Spotlight on Bath Baby Cakes

Bath Baby Cakes is a home-based bakery in Bath (UK). This spotlight comes from their Flickr photos.

See the cupcake frosting machine in action May 7th

Another reminder about the next NYC Cupcake Meetup which is our Cupcake Social 2.0, next Thursday, May 7th!



You will get to see this in action:


Bre Pettis with his Cupcake CNC machine, one of many open-source inventions created at NYC Resistor, the Brooklyn hacker space. (Photo by Anthony Lanzilote for C)
photo via Bre Pettis on Flickr

A most unusual way to serve cupcakes

I found this photo of cupcakes on a Tina Tsang tea set at The Frisky. Not really sure what to make of it or whether I'd use it, but it's definitely an interesting and attention-getting way to serve cupcakes!

It's being sold for $128, and you can also get it with red shoes instead of gold. Too pricey for the likes of my tiny apartment, but fun, if a bit bizarre, to look at.

Teacake Bakeshop cupcakes arrived intact

The cupcakes I ordered ($71.95 total!) from Emeryville, CA's Teacake Bakeshop arrived, overnight (to Manhattan), looking perfectly intact. They were packed in dry ice and I'm not sure if they were just cold or frozen, but now they're refrigerated. Instructions say to remove the plastic wrap while they are still frozen, and they suggest thawing them in the microwave for a few seconds. I don't have a problem with cold cupcakes though. These ones are Children's Hospital charity cupcakes, with 50% of the proceeds going to Oakland's Children's Hospital and Research Center.







I haven't tasted them yet and am off to a cupcake party so will try them tomorrow and give you a taste report! I'm excited to try them, but the day got away from me, and I don't like to ruin my enjoyment of cupcakes by eating too many right after one another but I wanted to share some information about the packaging and how they came out.

And obviously, I live in New York, I have many, many places where I can purchase cupcakes. I was asked by a family friend which mail order place I recommend, and since I haven't tried them all, I'm doing so in an attempt to bring you the most accurate information possible.

If any bakeries want to test ship cupcakes to us, we'd be happy to try them, just write to us at cupcakestakethecake at gmail.com

Free cupcakes at Sprinkles Friday, May 1st via Twitter

Sprinkles Cupcakes will announce a cupcake giveaway for tomorrow, May 1st...on Twitter, using its new account @sprinklesaddict (kindof a funny name considering @sprinklescupcakes doesn't yet exist, but okay).

Their first (and so far, only) post reads:

Thank you for following Sprinkles! Free cupcakes are coming on Friday!

Their publicist confirmed tomorrow's mystery announcement via email and, of course, Twitter.

Last night at Butter Lane...

Rachel blogged about the Wednesday night happening at NYC's Butter Lane, and I was lucky enough to be able to stop by for a few minutes last night. It was a madhouse!! Champagne was flowin', people were eating frosting, buying cupcakes, comparing tips and techniques, and above it all were the Butter Lane ladies, dishing out experience, wisdom and frosting.

I met TheRedHeadSaid there, and plan to pick her (very smart) brains for frosting likes and dislikes, so stay tuned for that. Also, Pam, one of Butter Lane's owners, mentioned that they may have a regular Wednesday night "thing." How cool would that be?? If so, I'll be there, camera in hand, frosting in face. (Last night I had a dinner date so I was, for a change, without a camera to document the scene. You can see other Butter Lane shots and a review here.)

Oh, and lest I forget, I tried the new frosting flavor: grapefruit-mango. Yowza! That packs a piquant punch. It's tart and refreshing in the springtime heat.

Iron Cupcake: Chicago debuts June 1st

Iron Cupcake is expanding its empire with the new Iron Cupcake: Chicago to launch June 1st at 6 pm, organized by Irma of Beautiful Cakes (also see her Flickr stream).

Contact Irma at beautifulcakes at sbcglobal.net to get involved in Iron Cupcake: Chicago.

Speaking of Chicago, a CupcakeCamp Chicago is in the works. Email CupcakeCampChicago at gmail.com to get in on the planning. (Click here to see all the past/future CupcakeCamps being organized.)

New bakery's cupcake flavors: Sweet Potato Pie, Sweet 'n' Salty Cashew and Peach Cobbler

A new bakery called CupCake Kitchen is opening in Detroit (Clinton Township) according to The Detroit Free Press.

