Yesterday was my cousin’s 24th birthday! Happpppy Birthday Meghan!

Her lovely hubby made her cupcakes while she was at work and he was at home with their baby! So Sweet!

They were Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes. Aaron was nice enough to give me the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1 (18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
1/3 cup canola oil
3 eggs

Directions

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside. Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and the vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls; place onto a baking sheet, and freeze until solid, about 2 hours.
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.
Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer to break up. Add the cake mix, water, and canola oil; continue beating for 2 minutes on medium speed. Spoon into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each 2/3 full. Place a frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake portion of the cupcake (not the cookie dough ball) comes clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the frosting he just used store bought frosting and whipped some milk into it to thin it out.

This is  a picture of the happy lil’ family!

Aaron, Meghan & David Joshua!

The Arizona Cardinal fans in Scottsdale were in for sweet treat this weekend. The renowned bakery Sprinkles Cupcakes, which is probably responsible for the present cupcake revolution in the country, gave away free Cupcakes to the Arizona Cardinal fans.

They gave away Red Velvet Cupcakes (their most famous creation) which were renamed as Cardinals Red Velvet cupcakes for the day. The fans were asked to come wearing the teams jersey or hat to pick up their sweet present, on January 16th.

Even though the bakery was first opened in Scottsdale, it has now branches in Palto Alto, Newport Beach and Dallas. Two new stores in Houston and Chicago will be opening very soon.

The bakery offers cupcakes for $3.25 each and has two dozen different flavors. Take your pick from flavors like Chocolate coconut, Peanut Butter Chip, Ginger Lemon and many more flavors.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/2010/01/15/20100115free-sprinkles-cupcake-card-fans.html

She is hardly bigger than a cupcake herself, but her heart is much bigger than many people on the face of the earth. A 4 year old girl from Louisville, KY is motivating people to help the earth quake victims in Haiti by baking cupcakes.

Little Ella Cordrey saw the devastation in the island country on TV. She, along with her parents decided to do something to help the victims. They are now baking cupcakes and selling them to people. The proceeds will go to the victims of the earth quake. The response has been astounding.  They started with just 20 cupcakes, but now they have baked over 180 cupcakes.

They have raised over $600 so far. They will donate all this money to a group called World Vision who is helping orphans in Haiti and in other poor countries.

http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=11855594

My family and I just got back from a wonderful trip to Walt Disney World in Florida. We saw Mickey and Minnie and all the Princesses and yet I still found myself looking for cupcakes. Even better, my family members were looking too! Here’s what we found!

At Downtown Disney I found this lovely sight in Goofy’s Candy Kitchen:

I chose the chocolate cupcake with the vanilla frosting.  I loved the Mickey sprinkles but the cupcake frosting was overly sugary and the cake a bit dry.   These cupcakes were also spotted at Epcot in a Germany treat shop.

Also at Downtown Disney in the Disney Christmas Store, this little Tinkerbell ornament caught my niece’s eye:

I also spotted Minnie’s Cupcake Mix at several stores in Downtown Disney and Magic Kingdom. 

My husband found some delicious cupcakes at the Main Street Bakery at Magic Kingdom.  My daughter picked out this pretty one with blue frosting and it was surprising delicious.  Just the right blend of buttery cake and sugary frosting.

Let us know if you have more Disney cupcake spottings to pass on!

In wake of the recent earthquake in Haiti there are tons of worthy charities to donate to.  As mentioned with a post last week about Bleeding Heart Bakery, cupcakes are helping raise donations. In case you missed this past weekends event, another cupcake charity event is being held this Saturday, January 23, 2010 from 9am-1pm.  Cupcakes for Haiti in will be hosting a cupcake stand in Toronto, ON where sales from the bake sale will go to MSF/Doctors without Borders.

Additional events that  have already occurred but are still worth mentioning include the Bake Sale held in Ashburn, Virginai where the proceeds went to Food For the Poor.   Additionally Foiled Cupcakes which delivers to Chicago and surrounding cities created a sweet deal: 2 dozen cupcakes were given to the first 5 people who donated $100 to the Haitian relief via the Red Cross.

ATC reader Melissa sent us these photos and the following email…

Hey there!! Love your site!! I just got two new cupcake tattoos and just wanted to submit them to you guys :) Keep up the fantastic work!!

Girly/Cute cupcake and Halloween/Skully Cupcake. Done by Lonny at Heaven or Hell Tattoos in Vacaville, CA.

Thanks for sharing your tattoos with us! They are awesome!