I recently paid my first visit to East End Cupcakes, which is, I believe, the only cupcakery in Portland, Maine. (If there’s another one, let me know, because I couldn’t find it!)

East End Cupcakes is ideally located right in the Old Port. Somehow, eating a cupcake while walking down cobblestone streets just feels right. On the day I visited, they had an offering of classic hits, including chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet. I chose the “chocolate salted caramel,” a chocolate cupcake topped with lightly flavored caramel frosting and sprinkled with sea salt.

We cupcake reviewers have noticed a trend toward creamier frostings, and away from sweeter frostings. East End Cupcakes seems to be on that bandwagon. Their frosting was airy and smooth. (Granted, had I tried the red velvet, I may have found a more substantial frosting there).

The store itself is adorable and seemed like a cool place to hang out. There was more seating than I’ve seen in a lot of similar sized bakeries.

You slave all day to make the perfect chocolate cupcakes, and then when they come out of the oven, your white wrappers have turned to an unappetizing shade of brown. Or worse, you spend a bunch of money on Elmo cupcake wrappers for your kid’s birthday party, but when they come out of the oven, you can’t see Elmo. All you can see is the color of the cupcake. Because of these tragedies, I’ve been using foil cupcake wrappers for any cupcakes that will leave the house. And I’ve just discovered a pretty snazzy version of foil wrappers–Wilton Color Cups. There are many cool patterns to choose from, and they work! The wrappers come out of the oven just as pretty as they went in. I tested them out!

Halloweencostumes.com offers a huge selection of costumes, including several cupcake costumes.  There are cupcake costumes for babies, kids, and adults, ranging in price from $21.99 to 51.99.  ATC was sent the Women’s Cupcake Costume to review.  The costume costs $42.99, and there’s a matching toddlers cupcake costume if you were looking to match your child!

The costume arrived very quickly after it had been shipped.  My first recommendation to anyone who buys this costume is to follow the first instruction as soon as you get it.  That means taking the costume out of the bag and hanging it up!  The costume definitely needs to be hung up so it can take shape and to get the wrinkles out.  I loved the bright pink tulle top and the fun turquoise bottom.  I also liked the multicolored sparkling sprinkles although from up close they do look like Band-Aids.  I have to admit I thought the costume, which is a size 4-10 was short.  I am 5’5” and the bottom of the costume was more than halfway up my thigh.  I think if I were to wear this costume outside my house I would buy the suggested matching fishnet tights or the knee-high legwarmers. Read the rest of this entry »

This past weekend, I made my first visit to the great city of Indianapolis! And I learned that there’s more to Indianapolis than football and race cars. The folks in Indianapolis know their cupcakes, as is evinced by The Flying Cupcake Bakery, which has four locations in and around the city. The Flying Cupcake’s slogan is “We eat all we can and then sell the rest.” Isn’t that great?

The Flying Cupcake is charming and spunky, just like the city where it was born. Not only do they sell an impressive variety of cupcakes, but they also offer cute t-shirts and even cupcake-inspired baby attire! We choose to sample the Black Bottom, a dark chocolate and cheesecake cupcake that seemed to weigh at least five pounds; the Pucker Up, a lemon chiffon cake filled with lemon cream and topped with lemon butter cream icing; and the Bart Simpson, a chocolate cupcake topped with rich peanut butter cream cheese frosting and then rolled in Butterfinger chunks. These. cupcakes. were. perfect.

Their red velvet cupcake, which they call the “Red Velvet Elvis,” claiming it is “fit for a king,” is loaded with chocolate chunks and topped with cream cheese frosting and white chocolate shavings. My daughter tried the Boston Cream Pie, a vanilla cupcake filled with Bavarian cream and topped with chocolate ganache. I admit, I stole a bite of it, and was happy that I did.

At The Flying Cupcake, the flavors change daily, so I can’t wait to go back for another round. I recommend you do too. You’ll find their daily flavors on Facebook. You can also follow them on Twitter.

