Mission Minis launches in San Francisco

Mission Minis in San Francisco joins Kumquat Cupcakery in Brooklyn and Mini's Cupcakes in Salt Lake City as mini cupcake only companies. Mission Minis owner Brandon Arnovick emailed us today to say that he just opened, and his cupcakes are available at King of Coffee, 24th street @ Hampshire, San Francisco. No word yet on prices, but we'll have more about this brand-new company soon.

Here are some photos from the Mission Minis Flickr account. I'll be in San Francisco in October so look forward to trying them.


Flavor: Honey, I Love You


Flavor: Blueberry Crunch (to ask Brandon: what is the crunch made of?)


Flavor: Ice Cream Dream


Flavor: An Apple a Day (I really want to try these!)


Flavor: Spring Fever

We'll have more an interview here with Brandon about Mission Minis soon.

Mission Minis
415-378-7827
brandon at missionminis.com

4th of july cupcakes

4th of july cupcakes
Originally uploaded by jewelsb78(thefrostedcakencookie)

These red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting are by The Frosted Cake 'n Cookie. More 4th of July cupcakes will be posted soon!

Bridal shower cupcakes

These dragee-adorned bridal shower cupcakes are by Milk and Honey Cafe (click through for recipe) via Food TV Fan Forums.

Sarah of Milk and Honey Cafe writes:

By the way, these cupcakes were for a bridal shower favor. I used a new cake recipe from Martha's Baking Handbook and they turned out pretty good. Amanda from slow like honey suggested it to me (when I realized I had the recipe right in my bookshelf!) The cake was light and moist -- yes, but I felt that I could taste the eggs a lot. I don't really like eggy. But other than that, it was pretty darn tasty!

Cupcake stationery from Dingbat Press

Cupcake pops stationery - that's so cool! These are all from Dingbat Press, via their Flickr account. (click here to see their cupcake items currently for sale on Etsy)

These cupcake pop recipe cards are $25 for a set of 15, in their Etsy store:

4x6" Letterpressed recipe cards, set of 15.
Printed on 300GSM/110# Lettra Fluorescent White paper.
2 Colors (brown and RED)

Dingbat Press also has lots of other fun cupcake items and is having a sale right now - spend $25, get a free set of cupcake tags, spend $50, get a free set of cupcake recipe cards.



Cupcake recipe cards - $18 for a set of 10 (also available in red)



Cupcake gift tags - $13 for a set of 10

You can read more about them on their blog, follow them on Twitter, and, of course, shop in their Etsy shop.

Wedding cupcakes in Martha Stewart Weddings

We know how much Martha Stewart loves cupcakes, so it's no surprise that the latest issue of Martha Stewart Weddings, which just went on sale, features cupcakes prominently, with a scrumptious, mouth-watering and varied photo gallery of cupcake designs and ideas, as well as cupcake stands to make your wedding cupcakes look as beautiful as they can be.



Here are two of my favorites:



Lace cupcake towers (see the magazine for instructions on making these):

This project is very forgiving, so you may use other sizes of box bases and lids to make towers; however, you may need more or fewer strips of clip art. These towers were made to hold mini cupcakes only.



Here's what they say about this one:

Here's a proposal that doesn't require a bended knee: Serve a pint-size pillow of cake with a sweet candy sparkler tucked on top. Moist carrot cake, a cloud of cream-cheese frosting, and a smooth fondant overlay complete the conceit.

(Okay, the chocolate craving and berry delicious were also favorites, but I liked the ones pictured above because they were a new, to me, take on wedding cupcakes. Have to say, though, that the Queen of Hearts cupcakes kindof remind me of Twilight cupcakes, perhaps not what you'd want at your wedding, even though they are adorable.)

There are so many scrumptious wedding cupcake ideas and serving suggestions, some that seriously made me drool, so please visit their entire gallery.

The magazine also features the cupcakes Laura and Ben had at their wedding, which were done by Sage Events with sugar flowers by Sugar Flower Shop in New York City.

