Now here’s an idea: a cupcake dive! Do you live near the western shore of Michigan? Do you plan on getting married soon? Would you like to dive into a table full of delicious cupcakes? If you just said yes three times, you’re in luck.

Little River Casino of Manistee, Michigan is holding a “cupcake dive” this Sunday, October 21st at their bridal show.

Ten contestants will win a chance to dive into a table of cupcakes, looking for a diamond engagement ring.

Megan’s Cupcakes of Cadillac will supply 250 cupcakes for the event.

Good luck to all the contestants. May you not be distracted by a red velvet and continue on the diamond hunt!

“Being crazy isn’t enough.”

Happy (belated) Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

As many of you may and should know, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax came out in the movie theaters this past Friday. This was also Dr. Seuss’ birthday as well!

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” – The Lorax

In honor of him and  premiere of The Lorax, Liz from Hoosier Homemade made these amazing Lorax inspired cupcakes!

Make sure to check out Hoosier Homemade every Tuesday for Cupcake Tuesday. 

Who out there has seen The Lorax?!

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.”

All of the quotes featured in this blog post are by Dr. Seuss.

So many people ask me what my favorite bakery is and I always have to answer Crumbs! I love their huge, overly sweet treats. They do tend to be a bit pricey but to me, they so worth it.   And even if you don’t live close to a Crumbs, they will deliver. They have a variety of shipping options but the cheapest is  UPS ground shipping for about $20 (plus the cost of the cupcakes).  They come delivered in an insulated container with dry ice.  Check out these football cupcakes- great for the party that has a mix of Giants and Patriots fans. 

Have an extra $20,000? This titillating piece will be part of the Made in Polaroid benefit auction tonight at Phillips de Pury and Company in NYC. The piece is done by Will Cotton, the artist who, famous for his candy-infused landscapes, created the art used on the cover of Katy Perry’s album Teenage Dream. This new piece is called Silver Cupcake Paper Dress. You can also see his cupcake tiaras here.

You are invited to the second annual Cupcake Camp Santa Barbara tomorrow from 1 to 4 at the Fess Parker Double Tree Resort, 633 E. Cabrillo Blvd. in Santa Barbara.

Ten dollars will buy you four tickets that you can trade for cupcake samples from several area bakeries. Proceeds from the camp will benefit Cupcakes for Cancer. Parking is free.

The camp will also feature an amateur competition, a cake auction, a fashion show, and a cupcake eating contest.

For more information, call 805-448-7336.

In case you’re in the neighborhood, the first ever “Cupcake Throwdown and Artist Cakewalk” is happening TODAY from 3 to 6 p.m. at Antenna Gallery, 3161 Burgundy St., in New Orleans!

Artists and bakers will compete to produce the most creative confections in a range of categories, followed by a benefit cakewalk. Art and cupcakes. What could be better? Free cupcakes for kids in costumes! All proceeds benefit the nonprofit programs of Antenna/Press Street. Admission to the event is free.

This past week a huge crowd of cancer survivors and supporters came together for Barrington’s Relay for Life in Barrington, Illinois to honor those who have lost their lives battling cancer and to raise funds for cancer research.  Cupcakes took center stage at this event.  A tower of 16, 478 cupcakes stood at the center of the Barrington High School Community Stadium, setting a world record for the most cupcakes on a display tower.

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Do you live in New York? Well, if you live anywhere near Gardiner, you are in for a treat. Literally.  The third annual Gardiner Cupcake Festival will take place on Sunday, May 15, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It’s a cupcake-themed block party! More than a dozen professional cupcake vendors will be there, including: Moxie Cupcakes, Deisings Bakery, Wright’s Farm, and Bettie’s Cakes.

There will also be an amateur cupcake contest! Four awards will be given: prettiest, most delicious, most creative, and best in show. To enter, all you need to do is drop off your cupcakes between 10:45 and 12:15. Bring 4 or more cupcakes to the Cupcake Contest Tent, which is next to the HiHo Home Market at 132 Main Street. There is also a youth division for bakers 14 and under. For more info about the cupcake contest, email robinhayes18 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Activities for all ages include: donkey rides, bounce houses, wine tasting, craft tents, and face painting.

 The festival will happen rain or shine. For more information, call 845-256-1122 or email mainstgang (at) aol (dot) com.

What else this Easter would you rather be than a bunny??  And with these colorful easter themed easter cupcakes from Keira’s Cakes how can you argue?!  I love the purple carrot cupcakes, and personally I don’t think there would be a sweeter or nicer way to eat a whole raw carrot, than these lovely icing ones on top of a fantastic moist and delightful cupcake!