The URL given in the article, www.cupcakekitchen.net doesn't seem to work, but hopefully will be soon. (Bakeries: We do NOT recommend having a major press story come out about you and not having a URL, let alone having one and having it be dormant. Word to the wise - even a very, very basic setup with name/address/hours/phone/email is preferable to nothing at all!) I don't just say that because I'm a cupcake blogger and rely on information from official bakery sources, but also because this would apply to any business. Customers don't have tons of time to waste hunting for information, and the entire point of drumming up press is to feed your business.

That being said, I look forward to hearing reader reports on CupCake Kitchen and like their innovative flavors. From the article:

From 12 to 15 of their 67 flavors are available each day, baked fresh from scratch, they say.

Their repertoire ranges from traditional recipes such as Classic Chocolate — chocolate cake, whipped vanilla cream center, and chocolate ganache topping — to imaginative cupcake creations like Sweet Potato Pie, Sweet ‘n’ Salty Cashew and Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, featuring a rich peanut butter cake filled with fresh strawberry marmalade and a peanut butter frosting.

Others include Key Lime Pie, Peach Cobbler CupCake, Cherry CheeseCake, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Breakfast sandwiches, hot and cold lunch sandwiches, salads and daily soups are also available, along with a broad lineup of other desserts, ranging from pies and bars to breads and trifles...

The shop — located in the mall’s Parisian court — is open 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 8 a.m.-midnight Thursday-Saturday and 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. (17420 Hall Road; 586-228-0808.)

Nurse cupcakes

There really are cupcakes for every holiday, including Nurses Day, which Sprinkles Cupcakes (various locations) is celebrating with these red velvet and vanilla cupcakes (available in a special box), available May 6th:



Some other similar doctor/nurse-themed cupcakes:


These are by Blue Cupcake via Flickr:

"Part of an order for a pharmaceutical company. These are offered as gift to doctors and each box has a cupcake with the name of the doctor."


Healthcare-themed cupcakes by Petit Cupcakes of London, Ontario via Flickr"

"'Healthcare' themed cupcakes to celebrate the end of a student's nursing practicum!

'Coconut Dream' coconut cupcakes with coconut buttercream, topped with shredded coconut."

Kickass Cupcakes window proclaims, "We're Proud to Say...People Hate Us on Yelp"

This Twitpic by @devon is making the rounds on Twitter today (what some are calling "the Yelp backlash"). It's a fabulous way that Somerville, Massachusetts bakery Kickass Cupcakes is responding to review site Yelp.

This also comes after an East Bay Express article called "Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0," which Yelp responded to.

We checked out Kickass Cupcakes' page on Yelp and here's some of what's been said:

Bryan M.:

So I decided to go with the super chocolate (being the chocolate fan I am). I got it to go. The employee then bagged it and gave me a subtle thank you and good bye. I thought to myself, how could you be so miserable when you work around cupcakes all day...then I got home and took a bite out of the cup cake and understood. THEY SUCK. I would be miserable too if I had to work around such a horrible product.

The cake itself was dry...almost as it has been sitting there for days. The hard chocolate pieces on top of the cupcake were bland and had barely any taste and the ganache was more like something made with Crisco...let me re-phrase that....EXPIRED Crisco!!! Finally the size of it was very disappointing...though it DID take to much space in my trash can (for those who can't get the very bad joke I just said: I threw it away), it was very small for the price.

I sound bitter (not as bitter as the ganache) and I am. A 50 cent cupcake from Stop and Shop is gourmet heaven compared to this.

Robert M.:

After seeing kickass featured on the Phantom Gourmet we thought it would be a hoot to take our 6 year old niece to Davis Square to pick out a box of cupcakes for dessert. I had the red velvet and the super chocolate and I have to say they were really disappointing. Very dry cupcakes that needed a tall glass of milk to wash them down. The frosting was wonderful. We joked we should have made our own cupcakes from a box and just bought kickass frosting.

Meghan J.:

love me some cupcakes, BUT not these.

They are WAY overpriced and leave you feeling like you ate a brick afterwards. How's that for comfort food? The cupcakes are very small for what they charge, but worse than that, they are dry and not moist at all.

The concept of the shop is fantastic, the the cupcakes do not live up to the expectation.

Change the name or change the cupcakes.

There are also some positive ones, such as Jenna C.:

As a confirmed dessert fiend, I know a good cupcake when I see one, and this is definitely where its at. My cousin split the cupcake parfait with me, and I don't want to eat anything but cupcake parfaits ever again.

