Whole Foods Union Square Halloween bat cupcake

Whole Foods Union Square Halloween bat cupcake
Originally uploaded by Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake

Happy birthday Elina!

Birthday girl. Meat shirt. Cupcakes. Long-exposure photography. All good.







Shot by robjtak.

Aren't they cute?

Get the recipe for Sandra Lee's chocolate cupcake critters at ABC News

Halloween pirate cupcakes

These fun pirate skull cupcakes are by jonath@n on Flickr. I love how badass they are. I wonder if real pirates would eat cupcakes?

Spider, vampire and talking ghost Halloween cupcakes

Chocolate Fountain, Peanut Butter Cup, Chocolate Loves Vanilla, and Vanilla Loves Vanilla dressed for Halloween 2009


Vanilla Loves Vanilla with gumball eyeballs

These fun Halloween cupcakes are on sale now from Retro Bakery Las Vegas via Flickr.


Glazed donut cupcakes and coffee and donut cupcakes


Glazed donut cupcakes say Boo!

Retro Bakery's Kari Haskell is a big Halloween fan and just Tweeted:

Halloween body part cupcakes

These are by Kati's Kupcakes of Moorestown, New Jersey, via this Flickr set.

Yummy vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with tons of silly gummy body parts--chopped up feet, fingers, ears, noses, mouth with teeth and complete with a nice blue brain!

Creepy Halloween cupcakes

These Halloween cupcakes are by Marj at custom cake/cupcake company The Icing on the Cake. She writes:

The Brain cupcakes were vanilla creme cake with raspberry filling and vanilla icing. I'm pretty sure that eating brains makes you smarter, so these must make you smarter and sweeter! The Witch Fingers were made of white chocolate and sitting on a yummy combination - Devil's Food cake with chocolate filling and mocha buttercream icing with oreo crumbs. (At least one teacher was reported to be in cupcake ecstacy after eating this treat - you know who you are!) The Eyeball cupcakes were carrot cake with caramel buttercream filling and vanilla icing. This is my personal favorite flavor combo and, judging by the way these cupcakes flew off the plate, I think others agreed.
Happy Halloween, y'all!

The Icing on the Cake
mooj at nc.rr.com
919-781-3471 or
919-830-4242

Anyone know who the artist is here?

I love these images. They are part of the Public Ad Campaign in NYC.
















Shots by sabeth718.

Neapolitan Dynamite cupcakes in Forth Worth

These sound good! Via Pegasus News and soon to be available at Movie Tavern in Fort Worth, Texas.

Neapolitan Dynamite Mini Cupcakes (chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla mini cupcakes served with a butter cream glaze dipping sauce) is just one of the new and delicious desserts added to the West 7th Street menu.

Cupcake thank you cards

Found these cupcake thank you cards yesterday at Papyrus!

Halloween cupcakes from Citarella

I picked these up today - haven't tasted them yet and may not get to as I'm bringing them to a friend's birthday, and it would look bad to hand over a box with half-eaten cupcakes in it. In addition to Citarella's usual delicious assortment (I did snag a strawberries and cream, my favorite, which I think I will keep), they had these Halloween ones in chocolate and vanilla.

November 2009 cupcake events wanted for calendar post

Just a friendly reminder that if you have any November 2009 cupcake events (not a sale, but an actual event) for our monthly cupcake calendar post, let us know at cupcakestakethecake at gmail.com by Saturday morning at 10 am EST. International events welcome. Send the event name, date/time, address, 2-3 sentence description, email address/URL if applicable and jpeg if there is one.

We also update the 30-day rolling RSS calendar at right as we get info in so feel free to send event details any time!

How to make Where the Wild Things Are cupcakes

Sortof taking a break from the Halloween cupcake mania, here are some cute Where the Wild Things Are cupcakes by cupcake and baking for kids cookbook author Barbara Beery. Plus a video tutorial! (It's 6 minutes 22 seconds.) Click here for the recipe for these monster mash cupcakes.

Marshmallow ghost cupcakes for Halloween

These adorable marshmallow ghost cupcakes come via Twitpic from The Perfect Circle Cupcakery in Old Towne Orange, California. These cuties are for sale through Saturday.

The Perfect Circle Cupcakery
165 N. Glassell St.
Old Towne Orange, CA
714-997-CAKE
TPCcupcakery at gmail.com

Halloween costume contest at New Haven cupcake truck

The Cupcake Truck of New Haven, Connecticut is having a fun Halloween cupcake contest. Details from their blog: (via NBC Connecticut)

I may have to take the train up there one of these weekends to try their sweet potato cupcake!

HALLOWEEN COSTUME CONTEST
Don't forget you can win 31 cupcakes if you come to the Truck on Friday 10/30 or Saturday 10/31 dressed in your Halloween finest (no masks, please). We'll pick the best costume and reward the lucky winner with free cupcakes.

