Cupcake Boy

My cute little nephew makes an adorable cupcake boy. Photo from Saturday's Sugar Rush cupcake extravaganza.

Cute sheep and smiley face cupcakes by Swissy Missy

These sheep cupcakes (awww...) and smiley face and daisy cupcakes are by Swissy Missy on Flickr, who has a whole lot more cupcake photos you should check out!

Astoria Market Cupcakes

Yesterday I visited the Astoria Market, a new flea market in Queens. I knew that Nibbles by Nora would be selling her cupcake kebabs, but I was happily surprised to see two other cupcake vendors there as well. Lisa Bracigliano is the owner of Chocolate Swirl. In addition to cupcakes, she makes truffles, brownie pops and cakes. She is based in Queens, but will deliver to NYC as well. Free delivery in Astoria. She made the Superbowl cupcakes above.



Then I met Jenn Tang who runs Intoxicating Confections. She bakes cocktail-inspired cupcakes that don't have alcohol. Yesterday, she brought Champagne and Mudslide mini cupcakes to Astoria Market. She doesn't have a storefront, so follow her on Twitter @BoozyCakes to find her where her cupcakes are sold.




Lastly, I chatted with Nora  (Nibbles by Nora) who is famous for her cupcake kebabs. She brought Neapolitan cupcake kebabs and Good Morning Sunshine which are breakfast cupcake kebabs made with Froot Loops.



Great to see Nora rocking ponytails!

Kettlebell, hi hat and cookie-covered cupcakes

I got into using kettlebells, a type of weight that I think originated in Russia, through our former blogger Allison. They are fun to work with, and so I was excited but a little surprised to see these kettlebell cupcakes by Zoey Cakes of Baldwinville, New York, on their Facebook page. Just goes to show, you truly can personalize cupcakes in any way at all!



They also made these wonderful-looking cookie-topped cupcakes as well as hi hat cupcakes! I like how the wrappers on the cookie ones add a little zing to the overall image. If I were eating one, though, I'd take the cookie off and dip it into the frosting.




hi hat cupcakes!

Cupcake Baker Wanted For Sweet And Social Bake Shop in Westchester

Last week, I spoke at the Social Media Club of Long Island. While there I met Beth who is opening up a bake shop in Westchester this spring. She's looking for bakers.

Retail Bake Shop Opening in April needs wholesale bakers to supply products on a regular basis. Products I am looking for are cupcakes (variety of flavors), cookies, brownies, whoopie pies, and other individual desserts. You must be able to bake in a commercial kitchen and have delivery available or be close enough to Larchmont for regular pick up. Pricing needs to be very competitive. Ingredients must be high quality. Will work together to finalize recipes and ingredients. Please email your interest and experience and what you make. Email bfd92@mac.com. Thank you.

Review: Williams-Sonoma's Perfect Endings Valentine's Day Cupcakes

I've always wanted to try the mail-order cupcakes from Williams-Sonoma, made by Perfect Endings, but the price tag was a bit cost prohibitive. So when Williams-Sonoma offered to mail me a free box, I jumped at the chance.

I was wondering how the company would manage shipping and if the cupcakes would be tasty after their big trip.







They arrived packed in what looked like a Styrofoam cooler, with a card of defrosting directions on top. I wasn't thrilled with the cooler, but I decided to reuse and recycle it.









And dry ice! I love dry ice. (N.B. Don't touch with bare hands.)








The cupcakes looked frozen but in great shape.









And here they are without the plastic wrap:








There were three each of the three flavors: Chocolate-chocolate, vanilla-vanilla, and red velvet.



The vanilla was very good, with a moist dense cake and a sweet creamy frosting.








The company recommends letting the cupcake come to room temperature first, which I should have done, because it is much much better at room temp.






Also, I tossed the fondant (?) heart on top, and you should too, it's awful. Pretty to look at though!




The red velvet was not very red, which I appreciated, as it didn't have the typical chemical taste that red velvets can have.





and bisected:





You know, I have no idea if the frosting was cream cheese based, but it didn't taste like it. The cake was cocoa-y and again, moist and dense.




The chocolate-chocolate surprised me, because I really liked it! I am not a huge chocolate fan, but this cupcake was yummy. With several large glasses of ice-cold milk I would have been in hog heaven. The frosting was rich and gooey and creamy and dense. Everything you might want in a chocolate frosting.








Again, toss the fondant decoration. I wasn't a huge fan of the waxy sprinkles, but they did add a bit of texture to the super-creamy frosting.







The cupcakes were pricey at approximately 50 dollars plus shipping, but if you couldn't bake any yourself, and don't have any bakeries nearby, you could proudly serve these as a Valentine's Day treat. And a lovely gift delivery to a sweetie. We get a lot of queries about shipping cupcakes and companies that do it, and Williams-Sonoma's Perfect Endings cupcakes shipped perfectly.