Kitty cupcakes for Stacie

Since Stacie has posted s'mores cupcakes for me, I'm posting these kitty cat cupcakes by Flickr user Fuzzy Gerdes for her!

Blue and yellow cupcakes, simple and beautiful

I look at so many cupcake photos all day (and night) that sometimes I forget that it's not always the most elaborate ones that are the most gorgeous.

Something about these cupcakes by Sweet Mumma's Cupcakes of (via Flickr) just struck me. They're vanilla cupcakes made for a neighbor's birthday.

Sweet Mumma's Cupcakes is located on the Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia, and this is how they describe themselves:

Sweet Mumma's Cupcakes are run by Donna and Leanne. We are 2 Sweet Mumma's with 2 sweet boys(1 each) and a passion for cooking cupcakes. See their site for more info.

pretty printed paper

I was next door, at Adorama, picking up my students' prints when this framed cupcake-paper-print at A.I. Friedman totally caught my eye. I only had a cell phone on me, so forgive the quality of the shot, but holy moley! isn't that neat? I would SO have this in my apartment. Would you?

Virginia is for cupcakes

from The Virginian-Pilot:

Rose Fullmer, owner of The Honey Tree children's clothing boutique in the Town Center of Virginia Beach, recently added Cupcake Me, a counter selling the delicacies of local baker Andy McClaskey.

At Hilltop West in Virginia Beach, Just Cupcakes is scheduled to open in early July. Owner Carla Peay Hesselstine plans to offer a daily array of eight flavors, such as Pucker Up Buttercup and Frankly Scarlett.

The newcomers follow in the frosted footsteps of Carolina Cupcakery, which opened in the Edinburgh Commons area of Chesapeake a year ago as the region's first store specializing in the dessert.

Owner Dawn Eskins recently expanded her kitchen to accommodate gluten- and sugar-free baking and to take wholesale orders.

Do lemon cupcakes taste better when they're yellow? A report from sugar Sweet sunshine

This weekend, since I was stuck in New York thanks to Delta canceling my flight to Kansas City (again, from personal experience, I'd say do NOT fly Delta if you want to actually go anywhere), I decided to visit some local bakeries and see what was going on. I have a few places that are new to me to visit in Astoria that were recommended by friends, and a few that aren't new but whose cupcakes I've never tried.

I stopped in at sugar Sweet sunshine on the Lower East Side, who usually have the same delicious, reliable flavors. This time, I noticed their strawberry cream cheese frosting cupcakes. I'm not the biggest cream cheese frosting fan, but I figured I'd try one. They also had lemon cupcakes, which they normally do, but normally, they are not this yellow:



Actually, when I bought mine, there were only two left, which were quickly replace by the above tray.



Now, I like their lemon cupcakes okay, but when I got these, I was more excited than normal, and I can tell you, for me it's because the frosting was yellow. Did they actually taste different than the usual lemon cupcakes with their white frosting? I'd have to do a side by side comparison to really be sure, but I can tell you I really enjoyed that lemon cupcake in a way I don't normally with theirs. It was perfectly tart, which is what I needed, especially if I was going to eat two cupcakes (love their prices, only $3 for 2!).





I don't know if you can tell from the above photo, but there were actual chunks of strawberry in the very light cake. I even managed to enjoy the cream cheese frosting, which was thick but not too "cheesey" (that's the part I don't like about cream cheese frosting).

Both of these were perfect for a hot summer day, because they were sweet, but didn't kill you with sugar, and I could even feel a little bit healthy for eating something with fruit in it!

I also felt a bit silly because I've probably been in sugar Sweet sunshine at least 50 times over the years, and had never truly looked at their adorable cupcake flavor logos:



As to whether cupcakes actually taste better depending on their color, I think you'd have to talk to Joanne Chen, author of the excellent book The Taste of Sweet. As a consumer, I can say that if they have these yellow lemony lemon cupcakes again, those are the ones I will order before even my beloved Sunshine (vanilla/vanilla).

See all my photos here.