Several Tuesdays in a row now I have parked in a plaza near a store front with a sign that reads Sweet Memories Bakery.  I have been intrigued to see what the bakery offers but until today had not ventured inside.  I was extremely happy I made decision to check out the bakery when I realized it was a cupcake shop!  Sweet memories had a case full of cupcakes, all were unique flavors.  I decided to ask for some advice on which flavors are popular to help make my choice a little easier.  It was definitely a good idea to listen to the suggestions because I loved  the four cupcakes I purchased.

Oreo Cupcake

White Chocolate Raspberry

The four flavors I chose were Oreo, Southern Aristocrat, Casada, and White Chocolate Raspberry.  Each cupcake had a mousse filling which wasn’t overly sweet, making it a nice compliment to the sweet cake and frosting.  The Oreo cupcake was a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and Oreo mousse.  Southern Aristocrat was a sweet potato cake filled with caramel and white chocolate mousse, topped with dulce leche buttercream.  Casada was a white cake with a chocolate chip cannoli cream and topped with an amaretto buttercream.  The white chocolate raspberry was a white cake filled with raspberry and white chocolate mousse, topped with buttercream frosting. Read the rest of this entry »

Living Royal is a unique and unusual gift idea website.  If you are looking for a funny gift or a gag gift this is the website for you!  The website has tons of fun items like this fingertip microwave grip which I could use every time I reach into the microwave.  The best part is the website offers several cupcake items including the cupcake memo pad that ATC was sent to review.  The memo pad measures 3.5 inches tall and includes 150 little sheets of paper that half a cupcakes.  The memo pad is currently on sale for $3.50.

I really liked the memo pad.  I thought it was a great size, it’s big but not too big and the sheets of paper are just the right size for a quick note.  At the current sale price of $3.50 the memo pad is a great buy.  The one flaw I noticed was that in my little test of the paper I notice that my marker pen bled through the paper.  It’s not a big deal since ballpoint pen did not run through.  I would also caution people to be careful when ripping off the pages; it’s easy to end up with a ripped cupcake. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I visited my friend in Colorado and was lucky enough to see both Boulder and Denver while on my trip.  In Boulder we stopped into Tee and Cupcakes to try three of their cupcakes.  I loved the outside of the cupcake shop, which is shown above, and since we were there pretty early in the day there was a wide selection of cupcakes to choose from.  We decided on the following flavors: girl scout cookie samoas, chocolate with salted caramel frosting, and white on white or vanilla with vanilla frosting.

My friend and I agreed that while we liked the creative flavors and the appearance of the cupcakes we didn’t love the consistency of the frosting or the cake.  The frosting we almost like whipped cream or cool-whip with a very airy texture.  We also weren’t crazy about the cake consistency and flavor so overall we thought they were good cupcakes but not great. Read the rest of this entry »

From Scratch: A Business Story is the story of Crave Cookies and Cupcakes.  Two sisters started Crave Cookies and Cupcakes in 2004 after years of making cookies for family and friends.  The From Scratch: A Business story details the sister’s journey from using an old pizza oven and two kitchen aid mixers in their original Calgary, Canada location through their expansion to seven storefront locations.

ATC was sent a copy of the 60-page story to review.  I thought the tale of the two sisters business adventure was well written.  As I read about their shop and cupcakes I could picture what the inside of the store looked like and see them inside their kitchen baking cupcakes.  I love that Crave has stuck with their philosophy of baking from scratch.  The story is not just for the cupcake lover or the business entrepreneur; it’s able to appeal to multiple audiences, as it is also a story about family and following a dream when others doubt you. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello, Cupcake! is a cupcake cookbook by the creative food stylist Karen Tack and coauthor Alan Richardson.  The original book in the series came out in 2008, followed by What’s New, Cupcake? and the most recent book, Cupcakes, Cookies, & Pie, Oh My! was released just last month.  Over the years we have shared with you many recipes from the books and from the Hello, Cupcake What’s Newsletter.  We here at ATC were sent the latest book to review.