The cupcakes keep in the fridge for about 3 days, or 2 months in the freezer.

1,000 free cupcakes today at Chicago cupcake truck Sweet Ride

According to their Facebook page, Chicago cupcake truck Sweet Ride is giving away free cupcakes today - it just started. Sorry for the late notice. You can also follow them @SweetRideChi on Twitter.

Come see us at 1230pm in Bridgeport (near 31st and Halsted) or 300pm in Wicker Park/Bucktown (near Milwaukee, Damen, and North Ave). Only 500 free cupcakes at each location. (One per person please.)

What to do when it's 30 below zero?

Plant a cupcake garden?

Brrr! Reader Trish S. sent in this beautiful cupcake garden she "planted" in deeply frozen Minnesota!










Gorgeous! Thanks for sending this in, Trish! Stay warm!


;)

Popular Posts For The Week Ending Jan 28th

Happy end of the weekend! In case you missed it (ICYMI), here are the top five posts from last week on Cupcakes Take The Cake.

• Stabbed in the Heart Anti-Valentine's Day Cupcakes
• Angry Bird Cupcake Toppers
• Owl Cupcakes Are Always a "Hoot"
• Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie Cupcake
• CRUMBS new store in Newark Liberty Airport

Patriotic cupcake flag

Nifty!






Cupcake flag by Christys Cakes.

Cat + Cupcake: Maine Coon

Pretty cat, about to be very sick. No, kitty, stay away from the cupcake!

Shot courtesy wolfsavard.

Star Wars Cupcakes!

Okay, I don't exactly get it, but it looks geeky and cool and there's a DEATH STAR cake involved!









Image courtesy bgbriangillespie. You can see the entire Star Wars birthday set here.

Sparklers on cupcakes!

What a festive way to celebrate a birthday!







Shot by Canucklibrarian.

Video: How To Frost A Giant Cupcake

Sarah from Blue Door Bakery alerted us to her video showing how to frost a big ole cupcake. Make sure you have plenty of frosting!

Unique Sweets on The Cooking Channel to film at The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co in Seattle

It's been reported in the cupcake world that today, The Cooking Channel will be filming in Seattle for their new show, "Unique Sweets", a spin-off of their show "Unique Eats".

Photo Courtesy of The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co.

The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co reported on their Facebook page yesterday that the show would be in their shop today filming, talking to people about their cupcakes, and will have over 20 flavors on display including Croquembouche.

The Yellow Leaf is famous in Seattle for their unique flavor combinations, high quality ingredients and hip, down-town location.

To learn more about Yellow Leaf, visit their website!!  Lots of great pictures of their amazing cupcakes!

Cute bird and glitter heart cupcakes by

How cute are these? They're by The Clever Little Cupcake Company in Bury, Lancashire, UK via Flickr.

Nibbles By Nora At Astoria Market This Sunday

Our creative cupcake-loving friend Nora Vetter will be selling her baked goods including cupcake kebabs at Astoria Market in Queens this Sunday, January 30th. Nora is famous for bringing cupcake kebabs to our annual cupcake picnic nearly two years ago. She also made beautiful cupcakes for our 6th anniversary back in December.

Reminder: 1,000 free cupcakes today from Crumbs opening at Newark airport

As we told you about earlier this week, 1,000 free cupcakes today at Crumbs in Newark Airport! I don't know off the top of my head about other cupcake bakeries in airports but have been saying for years that they should be in airports (I've seen a few random cupcakes at airports but not a cupcake bakery per se). Visit Crumbs' Facebook page for the latest. We Tweeted to Newark mayor Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) about this giveaway and he wrote: "Congrats! But oh the temptation!"

And this news of 1,000 free cupcakes this Friday, January 28th, starting at 6 a.m., at their Newark, New Jersey store grand opening:

cupcake gift bags

Wrap your gifts in style with these sweet cupcake gift bags from Papyrus:

source

source

Samoa Cupcake At King Of Cupcakes

If you are having trouble tracking down a Girl Scout or a parent of a Girl Scout for cookies, then maybe you could just go to Park Slope's King of Cupcakes for a Samoa Cupcake. I stopped by today for a cupcake, and it was delicious. Sean, the owner, attended our Cupcake Business class last fall and it is great to see his bakery up and running.

Denim Cupcake Purse

While browsing the interwebs today, I came across this super cute purse!  Oh, and it's got a cupcake on it!

By Your Side sells this purse on ETSY.  You can find it and lots of other cute purses from them.... unfortunately though, this was the only cupcake one I saw.