What fruit is for: Chocolate raspberry cupcakes

photo via Flickr

These cupcakes come from food blog Pie of the Tiger, and if you couldn't tell by looking at them, they're not just any chocolate raspberry cupcakes. They're:

Chocolate raspberry cupcakes with three types of ganache made from three types of good chocolate: Valrhona-raspberry inside the raspberries, Scharffen Berger for the filling, and Michel Cluizel ganache frosting on top.

Wow!


photo via Flickr

There are some amazing, amazing photos in the post, along with the reasons for the three kinds of chocolate and a step-by-step photo illustration of the chocolate insertion process. The recipe came from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

I tend to trust Martha Stewart recipes, and Martha definitely didn’t fail me this time. I used the Devil’s Food Cupcakes recipe for these, and they were perfect for the purpose: not so chocolatey that they’d just seem like an extension of all the ganache I was planning to utilize, but not watered down like so many chocolate baked goods are. The texture was so soft and moist–in the recipe’s description, they attribute this to sour cream–and they were divine both warm from the oven and cooled down and decorated. (For reference, the recipe yielded 18 normal-sized cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes. The baking time was spot on for my oven, with a five minute deduction to the time when baking the mini cupcakes.)

I baked them Friday night and then set about decorating them Saturday morning. First thing, I washed the raspberries and laid them out to dry on a cooling rack covered in paper towels, making sure that there was no water inside or out because the raspberries were going to be surrounded by ganache and water is a great way to invite mold into your chocolates. I made my raspberry ganache, so it would have a little time to set up to a pipeable consistency before I started filling the cupcakes. I improvised the recipe, and the formula is easy to remember: 8 oz. of dark chocolate (Valrhona in this case), 8 oz. of cream, and 8 oz. of raspberry preserves. I put the preserves straight into the cream as I heated it to simmering, mixing to combine the two, and strained it over the chocolate to keep the seeds out of the ganache.


photo via Flickr

Gorgeous wedding cupcake tower display

These wedding cupcakes are by Artisan Cake Company of Keizer, Oregon, via Flickr.

And once again, the cake and cupcakes can co-exist!

Cupcakes at the beach

Or rather, beach cupcakes, from Kati Angelini of Kati's Cupcakes (see her Flickr set for more), who is organizing Iron Cupcake: Moorestown (New Jersey). The first event will take place July 31st. Here are the details, RSVP on Meetup:

At our Iron Cupcake Challenge:Moorestown events we will have members submit a tray of cupcakes to be judged by local celebrities! There will be prizes, lots of fun and bragging rights to be named the Iron Cupcake Moorestown champ!! Come out, show off your baking talents, have fun, support the community and win prizes! Top prize is $150.00 and there are second and third place prizes also! Proceeds from each Iron Cupcake Challenge will also benefit local charities! Come have a blast and get ready to rumble at the Iron Cupcake Challenge---are you up for the challenge???? The secret ingredient for July's Iron Cupcake Challenge is Lemon and the sales from this event will benefit Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.

July event listings needed by tomorrow (6/30) at 5 pm

Yes, it's time for another monthly cupcake calendar!

Send us your event's details, including event name, date/time, address, price, 2-3 sentence description, and URL (and, if available, a photo or image) to cupcakestakethecake at gmail.com by Tuesday, June 30th at 5 pm EST to be posted July 1st. Thanks! International events welcome.

Cupcake cocktail happy hour tonight at Kickass Cupcakes

Every Monday, Kickass Cupcakes in Somerville, Massachusetts has a cupcake cocktail hour. Today's flavors are listed above. Read our interview with Kickass Cupcakes owner Sara Ross here.


Kickass Cupcakes photo by Flickr user LaLaLove...


Kickass Cupcakes photo by Flickr user fromourruins

Layla, my favorite 'dog + cupcake' star

Layla, you poor, sweet, long-suffering (and very well-behaved) doggie:





Your momma (cupcakequeen) baked yet another scrumptious delectable cupcake (a Martha Stewart's impossible to resist S'mores, no less) and then just TAUNTS you with it. But do you lunge, grab the cake and run? Nope. You just sit there so well-behaved...I think I may love you, doggie Layla.


