Like many children, Natalie Hope started out in the kitchen watching and helping her parents. But unlike many children, Natalie continued on her own, experimenting and advancing her skills. With the help of Food Network programming and parents willing to be guinea pigs for her creations, Natalie entered and won the She Expo’s cupcake competition last month. What makes the 10-year-old’s accomplishment so impressive is the fact that the competition had 63 other participants, a mix of professionals and amateurs. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know about you but I never seem to buy the right number of cupcake liners for when I’m baking. I always end up with too many. It’s like the hot dog and bun conundrum where liners aren’t sold in the same units as the number of cupcakes people generally bake them. With all the different patterns available to customize your cupcakes for holidays or events, it’s easy for the paper or foil liners to accumulate in the cabinet. Luckily, there are many other options for how to use those leftover liners, ranging from kids’ crafts to useful tricks. Read the rest of this entry »

During the summer’s hottest and most humid days, there are times when you want a cooler alternative to cakey cupcakes with thick and sugary icing. Those muggy days are where cheesecake cupcakes can be the perfect substitute. Their density isn’t overly sweet and they’re usually at their tastiest when served chilled. While cheesecake cupcakes work with or without toppings, the fresh fruit of summer is often the perfect finishing touch. So here are recipes for several cheesecake cupcakes to try.

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A group of young ladies in Wisconsin have turned to the power of cupcakes to help them in their quest to raise money for charities. The Girls Bake Club was created by Madison Cloutier, Alysha Nelson, Cynthia Manson, and Ajia Hayden when they wanted to raise money for the Go Bo! Foundation. Baking cupcakes with orange frosting to match the foundation’s color scheme. Selling the cupcakes in local stores, the girls were able to raise over a thousand dollars for the charity. Wanting to continue what they started and help other worthy causes, the Girls Bake Club is reaching out with further cupcake sales. Read the rest of this entry »

When it came time for the city of Myrtle Beach to celebrate its 75^th anniversary, they decided they wanted to do it with cupcakes. 7,500 cupcakes to be exact. Katherine Berman and Sophie LaMontagne of Georgetown Cupcakes and TLC’s DC Cupcakes collaborated with the city of Myrtle Beach to not only bake more than 7,500 cupcakes, they planned a cupcake tower to rival all those that came before. And just this week, their achievement was confirmed. The cupcake tower created to celebrate Myrtle Beach’s 75^th anniversary is now officially the Guinness World Record holder for Tallest Tower of Cupcakes at 20 feet and 5 inches tall. Read the rest of this entry »

At a different end of the spectrum from the other day’s Nerdy Nummies Do-It-Yourself cupcaking, we have Craftsy’s understated but valuable tips to achieve professional cake decorating effects through simple means. With their Project Cupcake videos, in less than two minutes you can learn how to turn gelatin and food coloring into edible sequins to decorate a cupcake (turns out it just requires a textured acetate sheet and a hole puncher). Or learn how to create a gorgeous ruffly fondant flower to sit atop delicious icing (it only takes a few cookie cutters, a shaping tool, and some piping gel).

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It looks like cupcakes may be on Oprah’s list of favorite things. The OWN section of Huffington Post has, well, posted a slideshow of fantastic cupcake recipes. Several are twists on old favorites. Adding a swirl of caramel to a simple vanilla cupcake is an easy way to shake up the classic. Or adding a dash of cinnamon to the cream cheese frosting that traditionally sits atop red velvet cupcakes. The candy pie cupcakes are more of a decorating idea with the linked recipe using a standard vanilla cupcake but substitutions should be easy. In fact, a blueberry cupcake or cherry cupcake that coordinate to the colored M&Ms could taste like chocolate dipped fruit. Other flavors featured, are a little more involved. Read the rest of this entry »