I really like the chocolate cupcake, too, and the banana cream is actually heart-stoppingly good, and I usually don't go for banana cream stuff (like pies, or this strange pudding thing they used to serve in our school cafeteria).

You can, of course, read all the reviews for yourself. I highlighted them because I think it's a gusty move for Kickass Cupcakes. I'm curious how it will affect their business, and whether anyone else will follow suit.

I have written 3 reviews on Yelp, of New York City bakeries Butter Lane, Batch and Sweet Revenge, but as a consumer, I tend to mostly use it when out of town (I recommend the Yelp iPhone app.)

What do you think? Do review sites matter to you when choosing a cupcake bakery? Do you use them yourself?

Happy National Caramel Corn Day!

This cupcake is from Happiness in a Bite of Carmel, Indiana, via Flickr and is composed of:

Vanilla cupcake topped with caramel vanilla buttercream, caramel corn and drizzled with a caramel sauce.

And yes, according to the big list of food holidays, today, April 30th, is indeed National Caramel Corn Day! (Don't worry, there won't be a test.)

Sugar sugar...

This was made by My Sweet and Saucy (via Flickr)

How to get me to buy a magazine I've never heard of

How to get me to buy a magazine I've never heard of
Originally uploaded by Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake

Put cupcakes on the cover! I'm at Whole Foods, will blog more about
Clean Living magazine later.

Of course it's a happy hour if cupcakes are involved!

We've been seeing more and more bakeries, such as Kickass Cupcakes, do cupcake happy hours. I love this image from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) bakery Flirt Cupcakes about theirs:





I've never tried their cupcakes but I think they look beautiful and I really like their logo and branding, from the name to the way they've set up their site. It's simple but easy to navigate, and they're on Facebook and Twitter. My only quibble is I had trouble signing up for their newsletter; I got an error message in Firefox and Safari.

Vue Weekly has the scoop on this growing bakery:

The pair initially considered the idea of adopting the Vancouver-based franchise Cupcakes, but realized it would mean ceding their conceptions and control over their business. "We both thought, 'If we're going to do this,'" tells Krupa, "'we're going to do this with our ideas. We have enough skill and life experience to come up with our own vision of what we want.'"

Everything from the flooring to the colour scheme to the logo was discussed in detail. Then came the cupcakes themselves. "Michelle was pretty particular about what the recipes would taste like," says Krupa. "She's been making cupcakes for 10 years."

The bakery offers either a vanilla or chocolate cake base with eight different icing varieties per day. The icing recipes have slowly evolved as well, as Flirt recently began using a Madagascar bourbon vanilla for their buttercream icing, and after being introduced to a Venezuelan cocoa by Kerstin's Chocolates, integrated the richer, premium cocoa into their signature chocolate icing. New flavours are also continuously in development, with a goal of offering a special type every week (a black forest cupcake is already in the works).

Regular patrons have already pegged their favourites, ranging from Krupa's preference, the Marie Antoinette with a cream cheese icing, to Lemoignan's pick, the strawberry-topped Wild on Whyte. Krupa says the store has received their share of compliments for their cupcakes. "A little old lady came in one day," Krupa shares, "and she just said, 'I want you to know that your vanilla cake tastes like white toast with lots of butter and honey.'"


Flirt Cupcakes photo by Flickr user mastermaq


Flirt Cupcakes photo by Flickr user mastermaq

Flirt Cupcakes
10158 - 82 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
T6E 1Z4
Canada
780-757-4899
info at flirtcupcakes.com

Cupcake art digital collage

This is available for $3.99 on Etsy from Tiny Bird Arts, and is described as such:

Kawaii cute cupcakes in perfect pastel frosting colors with gorgeous red cherries. These are 7/8" squares which are perfect for scrabble tile pendants...

It's a high-resolution, 300 dpi, 8.5" x 11" PDF file that you can print over and over again. You've got different cupcake and cherry color combinations in perfectly coordinating shades of white, turquoise, lemon yellow, purple, green and candy pink.

via Flickr

800 mini cupcakes all on one table

Okay, that subject line is kindof a lie because all 800 are not going to fit in one photo, but check out the others these and the others L's Cupcake Cafe in Austin, Texas posted on Flickr.

