My daughter got me this mini cupcake maker for Christmas. It was my first contraption of the sort. A tiny thing, it “bakes” seven mini cupcakes at a time.

It’s awesome in that it only takes a few minutes to warm up. At first, I was a little annoyed that, cooking 7 minis at a time, it would take me all night to get through a batch of batter, but then I read the manual–turns out, the mini cupcake maker came with a whole bunch of neat little recipes that make a perfect size batch of batter for 7 mini cupcakes. So, this cupcake maker would be ideal for a person or small family who just wanted to make a quick treat. As for me, I plugged my way through the whole first batch, and it took a while. Next time, I will be sure to start small!

In the end, it was a great gift to get from my junior baker, and I was grateful for an easy cleanup. And I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun with it in the future. (Oh, and you might want to toss the first batch–they tasted like freshly cooked metal.)

Happy New Year everyone! I have been collecting art projects to do over the long cold winter here on Martha’s Vineyard and while searching, I found this great  DIY Embroidered Cupcake Towel  from the blog Craftaphile .

This is fabulous! So cute! Stay tuned for more DIY crafts withe  cupcakes…

I am so excited. I just found a very cool new thing to play with. Duff, the creator of all cool things cake, makes cupcake spraypaint! Okay, well, it’s not really spraypaint–it’s completely edible, but it’s just as fun and cool looking as spraypaint. According to Duff’s website, Duff started out as a “graffiti artist,” I’m assuming, with actual paints. You can watch a cool video of Duff using the spray on color here!

I just treated some friends to a batch of graffitied cupcakes, and I didn’t hear any complaints. This spray color looks professional, and it is quick and easy to use. I purchased the pink (had to, my daughter was with me) and the silver, but you can also get gold, red, orange, yellow, blue, purple, and green. I can’t wait to get more! I found the colors at Michaels for $4.49 each, but I found them on the Duff website for only $3.99. One can covers 4 dozen cupcakes!

Yes, I realize that most of you have probably already unwrapped all those presents under the tree, but I couldn’t resist sharing this cute idea, sent to us by one of our readers.

Maybe this could work for some of you who are gathering together with extended family to celebrate Christmas a little late (like on New Year’s). Or, I suppose you could just ditch the Christmas theme and make it work for a birthday celebration.

Be sure to check out the video tutorial for help with making the bows.  It might take a little effort, but with just a little work you get a very impressive-looking cupcake!  Watching the video convinced me that even I could pull this off!

The New Year is not quite here yet, so if you’re anything like me, you still have your Christmas tree up. I like to enjoy the pretty lights as long as possible; after all, Christmas only comes once a year.

So, in the spirit of the holiday season, I’d like to share with you one of our reader’s cupcake-themed trees.  Molly started loving cupcakes at a young age.  When she was just three years old she made a ceramic cupcake, and ever since then she has been a collector.  Now she is pastry chef and has just collected enough cupcake ornaments to decorate a tree.

Molly lives in the Chicago area and has her own cupcake business on the side.  For more information you can contact her at cupcakesbymolly@gmail.com.

Thinking of what to put together for your New Year’s Eve party?

Why not cook up your brew instead of drinking it?  Here’s a recipe for Guinness and Bailey Irish Cupcakes that strikes me as rather top-o-the-morning.

Take it one step further, and here’s a recipe for Chocolate Guinness and Whiskey Cupcakes with Bailey’s Frosting.  I’d put this into the later-in-the-day category.

And this recipe variation includes a bittersweet ganache with whiskey option within the Guinness Cupcake.

Cheers!

Here in North Carolina the past few nights have been very chilly, which means it’s in the 20’s at night.  Below 30 degrees is cold to those of us in the tar heel state!  After taking the dog for his evening walk my family and I come inside and are searching for something warm.  Tea and hot chocolate tend to hit the spot but I’m thinking these Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcake recipe would be a perfect post dog walk treat, for us humans of course!  The vegan cupcake recipe which is topped a coconut whipped cream frosting was originally posted to Food 52.