photo courtesy of Taekwonweirdo

photo courtesy of Taekwonweirdo

photo courtesy of Taekwonweirdo

I thought these little guys were just charming as all get out. They were made up by Bittersweet Bakery for a little boy’s first birthday party.  Bittersweet is an outfit out in Chicago that has a full menu and does cakes and cupcakes for events like weddings and wee little birthday parties.

(see Taekwonweirdo’s photostream here)

Cupcake Camp?  Are you kidding?  My parents made me go to church camp!  (Not that there’s anything wrong with church camp — but we sure didn’t get cupcakes!)  Cupcake Camp DC 2010 will be held on the rooftop of the Zoso Flats building at 1025 N. Filmore Street in Arlington, Virginia on Saturday, September 18th.  The event plans to run from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Attendance is free … and get this … you get to eat cupcakes … free ones … I know, too good to be true, right?  I am so there!  Some people bring cupcakes, and some people show up just to eat them!

Before I start talking up the cupcakes.  I just want to say that I hate horns.

I am starting to dream that we are suffering a plague of mosquitos (millions of them) and am slapping myself awake at a very unfriendly hour!

If you do not know what I am talking about, then you obviously haven’t got a fever! :) World Cup Fever that is!  But some amazing bakers around the world have and they have been cooking up their support since the opening game on the 11th June!  And speaking of that game, Grace who bakes at Cupcakes by Design in South Africa created these for a client’s Friday Football celebration.

Read the rest of this entry »

Two of my guilty pleasures are joining forces:  Cupcakes and Farmville.

Farmville is the great time-sucking application on Facebook.  It is a seemingly simple game which gifts you with a virtual farm, on which you can design your avatar, buy a puppy that will follow you around, and then you can plant and harvest your own crops.  I avoid real life tasks I should be doing by planting virtual coffee, lilacs, carrots, and pumpkins.

The game is ridiculously popular.  Farmville has over 82.4 million active users.  That’s more than 1% of the entire world population.  The game started one year ago today, and in celebration of the birthday, the newest crop in Farmville’s lineup is … you guessed it!  Cupcakes!  I can now plant cupcake seeds, and 8 hours, later, I can harvest them!  Could it get any better?

Here’s my (beautiful and virtually yummy) first crop:

The third season of HBO’s award-winning vampire drama premiered this past Sunday,

and cupcakers did what they do best! 

They celebrated in sweetness!

The Sweetness Bakeshop in South Miami, Florida

served up these True Blood tasty treats:

And an ATC fan sent in this picture of her very own Red Velvet True Blood creation:

(Thanks Emily!)

Now this is a cupcaking event! They do things big in Texas, especially at Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop in Austin.

Jess Pryles, of Sugadeaux Cupcakes in Melbourne, Australia, will be visiting the Lone Star State this month! Sugadeaux’s motto is, if you’re going to indulge, you should do it properly.

Debating whether to make the trip across town, or across Texas?  Check out Sugar Mama’s ratings on Yelp!  There are a lot of Sugar Mama fanatics out there!  One happy customer wrote, “Sugar Mama’s is a cupcake lover’s dream come true.”  Oh, how sweet.

On Saturday, May 22nd, thousands flocked to the San Mateo Fairgrounds to help celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, and the do-it-yourself mindset.  Each spring, people come from the San Fransisco Bay area and beyond to the annual Maker Faire to see what’s new in the world of zany inventions.  More than 600 inventors and artists shared their wares this year.  Among them was Greg Solberg, maker of the completely electric, motorized “cupcake car.”

These cupcake cars (sometimes called muffin cars) were invented in 2004.  They can go as fast as 15 mph.  Each car has room for just one person, whose head sticks out the top of the cupcake.  There are currently 16 cupcake cars in existence, and they are stored in a “secret location,” in Berkeley, California.

While the news about Cakespy opening her own gallery broke last month, the Cakespy Shop grand opening was only just this last Saturday.  Since I live down the street from Capitol Hill’s newest cupcake art space, I go to stop by and join the party.

Cakespy Shop was packed by a rotating crowd of well-wishers and art buyers. I expected there to be a good crowd (we do love our cupcakes and cute art in this town), but this was a really good showing even taking that into account.

