab on this product to see how well it worked. While

Finished Filled Cupcakes!

a manufacturer’s take on their own product isn’t exactly objective, the post is pretty informative about the kit’s performance.

You’ll want to click the link to get the long version, the short version is that the cupcakes weren’t picture perfect, but they turned out better than they would have without the kit.  All in all, it sounds like it’s worth the $20 price tag if you’re into making filled cupcakes on a regular basis.

How many of you out there are fans of knitting? A lot of people that I know love knitting, and who doesn’t love cupcakes. Now only if i knew how to knit.

Check out these Knit Night Cupcakes from VeganYumYum.com —

VeganYumYum was even on The Martha Stewart Show showing Martha how knitting and cupcakes were done! (clip at above link)

Pac-Man Cupcakes by hello naomi

hello naomi takes the nerdcake for the second week in a row with her Pac-Man Cupcakes. This 80 cupcake set is an expansion on an earlier batch of Pac-Man cupcakes; the set shown above is actually a wedding cake for a friend of Naomi’s.

I know it is a little early for all of us to start thinking about Christmas, but I saw this cute set of cupcake ornaments that I just had to share with all you fellow cupcake lovers.

Sweet Cupcake Glass Ornaments from PLASTICLAND.

How many cupcake ornaments do you have on your tree at Christmas time?

What to choose as the cupcake design when you are getting engaged?

One thing is for sure, you will need a lot of them, so it is probably best to go for a simple design, but if you still want something amazing and stunning then these cupcakes by Isabella’s Sweet Tooth are sure to be perfect.

Depending on the amount of time you have you can create just 3-5 of the amazing little fondant birds (in white cuts down on time mixing a color), or just go with that funky heart!

When creating a tall stand up cupcake topper like the heart, use a toothpick in the fondant.  This also makes it easy for those eating it to remove it!

Cover your other cupcakes with the same color icing to create a uniform look, even thought the actual decoration on top may be different and less work.  Isabella’s Sweet Tooth cupcakes are vanilla with strawberry buttercream.

To me it feels like every year when the flyers come out for back to school shopping and they talk about the fall’s style trends, plaid is always listed as being in style.  So why not make your cupcakes fit the season’s style trend and bake these pink plaid cupcakes by Reynold’s.  The Reynold’s website helps you find the pink plaid party liners at a store near you and includes detailed instructions on how to decorate your cupcakes with a plaid topping.

Little Betsy Baker is a really fun site for cupcake lovers.  The website features a great shop for purchasing supplies needed to bake, decorate, and serve; Party supplies are even available.  Little Betsy Baker ocassionaly has competitions, more information about which can be found on their facebook page.

Hello Naomi contributed to the recipes and tips page of the website by making Little Betsy Baker themed cupcakes.  Additionally, Naomi  offered a recipe for vanilla cupcakes and a tutorial on how to cover cupcakes with fondant hearts! If you’re new to using fondant, this is a great and easy first project which look great as a finished product as seen below!

Nomskulls - Silicon Skull Cupcake Molds by Fred & Friends

If I did “Nerdcake Product of the Week”, Nomskulls would be top of the list in the category.  These cutie-skull molds come four in a box for $12 from Fred & Friends (though you’ll have to go to Amazon or Pop Deluxe to actually buy them).  F&F also includes a recipe for the squiggly brain frosting shown on the above nomskullcake:

FRED’S BRAINY FROSTING

• 1 recipe for vanilla frosting (or a store-bought tub)
• confectioners’ sugar (for stiffer frosting )
• red or black food coloring (or both)
• pastry bag and a large round tip (#12 works well)

Add confectioners’ sugar to the frosting until it‘s stiff enough to hold its form, yet still soft enough to pipe. To the frosting add food coloring(s) to reach desired color. If your cupcakes aren’t dome shaped, pile on a small mound of frosting first. Then pipe two lines down the center of the cupcake. Finally, pipe a squiggly pile of frosting onto each “hemisphere”. Mmmm…brains.

Hop on over to From Married to Merry to learn about Meg’s “semi-homemade” Hostess Cupcakes.  She’s too humble to say it, but I bet they taste better than the “real thing.”

She uses a cake mix for the cupcake, but her filling is homemade: 

• One 8 oz package cream cheese
• 1 jar of marshmellow fluff
• 1 tsp of vanilla

Mix all ingredients in a food processor.  Then chill for 30 minutes.  She recommends setting aside a little bit of the chilled filling to use as topping.  To fill the cupcakes, she used a Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s that time of year again!  Time to buy school supplies, clean out the backpack and shop for new school clothes.  My son goes back to school in just two short weeks and of course my mind has drifted to thoughts of making him some special cupcakes to celebrate.   Although I haven’t decided what kind I am making yet, here are some of my favorites.   And if you pull out your mixer and pans to celebrate back to school as well, make sure you send us some photos!

School Bus Cupcakes

Apple Spice Mini Cupcakes

 Back to School Cupcakes

A is for Apple Cupcakes

Cherish Cupcakes, of Belfast, UK, recently updated their Flickr photostream.  You should check it out, because there’s a lot more to see.  I’m just including a few of my favorites here.  They call the top one the “Endangered Cupcake” which made me laugh out loud.  And I guess it means we shouldn’t eat it.  (Are those Cheerios for ears?  How cute is that?)  

My mom’s birthday is a little less then two weeks away so I was trying to come up with a cupcake idea for her.  I came across these Hydrangea Cupcakes on Glorious Treats and think I have found what I’ll be making my mom! Below are Glory’s picture directions and step by step directions to follow to create these floral cupcakes.

Glory made a batch of her favorite chocolate cupcakes (recipe HERE), and her vanilla cream cheese frosting (recipe HERE).  Then  colored half of the frosting blue, and half purple (mixing a few shades of blues and purples to get a good color match to the real hydrangeas).  When making the frosting, use very little cream (less than 1 tablespoon), because the coloring will add some liquid, and you need the frosting to be pretty stiff to hold a nice shape.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rose cupcakes (1), originally uploaded by 2sweetiepies.

I always complain that my husband doesn’t get me flowers. But I’ve changed my mind. Sort of. From now on, these are the roses I want. They are too gorgeous to eat!

These cupcakes are SOO cool!

These lovely lil’ gems are from Crumbs and Doilies.

I love the look of their cupcakes, they look like what my nana use to make but funky with fun colors and even more fun sprinkles.

Follow their Blog for your daily dose of Cupcakes!