Cupcakes, Cookies, and Pie, Oh My! Goes beyond cupcakes to include cakes, cookies, pies, rice crispy cereal bars and more!  When I first flipped through the book I was impressed by all the new ideas.  Since I have Hello, Cupcake! and What’s New, Cupcake? I initially wondered how many more unique cupcake ideas could there be?  The answer was lot! I actually had a hard time deciding which recipe to test.  For every occasion you’ll find a new quirky and cute idea. Read the rest of this entry »

I just paid my first (apparently overdue) visit to the Sugar Shack of Lansing, Michigan. Think cupcakes are a fad? This bakery has been a family business for forty years!

Sugar Shack offers a wide and impressive variety of creative cupcakes with a rotating menu. And should someone grow tired of the menu, which would be completely impossible, the menu is completely wiped out and recreated every June 1st. So, though I’ve only paid one visit to the Sugar Shack (so far), I’m confident that no two visits could be the same.

Offerings included the “White Trash Cupcake,” a cupcake packed full of pecans, pretzels, and marshmallows, and iced with fudge frosting, then topped with more pecans, pretzels, and marshmallows, then topped with chocolate and caramel sauce. The cupcake of the day was the Menage a Trois, a cupcake with layers of strawberry and chocolate cake, topped with vanilla frosting and fresh coconut. My co-cupcaker enjoyed the Confetti Cupcake–a bubblegum flavored confetti cake. I was sorry to miss the Root Beer Float Cupcake and the Chocolate Turtle, but am grateful for a reason to go back to Lansing.

Of course, the traditional flavors were there, and I enjoyed a Mint Cookies and Cream cupcake straight from heaven: rich dark chocolate cake topped with perfect mint frosting.

While I was there, I heard another customer ask the baker what his favorite cupcake was, to which he responded, “That’s like me asking you which of your kids is your favorite.”

Seriously, I usually leave a new cupcakery happy and ready to discover the next one. But leaving this cupcakery, I just couldn’t wait until my next visit! These are cupcakes at their best!

I just made my first visit to Northern Michigan’s first and only cupcakery: Simply Cupcakes of Traverse City. What a lovely little spot in downtown Traverse!

An impressively wide selection of offerings included Banana Cream, Peanut Butter Cup, Hint of Mint, and Lemon Love, and while we sampled many, the winner was clearly the (pictured) Bumpy Cupcake: A rich dark chocolate cake stuffed with buttercream (which tasted more like mousse), and topped with homemade chocolate ganache and more buttercream, then dipped in chocolate ganache and finished with a few sprinkles. Holy wow! That cupcake was a meal.

I was impressed with how substantial the cupcakes were. They weren’t dense, but there was certainly something to them! And the frostings were non-traditional and left me wondering about their secret recipe.

The cupcakery itself is also a tantalizing hangout, with a “cupcake room” one can book for special events. Cupcake art hung on the wall, including the beauty below, which could be yours for $3000!

If you’re in the area, Simply Cupcakes is a must-stop for the cupcake-lover!

Happy New Year!

To kick 2012 off right, I just purchased myself my first set of silicone baking cups at a nearby health food store. (You can get Casabella silicone muffin cups on Amazon too.)

I am quite impressed! A set of 6 reusable cups will run you about $8.99, but the way we go through cupcake wrappers around here, they’ll likely pay for themselves soon. I’ve already broken them in, and they worked beautifully. My cupcakes took a little bit longer to cook, so be prepared to be flexible, but the cupcakes were cooked evenly, and the silicone cups peeled away from them beautifully.

In the end, these baking cups are a great idea, and I look forward to trying to wear them out. They are also super easy to clean, especially if you have a dishwasher! And they come in jumbo size too!

My daughter got me this mini cupcake maker for Christmas. It was my first contraption of the sort. A tiny thing, it “bakes” seven mini cupcakes at a time.

It’s awesome in that it only takes a few minutes to warm up. At first, I was a little annoyed that, cooking 7 minis at a time, it would take me all night to get through a batch of batter, but then I read the manual–turns out, the mini cupcake maker came with a whole bunch of neat little recipes that make a perfect size batch of batter for 7 mini cupcakes. So, this cupcake maker would be ideal for a person or small family who just wanted to make a quick treat. As for me, I plugged my way through the whole first batch, and it took a while. Next time, I will be sure to start small!