It is so hard keeping up with which movie is being released where and when!  In Australia last weekend marked the opening of the Harry Potter movie “The Deathly Harrows (Part 1)”.  So in order to celebrate its release I went looking for some cool and funky Harry Potter cupcakes!

Not surprisingly I found some!  I totally adore these cupcakes from Sara Schneider on Flickr!  How cool and fun are they?

Sugar Dolls bakery recently celebrated a Day of the Cupcake at Sacred Heart Tattoo of Atlanta, Georgia.  Visitors ate cupcakes, played cupcake games, competed in a cupcake eating contest, and got cupcake tattoos.  I believe the old adage is true, that pictures tell a thousand words, so I will leave them to it …

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!

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!

Sweets for Sweetest Day by Shari's Berries

The third Saturday in October is Sweetest Day; this year that falls on October 16th. It’s a wee holiday that’s mostly celebrated up in the Great Lakes region with the giving of small gifts to loved ones. Sweetest Day originated in Cleveland, Ohio in 1922 as a PR move by a committee of Cleveland confectioners: on the first Sweetest Day, 20,000 boxes of candy were distributed to the city’s poor and unfortunate by movie stars. Admittedly, giving boxes of candy to the needy is great press, but what I take away from this is that Sweetest Day is about giving to those who need it most.

I want to advocate for a revival of Sweetest Day as a holiday where we again give to the most vulnerable among us.  Since we can all agree that cupcakes are way better/sweeter than candy, it’s pretty easy to see how we can fit our favorite baked good into this equation.  Also, from what I’ve read in All Things Cupcake, cupcake aficionados are all about uniting our favorite food with philanthropy.  This is something we do naturally – it’s no secret cupcake-lovers are sweethearts.

Celebrations of Sweetest Day can be as literal as giving cupcakes to orphans, but they could also take the form of bake sales to feed the hungry or to raise awareness about epilepsy. We’ve already seen the outpouring of cupcakes and funds in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti and Jody Hall‘s use of Cupcake Royale as a platform for social justice.   Let’s use Sweetest Day as a way to celebrate the best parts of ourselves and to use cupcakes to their greatest potential – helping our fellow human beings.

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If you decide to plan something for Sweetest Day, let us know! We at All Things Cupcake would love to hear about our readers plans to bring back what is possibly the only cupcake-related social justice holiday in existence.

Cayenne Chocolate Cupcake by Carpe Cupcakes!

National Cupcake Day was way back in March, so it’s about time for another cupcake holiday, right?  I’m pretty sure that National Chocolate Cupcake Day wasn’t created by an act of Congress, but if Cupcakes Take the Cake and National Food Holidays say it’s a holiday, that’s good enough for me.

In case chocolate isn’t your thing, National Angel Food Cake Day is October 10th, National Dessert Day is October 14th, National Candy Corn Day is October 30th, the third Saturday in October is Sweetest Day, and of course there’s Halloween. October has plenty of good reasons to bake and enjoy delicious cupcakes!

As you probably know, this week is Cupcake for a Cancer Cure week, with loads of bakeries around the nation donating funds raised from the selling of their cupcakes towards supporting kids affected by cancer.

At the same time Iron Cupcake Milwaukee decided to think pink with its challenge to support the breast cancer cause!

There were some amazing cupcake ideas, including a lemonade cupcake stand, which won best display.  The photo here, which was the Queen’s Choice winner created by Kate and Christina is a giant pink ribbon is decorated with lots of tiny mini cupcakes.  The cupcakes themselves were lemon cake with a raspberry filling, pink lemonade icing topped with a pink bra made from lemon shortbread.

Well done to all the winners and you can check out the full details and photos here.

Move over sandwiches and scones, we want our high tea with cupcakes thank you!

And it seems that the Ritz-Carlton Dallas is listening to our cupcake pleas with an interesting adaption of the idea. The high tea will occur on the last Sunday of October and November and then the first three Sundays in December and will see the traditional ‘tea’ items replaced with funky mini cupcakes, with flavors like Praline Pecan, Peach Cobbler, Dr Pepper and Don’t-Mess-With-Chocolate available.

From what I’ve experienced they are pretty darn good, but how would I know, I’m on the other side of the world to Dallas?  Well I have a happen to have a copy of one of their recipes and after a little difficulty locating some of the ingredients, translating the terms into Australian :) I created a batch and they are very tasty!

