I just made my first visit to Northern Michigan’s first and only cupcakery: Simply Cupcakes of Traverse City. What a lovely little spot in downtown Traverse!

An impressively wide selection of offerings included Banana Cream, Peanut Butter Cup, Hint of Mint, and Lemon Love, and while we sampled many, the winner was clearly the (pictured) Bumpy Cupcake: A rich dark chocolate cake stuffed with buttercream (which tasted more like mousse), and topped with homemade chocolate ganache and more buttercream, then dipped in chocolate ganache and finished with a few sprinkles. Holy wow! That cupcake was a meal.

I was impressed with how substantial the cupcakes were. They weren’t dense, but there was certainly something to them! And the frostings were non-traditional and left me wondering about their secret recipe.

The cupcakery itself is also a tantalizing hangout, with a “cupcake room” one can book for special events. Cupcake art hung on the wall, including the beauty below, which could be yours for $3000!

If you’re in the area, Simply Cupcakes is a must-stop for the cupcake-lover!

Happy New Year!

To kick 2012 off right, I just purchased myself my first set of silicone baking cups at a nearby health food store. (You can get Casabella silicone muffin cups on Amazon too.)

I am quite impressed! A set of 6 reusable cups will run you about $8.99, but the way we go through cupcake wrappers around here, they’ll likely pay for themselves soon. I’ve already broken them in, and they worked beautifully. My cupcakes took a little bit longer to cook, so be prepared to be flexible, but the cupcakes were cooked evenly, and the silicone cups peeled away from them beautifully.

In the end, these baking cups are a great idea, and I look forward to trying to wear them out. They are also super easy to clean, especially if you have a dishwasher! And they come in jumbo size too!

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.)

So, I was recently shopping for yummy vegetables at Healthy Living in Burlington, Vermont, and of course, I was magnetically attracted to the cupcakes. The “Hummingbird Cupcake,” a heavenly combination of cream cheese frosting, chocolate, banana, and pecans, was AMAZING! You might not think of Healthy Living as a cupcake destination, but it is! While you are exploring Healthy Living, check out their recipe for Gluten-Free Chocolate Zuccini Cupcakes. Maybe a little bit healthy and a lot delicious? I’ll let you know!

Cutey is a UK based company that makes charm bracelets and costume jewelry.  All Cutely products are affordable and come in a variety of styles to suit different taste preferences.  The charm bracelets come with the unique charms already attached.  Cutey ships worldwide and delivery within the UK is free.

ATC was sent the Pontus charm bracelet to review.  The silver bracelet included seven charms, three colored and four image charms and comes in two length options, 18m or 20m.  The colors were rose, black and a marbled pink and green. I really liked the little turtle charm and the heart with a boy and girl kissing inside.  There was also a heart shaped lock and a flower bead.  I have to admit I would have liked for the bracelet to include a cupcake charm.  As cute as turtles are I like cupcakes more and know cupcake fans would be interested in a cupcake charm similar to the Pandora cupcake charm we blogged about several years ago.  Especially since this style bracelet reminded me of the Pandora bracelets based off the style charms and the ability to add and remove the beads. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you tried Gigi’s Cupcakes?  Gigi’s cupcakes are a cupcake franchise and over the Halloween weekend I stopped by the Raleigh, North Carolina location.  Since it was Halloween weekend they had several cupcakes with Halloween decoration and were very crowded.  Sadly the pumpkin cupcake was sold out and most of the cupcakes were selling quickly.  I decided on the red velvet cupcake and the four year old I was with chose the scary boo Halloween decorated cupcake.  I have to admit that I almost didn’t get a cupcake and had a hard time finding a cupcake to choose. The cupcakes did not look appealing and after trying them I felt like they were lacking in flavor.

The cupcakes were topped with a huge pile of frosting.  I have realized from these cupcakes that there is an appropriate cupcake to frosting ratio that you should aim for.  In my opinion, if your cupcakes have more frosting than there is cake, that is too much frosting.  These cupcakes really had a mountain of frosting on top and we were shocked to find more frosting inside!  Also most cupcake shops have a design that they seem to trademark like the magnolia swirl, or the dollop that a lot of shops will use.  At Gigi’s there was no consistency with the frosting design, which affects the visual quality of the cupcakes.

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KamNCo is a fun little Etsy shop that offers faux cupcakes.  These realistic cupcakes range in price from $3.00 to $8.00 for a single cupcake to $24.00 for a party pack of 4.  Each cupcake is approximately 4 inches tall and the cupcakes come in a variety of colors and decorations.

ATC was sent the pastel party cupcake in aqua for review.  As soon as I opened the package I was immediately amazed at how realistic these cupcakes are.  Inside the package t looked like I had a mini cupcake with vanilla butter cream frosting and topped with a chocolate drizzle and multi colored sprinkles.  As the product description reads the faux cupcake is very light weight, which means if used as a decoration on a Christmas tree, they will not weigh down the branches. Read the rest of this entry »