Defending cupcakes comes with the territory when you blog about cupcakes and four years ago, I went on a little rant. Thanks to the Timehop app, I am reminded of this tweet.
quick rant: cupcakes are not a fad, not a substitute for sex, not the new black, not the savior of the economy. just eat one and shut up.
— Nichelle Stephens (@niche) July 29, 2010
The owners of Butter Lane sent us a press release this morning:
Pam Nelson, Linda Lea and Maria Baugh are excited to announce the sale of Butter Lane to Lisa Liu, an experienced restaurant owner and entrepreneur. Lisa will take over the day-to-day operations of Butter Lane's flagship location in New York City's East Village. Pam, Linda and Maria retain ownership of the brand and look forward to expanding the wholesale business and launching more cupcake baking classes.The founders of Butter Lane will continue to own and operate the Brooklyn location which is in Park Slope. I wonder if Butter Lane may consider franchising in the future.
A Liza Minelli cupcake is a great way to start the week. I spotted this on Reddit.
I loved this sign outside Hello Cupcake in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. I tried their special Samoa cupcake yesterday along with a bite of my friend's salted caramel cupcake and both were delicious! Their website is a little out of date (I'm seeing a March special cupcake) but you can see their flavors here and visit their Facebook page. I was intrigued by their key lime cupcake but only had room for one this time.
Samoa cupcake
salted caramel cupcake
peanut butter blossom cupcakes
Melissa Ben-Ishay, founder of Baked By Melissa, discusses the cupcake craze in America and how her business is staying fresh as she attempts to expand the brand beyond New York City. She appeared on Bloomberg's Market Makers.
Key Lime pie is a dessert that is delicious when the flavor is right. Sometimes can be too tart or too sweet. Sugarkissed made Key Lime Cake Pops and she shows you how to make them.
So we know that red velvet is a thing. On St. Patrick's Day, you see green velvet. Blue Velvet has also been spotted. Pink velvet is pretty and one of Cupcakes Take The Cake Flickr members made these.
Speaking of pink velvet, I did a cake mix hack earlier this week using Duncan Hines Pink Velvet mix. I added a ripe banana, made a lemon glaze and it is delicious. The cake is like a hybrid between banana bread and yellow cake. It is less dense that banana bread. It's great to eat with coffee in the morning.
We love to know what is new with cupcakes whether is new flavors, products or technology. Five years ago, Cupcakes Take The Cake was one of the first blogs to report on 3D printing via the Makerbot Cupcake CNC.
Now, two Harvard students have created the Spray Cake which is cake batter in a aerosol can. I read about them on PSFK. John McCallum and Brook Nowakowski have created an easy way to dispense cake and cupcake batter. The Spray Cake also cuts down the baking time.
The accelerant in the can releases air bubbles inside the batter, eliminating the need for baking soda and baking powder so the confection is ready to eat almost instantly. It takes 30 seconds to bake a cupcake in the microwave, and only one minute to bake a full cake.- (via Time)
More than 90% of figs grown in the United States are grown in California. A fig is a fruit that is often paired with more savory food like ham or brie, but it is really sweet. Angel Cakes in San Francisco baked these lovely fig with honey and goat cheese cupcakes.
Even if you consider yourself to be not very artistic, you can easily draw a cupcake. CakeSpy illustrates how to draw a cupcake.
But what else would you expect from a bakery with the cool name of James and the Giant Cupcake and delicious cupcakes to bake it up? Check them out in Oakland, California and on Facebook.