I admit, the Cakespy appeal was probably helped just a tiny bit by the free Trophy Cupcakes and complimentary performance by Mr. Cakespy’s band, Exohxo. The cupcakes were delicious and adorably appointed with images from Cakespy’s “Scenes from Capitol Hill” series and Exohexoh’s charming melodies and singing violins made a lovely accompaniment.

Exohexoh: I can't believe that an 8 person band could fit in this store, but they did it.

Cuppy at Bimbo's, an awesome burrito place on the Hill

Mr. and Mrs. Cakespy outside the shop & hipstercakes outside of Neumo's, a neighborhood nightlife fixture

Mrs. and Mr. Cakespy (Jessie and Danny Oleson)

Cakespy with her totally badass mural of a pie and cupcake throwdown

A small selection of the shop's sweet merch

Hurray, Cakespy Shop is open for business!

The 11th anual Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer will be held the week of May 3-9, 2010.  Throughout the week various establishments throughout Boston and surrounding areas will offer a selection of desserts where 100% of the proceeds will go to breast cancer research or care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  Cupcake lovers will be excited to know that included on the list of participating restaurants and bakeries offering cupcake desserts are Kickass Cupcakes, Party Favors, Post 390, South End Buttery, Sweet Bites Bakery & Cafe, Ula Cafe, and Daily Bread Bakery & Cafe.

The biggest winner of last weekend’s Cupcake Camp Seattle was the Hope Heart Institute: 5,000 cupcakes donated by 70 bakers and consumed by nearly 1,000 people raised $5,276.50 for the charity in just three hours. Carrie Middlemis, owner of Cupcakes Couture and one of the organizers of the event, says, “For our first year we estimated maybe we would have about 300 people attending. We were blown away by the response and already planning to make it bigger and better.”

As for the competitive prizes, see below or Bella Cupcakes’ post on the winners. There were three competitive categories, Most Unique Ingredients, Best Seattle, and Healthiest, with a Professional and Amateur division within each category. Last but not least is the youth division’s best cupcake prize. And of course no competitive cupcake event is complete without a cupcake eating contest (you can see the video here).

(most pictures courtesy of Barbie Hull Photography)

PROFESSIONAL DIVISION:
Most Unique Ingredients
1st: NY Cupcakes / Limoncello with Raspberry drizzle.
2nd: Rocket Queens /”War Pig” Chocolate cake, smoky chipotle, bacon; topped with white chocolate buttercream and candied bacon.
Honorable mention: Kimm of Spitfire- Kimm-chi (Korean pickled cabbage) with grated carrot, zucchini and ginger frosting. Sweetened with agave nectar.

I guess first and second prize must’ve tasted really good, because I don’t think that those are particularly unique ingredients, though I admit I may be jaded by the flavor proliferation of the Seattle cupcakery scene .  I still say that if you’re giving prizes for the weirdest stuff you can put in a cupcake and still be edible, kim-chi definitely takes first prize.

Best Seattle:
1st: : Bella Cupcakes / Pacific NW Sustainable Granola NY (left)
2nd: NY Cupcakes /Orca Whales and salmon (middle)
Honorable Mention: Rocket Queen Cupcakes / Unhappy Hipster – my favorite! (right)

Healthiest:
1st: Immortal Bakery / Banana with Honey and Cinnamon
2nd: Kimm of Spitfire / Vegan delight Banana-Orama (not pictured)

AMATEUR DIVISION
Most Unique Ingredient
1st: Tina Campbell / Strawberry Pop Rock (right)
2nd: Ronnie Porter and Nicole Lucas / The TCB Velvet Elvis (not pictured)
A banana, chocolate chip cupcake with peanut butter frosting and a slice of bacon on top. A treat the King would have surely loved.
Honorable Mention: Anisha Hathiramani, Rootbeer Float (right)

Best Seattle:
1st: Ani and Amber Butler / Uptight Seattleite (left)
2nd: Melynda O’Brien Captivating Creations/ Ferry, Orca, Seattle scene (middle)
Honorable Mention: Vicki Bushnell / Destination Seattle (right)

Healthiest:

1st: Teigan Walker / Red Goat- Chocolate beet cake with goats cheese frosting and candied beet. (left)

2nd: Jana Bailey-Bailey-Hessler (The Cake Diva) / Vegan Chocolate Mocha (right)

Personally, I think that the Red Goat should’ve gotten an special prize for unique ingredient too – I can’t say that I’ve ever seen goat cheese and beets in a cupcake before.

