The owners of Batter Up Cupcakes in San Diego, California have combined two of their passions: baseball and cupcakes.  Their baseball-themed cupcake store offers two main sets of flavors: “the home team” (those flavors offered daily) and “the visiting team” (those flavors that are rotated throughout the week).  “The home team” includes popular flavors like chocolate, vanilla and red velvet, while “the visiting team” boasts such specialties as bananas foster, cookies & cream, strawberry shortstop, and caramel apple pie.  I don’t know about you, but these pictures sure make my mouth water!

Do you have any local cupcake stores with interesting themes?

Caramel Apple Pie

Cookies & Cream

Bananas Foster

Cupcake in a Cone!

Wow!  Here’s a novel idea:  it’s a cupcake in an ice cream cone!

Variations?

How about bubble gum cupcake, instead of bubble gum ice cream?  Turns out you can make bubble gum cupcakes using either bubble gum extract or bubble gum flavored soda.

Or, how about Oreo cookie cupcake, instead of Oreo cookie ice cream?  Bake it using the cookie, the cream, or both!

What’s your ice cream flavor and how can you turn into a cupcake in a cone?

Today, my friend Beth and I tried a little market research on cupcakes, going to Dollop, a local cupcakery.  A novel concept:  at Dollop, you pick your cupcake, your filling, your frosting, and your topping, and the cupcake is put together before your eyes.

Ice Cream & Cupcakes!

Beth asked for a chocolate cupcake with mint frosting and York Peppermint Patty topping.

I asked for a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting with dark chocolate bits as topping.

On the side?  That’s mint chocolate chip ice cream and mocha chip ice cream from our favorite local, Pittsford Dairy Farms.  All organic, Pittsford Farms Dairy uses milk and cream from their cows to make their ice cream.  The perfect accompaniment!

Do you have cupcake shops like this near you and what do you choose when you go there?

You can find the recipe to these cherry cheesecake cupcakes here.  The cupcake will sink after being baked, creating the perfect spot for the cherries and cherry pie filling.  Of course, you can use other types of pie filling, too, depending on your preference.  Check out this past ATC article, too, for another twist on the cheesecake cupcake.

After the brilliant fireworks display provided last night at Sodus Point, NY, I thought I’d search out some fireworks cupcakes for your Fourth of July.

Here’s a nifty 3 minute video from Kitchen Daily, if you’re looking for a last minute idea this morning.  The start can be boxed cake mix and purchased frosting.  The ingredients suggested to decorate the tops are ones that you are likely to have around your kitchen, if you have kids in the house.  Easy!

Wilton's 4th of July cupcake tree

Here’s another quick tip from Wilton decorating supplies.  Vanilla cupcakes, iced in white, with little red, white, and blue toppers, stacked on a cupcake tree.  Festive!

One more quick tip?  How about using your thin push frosting in a drapped fashion?  This Food Snots blog photo is a third, super-quick, company’s-coming, and what-am-I-serving tip for the Fourth.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

10-year-old Lauren Crawford from Naples, Florida is a cupcake entrepreneur.  She invented a cake in a cup (which is not technically a cupcake, hence the name of her business “Notta Cupcake”) that can be made in 3 minutes in the microwave. She and her Mom have teamed up to make organic cupcake kits that they sell online and at the Green Market in Naples.  Each kit contains cake mix, chocolate chips, icing and instructions, and each package goes into a brown ceramic cup, which bears their own logo in pink lettering.  Lauren says her product is great for those late-night chocolate cravings, since it can be ready in less than five minutes! Visit her website to find out more and to order her product.  Sounds like a pretty sweet idea to me!

In case you need more patriotic ideas for your 4th of July celebration on Monday, here’s a fun cupcake recipe.

Fourth of July batter

Red, white, and blue profusion!  If the cupcake isn’t the ultimate Fourth of July treat for everyone in the family.

It took me a little while this evening to find a new twist to bring to the blog.  How about red, white, and blue batter from Baking Bites?  The complete recipe is included and looks Y-U-4thofJuly-MMY!  Did you know that you could layer cupcake batters to put this splash into the presentation?

And, just in case you’re buying, you’ll find Fourth of July specialty cupcakes going on at Sprinkles Cupcakes or try them at Magnolia’s Bakery or, well, just about every bakery in America!

I love this turtle cupcake cake!  This just goes to show that you can make pretty much anything you want out of cupcakes, and it’s a whole lot easier (and less mess) than cutting the shape out of a sheet cake!