You can see more about the cupcakequeen and Layla at their blog, here.


:)

Gerber daisy cupcakes

These pink Gerber daisy cupcakes are by Carolina's Cakes and Confections in Wilmington, North Carolina, via Flickr. They're chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.

Michael Jackson Cupcakes From Dubai

Yesterday I got an email from a friend who has a friend Aaron who is a pastry chef in Dubai. Aaron works at Sugar Daddy's Bakery. On Friday morning in Dubai, word hadn't really spread about Michael Jackson's death the way it had here in the States, so he made honorary cupcakes because he thought it would be good that people could hear the news via cupcake.

Even more Kupcake Kebabs!

Nora's started a trend. And a damn fine one.





CTTC favorite kristin_a has made a (patriotic) tutorial, which you can scroll through here.






and






Go forth and Kebab, young'uns, and then let us know how it went.

Strawberry cream cheese cupcakes at sugar Sweet sunshine

Strawberry cream cheese cupcakes at sugar Sweet sunshine
Originally uploaded by Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake

These were a fun surprise on Saturday at sugar Sweet sunshine, a
cupcake flavor I'd never seen there before.. More about them and my
NYC weekend cupcake eating soon. I didn't make it to Kansas City (if
you want to get where you're going, don't fly Delta) but will be going
in August and have several cupcake companies to try. Thanks for all
the KC tips.

Bird-day cupcakes!

The blog Death by Chickens is featuring several photos of these adorable bird-day cupcakes (via Flickr).



Julie Ann writes of the above photo:

The cupcakes in the last photo, I used mini chocolate chips for the eyes, yellow icing for the beaks and wings from Keebler Bug Bites Crackers (I used the fireflies and broke them in half!). I realized after I made these, that pecan halves would have worked for the wings as well. But the kids will like these better anyway.

I say: ADORABLE!

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett tribute cupcakes from our Flickr pool

And Michael Jackson cupcakes have appeared in our Flickr cupcake photo pool:


by Flickr user abbietabbie


Flickr user Cik Kiah paid tribute to the two major celebrity deaths this week in cupcake form.

Michael Jackson cupcakes on sale in Austin at Hey, Cupcake

Updated

Had to update when I saw that this story has made it to the ABC News blog Campus Chatter, with a very unfortunate and, imo, stupid opening line ("It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, just if you’re chocolate and cream cheese. Well, at least that’s true for Hey Cupcake in Austin, Texas."):

“We had calls of people asking for 40, 20 Michael Jacksons,” said a worker who wished to remain anonymous. “We were wondering if we should pull it, but we love Michael Jackson too much!”

Karli Leonard, 21, bought three Michael Jacksons. Upon learning of the death of the "King of Pop," Leonard had what she described as a nervous breakdown, crying all day with her mother. But, she felt she could pay tribute by heading over to the cupcake place.

“I’m having a Michael Jackson cupcake every day of the week in his honor,” Leonard said.

From All Ablog Austin with the headline: "Michael Jackson cupcakes a local thriller."

Less than 24 hours after the self-proclaimed “King of Pop’s” death, sales of Michael Jackson’s albums have shot through the roof. But how many cupcakes can he sell?

A local pastry company, Hey Cupcake, says the “Michael Jackson,” a chocolate cupcake topped with cream cheese icing and chocolate sprinkles, is in high demand.

While Hey Cupcake’s owner, Wes Hurt, won’t say exactly how many cupcakes with the late pop star’s name they’ve sold, sales are surging.

“There’s been an overwhelming response,” Hurt said.

After hearing about Jackson’s death, Hurt mulled over the idea of whether or not they should keep the cupcake or drop it from the company’s line. But when Hey Cupcake’s North Austin location opened at 9 a.m. today, phones were ringing off the hook.

This photo by Flickr user swirlspice is from March 2008:



And here's a photo of the Michael Jackson cupcake from Hey, Cupcake in Austin by Flickr user kthread: