I have been looking for some healthy and creative ways to incorporate veggies into my picky baby’s diet.  After visiting the Whole Foods website, I think I have found the thing, and it just so happens to be in the form of a cupcake (though I will probably confiscate the frosting and eat it myself).  These carrot zucchini cupcakes incorporate both a green veggie and an orange veggie into a cupcake.  This recipe also adds additional nutrition by using whole wheat flour and replacing some of the oil with unsweetened applesauce.  I can’t wait to give these a try!

Owls seem to be all the rage lately! Why wouldn’t they be with all the cute owl things I see around – checks, wallets, earrings, etc. You want it (with owls), you got it!

If you want Owl Cupcakes, we got those too. These are so stinking adorable!

Reeses Owl Cupcakes from Inside BruCrew Life

I know we keep sharing cupcake items from Perpetual Kid but this one was too good to not tell you about!  How fun are these cupcake chair covers? I love them and love the idea of using them for a birthday party, although in a cupcake lovers kitchen, they would make great everyday decor.  Each chair cover costs $24.99 and you can choose from either pink or blue.

My cousin attends High Point University in North Carolina and for her birthday we decided to send her cupcakes.  Knowing Magnolia Bakery’s cupcakes are her favorite we wanted to send her a half dozen but quickly realized the shipping from New York to North Carolina was crazy and cost more than the cupcakes!  Instead we decided to try to find something more local and affordable.  In our search we came across Little Bit O’Spice and we were incredibly happy to purchase the cupcakes from them.  Little Bit O’Spice, located in High Point, North Carolina, makes custom cakes, cupcakes, and pies.  After calling to inquire about placing an order we found out how easy Little Bit O’Spice made the process, she was even willing to deliver the cupcakes to the dorm at the University!

We needed to order a minimum of a dozen cupcakes so we chose six vanilla and six Oreo.  Little Bit O’Spice offered to include a card and was willing to work with us on the delivery date.  She took PayPal for payment and for a $3.00 fee was able to deliver the cupcakes to the dorm as long as she had the dorm name and the recipients phone number.  I talked to my cousin on Saturday after she received her birthday cupcakes and she loved them.  She said that it was a great surprise and the cupcakes were great.

You can place orders by calling 336-905-4353 or through Little Bit O’Spice’s website where you’ll find other items like cupcakes on pretzel sticks!

Check out these awesome Star Wars cupcakes from the now very famous Wicked Good Cupcakes of Massachusetts.

Just the other day I blogged about how we spoil our dog and how you can find some fun cupcake treats at Petco.  Today our dog got a special surprise, dog cupcakes from Sprinkles Cupcakes!  Upon returning home from a business trip in Dallas, Texas my dad presented me with half a dozen cupcakes for me and a small bag.  The bag had two mini cupcakes with fondant bones on top for our dog! The doggie cupcakes cost $2.50 each and are sugar free cupcakes topped with yogurt “frosting.” Continue reading »

The cupcake world has been all aflutter with the news about TSA confiscating a woman’s cupcake before they would allow her to get on the plane. TSA has now coined the event Cupcakegate. Well, Wicked Good Cupcakes, the creator of the criminal cupcake, is not the only cupcakery capitalizing off the event. The Silver Spoon Bakery of Providence, RI is now offering the TSA Compliant Cupcake. The $4 cupcake comes with a (fake) boarding pass, and is topped with exactly 3 ounces of frosting and sold in a TSA-mandated clear, quart-size plastic blag. The accompanying photo of Richard Nixon saying “I am not a gel” is optional. The cupcake has already been tested, by a fan of The Silver Spoon Bakery, and it did make it through security!

My son turned a year old this week, so of course I have been busy making cupcakes.  We chose to use the popular children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? as his party’s theme.  For example, we made “Red Bird’s Tomato Salsa”, “Blue Horse’s Blue Corn Chips”, “Black Sheep’s Black Bean Salsa”, “Brown Bear’s Party Mix”, “Goldfish’s Golden Cheese Dip” and my most favorite, “Yellow Duck’s Banana Quack-Cakes”.

