Cupcakes presented art gallery style is how I would describe MORE cupcakerie in Chicago. Smoother-than-silk frostings. Sculpted icings. Chocolate curls as tight as Shirley Temple’s.
And the flavors? MORE’s list of cupcakes includes a blackberry, salted caramel, and chocolate mint (pictured).
I’m thinking Chicago Museum of Art, stroll along the lakefront, and some downtown deep dish pizza, followed by MORE, MORE, MORE.
I think we can all agree that there is no better way to spend New Years Day than eating and baking cupcakes! If you agree with me, than I have found a great recipe for you to try from the blog La Mia Vita Dolce.
These look so fabulous and they are visualually stunning!
Just in the nick of time, Magnolia Bakery now offers a monthly cupcake club with nationwide shipping. Pre-orders are being taken and shipping begins on January 2 with caramel cupcakes, followed by a different cupcake each month.
So if you find yourself in a line that’s too long for someone who is too hard to please, how about putting at least yourself in the spirit? And while you’re placing your order, why not order Magnolia Bakery’s “Truffled Chocolate Cupcake.”
I know what I’m going to click on as soon as I click on “publish!”
Christmas stollen is such a favorite food at the holidays, who can resist the notion of converting it into a cupcake? 
Here’s one recipe for Christmas stollen cupakes from The Cupcake Project.
Raisins, dried cranberries, dried currents, dried cherries…we’ll let that negate the bit of pleasure we’ll take from a bit of cherry liqueur and brandy. And, of course, we’ll only pour those into the recipe, won’t we?
Just in case you have some cherry liqueur left over, here’s a companion recipe for Black Forest Cupcakes. Well, if I’m on that theme, let’s be sure to have on hand a recipe for White Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes.
Now there’s a cupcake trio that deserves a Ho-Ho-Ho!
This is it. Your chance to enter Ghirardelli fame and Facebook feature.
Recipe for your success:
1 – “Like” the Ghirardelli page on Facebook.
2 – Fill in your basic information, upload your recipe, and upload your mouth-watering photograph.
3 – Win!
Perhaps we could do a group ATC entry?
I’d like to know of anyone’s opinion on baking with Ghirardelli and whether you find the chocolate richer, softer, and needing more cocoa powder to balance for spreading and shaping? What about the Ghirardelli Intense Dark? And the Ghirardelli white that I nibbled at while baking with it last week – do you do that too? Are we shorting our batches or should we just write them as 10 oz broken into small bits with remaining 2 oz for the cook!
As I said in my bio (albeit jokingly at the time), I thought my spot with ATC might entice my parents to get into the act. Sure enough, while visiting them, my mother and I went out on a cupcake expedition. In Ridgewood, NJ, we found a local cupcakerie with flavors to spare.
Cupcakes by Carousel is on Main St. in Ridgewood, next to the movie theater.
The product line starts with “Classic White/Chocolate with Fudge” and “Red Velvet” and moves on to “Vanilla Dirt Worm” and “Chocolate Pretzel.” “Pink Marshmallow Snowball” and “Turtle” looked almost too pretty to eat.
The winners in our taste selection included “Key Lime Pie,” which my mother said included candied lime, made by taking lime zest and packing it in sugar (the moisture makes the sugar adhere to begin with until it soaks in).
Dad had the gluten free vanilla cupcake with vanilla icing and gave it a thumbs up. This is a new product line for Cupcakes by Carousel, and, from pans used only for gluten free to individual cupcake holders for gluten free, it’s just the recipe for those with celiac disease.
I might just be going home to visit my parents again…soon!
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.