Colorado Springs gets a cupcake truck

From News First 5:

Colorado Springs has its share of taco trucks, but the newest food truck in town is serving up some sweet delights, cupcakes, with a little help from Facebook.

The Springs Cupcake Truck's owners, Mike Bergman and Pat Kennelly, use the social networking site to tell people where they're going to be. They also ask their fans before they go out, where they should park.

Recently they also held a contest to name The Springs Cupcake Truck on their Facebook page; the winning name, CoCo.

The cupcakes are made by Cake Crumbs Bakery in Denver, owned by Mike and Pat's Niece. The bakery makes them special to survive delivery to the Springs, "They're dipped and decorated so they don't fall apart during the rickety ride over here," explains Mike.

Some of their flavors include:

Zippy Lemon

Lemon cake filled with fresh lemon curd and topped with cream cheese frosting and sparkling sugar

Mile-Hi Mocha

Decadent mocha cake with an espresso butter cream and toffee topping

Pikes Peak Pistachio

Nutty pistachio cake topped with amaretto butter cream, chocolate chips and crushed pistachios

Rockin’ Red Velvet

Southern red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and sparkling sugar

Colorado Snowball

Almond flavored cake covered with rich chocolate and coconut

Carrot

Sweet carrot cake topped with cream cheese frosting and tangy dried cranberries

You can find them on their website or Facebook and reach them at 719-466-1911 for private events.

A Cupcake from Cupcake Wars

This week's episode of Cupcake Wars had some pretty crazy cupcake creations. For Round One, the four bakers had to make a cupcake using items you would find in a convenience store. The items included beef jerky, cheese puffs, yogurt-covered pretzels, nacho cheese, hot dogs, red licorice, and slushie mix.

Bake You Happy created a cherry cola chocolate cupcake with a red licorice filling, topped with marshmallow creme and yogurt-covered pretzels. The judges loved this cupcake, although Candace Nelson suggested using regular pretzels instead of yogurt-covered ones.

A friend attended Bake You Happy's viewing party (I couldn't make it). She brought me home a cupcake from the party, the same cupcake Bake You Happy made in round one, with one change: regular pretzels. My husband and I were fighting over the cupcake...does that explain how good it was?! The pretzels added the perfect crunchiness and saltiness to the cupcake. I would definitely eat this cupcake again!

Sourpuss or Sweetheart Mini Cupcakes for Valentine's Day!

Grace from Cake Lab sent us news of her special Valentine's cupcake packs. I love that you can choose from either Sourpuus or Sweetheart cupcake packs. They are $18/pack.



The Sweetheart Pack (1 dozen assorted in a heart shaped box):

• Red Velvet- classic red cocoa cake with cream cheese frosting
• Chocolate Turtle- chocolate cake and frosting with a pecan and caramel drizzle
• Conversation Dots- champagne cake iced with messages, "Luv U", "XO, and "QT"
• Chocolate Covered Strawberry- chocolate cake with strawberry frosting and chocolate shell

The Sourpuss Pack (1 dozen assorted in a heart shaped box, which you can stomp to bits when you're done)

• Banana Split- drown your feelings in ice cream flavors!  Banana cake filled with chocolate and topped with strawberry cream
• CCCD- yellow cake with chocolate chip cookie dough (egg free).  Just like that emergency log you hide in the fridge!
• Conversation Dots- 'bitter' orange with bittersweet chocolate icing messages, "H8 U", "No", and "WTF"
• Black Bottom- as black as your cold, cold heart- chocolate cake, filled with chocolate and topped with cream cheese frosting

Orders must be place by Thursday, February 10th, for pickup on Monday, February 14. Check out CakeLab etsy shop. Pickup location likely to be Lexington/60th St.

Definition of A Cupcake According To Qwiki

Qwiki is a new tech start-up that creates a video that is a wiki-like definition. It is a multimedia search Web site formed by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim. I heard the buzz about the site and looked up it to see its definition of a cupcake. You can contribute to the "qwiki" by adding URLs of photos and YouTube videos.

Orange Creamsicle Cupcake Recipe

I'm going to have a little flashback with these cupcakes:

When I was in elementary school, we would pay for our lunch with things called "lunch tickets". A big white ticket would get our meal, usually something that changed every day or you could choose a cheese sandwich or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but that wasn't what I looked forward to. I packed my lunch most days because I hated the school menu. What I would hold on to were the small pink tickets. The "snack ticket". Near the end of lunch every day one of the lunch ladies would come around with a big tray full of Jack and Jill ice cream bars and every day I would get an orange creamsicle to round off my lunch. Ever since, orange creamsicle has been one of my favorite flavors.

