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!
Papaya. I never buy this fruit here in Upstate New York, having convinced myself that to enjoy it, I would need to be somewhere tropical.
Not true, ATC readers! and here are the papaya cupcake recipes to prove it.
Start with Coconut Rice Pudding Stuffed Cupcakes with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting & Papaya. A long name for papaya used as a garnish to top off an unusual cupcake. You’ll also notice that I’m continuing my recent penchant for lime…
Get more adventurous with Papaya Cupcake. This recipe appears in Spanish, but, if you’re using Google Chrome as your Internet browser, this nifty top bar pops up asking if you want the page translated into English – answer? yes. 
The tip on putting a dye tube inside the frosting piping bag to get the beautiful swirls is just OTT. I discovered La Depensa del Gnomo during my global cupcakes week, and he never fails to impress.
May this inspire you to venture into the land of tropical fruits this summer no matter your climate!
Pop Tarts were always a last minute, rushed breakfast option when I was growing up. Even though they lack nutritional value they were always delicious! Continuing with the breakfast cupcake posts, these Pop Tart Cupcakes by Cookies and Cups look amazing! According to the directions you simply hollow out a vanilla cupcake, fill with strawberry preserves and top with buttercream frosting. Garnish the frosted cupcakes with a swirl of strawberry preserves and sprinkles and you have your strawberry pop tart cupcakes. I wonder what other pop tart flavors could be transformed into cupcakes.
I just saw these cute little cupcake pajamas at WalMart.com! Only $12 for the little cupcake princess in your life!
ATC reader Jasmin at 1 Fine Cookie shared these cupcakes with us that she crafted for a bowling birthday party. She created the bowling shoe, bowling pin and bowling ball toppers from cookies. I am impressed with her attention to detail! What a great idea! And if you’re not a huge bowling fan, you could use a similar idea for your favorite sport or hobby.
One of our ATC readers, Lisa, has made it to the top five finals in the Jelly Belly $10,000 Cupcake Challenge with her cupcake creation titled, “Bubble Trouble.”
"Bubble Trouble"
Now Lisa’s “Bubble Trouble” cupcake needs your popular vote.
You can vote once per day per e-mail address through Sunday, July 31.
I’ve already voted for Lisa’s Bubble Trouble cupcake today and shared it with my FB friends. Can we give Lisa the help she needs to show Jelly Belly that her adorable cupcake with jelly bean design should be selected as the winner?
Good luck Lisa from everyone at ATC!
We have shared with you several versions of kids cupcake bedding before and here is another option. The Company Store’s kids line called Company Kids has a cupcake party percale bedding set for sale on their website. Choose from twin or full sizes and flat sheets, fitted sheets, pillow cases, and a comforter cover. While on the site don’t forget to look at the girls’ snug-fit cupcake pajamas available in sizes 2T-6 for $19.00. Or there’s a short sleeve cupcake tee on sale for $9.99 available in sizes XS-M. And perfect for kids going back to school is the cupcake appliqued messenger bag that is $22.00.
The lemon slices in my iced tea got me started on a recipe quest for lemons and limes. The raspberries and blackberries were bonuses from the hunt.
And remember, I’m out for fresh-picked berries, here in Upstate New York.
In the lemon category, I came across “Lemon-Limoncello Cupcakes.” Yum. These tangy delights include lemon zest, lemon juice, and limoncello. They’re topped with raspberries and lemon slices.
In the lime category, how about “Key Lime Cupcakes with Blackberry Frosting?” Yowee! We’re talking lime juice, lime zest, lemon juice, and blackberries.
Now, the only question is whether it’s lemon followed by lime or lime followed by lemon?
We just found an interesting interview with Mia Bauer, the cofounder of Crumbs Bake Shop at a cool new blog called No Joe Schmo. Crumbs Bake Shop churns out 1 million cupcakes per month at 36 different locations across the country! That’s a whole lotta cupcakes! They always roll out a new “Cupcake of the Week” and always feature a “Cupcake of the Month.” Our photo is of July’s S’mores Cupcake: chocolate cake filled with vanilla cream cheese frosting, topped with chocolate cream cheese frosting and covered with chocolate chips, marshmallows, and graham cracker pieces. Yum! Who needs a campfire?