Since my baby’s favorite food is bananas, I thought it was appropriate to make banana cupcakes.  I found this incredibly yummy recipe online.  The cupcakes were extremely moist and they were also super easy to make because you can just dump everything into one big bowl.  The cream cheese frosting was also very simple and delicious.  Most importantly, they were a winner with my son, who is oftentimes a very picky eater.  He loved these and ate up most of the cake!  I would describe these as a more sugary version of banana bread, and I would definitely make them again!

We know you want to take your cupcakes everywhere, but don’t take them on a plane! Recently, a Massachusetts woman’s cupcake was confiscated by TSA when she tried to take the cupcake through security. We wrote about it here too. Her cupcake was in a jar, and the security agents said that the frosting was a liquid that exceeded the legal limits of 3 ounces.

The TSA wrote on their blog, “Unlike the thin layer of icing that resides on the top of most cupcakes, this cupcake had a thick layer of icing inside a jar.” In other words, this was a good cupcake! Who is out there handing out cupcakes with “thin layers of icing”? That’s just sad! The TSA blog also called this woman’s cupcake “the newfangled modern take on a cupcake.” Wow, that just really makes me want to take a bite of it!

Wicked Good Cupcakes, where the woman bought the cupcake, is planning to capitalize on the publicity of this pastry confiscation! They now offer a cupcake on their menu called “National Security Velvet” (pictured above). Yum!

In all seriousness, we don’t mean to make light of the importance of airport security. We know these security officers work hard to keep us all safe, and we are grateful. The moral of the story is definitely to just eat your cupcake before getting on the plane!

If this doesn’t make you hungry, then nothing will. I just found this amazing photo on the Flickr photostream of Guzzle & Nosh. The cupcake is from Joan’s on Third, a Gourmet Marketplace, Café, and Full Service Catering and Event Planning Company in Los Angeles. Yum!

Fred Flare is ready for Valentine’s Day with a section of the website already dedicated to Valentine’s Day items perfect for the one you love!  I really like the fortune cookie cupcakes!  The $15.95 kit comes with 75 cupcake liners, 30 wrappers with fortunes, and a recipe book! The kit is actually versatile, it could be used for the chinese new year, or any occasion really!  The cupcake shower cap that costs $10 just makes me laugh! I wouldn’t actually wear the shower cap but it would be fun to give or receive as a joke.

If you have a young one in your family, odds are you have visited Build a Bear for them to make a furry new friend.  But here’s a great reason to go back and get something for yourself! 

This new “I Heart Cupcakes Confetti Cupcake Bear” is shown with all these optional accessories for $45 but you can buy just the bear for $20.  They have several other cupcake birthday animals and this adorable animal carrier.  I wonder if I might get strange glances walking around the mall wearing this cupcake carrier with a cupcake bear in it? 

Visit StayHomeCupcake on Etsy.

I love eating food off of a stick…shish kebabs, fruit kebabs, caramel apples, cake pops and the list goes on. For some reason it’s just more fun that way.  I’m sure that these snowmen cupcake skewers are no exception…they look very tasty and cute, the perfect treat to bring some cheer on a gloomy winter’s day.

Before Christmas my family and I attended Durham North Carolina’s Rock and Shop Market.  It’s a really fun event that combines craft vendors, food trucks, and local musicians.  One booth that I made a purchase from was Magic Bean Buyer who specializes in collectible keepsake clay figurines and illustrations.  For $8.00 I bought one of Magic Bean Buyer’s gray kitty cupcake toppers to give as a Christmas gift.  The cupcake toppers come in three additional colors including brown, black tuxedo, and siamese.