Hungry Girl Lisa Lillien is back with another cookbook and more cupcakes

Last year, we brought you an interview with Hungry Girl founder and editor Lisa Lillien about her first cookbook. We later got to meet her in person at a 1-800-FLOWERS cupcake event, and were excited to see another cookbook out, Hungry Girl 200 Under 200:: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories. We know a lot of you are watching your weight, and I recently realized I can't get into a lot of my clothes from eating cupcakes way more than once a week. Also, since her book is ranked #17 on Amazon.com (meaning it's their 17th best-selling book out of ALL the books they sell!) it's clear that a lot of other people are interested in what Hungry Girl offers.

I know some people think "diet cupcakes" is an oxymoron, but many others ask us about how they can feed their cupcake obsession and not gain weight. I usually say eat them in moderation, which I stand by, but I also thinking looking into ways to get the cupcake taste sensation and cuteness without as much fat/calories is a valid way to go as well.

So I was thrilled to see that there are a lot of cupcake recipes in the new book, including:

Banana cupcakes with PB frosting
Chocolate Marshmallow Madness cupcakes (see recipe below)
Crazy-Crumbly Super-Yummy Coffee Cakes
Death by Chocolate Cone Cakes
14-Carat Cupcakes
Iced 'n Spiced Pumpkin Puddin' cupcakes
Jelly-filled cupcakes
Pina Colada Cupcakes
Razzle Dazzle Chocolate Raspberry cupcakes
Red Velvet Insanity cupcakes (pictured)
and Strawberry Shortycakes





And we have the recipe for the one below (I selfishly picked it because it's the one I most want to eat!), courtesy of publisher St. Martin's Griffin - thanks!



Chocolate Marshmallow Madness Cupcakes by Lisa Lillien

per serving (1 glazed and topped cupcake): 109 calories, 2g fat, 230mg sodium, 21g carbs, 0.75g fiber, 12.5g sugars, 2g protein

Ingredients

For Cupcakes

2 cups moist-style chocolate cake mix (½ of an

18.25-ounce box)

One 25-calorie packet diet hot cocoa mix

½ cup fat-free liquid egg substitute

1 tablespoon Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)

1⁄8 teaspoon salt

For Glaze

¼ cup Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme

1 teaspoon light vanilla soymilk

For Topping

1 tablespoon mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

12 mini marshmallows

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a tall glass, combine cocoa mix with ¼ cup hot water. Stir until cocoa dissolves. Add 1 cup cold water and stir well.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, Splenda, and salt. Add egg substitute and cocoa mixture, then whisk until smooth.

Line a 12-cup muffin pan with baking cups and/or spray with nonstick spray. Evenly distribute cake mixture among the cups.

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool.

To prepare glaze, place marshmallow creme in a small dish. Add soymilk and mix well.

Once cupcakes have cooled completely, drizzle marshmallow glaze over them. Top each cupcake with ¼ teaspoon chocolate chips and one mini marshmallow. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

MAKES 12 SERVINGS

For more ideas, see Hungry Girl 200 Under 200 and the Hungry Girl website.

McCormick, Hello, Cupcake!, offset spatulas, and Vonage

I believe it was during my cry for help over the 100+ cupcake baking challenge that McCormick got in touch with me. See how cute their gift box is??





Now, if there were a set of bakers, ovens, racks, frosters and packers in that box life would have been gooood indeed. Alas, there were only goodies, but very nice ones, including a new offset spatula, which I was desperate for!







And, one of my all-time favorite cupcake cookbooks (like, ever!):





Embarrassingly, I usually just depend on the last chapter of the book where the cheats are, and where the next-to-instant frostings are. For that, Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, I will be always grateful. And because on their blog, they made me a tall thin statue. Yes!



On an embarrassing and totally unrelated side note, I recently switched to VoIP (Vonage) and it's been hell. So I apologize if I have outstanding phone calls or emails to return to you. It's me, it's not you. Really. Actually, it's VONAGE, not me or you. But I promise as soon as things are back on track, I'll be in contact. Thank you for your patience. That is all.

/transmission


All photos by Stacie Joy.

Cherry Coke float cupcakes for Iron Cupcake: Earth

These Cherry Coke float cupcakes are by blogger Coco Bean, who has more photos and the recipe. I like the touch of the cherry candy in the photo. (via Baking Bites)

They're an entry into the latest Iron Cupcake Earth competition.

Go check out all the entries; you have until May 4th at noon central time to vote! Milwaukee Cupcake Queen, aka Sandy, who runs Iron Cupcake: Earth blogged that "In my humble opinion, the April challenge SODA POP, proved to be the most creative yet! Jones Soda, Izze, Stewarts, Coke, Red Bull, Mountain Dew, Barqs, Cheer Wine, NeHi, old and new hip or retro, so many bubbly sweet creations were born."

