I noticed in an issue of Martha Stewart Living this Erhman Tapestry Cupcake pillow.  While it’s not my taste, especially at $78.00,  I’m sure someone out there would be interested in this pillow.

My daughter just spotted this little girl’s tee at our local WalMart!

Rosewater.  A near completely forgotten about ingredient, except that I was daydreaming of France and how often the bakeries feature edible flowers.

So, a petit selection of the loveliest of the rosewater cupcake recipes I could find.

How about Organic White Chocolate Rosewater Cupcakes?  Yum.  The cupcake includes the white chocolate and coconut milk.  The frosting is a meringue buttercream with 3T of rosewater.

Then, let’s get a little carried away with Persian Love Cupcakes.  Candied rose petals on top.  Lemon peel and cardamon seeds within.  A frosting with rosewater, saffron threads, and pistachios.  C’est l’amour!

Just in case you don’t have rosewater handy, here’s a recipe to make your own rosewater at home.  Note that every type of rose creates a different rose water, naturally, so this, too, becomes a lovely opportunity to play in the kitchen.  From one batch of cupcakes to the next, using a different rose’s water will create a different flavor.

Ever heard of a cupcake crawl?  It’s the equivalent of pub crawling or bar hopping, except it involves cupcakes.  Basically, you spend a day or an evening visiting several different bakeries and sampling cupcakes.  Sounds pretty sweet, huh?  According to one cupcake enthusiast, a cupcake crawl is best done in a place where there are a number of bakeries to choose from.  Mandy Bekoin, an Illinois newspaper designer and editor, and her friend Sara embarked on a cupcake crawl in Chicago and came back with this tasty treat (and many others, I’m sure!):

The Twixie, inspired by the Twix candy bar at Swirlz Cupcakes

One word of advice from Mandy to aspiring cupcake crawlers?  If you’re going to be out in the heat of summer, bring a large, insulated bag for leftover cupcakes.  If you’re visiting several bakeries, chances are you won’t be able to finish off every single cupcake (sounds crazy, but four or five cupcakes is a lot!), and you’ll want to get your money’s worth out of the adventure.  When you get home, you can freeze the leftovers and enjoy them another day.

Sounds like a fun way to end summer vacation!

My friend recently brought to my attention a new theme among cupcake apparel: Monster devouring cupcakes.  The Monster Face Tee shown to the left is from Delia*s and is $19.50.  The Domo-kun Nom Nom Nom Cupcakes Babydoll seen to the right is from ThinkGeek is $19.99 and shows a monster eating cupcakes!

Okay, I know that technically, this is supposed to be a muffin, but it was just too cute not to share with you. Besides, the muffin is the cupcake’s cousin, right? I found this in WalMart’s school supply section, and it made me wish I had a 14-year-old boy to shop for. Then my husband said he wanted it, and I had move on to the next aisle.

For those of us who don’t live close enough to Brennan’s (the New Orleans restaurant that is known for creating the original bananas foster dessert), we can get our bananas foster fix by giving this cupcake recipe a whirl.

The base is just a simple yellow cake recipe with a mashed, ripe banana added, and the icing is plain buttercream with cinnamon added.  The cupcakes are then rolled in chopped, toasted almonds and topped with candied pecans and a rum-laced sauce consisting of bananas caramelized in brown sugar and butter.  Use your own recipes for the batter and icing, and you can find the recipe for the topping here.  This sounds heavenly!