YOUTH
Best Tasting/Design Kids
1st Choice: ? Unknown, Space Needle with Whale; (left)
2nd Choice Tie between Jazzmyn (middle) & Tycie Engberg (right)

I was particularly impressed by the youth category…kids in grade school did better cupcake decorating than I ever could. I salute the next generation of cupcake makers!

“My name is Johnny, and I make clothes with cupcakes on ‘em.”  The rise of Johnny Cupcakes is the indie version of the pull yourself up by the bootstraps American dream. Johnny started out with a high school diploma, a goofy nickname and a whole lot of creativity, selling his cupcake-themed tees while he was on tour with his band. He ended up with with a multi-million dollar business based on t-shirts with cupcakes on them.

This month Johnny went back to his band tour roots with the Johnny Cupcakes Suitcase Tour. On April 3rd he started in New York City, and over the past weeks he’s been moving across the country, sharing his good cupcake news and planting cupcake t-shirts all across the country.  Next Sunday (4/25)  he’ll be in my hometown of Seattle, WA pitching shirts and meeting fans at the Trophy Cupcakes in the Wallingford neighborhood.  Sunday schedule allowing, I’ll be there soaking in the cupcake cool and taking lots of pictures for ATC.

In an attempt to make tax day a little less taxing, participating Cinnabon locations are offering free cupcake bites on April 15, 2010 from 6-8pm.  Each guest is allowed 2 cupcake bites.  If you are not a procrastinator and filed your taxes months ago, you might have time to enter the Cinnabon Tax Day Bites Essay Contest where you could win a $100 Cinnabon giftcard (you could buy a lot of cupcakes with that)!

art by Cakespy (who else?!)

In my time writing with ATC, I’ve seen a lot of things cupcake: clothing, tattoos, furniture, events, drawings, and of course the genuine article in many shapes and sizes. What I have not yet seen is a cupcake-themed art gallery.  Until now.

The beloved Emerald City-based and cupcake-themed artist Cakespy just bought her own art gallery in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. As of April 1st, Cakespy, a.k.a. Jessie Oleson, and her husband became owners of Bluebottle Art Gallery. They will keep the gallery open as they transition and will have a grand-opening/re-opening party on May 8th when Bluebottle officially merges with Cakespy Shop.  As you might expect, the event will feature cupcakes as art and in their edible form.

Yesterday my dad came back from a business trip to NYC and brought me Buttercup Bake Shop cupcakes and a flyer that made me wish I still lived up north so I could attend events like CupcakeCamp NYC. Making me even more jealous is that our fellow cupcake lovers over at Cupcake Take the Cake will be attending!  CupcakeCamps take place all over the world in an attempt to provide a gathering place for people to share and eat cupcakes. New York City’s event takes place tonight, Friday, April 9, 2010 from 7-9:30pm.  Hosting the event will be Happy Ending located at 302 Broome Street, New York, NY 100002.  According to the website it will be a “cookbook paradise” with tons of “foodie books” to win or purchase.  Even author Jennifer Ross will be there to sign copies of her book: The Icing on the Cupcake.  CupcakeCamp NYC is for the 21+ crowd and this year offers a signature cupcake inspired cocktail. The event is tonight so make sure you get online and register quick!

Cupcake Camp Seattle is a benefit for The Hope Heart Institute, a heart disease research non-profit, that is centered around the baking and eating of cupcakes.   It is also free(!) and conveniently located (for me) in Downtown Seattle, which means that the lucky readers of All Things Cupcake will get pictures, reviews, and hopefully recipes straight from the first ever Cupcake Camp in Seattle.

The event is sponsored by just about every group that is remotely related to cupcakes, including my favorite cute cupcake artist, CakeSpy (guess who made the poster :).  However, it’s Bella Cupcake Couture that gets the credit for importing the Cupcake Camp concept to the Emerald City from our foggy fellow Northwest mecca, San Fransisco.