TODAY'S TRUCK STOP
Near 370 James St. possibly on John Murphy Drive (i.e. wherever we find parking) from 12:30pm till we sell out

CHOOSE A CUPCAKE ($2)
Chocolate Ruin
Red Velvet Jones
Hummingbird
Caramel Apple (limited supply, this week only)

TOP IT OFF (included)
Vanilla Frosting
Chocolate Frosting
White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Caramel Frosting

ADVANCE ORDERS
First come, first served. For orders of a dozen or more, e-mail at least 3 days ahead to: order@followthatcupcake.com

ORDERS AT THE TRUCK
To make sure there's some of everything for everyone, you can only get 4 of each flavor maximum at the Truck. You can order up to a dozen cupcakes (more at our discretion) at the Truck but please be prepared to wait a few minutes as we custom frost and decorate your cupcakes to order.

Make sure to also follow @cupcaketruck on Twitter for their locations in Tweeted form:

Caramel apple, s'mores, animal, Krispy Kereme donut cupcakes at more from CupcakeCamp San Francisco

In early October, there was another CupcakeCamp held in San Francisco, where they originated. Here are some photos by CJ Martin from this Flickr set; you can see more at the official CupcakeCamp site, where you can also find out about running your own! Also see the CupcakeCamp Flickr pool for more great cupcake images.


Winner, Best Decorated: Winner: Popcorn with Carnival Toppings by Aaron Dence and Jason Menayan (see other winners here)


Krispy Kreme donut and Bluebottle coffee cupcakes




s'mores cupcakes by Beth Krimstock


honey(bee) cupcakes

Halloween cupcake cake

Or you could use the extra surface of a cupcake cake to draw on. I like how the ghosts have different expressions on their faces. by David Hudson Floyd on Flickr

Spider cupcake

I can't quite figure out what's going on with this spider cupcake (what it's made of), but I like it. It's by lensfodder on Flickr

Wicked witch Halloween cupcake with licorice

The creativity around Halloween cupcakes never ceases to amaze me. It doesn't have to be complicated, and you can use Halloween candy! Like this one from Bisayan lady on Flickr. I think the black licorice hat is my favorite part, but I also like the eyes. And the candy corn nose...

Fun fall cupcakes

These fall leaf cupcakes are from the blog Describing Happiness. So cute!





The chocolate ones are yellow butter cake with milk chocolate-cayenne pepper frosting.

The other ones are pumpkin spice cupcakes with cinnamon-vanilla frosting.

The fall sprinkles were from BakeryBites on Etsy.

Garden cupcakes

These garden cupcakes are by Angelina Cupcake via Flickr



She writes:

My friend asked me to do some cupcakes as a 'thank you' to the landscaper that just finished her garden so I decided to decorate them in a similar design to how her garden actually looks now. Ok, the sun isn't always shining but there is usually some childrens toys on the grass!

Do garlic cupcakes kill vampires?

Find out (and get the recipe!) at the always fabulously creative Cupcake Project!

Brain cupcakes in Toronto

I'm still trying to properly catch up and post about last Saturday's Toronto cupcake meetup and a whole backlog of stuff.

For now, some appropriately Halloween-y brain cupcakes (aka strawberry) they had at The Sweet Escape Patisserie in Toronto. I loved that place, especially the way they had real food (yummy sandwiches and more!) and fun, decorated tables to sit down. But more on them later. Here's the brains, and a table:

A winner from yesterday's contest, and a reminder for tomorrow's giveaway

The Reynolds giveaway was a great success with more than 100 entries. All were terrific ideas. The winner was Jenniffer of the great state of Georgia. Way to go, Jenniffer!


Thanks for all your entries!



And don't forget about our upcoming giveaway with Rose's Heavenly Cakes cookbooks -- two copies will be given away tomorrow, Wednesday, October 28 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time. Enter now here. I guarantee you will love this beautiful book!

5 Halloween mummy cupcakes wrapped up tight

With occasional other Halloween creatures thrown in!


Taken yesterday by me at The Sweet Escape Patisserie in Toronto


by joeywan on Flickr


by dirty_whirl on Flickr


from porcalina on Flickr who calls it a "pathetic attempt" but I think it's sweet.


Vegan mummy cupcakes by Bake & Destroy via Flickr

Rocket Queen Cupcakes born out of the recession

I'd been meaning to post about Rocket Queen Cupcakes, but never did (it's been that way a lot around here lately). She's also @Rketqueencupcak on Twitter and has a Facebook page, which is where I got the images in this post.




Moist chocolate cake topped with a dark chocolate ganache.