And, Crumbs is the only publicly traded stock for a cupcake company, so if you’re looking to invest…
Check out these elaborately-made chili cheese fry cupcakes from Jasmin at 1 Fine Cookie! The “batter” is made of homemade french fries, and the topping is your favorite chili. You can even add all the fixins…cheese, green onions and sour cream. Now tell me, who said cupcakes were feminine?
I love this polka dot cupcakes towel from Pier 1 Imports that I was given for my birthday. It’s bright and cheery and looks great hanging on the handle of my stove. If you want your own cupcake towel you can buy the red like I was given for $7.16. There is also a blue sparkler cupcake towel for only $3.38.
Next time you’re at your local Farmer’s Market, pick out some fresh summer fruit, like peaches, strawberries or blackberries and try making one of these scrumptious-looking treats. These cupcakes were made by baking half-size vanilla cupcakes in foil wrappers, filling the rest of the wrapper with fruit pie filling, and topping it off with a latticed pie crust. Go here to get recipes for making homemade pie filling as well as more tips for turning your favorite pie into a cupcake. It sounds wonderful!
Living in Upstate New York this time of year, we’re blessed with an abundance of fruits, like raspberries and blueberries.
Inspired, I paraded through the Internet to locate recipes that have me headed straight for fresh picking tomorrow morning early so that I can head to the kitchen.
How about Raspberry Cupcakes with Champagne Buttercream Frosting? Wow! But with only 4T of champagne in the frosting recipe…I better pass along my personal note that you can toss a few fresh raspberries into a flute of champagne et voila! It’s time to have over your girlfriends in spades.
For the blueberries…did you know that freezing fresh blueberries for a few hours will stop them from sinking in the cupcake batter while baking?
Another idea is to dip them in flour, also to prevent sinking. I settled on Chocolate Blueberry Cupcakes with a recipe calling for both bitter and sweet chocolates, goat cheese, and cinnamon. Who needs a partner with this much comfort in a cup?
Enjoy the fresh pickings!
What a great idea! Gender revealing cupcake filling! And what pregnant woman isn’t in the mood for a cupcake? Amanda Johnson of Fargo went to her ultrasound like any other expecting woman, but instead of listening to the news directly, she asked the technician to write the baby’s sex on a piece of paper, which she then delivered to her … baker! Amanda then invited her friends and family over for a cupcake party. Everyone simultaneously took bites of their cupcakes, not knowing what color the filling would be, and then people started squealing, mouths full of pink frosting. It’s a girl!
For my birthday I was given Cupcake by Charise Mericle Harper. The cute children’s story is about a sad plain vanilla cupcake who with the help of a candle searches for a topping that will make him be as fancy as all his brother and sister cupcakes. The end of the book includes a recipe for Deliciously Plain Vanilla Cupcakes and Butter Cream Frosting. The book which is published by Disney and Hyperion Books is available on several websites including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Target with prices ranging from $8.24 to $13.49.
Summer might be more than half-way over, but there’s still time for your kids (or you) to fit in some more books before school begins again. I thought I’d entice you to do some more summer reading by sharing several cupcake-related books. Click on each book for a short review.
It's Raining Cupcakes
Tina Cocolina: Queen of the Cupcakes
For my birthday, one of my friends went to our local Container Store to find cupcake packaging products that she gave as my gift. The Container Store website does not offer the products but I was able to find them on other sites. I can not wait to bake a batch of cupcakes and use my new Meri Meri Love Bake cupcake liners. I was given the standard size liners which include two patterns that come in a package of 48 liners and can be purchased from the Meri Meri website for $4.25. The same patterns are available as mini liners, a package with 32 of each liner is $5.50.
My friend also found cupcake boxes by The Gift Wrap Company in Candy Dot Spot. Included in the package are two food safe gift boxes with an insert tray that holds four standard size cupcakes. I found a 12 pack of the packages on amazon for $51.00. Read the rest of this entry »
I love these ceramic cupcake stands! They are classy, colorful, and just plain fun!
Continuing with the cupcake related gifts, for my birthday I was given Red Velvet Cupcake Taffy. Since I haven’t had much taffy in the past, I don’t have anything to compare this flavored taffy to but I thought it was good. It definitely tastes like cake and is very sweet! The taffy comes from Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York City but can also be purchased online for $5.00. On website they also have a German Chocolate Cupcake flavor but they advise caution when purchasing candy that has to be shipped during warm weather.