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2009-2010 Holiday Location of The Cupcake Store at Downtown Disney

Downtown Disney is about to have a new permanent attraction: cupcakes!  The Cupcake Store, based out of Mission Viejo, CA, had such a successful temporary holiday booth at Downtown Disney that they’ve decided to open up shop there permanently. Word is that they’ll ship in cupcakes daily from the bakery in Mission Viejo to the happy hordes looking to take a break from Splash Mountain and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

The Cupcake Store is run by cupcake veteran Janel Mitchell. This is her first solo store after parting ways with business partner John Frank, with whom she founded Frostings Cupcakes.  The new Downtown Disney location is set to open up in September. With any luck, they’ll be up and running by the time I go down to SoCal for a visit in a few weeks. If that’s the case, I’ll tell you all about it!

If you happen to be in Washington tomorrow then you are in for a Sweet Treat!  D.C.’s Hello Cupcake is celebrating their 2nd birthday, and will be giving away free cupcakes at 10am until they all run out!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELLO CUPCAKE!

On Sunday, October 17th, Tallahassee will host its very first Cupcake Camp Tallahassee.  Cupcake lovers are invited to bring cupcakes, or to just show up and eat some! 

This celebration of all things cupcake is free to anyone and everyone.  They will hold a silent auction to benefit Jessica June Children’s Cancer Foundation.  Many, many cool cupcake items have already been donated!

You can learn more about this event at their blog or on their Facebook page!

Marisela totally rocked it with this awesome cupcake design that she created for her niece’s ‘Off to College’ Party.  Marisela got the idea watching DC Cupcakes where she saw them make two cupcake pictures using a company’s logo and planning it out on a grid in order to map out the picture.

Without time to do a trial run or practice at all, Marisela pulled this off brilliantly creating the monogram for the college.  She used no less than sixty mini cupcakes, all red velvet and topped with cream cheese frosting.  The occasion was a small BBQ, so she used a styrofoam base underneath covered in foil to hold each cupcake in place with a toothpick.  Now I think that is a great idea!

Well what did her niece think of all this effort?  She was totally stoked!!

A match made in heaven!

Jennifer Weiner, #1 New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Weiner is soon to embark on a tour to celebrate the release on July 13 of her latest novel Fly Away Home.  But this tour, is no ordinary tour, it is the ‘Cupcakes Across America Book Tour‘.  Jen has selected her favorite bakers across the country, and will visit each one and encourages her fans to come and meet her over a cupcake.

Fly Away Home has so far received great reviews from Elle Magazine and USA Today to name just a few.

The tour has already started, but you can still catch it in the following locations:

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Having sold more than 98,000 cupcakes in 14 months since opening, Daisy Cafe & Cupcakery in Madison, Wisconsin  is poised to sell its 100,000th cupcake.

Seriously, that’s a lot of cupcakes.

The person who purchases the lucky cupcake will be presented with a prize package that includes: dinner at the Daisy Café & Cupcakery, a night’s stay at any one of seven North Central hotels in the Madison area, a bottle of Champagne, and two Strawberry-Champagne cupcakes. In addition, the Daisy Café & Cupcakery will donate $1,000.00 in the name of the winner to Porchlight Inc, the Madison non-profit organization committed to reducing homelessness in the city.

Would it be silly of me to fly to Madison just to buy a cupcake?  I’m thinking about it.  I really love Wisconsin this time of year.  

Further, the Daisy Café & Cupcakery will donate $100.00 to Porchlight Inc in the name of each of the next five customers who buy cupcakes. So, I should probably bring five friends.

Daisy’s co-owner, Daryl Sisson, says, “We were the first to bring premium cupcakes to Wisconsin and, although we hadn’t thought 100,000 cupcakes would come so soon, we’re thrilled to be here. And we are not standing still–we’re rolling out new cupcake flavors every month.” Co-owner Kathy Brooks adds, “We are especially happy to continue our support of Porchlight with donations in the names of our loyal customers.”

Here is a video about the 4 C’s of Daisy Cafe & Cupcakery!  Gosh, I don’t know when I’ve been so impressed!  Gotta go now, I’ve got plane tickets to buy.

The cupcake craze, which has resulted in new cupcakeries springing up in each major city of America, has not quite yet invaded Australia. However we are not to be excluded entirely, as our love of cupcakes is equally as strong, so much so that we have declared August 16th as the national day of cupcakes!

National Cupcake Day is a fundraiser for the RSPCA, and encourages the involvement of companies and individuals around Australia to raise money by throwing a cupcake party.

These funds go to support the important work of the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).  The RSPCA provide an ongoing service to step in and defend mistreated animals, find new homes for abandoned animals and generally be the voice for our furry, feathered and scaly friends.

Last year 350,000 cupcakes were baked around the country and over $1.1 million Australian dollars was raised. This year they have set the target at $2.5 million and need your help in reaching it.

If you are in Australia, get involved by registering a team or as an individual and scheduling your party. Let us know about your entry so that we can support you. If you are not in Australia you can still get involved by making a donation or voting for your favorite cupcake.