In the end, it was a great gift to get from my junior baker, and I was grateful for an easy cleanup. And I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun with it in the future. (Oh, and you might want to toss the first batch–they tasted like freshly cooked metal.)

So, I was recently shopping for yummy vegetables at Healthy Living in Burlington, Vermont, and of course, I was magnetically attracted to the cupcakes. The “Hummingbird Cupcake,” a heavenly combination of cream cheese frosting, chocolate, banana, and pecans, was AMAZING! You might not think of Healthy Living as a cupcake destination, but it is! While you are exploring Healthy Living, check out their recipe for Gluten-Free Chocolate Zuccini Cupcakes. Maybe a little bit healthy and a lot delicious? I’ll let you know!

Cutey is a UK based company that makes charm bracelets and costume jewelry.  All Cutely products are affordable and come in a variety of styles to suit different taste preferences.  The charm bracelets come with the unique charms already attached.  Cutey ships worldwide and delivery within the UK is free.

ATC was sent the Pontus charm bracelet to review.  The silver bracelet included seven charms, three colored and four image charms and comes in two length options, 18m or 20m.  The colors were rose, black and a marbled pink and green. I really liked the little turtle charm and the heart with a boy and girl kissing inside.  There was also a heart shaped lock and a flower bead.  I have to admit I would have liked for the bracelet to include a cupcake charm.  As cute as turtles are I like cupcakes more and know cupcake fans would be interested in a cupcake charm similar to the Pandora cupcake charm we blogged about several years ago.  Especially since this style bracelet reminded me of the Pandora bracelets based off the style charms and the ability to add and remove the beads. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you tried Gigi’s Cupcakes?  Gigi’s cupcakes are a cupcake franchise and over the Halloween weekend I stopped by the Raleigh, North Carolina location.  Since it was Halloween weekend they had several cupcakes with Halloween decoration and were very crowded.  Sadly the pumpkin cupcake was sold out and most of the cupcakes were selling quickly.  I decided on the red velvet cupcake and the four year old I was with chose the scary boo Halloween decorated cupcake.  I have to admit that I almost didn’t get a cupcake and had a hard time finding a cupcake to choose. The cupcakes did not look appealing and after trying them I felt like they were lacking in flavor.

The cupcakes were topped with a huge pile of frosting.  I have realized from these cupcakes that there is an appropriate cupcake to frosting ratio that you should aim for.  In my opinion, if your cupcakes have more frosting than there is cake, that is too much frosting.  These cupcakes really had a mountain of frosting on top and we were shocked to find more frosting inside!  Also most cupcake shops have a design that they seem to trademark like the magnolia swirl, or the dollop that a lot of shops will use.  At Gigi’s there was no consistency with the frosting design, which affects the visual quality of the cupcakes.

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KamNCo is a fun little Etsy shop that offers faux cupcakes.  These realistic cupcakes range in price from $3.00 to $8.00 for a single cupcake to $24.00 for a party pack of 4.  Each cupcake is approximately 4 inches tall and the cupcakes come in a variety of colors and decorations.

ATC was sent the pastel party cupcake in aqua for review.  As soon as I opened the package I was immediately amazed at how realistic these cupcakes are.  Inside the package t looked like I had a mini cupcake with vanilla butter cream frosting and topped with a chocolate drizzle and multi colored sprinkles.  As the product description reads the faux cupcake is very light weight, which means if used as a decoration on a Christmas tree, they will not weigh down the branches. Read the rest of this entry »

Jacob Bromwell manufactures authentic campfire, kitchen, and fireplace products.  These products include cooking and baking equipment such as sifters, cheese graters, pie plates, cooling racks, and more.  All Jacob Bromwell Products have a 100% lifetime guarantee to show how strongly they support their products.