Okay, I admit it — I’m kind of a hippie, and I’m kind of raising a hippie daughter, which is why I am so inspired by these “tie-dyed” (air-brushed) cupcakes from Simply Sweets!

On Thursday, June 30 from 4 pm – 6 pm, all Washington, D.C. military and their families are invited to “Cupcakes for Courage” at Hello Cupcake at their new location on Barracks Row (705 8th Street, S.E., WDC).  An R.S.V.P. is requested.

Hello Cupcake Goes Patriotic

According to the e-vite:  “Families will decorate patriotic themed cupcakes, meet with friends and celebrate Independence Day early.  Light fare from Matchbox Restaurant and Zest Bistro will be provided.”

Hello Cupcake is also serving charitable cupcakes from June 30 to July 4, when a portion of the proceeds from the sale of patriotic-themed cupcakes will be donated to Camp Desert Kids, a program under Military Families United that helps service members’ children.  This 2 minute YouTube video about this special camp will more than inspire you to participate in this fundraiser.

I thought this idea looked fun and tasty for the 4th of July.  The cupcakes themselves are made with a yellow cake recipe, and the frosting uses cream cheese with just a bit of lime.  Cut out stars and stripes from waxed paper, lay the templates on the cupcakes, add red and blue sprinkles, remove templates with tweezers, and you have a nicely decorated and patriotic cupcake!

I recently discovered Fantasy Cupcakes on line, a lovely UK bakery that won a gold heart prize in the North West Fine Foods Awards, beating out 400 entries in the general foods competition.

Vegan Mudpie Cupcake

So I e-mailed Fantasy Cupcakes to ask for their secrets at taking a vegan cupcake into the mainstream.  The owner, Melinda, thought that the bitterness of the chocolate was the primary flavor of the cake and that it lingered on the palate.

Here’s a list of Melinda’s tips for vegan mud pie cupcakes:

• Use a little apple cider vinegar in the sponge batter instead of soya milk curdled with vinegar;
• Mix the wet ingredients together and fold in the dry ones; and,
• For the frosting, melt rich, dark chocolate mixed with soya cream, leave it to set, beat in a little powdered sugar until a firm(ish) spreading consistency is reached, spread onto the cupcake in a dome shape with a small palate knife, and dust with a good quality cocoa.

Melinda said the frosting recipe was an adaptation from a recipe for a vegan chocolate torte which was a family favorite for years.

For my two pence, I’d recommend using Cadbury’s cocoa powder.  It’s make in the UK and has more bite to it than its US Hershey counterpart.

A Dr. Seuss Display

As a mother to a nearly six-month-old son who loves looking at (and trying to eat) any book he can get his hands on, the Iron Cupcake Madison Challenge definitely got my attention!  Bakers and cupcake enthusiasts gathered this past Sunday at Basie’s Restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin to eat and vote on mini-cupcakes, which were all based off of popular children’s books.  The proceeds from this event will benefit the Literacy Network. Read the rest of this entry »

LGM cupcakes

I remain an enthusiastic fan of Disney’s Toy Story series and its LGMs (the “Little Green Men”).  Here is the classic out-take of LGMs with “the claw.”

Needless to say, this recipe for LGM cupcakes is a keeper in my book.

In fact, this Disney family website has an entire section of recipes with several terrific cupcake recipes such as Lightning McQueen from “Cars,” Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Owl from “Winnie-the-Pooh,” panda bears from “Mulan,” and more.

The answer to that question is….OF COURSE!  Just because you’ve decided to eat healthier or go on a diet doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to your favorite treat.  I found some great recipes and ideas to add a healthy twist to the traditional cupcake.  Whole-wheat flour, potatoes, fresh fruit, unsweetened applesauce and reduced-fat dairy products are some of the ingredients you can use to add some nutrition to your favorite cupcake recipes without sabotaging the flavor.  You can click on each photo below if you want to see the recipe.

1) Blueberry Cupcakes: These have a potato added to the whole-wheat batter to add some extra nutrition and create an interesting texture.  The potato flavor is masked by other ingredients.  Plus, blueberries are a great source of vitamins and anti-oxidants.

Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s sweet winner is…

Melanie Couch
Wow! It was not easy to pick one design but my son’s 16th birthday is the next party here so I pick the Monogram Designs. His theme for the party is red, black and white and those would be perfect on top of cupcakes with the letter B for his name!!! :)

Congratulations!  Please email your mailing address to [email protected].  A big “thank you” to Cake Sugar Designs for sponsoring this week’s topper giveaway.    

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake

Let’s chat on the subject of peanut butter cupcakes, like this lovely one from the Baker Street Bakery.

Smooth or chunky?

