Slightly past Hanukkah, but soo pretty!

Very pretty Star of David cupcake:





Shot by lilhelen.

This guy doesn't like the cupcake stump.

Another beautiful Christmas cupcake:






I love the red and green findings on this one.


Shot (with pretty bokeh) by itsjed.

Top 5 Favorite JavaCupcake Recipes of 2010

As a recap to the year... I thought I'd share with you my Top 5 Favorite Cupcakes I made this year!  Personally, this has been the best year of my cupcake career for both blogging and baking.  My own blog, JavaCupcake.com has flourished... I became an intern on this fabulous blog (which really was a dream come true) and I sampled more cupcakes, visited more cupcake shops and tried more cupcake recipes this year than ever before!

So, without further adieu, here are my Top 5 Personal Favorite Cupcake Recipes of 2010!

5. Mini Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

4. Super Tall Red Velvet Cupcakes

3. Tree Hugger Apple Cupcakes

2. Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

1. Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Noel, noel

What a lovely Christmas tableau!





I always mean to stage my cupcakes but I get lazy after all the baking and I just plop them on a plate. If my guests are lucky, I add a sprig of mint and call it a day.

Beautiful shot by pink.polka.

She's like a rainbow...

Soo pretty!






Yeah, I am a sucker for rainbow-colored anything, but how sweet is the set of rainbow-hued cupcakes made for some grandmothers??


By hownowdesign, more info, including links to recipes, here.

Stacked Neopolitan New Year's Eve cupcakes from Sugar Swings

Blogger Sugar Swings baked up three kinds of cupcakes and used them to make coconut-topped Neopolitan cupcakes. How fun! And easy! Via Flickr.

Bellini cupcakes for New Year's Eve by BlakeyCakes

The bellini cupcakes below are by BlakeyCakes, aka Blake Arias, who makes custom cupcakes and delivers them in the Los Angeles area, via their Facebook page. They're "A fluffy, moist, sweet peach cake filled with a fizzy Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine) cream infusion." they're $39/dozen, or $26/dozen for mini cupcakes, and you can contact him at b.arias101 at hotmail.com and see more on his main site.




Blake and me in LA




coffee cake mini cupcakes

Kids and Cupcakes: All Awesome!

This bit of preciousness was sent in by reader and cupcake-maker, Lindsey P. of
Cupcake Zoo in Kalamazoo, MI. This is her best and favorite taste-tester, her three-year-old son, Luca. More cupcake frosting mom, pleeeease??









This one was sent in (with express written permission to repost) by reader Mindy, of her baby boy enjoying his first cupcake.









This one was sent in by reader Christine, of her baby angel Noah enjoying a cupcake from their local (Virginia) shop(pe), Pearl's.



I love getting your images for Kids and Cupcakes and Babies and Cupcakes, so keep sending 'em in, attention: Stacie.

NYE Cocktail Cupcakes

I am 100% behind the idea of using cocktails to inspire your New Year's Eve cupcakes this year! They present an elegant touch to the standard cupcake and would incorporate into any theme seamlessly.

from HoosierHomemade_latham via flickr

from cupcakeenvy via flickr

from bonnindesigns via flickr

Glittery gold star cupcake for New Year's from Philly Cupcake, plus ornament and snowman

These glittery gold star cupcakes will only be for sale tomorrow, New Year's Eve, at Philly Cupcake in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They will be open until 5 pm. All photos are via their Facebook page. You can also follow @PhillyCupcake on Twitter and they also do custom orders.

I haven't tried their cupcakes yet, but am hoping to in 2011.







Philly Cupcake
1132 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-625-4888
phillycupcake at aol.com

Pretzel antlers and a cookie nose: Reindeer cupcakes live on!

Keep the reindeer cupcakes coming...this one is by on Flickr.

New Years Ball Drop Cupcakes

Oh. My. Goodness.  These are the most perfect cupcakes for New Years!!! Confessions of a Cookbook Queen (my new favorite baking blog) has put together this awesome tutorial to make these festive little beauties!!  Run over and check out her website.... NOW and make these for your New Years party!

Harry Potter cupcakes!

Blogger ellecupcake posted these Harry Potter cupcakes she made with Mark Leggett. You can see more of her cupcakes on her blog and in her Flickr cupcakes set.



I like the facial hair on Hagrid:




Ron Weasley


Harry Potter

Super Sweet Giveaway with Lucky Cupcakes Hairclips!

It's time for a Giveaway!!!!  Joy of Lucky Cupcake Hairclips sent me some of her beautiful cupcake bow hairclips for the Cupcakes Take the Cake 6th Birthday Bash in Seattle but, sadly, they did not reach me in time for the party.  So.... we're going to give them away here on the big blog!

Here's what you'll WIN!

TWO Lucky Cupcake cupcake hairclips
FOUR Lucky Cupcake buttons
TWO Lucky Cupcake stickers

Yup.... see those pictures up there... those are what you'll be winning!!  Super sweet huh? A winner will be chosen on Monday, December 3, 2011.  Entries will be accepted until a winner is chosen on Monday!

All you have to do to enter is....


Go to the Lucky Cupcake Hairclips webpage... and then come back here and tell me your THREE FAVORITE things in a comment below!  
For an extra entry... follow Joy on Twitter then comment here that you did! 
Good luck!

Rules:
Contest is open to US residents only.
Entries accepted until a winner is chosen on Monday, December 3, 2011.
Participants MUST follow the rules in order to win.

AND... as a special BONUS for Cupcakes Take the Cake readers... Joy is offering 10% off your entire purchase at Lucky Cupcake Hairclips!  To take advantage of this special sale, use the code CTTC when checking out! 