The event runs from 11am to 2pm with cupcake tastings scheduled every 15 minutes.  Braving throwing themselves into the sugar breach are the event’s judges: Jessie Oleson aka CakeSpy, Jackie Shaffer (founder and CEO) of CakeCentral.com, Melody Biringer of CRAVE Company, Kelley Moore of Kelley Moore Creative Media, Keren Brown of FranticFoodie.com and Laura Cassidy of  Seattle Metropolitan magazine.  Luckily for all of us, there is a ‘healthiest’ prize category on top of  ‘most representative of Seattle’ and ‘unique ingredients’.

Cupcakes took center stage on Friday night at the SXSW Music/Film/Interactive Festival during the Pastries and Pasties Burlesque Cupcake Cookoff. Austin’s cupcake heavyweights Polkadots, MadCakes, The Cupcake Bar, Toot Sweet, Holy Cacao and Delish squared off while members of Texas’ premier burlesque troupes strip-teased the night away. From the looks of the bakeries’ (and the burlesque troupes’) websites, it must have been quite a night.

Toot Sweet Cupcakes at Pastries and Pasties (picture courtesy of Tiffany Bacon)

A C&C Pazo Pairing: Sweet Corn Cupcake paired with White Chocolate & Macadamia Nut Martini (picture via the Baltimore Sun by Kenneth K. Lam)

Seeing as I just wrote about cupcake and wine pairings, it should come as no surprise that an enterprising restauranteer has continued to expand on the copacetic relationship between cupcakes and adult beverages: Pazo, an upscale Baltimore lounge, just started featuring a Thursday evening Cupcakes and Cocktails menu.

According to the review of the new menu in the Baltimore Sun, the cupcakes are amazing and positively cheap at $2, while the cocktails are good and on the expensive side at $9-$14.  The cupcakes come in mature flavors like rum baba and and sweet corn and are matched with sophisticated cocktails like the elderflower Mondello Mojito and the espresso martini (with real espresso!). 

I could be wrong, but I feel like with this manifestation, cupcakes have transcended to the level of classy late night snacks. Will they be the next  tapas? Well, only time (and perhaps further cupcake and cocktail menus) will tell.

Besides being (possibly) National Cupcake Day, March 3rd was also the first day that the District of Columbia allowed and licensed gay marriages. The usually quiet D.C. marriage bureau was swamped with couples that have waited for years to be able to legally tie the knot as well as crowds of well-wishers.

Now, how to celebrate this momentous occasion…what about cupcakes?  David Catania, the D.C. Councilmember who authored the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 had just that idea. It appears that he was was so delighted by the results of his legislation that in celebration of its enactment he passed out boxes of cupcakes to the first 200 couple (of any orientation) to get their marriage license at the the Carl Moultrie Courthouse (500 Indiana Ave. N.W., D.C.).  Catania distributed vanilla and chocolate Hello Cupcakes as part of a joint celebratory gesture on the part of the Councilmember and the cupcakery.

Ok, I have to say it: that is just the sweetest thing I’ve heard all week :)

Via Twirlit.com

It appears there’s some confusion as to exactly when we have a holiday to celebrate our favorite frosted treat. According to All Things Cupcake and the National Food Holidays calendar, National Cupcake Day is on December 15th. But according to the Baltimore Sun, Buzzy Bloggers, the Showbiz Gossips Blog and Twirlit, National Cupcake Day was on March 3rd. It looks like the March 3rd movement started on Twirlit when writer Amanda Pendolino declares March 3rd National Cupcake Day “according to…well, my stomach”.

But who’s to gainsay Amanda Pendolino’s stomach?  Isn’t that (and your tastebuds, of course!) the ultimate judge when it comes to all things cupcake?  Also, 365 days is a long time. I think there’s room enough in a year for two National Cupcake Days. Don’t you?

February isn’t just about presidential federal holidays or your valentine…it’s also about bare-knuckles cupcake smackdowns.  The East Coast brings us the Iron Cupcake Challenge on February 28th at the Tortilla Press Cantina. Open to the amateur and the baking professional, the fifth annual Iron Cupcake Challenge will center (like its namesake) around one special ingredient: chilies.  Cost to participate is $15 for adults and $7 for kids under 12, and the proceeds from this event will go towards earthquake relief in Haiti.

From the left coast we have the third annual Cupcake Challenge on February 20th at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. Over 20 Southern California cupcakeries will go head to head for the honor of becoming the Cupcake Challenge Champion. Since it’s LA, there’s a celebrity judge panel, but members of the public in attendance at the event also get an equal vote.  20 different cupcakes to sample, $40 at the door – if you have room in your stomach, the math works out in your favor.