Coco Bean writes:

I tried to remember my favourite pop growing up and all I could think about was cherry coke floats. We even had an old school fridge in the basement dedicated to holding all things Coca Cola. My dad used to get out the big beer steins and drop a great big scoop of ice-cream into them. My brother and I loved seeing the pop fly everywhere; my mother on the other hand... did not.

These cutie cupcakes are made with cherry cola, and even have a cherry baked into the center of them! The cupcake was glazed with a cola icing for the “float”, then topped with cherry buttercream, the “ice-cream”…and a cherry of course!

And for those who want to get their Iron Cupcake on, the May challenge is to make savory cupcakes!



And if you're in Milwaukee, enter the next Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee event on May 26th:

More Mother's Day cupcakes

Mother's Day is coming up on May 10th. I will actually be in Geneva with my mom from May 9th-16th, so posting on my end may be light, and, as we've already covered, I highly doubt there will be cupcakes involved, unless I bring them over from New York.



Teacake Bakeshop, based in Emeryville, California, does Next Day Air cupcake delivery (I just placed my first order - for non-Mother's Day cupcakes - so will report probably tomorrow on their shipping). These costs $45 (plus $26.95 shipping, for a $71.95 total).

Each cupcake is frosted by hand and decorated with our hand-crafted fondant pink and ivory blossom decorations and MOM fondant circles. Each cupcake is nestled in our pink signature gift box held snugly in place with our custom pink cupcake insert.

Total nine cupcakes, 31.5 oz (2lbs) net weight. Each measures 2.5” x 1.5”

Each cupcake gift box includes the following flavors:

(3) Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream, (3) Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream, and (3) Pink Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.



Mrs. Beasley's Mother's Day cupcakes - 6 for $23.95 or 12 for $47.95

Want to send Mom something really special this Mother’s Day? Send her a box of Mrs. Beasley’s famous Gourmet Cupcakes! Each cupcake is hand made and hand-decorated using all natural ingredients like fresh fruits and premium extracts. Our Mother’s Day collection contains two each of our Grape, Strawberry and Vanilla cupcakes. Shipped in special packaging with dry ice, so they arrive in perfect condition for Mom to enjoy. Please note: Our cupcakes require special shipping and handling.



Sprinkles Mother's Day MOM box of cupcakes - price not listed.

This includes lemon, dark chocolate, vanilla and red velvet, and is available May 8-10. They also sell MOM loves Sprinkles t-shirts.

My latest cupcake t-shirt

Despite owning at least a dozen cupcake t-shirts, I couldn't resist snapping this one up when I saw it at Ricky's (a drugstore/makeup store) the other day. It was $19.95. Cute, right?

Cupcake competition in Florida

Doug Gruse at The Post-Star reports on a recent cupcake competition - click through for the video and recipes for lemon cupcakes, raspberry filling and raspberry buttercream frosting. Sounds delicious and perfect for summer.

This month's "CompEAT" cooking competition, which focused on cupcakes, brought back my childhood battle between chocolate and lemon.

Rachel St. Martin, owner and founder of Spa City Cupcakes in Saratoga Springs, brought her signature chocolate peanut butter cup cupcakes to the challenge. The decadent, super-chocolatey treats are filled and topped with rich peanut butter frosting.

Reporter Alyson Martin and I decided the popular chocolate cupcakes would be hard to beat, so we went in the opposite direction.

After much debate, we developed a recipe for lemonberry cupcakes. The dessert featured a lemon cake with raspberry filling, topped with raspberry buttercream frosting.

We had a practice baking session several days before the challenge to refine our ideas. Although we were happy with the results, we made a few alterations for the big day.

Meeting head-to-head for a cook-off at Saratoga Restaurant Equipment Sales in Gansevoort, The Post-Star team frantically baked against St. Martin, the cupcake queen of Saratoga Springs. At the end of the session, both teams delivered fine cupcake specimens.

As the audience, made up of Post-Star readers, sampled each flavor, I wasn't sure which one they would pick.

I noticed most of them went for the chocolate cupcake first.

Did lemon finally have its day in the sun? You'll have to watch the online video to find out.

Spotlight on Cake Girl

Today's Flickr spotlight is on Cake Girl of Overland Park, Kansas, whose website is Cake Girl. I'm only including cupcake towers because I think she has some great examples of various ways to make them. She can be reached at cakegirlkc at yahoo.com