Continue reading »

Do you spoil your dog with special treats and toys?  Here at my house we definitely spoil our one year old dog.  He loves treats and I’m sure he would love these Gourmet Tails Cupcakes with Sprinkles.  The dog treats are available in vanilla and carob flavors for $4.79.  There are also 6 packs of cupcakes for dogs available in three flavors, carob mint, vanilla oat flake, and peanut butter.  If you’re unsure about feeding your dog cupcake treats there is a Valentine’s Squeaky Cupcake toy for $3.99.  All of these fun dog treats and toys are available on the Petco website.

I am all about getting my craft on this winter! I am finding so many good DIY ideas and tutorials, that my bookmark folder runneth over! To stop my my folder from busting at the seams, I have decided to share some of my ideas with you. But of course, they have a cupcake twist!

DIY with Foil Baking Cups from HeyLook

Garland

Backdrop

Gifts

Here in Chicago we still haven’t gotten much more than a dusting of snow this winter.  So, since I haven’t gotten the chance to go out and play in the white, fluffy stuff, I figured at the very least I could build some snowmen cupcakes.  These are super cute, and the really nice thing is that you can stay warm while building these snowmen!

http://youtu.be/pEO2gmdqExI

On an episode of the Nickelodeon show Victorious the characters build a giant cupcake float for the “parade parade”.  The group runs into trouble when the cupcake float they are riding inside gets a flat tire on their way to the parade.  To make matters worse, they are stuck in a bad neighborhood wearing candy pajamas.  You can watch the episode titled Terror on Cupcake Street on YouTube.

Like Stayhomecupcake, I too went to Target this week and spotted some great, cheap cupcake finds.  For only $1.00 you can get the extra large cupcake valentine’s day card! I also love the cupcake straws that include four different colors in a pack.  The straws can be purchased online for only $2.00!

Target does it again! In their dollar area I just found these cute cupcake bins, cards, erasers and felt bags. They also had gift bags, window gel stickers and plastic plates.  I love dollar finds!  I also found cupcake birthday party items in their party area.  Not a dollar but still great prices! 

Looking for the perfect treat to make with your kids on a snow day (or before they go back to school if they haven’t already)? These penguins sure are cute!

They are also very simple to make, which is a must for short attention spans.  Simply ice a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting, place three chocolate cookie halves on top, add three small triangles of dried apricot for the beaks and feet, and stick on some mini m&ms for eyes. Adorable!

Growing up in Connecticut I remember it was always fun to visit the Stamford Connecticut mall.  The mall had crazy escalators that seemed to float in mid air as they transversed from one level to another across the center of the mall.  The mall had an A&W All American Food which as kids seemed like a special treat.  Most importantly, located inside the mall was an FAO Schwarz toy store.   As a kid, it was hard to beat a toy store, especially one as great as FAO Schwarz, which is now one of the oldest operating stores in the US.

The FAO Schwarz store is long since gone from the Stamford Mall but the New York City and online stores are still open.  I was looking around the online store and was excited to find some awesome cupcake items.  My top favorite is the FAO Exclusive Pinkalicious 12.5 inch cupcake backpack!  Although it’s small the $14.99 backpack is really cute and I know little girls would love the backpack shaped like a cupcake after having had a heart shaped backpack when I was little. Continue reading »

My friend’s birthday is coming up and while I have already purchased her gift I have yet to wrap it.  I have my eye out for cupcake wrapping paper and I spotted this cupcake wrapping paper on Perpetual Kid.  The faces of the cupcakes remind me of the Bad Cupcake bag I got at Cal Poly Bookstore two years ago.  It’s $3.99 for two sheets of 20X30 inch paper.

Cupcakes presented art gallery style is how I would describe MORE cupcakerie in Chicago. Smoother-than-silk frostings.  Sculpted icings.  Chocolate curls as tight as Shirley Temple’s.

And the flavors?  MORE’s list of cupcakes includes a blackberry, salted caramel, and chocolate mint (pictured).

I’m thinking Chicago Museum of Art, stroll along the lakefront, and some downtown deep dish pizza, followed by MORE, MORE, MORE.