On February 20, 2010 Nesquik will hold their Cupcake Challenge at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, CA.  The challenge will aim to find Los Angeles’s best  traditional and nontraditional mini cupcakes.  There are over 20 cupcake cupcake bakeries participating in the challenge including Jus Minis, Baby Cakes, and Two Parts Sugar. Judges include the general public and a panel of celebrities.  If you are interested in attending tickets are available for $40.00.

Cupcakes are versatile things. They’re tasty, portable, come in many flavors, have been known to create jobs, and also happen to be really good for fundraising.  Emma Klassen of Kelowna, BC made the right choice when she decided to make 300 gourmet cupcakes to exchange for donations to the Canadian Foundation for the Children of Haiti.

Klassen put together this Saturday’s Sweet Exchange to collect money and supplies for the Haiti Home for Children, an orphanage and school run by the CFCH. Though the orphanage’s buildings have been damaged, the children and caretakers were not hurt in the earthquake and are presently living in the orphanage’s courtyard.

While the Sweet Exchange is over,  the Haiti Home for Children still needs your help. You can send donations to the CFCH at:

The Canadian Foundation for the Children of Haiti
11400 Seafield Crescent
Richmond, B.C. Canada. V7A 3J2

(CFCH is a registered Canadian charity. CRA Business No. 89000 4591 RR0001. Donations qualify for CIDA’s matching grant program.  Tax receipts will be issued for donations over $20)

In wake of the recent earthquake in Haiti there are tons of worthy charities to donate to.  As mentioned with a post last week about Bleeding Heart Bakery, cupcakes are helping raise donations. In case you missed this past weekends event, another cupcake charity event is being held this Saturday, January 23, 2010 from 9am-1pm.  Cupcakes for Haiti in will be hosting a cupcake stand in Toronto, ON where sales from the bake sale will go to MSF/Doctors without Borders.

Additional events that  have already occurred but are still worth mentioning include the Bake Sale held in Ashburn, Virginai where the proceeds went to Food For the Poor.   Additionally Foiled Cupcakes which delivers to Chicago and surrounding cities created a sweet deal: 2 dozen cupcakes were given to the first 5 people who donated $100 to the Haitian relief via the Red Cross.

A couple weeks ago we reported rumors of a giant 7,000 lb cupcake being planned.  The initial plan was an unveiling event that included breaking the Guinness record as well as selling each 1 lb cupcake “slice” for $5 to benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.  If successful, a single cupcake would net a cool $35,000 for charity!

Instead of putting a 7,000 lb of cupcake batter inside an oven, an oven was constructed and hoisted on top of the batter.   During an all-night baking process, the bakers were horrified to find that a heating element had dislodged in the middle of the night and had split the massive cupcake in half.  Scrambling to bake a new cupcake in time for the event, they rallied to make a smaller cupcake through the night.

The new cupcake took 12 hours to fully bake and weighs in at a record setting 1,224 lb, still shattering the old record by a massive margin.

Last March, Food Network’s Duff Goldman lives up to his Ace of Cakes title by baking the largest cupcake in history — which was entered in the Guinness Book of World Records.  The 61.4-pound creation is more than a foot tall and entirely edible. Reportedly 150 times the size of a regular cupcake, this record-breaker called for 16 pounds of butter, 10 pounds of sugar, and three ounces of food coloring.

Although it was widely reported that Duff broke the record, his record was disqualified in 2009 when it was revealed that his cupcake was baked in two parts!  Not only do I want to see the cupcake, I want to see the oven capable of handling a cupcake this size!

Recently, the londonist.com announced:

This Thursday, at the Covent Garden Real Food Market, the world’s largest ever cupcake will make a nervous debut on the East Piazza. Nervous, because it will be a short-lived appearance: thousands of people will soon be wolfing it down. The baked behemoth will measure 2 metres by 1.25 metres, and it’s expected that around 2,000 will enjoy a slice.

Now consider this.  Duff’s cupcake is 150 times larger than a normal cupcake.  This londonist cupcake will be 10 times larger than Duff’s cupcake!  No mention about whether it will officially take the Guiness Book of World Records crown though.