Pop Tarts were always a last minute, rushed breakfast option when I was growing up.  Even though they lack nutritional value they were always delicious!  Continuing with the breakfast cupcake posts, these Pop Tart Cupcakes by Cookies and Cups look amazing!  According to the directions you simply hollow out a vanilla cupcake, fill with strawberry preserves and top with buttercream frosting.  Garnish the frosted cupcakes with a swirl of strawberry preserves and sprinkles and you have your strawberry pop tart cupcakes.  I wonder what other pop tart flavors could be transformed into cupcakes.

Lipstik Factory creates hand made lip glosses in small batches. Larry G is the owner and creator of Lipstik Factory which has several flavor lines including a line of cupcake lip glosses.  Larry hand-blends, pours, shrink-bands, and labels each of his one-of-a kind creations.  ATC was sent the cupcake lip glosses to review which arrived in two different packaging styles.  In the five pack tin for $49.00, the flavors were orange cream, strawberry shortcake, pralines and cream, red velvet, and cupcake.  We were also sent an individual tube of angel cake lip gloss which costs $15.00.

The  Angel cake really did smell like angel food cake and because of Larry’s layering technique it actually looked like a slice of cake, with sprinkles on top, inside a tube.  When applying the lip gloss a little bit goes a long way and once it is on your lips you can smell the cake flavor more.  I especially liked that the lip gloss was glossy but not sticky, something that normally deters me from using lip gloss.  The angel cake flavor was a good neutral color on my lips.  The cupcake scented lip gloss had a fruity smell, and because of this it seemed perfect for kids or young teens. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s nothing I love more then trying a great, new-to-me cupcake shop.  The cupcake shop that I tried this past weekend is a little different since it is not an actual shop.  Instead it is a vintage 1978, 31 foot Airstream Sovereign cupcake mobile, named Sugar.  Daisy Cakes sets up shop, or rather Sugar, on Saturdays from 9am-12pm at the intersections of Foster and Geer Streets in downtown Durham, North Carolina.  Their Saturday location is about two blocks north of Durham’s farmer’s market location.

I have been wanting to try Daisy Cakes for some time now and was very pleased when I finally did.  Everything about the visit was great, especially the super friendly staff .  After having been to several cupcake shops where I have been disappointed by the unpleasant workers Daisy Cakes was an enjoyable visit. This husband and wife duo definitely know what their way around the kitchen!  Both are trained in the culinary arts as skilled chefs and more importantly for cupcake lovers, they are talented pastry chefs!   Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s Eat-Everything Food is a division of Buckets Full of Everything Food.  Buckets Full of Everything Food is the creative company of Ilyse Rothman, a food stylist, chef and much more.  With years of culinary experience behind her she has spent decades perfecting the her skills in the kitchen.  Now she brings us cupcake sized cheesecake minis.

Included in the review package was two mini cheesecakes and a sample of cinnamon caramel crack corn, taste bud crack corn that is.  The savory popcorn mixed with the sweet caramel and spice from the cinnamon was addictive and could have easily been finished in one sitting.  After sampling the popcorn I had a feeling I would not be disappointed with the cheesecakes.  As a huge cheesecake fan, I even had cheesecake instead of birthday cake one year, I can honestly say this is good cheesecake.  The mini cheesecakes had wonderful flavor, in addition to good mouthfeel and texture.  They were smooth and creamy but not too soft.  Similarly the graham cracker base nicely complimented the cheesecake but was not overpowering.  I also liked that it held it’s shape and was not too crumbly. Read the rest of this entry »

Hotel Chocolat is one of the largest chocolate companies in the United Kingdom.  In addition to offering their chocolate in the UK, they serve the US!  Hotel Chocolat offers a wide variety of Christmas gifts which are great for the upcoming holiday season.

ATC was sent a large selection of chocolates to review but sadly when the giant box of chocolate, which would excite anyone with a sweet tooth, arrived it was melted due to issues with shipping.  Although some chocolate  had been melted beyond edibility, a portion of the chocolates remained intact enough to sample. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

DreamInkApparel is a small Etsy shop which features quality T-shirts for the whole family.  Designer and illustrator Aisling Coyle has created an assortment of designs appropriate for women, infants, and children.

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