So this article in the Albany Democrat-Herald is a great opportunity to do so and give some background information:

Jessica Stanley of Albany lost her job at a roofing company last year when it downsized, so to make up for lost income, she learned how to bake cupcakes to sell commercially.

Now she makes hundreds at a time for weddings and birthday, cocktail and office parties. On weekends they are available at the Calapooia Brewing Co. in Albany.
Her biggest sellers right now are pumpkin, s'mores and her signature bacon cupcake.
"That's really a dude cupcake," she said. "No one who ever tried it didn't like it."

The basic cake flavor is vanilla, with bacon pieces mixed in. Stanley smears maple butter cream frosting on the top and finishes it with a candied piece of bacon.

"Now I'm doing what I love," said Stanley, 29, of her Rocket Queen Cupcake business. "After I lost my job, my mother suggested that I do what I love, which is cooking. Originally, I looked into the culinary program at LBCC, but it made sense to do cupcakes after Mary Anna Bakery closed."

To get started, she looked through old family recipes and checked out cake recipe books from the library in Corvallis.

"I sampled a lot of recipes and then I modified them by adjusting the spices, liquids and extracts," she said.


She's a lady cupcake
Yellow cake filled with orange flower water, lavender whipped cream, topped with cream cheese frosting

Here are some of the flavors Rocket Queen Cupcakes offers, via their site:

A unicorn on a rainbow
Pink cake, pink frosting, and topped with sparkly sprinkles

Baphomet
Carrot cake with goat cream cheese frosting, topped with toasted walnuts

Beer and peanuts
Dark stout cupcake with a creamy head and topped with honey roasted peanuts

Squealer
Yellow cake with bacon pieces in it, frosted with maple butter cream and topped with a candied bacon piece

Miso hungry
Green tea cake with dark chocolate miso ganache, topped with panko (available vegan)

Rocket Queen Cupcakes
Jessica Stanley
3875 NW Ridgecrest
Albany, OR 97321
541-740-5669
jessica at rocketqueencupcakes.com

Kumquat Cupcakery's spectacular mini cupcakes

New York mini cupcake entrepreneur Keavy Landreth (and friend and fellow Scorpio/November 10th birthday girl) of Kumquat Cupcakery dropped off these amazing cupcakes for me last week at an event. They were devoured very fast! I love her cupcakes and they are just the right size and the flavors are exquisite and varied.



She's been doing a lot of catering too - check out these wedding cupcake photos from her blog:





She writes:

Let me tell ya, the bride and groom knew what they were doing when they picked out these flavors! I had no idea until I showed up in the space how well the colors were going to fit into the whole feel of the venue. It was absolutely gorgeous, and the sound of the rain under the clear heated tent adding a sense of comfort and nostalgia to the presentation.

Bobby Flay's Throwdown: Cupcakes

This is an old(er) show, but I've been home sick for ages now and spend too much time watching Food TV Network (as well as CNN, MSNBC, TLC and NY1). Last night I was excited to see Bobby Flay do a cupcake throwdown. Cupcakes! Yes!

Bobby went up against Terry Wahl of Auntie Em's Kitchen in Eagle Rock, California. Terry offers four cupcake flavors: Coconut, dark chocolate, carrot, and best-seller red velvet. Terry's throwdown cupcake was her restaurant's favorite, the red velvet (recipe here). Bobby and team went with a gingerbread cupcake with caramelized mango buttercream (recipe here).




Terry's Red Velvets





I have to say, even though gingerbread is not my favorite, the caramelized mango buttercream looked to die for! Terry's cupcakes were very moist (something that was mentioned at least ten times during the show) but are not traditional chocolate red velvet cupcakes. They are buttermilk cupcakes with a touch of cocoa powder. Also, they are heavy into food coloring. I prefer natural coloring, like beet powder. But I will say the red velvets looked very good. The frosting was piled up with pretty sprinkles on top. A perfect picnic cupcake, in my opinion.





Bobby Flay and team's Gingerbread Cupcakes with Caramelized Mango Buttercream




The judges were Clare Crespo and Sprinkles executive pastry chef Candace Nelson.

(Spoiler alert!)


Shockingly, to me at least, Bobby Flay won. I am not a Bobby Flay fan, sorry to say. I've met him a couple of times, not that he'd remember me, but he's never been a particularly nice man in my opinion. Regardless, he's an excellent chef and I have respect for his skills.

His cupcake was pronounced "unique and unusual" by the judges as opposed to a more traditional old-school cupcake like Terry's modified red velvet.

I think the cupcakes were judged on 3 factors: moistness, flavor (combo), and frosting.

I would love to know what Clare and Candace really thought and how the show really went down. I've been behind the scenes for enough reality-style TV shows to know that what you see is not always what occurred. So, Clare and/or Candace, if you are reading this, write in and let us know what the truth is. Enquiring minds want to know!