2011, deer and love cupcake flags on Etsy

All of these cupcake flags are by Little Pumpkin Papers on Etsy. The love ones would be good for Valentine's Day. Description via Etsy listing.



2011 is stamped in silver onto 80lb paper. A festive black tissue fringe gives these toppers an extra fun touch.

You will receive 12 cupcake toppers appx. 6 1/2" tall (including the fringe). The flag itself is 1" x 4".

When a chocolate peanut butter cupcake is a thing of beauty, plus peppermint Oreo, salted caramel, pomegranate and butterflies

These cupcakes are all by blogger Amrita of The Sweet Art, via her Flickr account. Click on the photos below for blog post and recipe links! I don't think the chocolate peanut butter one is up yet though. Once again, I'm in the wonderful but frustrating position of there being way too many cupcakes I'd love to post, so do check out the rest, these are just four of my favorites.


chocolate peanut butter cupcake


peppermint Oreo cupcake


salted caramel cupcake


pomegranate cupcake (no blog post on this one)

And last but not least...butterfly cupcakes!



She used the cookbook Hello, Cupcake! and writes:

This took me quite a while but it was a fun project. My bff Cici came to spend the night and we worked on the butterflies together. I used parchment paper to draw outlines of wings that were already in the book. Using melted candy melts, you just have to go over the lines again, and fill it in with different colors. I then used a toothpick to swirl them together and sprinkled nonpareils on them.

Coconut Grapefruit Cupcakes by "17 and Baking"

cupcake2
Originally uploaded by Elissa @ 17 and Baking

I follow a lot of Seattle based bloggers... and one of my favorite is a teenager who is now in Boston for college, Elissa from 17 and Baking. She's home for college and has made a cupcake whose flavors blow me away. Grapefruit and coconut and a green tea frosting... Who would have thought this combination would have been a good one? But as I look at her pictures, read the recipe... I ask myself again, why wouldn't this be a good combination?

Elissa has the full recipe posted on her blog.... you must check it out and you should probably add her to your blog roll. She's amazing.

2011 Happy New Year cupcakes by Anita Jamal

I for one am very excited about 2011. I don't love New Year's Eve as a holiday but I do like the idea of turning over a new leaf, wrapping up one year and beginning the next, so I'm getting the New Year's celebrating in early with this cupcake by the very talented Anita Jamal on Flickr. If you're making or selling 2011/New Year's cupcakes, whether that's special flavors like champagne or ones with "2011" on them, let us know by adding them to our Flickr pool (our preferred way of receiving photos) or emailing them to us at cupcakestakethecake at gmail.com with "NYU" in the subject line and a description/price/etc.



And I couldn't exclude her Christmas cupcakes: snowflake, Santa and a Christmas tree with presents!

Cranberry vodka cake filled with Grand Marnier chiffon, topped with champagne buttercream and candied cranberries

How festive! From Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe in Rochester, New York, via their Facebook page.

258 Alexander St.
Rochester, NY
sugarmountainbakeshoppe at gmail.com


"Poinsettia" cupcake: Cranberry vodka cake filled with Grand Marnier chiffon, topped with champagne buttercream and candied cranberries.


White chocolate cake baked with a hint of peppermint, filled with white chocolate ganache, topped with white chocolate peppermint buttercream and crushed candy canes.

I also love the names of their flavors - deadline is tonight at 9 pm to pre-order these, via their Facebook page:

Drunken Patty Cake, Cookie Dough, S'mores, Peppermint Candycane, Poinsettia, X'mas Cappuccino, Bourbon Eggnog, White Chocolate Raspberry, Nutella Mochaccino, White Russian, Red Velvet, Chocolate Merlot, Very Vanilla, Sinfully Chocolate and Chocolate Peanut Butter.

New Years Cupcake Tutorial by "i am baker"

"i am baker" has made these beautiful New Year's Eve cupcakes and what's even better.... she's shared a tutorial on how to make them!!  She says in her blog that you're only limited by your own imagination for these little cuties! 

Check out the "i am baker" blog for all the details and step by step instructions on how you can make these New Years cupcakes yourself! 

Photos courtesy of "i am baker"

Oprah today: owners of Georgetown Cupcake

From Examiner.com:

The sisters of TLC’s “DC Cupcakes” will appear on a new episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” Tuesday (Dec. 28) to share their confectionery delights with the TV titan and her studio audience.

Katherine Kallinis and Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne of Georgetown Cupcake (3301 M Street in Georgetown or 4834 Bethesda Ave. in Bethesda, Md.) visited Harpo Studios in Chicago to tape a broadcast titled “Reality TV’s Big Stars.” The episode also included cast members from TLC’s “Quints by Surprise” and the Discovery Channel shows “Dirty Jobs” and “Cash Cab.”

Word has it that the “DC Cupcakes” siblings will show Oprah how to make some kind of holiday concoction using their signature Strawberry Champagne cupcakes.

Despicable Me Minion cupcakes, super cute snowman cupcakes and Oreo and mini cupcake edible cupcake toppers

I'm really not sure how I missed these Despicable Me Minion cupcakes (and, yes, full confession time again: I have not actually seen Despicable Me by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, because if I had I surely would've blogged them. They're made with Twinkies! And smarties, candy melts, licorice and a black food marker. See her post above for exact instructions. Photo via Flickr.





And, staying on topic for the day, snowman cupcakes!



And last but not least (I am restraining myself from posting basically all of her amazing, amazing cupcakes), these cookie and mini cupcake edible cupcake toppers! Click here to find out how to make them.