I took that flavor and turned it into a cupcake, a sweet orange cake with a creamy vanilla buttercream with an orange swirl in it. They taste great at room temperature but if you want an experience more like the ice cream, try eating it straight out of the fridge (be careful: if they are left in the fridge too long the cake will begin to dry out, these are best eaten the day of baking).

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
Via Ryan's Baking Blog

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange zest (double this if you want a strong orange flavor)
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time, beat well after each addition. Add in the vanilla extract and orange zest.

Set your mixer to a low speed and add the flour and milk in three additions, flour - milk - flour - milk - flour. Mix each until just incorporated.

Scoop into prepared muffin tin and fill each hole evenly. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Place them on a wire rack to cool COMPLETELY before frosting.

Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional:
Replace 1 teaspoon vanilla extract with 1 teaspoon orange extract; OR 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon orange
Orange food coloring

Cream butter until smooth. Add in 2 cups confectioners' sugar and then the milk and extract(s). Mix together about 3 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Slowly add the remaining sugar (1/2 cup at a time) and beat well after each addition. You may need less sugar, you may need more. Add until you reach the desired consistency.

If you want the swirl design:
Separate half of the frosting into another bowl. Add red and yellow food coloring to one bowl until desired shade of orange (add a couple drops at a time, it is easier to darken than it is to lighten).

Prepare a piping bag with your tip and with small spoonfuls, add white frosting to one side of the bag, then orange frosting, and alternate until your bag is full. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

Pumpkin spice cupcake at Billy's Bakery

Pumpkin spice cupcake at Billy's Bakery
Originally uploaded by Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake

My posting will be light today and possibly the next few days as I sample lots of Bay Area cupcakes, but here's a pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting from Billy's Bakery in TriBeCa (NYC). I wish they had more variety in flavors. They're pretty good, this cake was moist and I liked the hint of spice. $3/each.

Interview with the Newest Champion of Cupcake Wars

Did you catch last night's episode of Cupcake Wars? I love this show more and more with each episode I watch. I was so excited to see Bake You Happy, a Southern California cupcakery, take the win! Between their viewing party last night and the busyness of opening their new store, I was able to score an exclusive interview with Kim and Kim, owners of Bake You Happy.

Your name and your company name: Kimberly Thurman and Kimberly Aeck Co-Owners of Bake You Happy

Where are you based out of? Santa Clarita

How did you get started baking cupcakes? We both have been baking since we were little. Kim and I met one day at 5am kickboxing class and would share recipes, ideas, and pictures of our creations. We respected each others talents and shared a love of baking, especially for our family and friends. So 9 months later we decided to make a career out of something we love and start a business together! It has been so much fun! Kim and I really balance each other. We make a great team.

What, if anything, did you do to prep for "Cupcake Wars"? Since we are in season 2, we were able to watch season 1 to know what to expect, especially from the judges. We definitely experimented with some recipes as well.

What were you most worried about on "Cupcake Wars"? From watching the first season, we really worried about time as well as being able to create something in such a short amount of time with ingredients we had quite possibly had never used before.

Was it hard coming up with a recipe for a cupcake using items from a convenience store? It was really challenging to make the cupcake in round 1. We definitley did not want a sovory cupcake, which eliminated some ingredients right away, so the toughest part was to come up with a cupcake that wasn't too sweet, because most of everything else was practically pure sugar....

If you could change anything that happened on your episode of "Cupcake Wars," what would it be? Honestly, I don't think I would change one thing. It was such an amazing experience. I can't say enough good things about the people that work on the show.

Was Candace Nelson really that nice in person? Candace was lovely. Not only was she so very nice and beautiful, but she seems to have a great sense of humor. She was always smiling. I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet her and spend a little time with her on the show.

Tell us one thing about "Cupcake Wars" we didn't know. Florian isn't as scary as he seems.

Do you have plans yet for your prize money of $10,000? We absolutely do...we are putting right back into our cupcake and cake business. We are opening a retail location in Santa Clarita in the next few days.

What will set your shop apart from the other cupcake shops in your area? We have delicious moist cakes as well as cupcakes. We have cupcakes available daily and we do take custom cakes orders for weddings, birthdays, etc. as well. Kim and I have over 50 years of baking experience together. We love our community and the people in it. We hope our cupcakery is a place people can come and know they are not only going to get a delicious cake, but feel comfortable, taken care of and walk away satisfied and Happy:)!

One last question, what's your favorite cupcake flavor? It depends on the season, the day and my mood:)..But today, I would have to say our Lemon Cupcake. It is a vanilla cake with lemon curd filling and topped with lemon zest cream cheese frosting...YUM!

And there you have it. Congratulations to Kim and Kim of Bake You Happy, the newest champions of Cupcake Wars! I can't wait to see your new cupcake shop. Good luck with the new venture!