I have never met a peanut butter cupcake made with chunky peanut butter.  Have you?

Here’s a sampling of what I could find.  Some recipes create a peanut butter cupcake base and go so far as to say “smooth.”  Other recipes put the peanut butter in the frosting and indicate “creamy.”  Going over the top is a recipe that not only uses peanut butter, it also uses Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

And I did manage to find one recipe that specified “creamy or chunky.”

These baby rattle-shaped cupcakes look like a perfect treat for your next baby shower.  They are sure to impress your guests but are relatively simple to make (how-to video and instructions here). Other than cupcake mix and a tub of frosting, you will need gumdrops, lollipop sticks, ribbon, tubes of decorating icing and sprinkles.  Of course, if you have a particular cupcake or icing recipe that you really love, then you could use that instead of a store-bought mix.  What a cute  and fun idea!

With a Rose, Mother

I’m glad that there are such places as La-Tea-Da Tea Room, where women and girls can get together, put on hats and frilly bits, and sit down to tea in proper teacups.

I have such fond memories of my mother serving various desserts on pretty, china plates, sitting with her lady friends at the diningroom table, and sharing light laughter.

This particular post is one to say thank you to my mom for those memories.  I selected this cupcake with a red rose on top as a way of sending a flower.  And, for the photograph, I paired it with the sugar and creamer from one of her dear friends, Dora, who has since passed.  Thanks, Mom. xx

"Strawberry Lime Daiquiri"

Ooooh!  About three weeks into blogging for this site, I finally have my Facebook and Twitter sufficiently loaded with cupcakeries that I’ve scored these yummy photographs from the Little Cake Bakery in Atlanta, Georgia.  These were just uploaded into Facebook in a new album titled “Test Kitchen.”

Who wants to report live on location to our cupcake community whether these cupcakes taste as good as they look and sound?

"Chocolate Curry with Coconut"

"Chocolate Ginger Toffee"

I was so excited to discover this cupcake kit that I couldn’t seem to come up with blog post title of reasonable length. I cannot wait to play with this kit, and make my own cute little yummy cupcake-cheeseburgers. The kit, available from Cupcake Crafts, contains all you need to decorate like a professional: papers, icing tubes, tips, spice drops, taffy, sesame seeds, sprinkles, toothpicks, and pastry bag. And of course, you get comprehensive instructions! The kit comes in two sizes and if you opt for the “Full Meal Deal” option, you get cake mixes too!

Crumbs' Apple Cobbler Cupcake

This just off the cupcake Tweet wire:  today only, Crumbs Bake Shop is asking you to help a family in need through the purchase of two cupcakes for $8 using NY Daily Deals.  I called their main office and you can also walk in to their Brooklyn Heights location to make an in store purchase, too – just let them know that you’re buying for the Bond family charity.

Elisa, 36, was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer on 2/23/2011 and – only 9-days earlier –  her husband Nathan, 38, was diagnosed with Stage III cancer.  Parents of an 18-month old little girl, Sadie, this family is now facing all things medical.

Here’s the blogspot, including a YouTube video put together by their friends.  Have a tissue ready, and then get on that Daily Deal or to the Brooklyn Heights Crumbs and let’s share the love of our cupcake community.

Crumbs Bake Shop – Brooklyn Heights location
109 Montague Street, Brooklyn
(718) 935-9600

Red Velvet Razorback

This morning when I typed in “cupcake” to Google News, I was pleasantly surprised that the second search result featured a cupcake cafe in my own hometown!  I’ve been meaning to try their cupcakes for quite a while now, and I decided this was the perfect excuse to check them out!

Bliss Cupcake Cafe is located just off the downtown square in beautiful Fayetteville, Arkansas.  It was tough to decide on a cupcake with yummy options like cinnamon roll and chocolate milkshake, so I decided I’d break the tie by going with one of their local favorites, the ‘Red Velvet Razorback’ (red velvet cupcake and cream cheese frosting), in honor of the University of Arkansas’ mascot.  It was absolutely delicious! Read the rest of this entry »

I am all about the do-it-yourself crafts lately! I like to keep myself busy and these DIY are just the thing for that.

Within the next few weeks, I will be documenting and sharing a new DIY venture! I am unable to have real flowers in my apartment, my fur child will eat them, so I will be  making flowers out of cupcake liners! Such a great idea! I just need to find the perfect liners and all the supplies to go with it. I live on an island and sometimes certain things are hard to find, or just really expensive.

So while we are all eagerly waiting my tutorial, here is another one to keep you busy!

Cupcake Purse Tutorial from Everyday Chaos