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!

Dominique of  Sugarplum Cupcakes from across the pond over in England shared her masterful animal cupcake creations with us.  My favorite is the sheep.  The pearls woven together to simulate the wool is adorable.  She will be offering a “Novelty Cupcake Workshop” to share her tips and tricks:

Forgot to mention I host cupcake workshops in Suffok, UK. These four
characters are stars of my latest ‘Novelty Cupcake Workshop’. Haven’t
named them yet, but really excited about filling a whole class with
them in the New Year! – Dominique

Too bad we are on the wrong side of the pond to attend.  Register by contact her at her website contact form or on her Facebook page.

Sugarplum Cupcake
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sugarplumcupcakes
Website: http://www.sugarplumcupcakes.co.uk/

It’s difficult to stuff a holiday stocking with a trip to only one store, but if you have a cupcake lover on your gift list, then I believe it can be done at Kohls. Check out the awesome little cupcake gifts they’re offering this season!

What do you get when you take a steak house owner and put him in a cupcakerie?

Answer:  Coke + Ruffles cupcakes!

Now I know that everyone is thinking holiday cupcakes and presents, but, after all, Santa Claus is a man, so perhaps our stockings would become a bit more plump if we left guy-inspired cupcakes beside the fireplace on Christmas Eve?

4 Rivers Sweetshop owner John Rivers has come up with several of these “sweet and savory” cupcake ideas, including Moutain Dew + Doritos cupcakes.  Rivers told The Today Show that he’s working on Nehi grape soda cupcakes, and that the secret to using sodas in frosting is to boil it down to syrup thickness.

Now that’s one Ho-Ho tip I’m headed into the kitchen to try!

Paperless Post is offering a new line of free, informal holiday invitations and cards.  Included in the line is this fun snowman cupcake electronic card, a quick and easy way to wish your friends and family a happy holiday season.  Once you sign in to Paperless Post you can customize the text, font style, color, and more!

With cupcakes being so popular, this Little Tikes cupcake kitchen set from Toys R Us would make an excellent Christmas gift for your child, and it’s a great deal for only $29.99.  Just think of the hours that he or she will spend “baking” cupcakes and serving them up to friends…with no clean-up involved!  I especially love that the stove burners make sound effects!

And our ornament winner is…

Ashley Shelton
A cupcake Christmas is the only one for me! I am from Tennessee and while we like to keep things traditional and tender during the Holiday Season I am opting for a more sweet approach. This year I am decking my silver tree with sweet cupcake ornaments to remind us to be a little sweeter this Christmas!

 Congratulations!  Please email your mailing address to [email protected].  Thanks to all our sweet fans and to KamNCo for sponsoring this great giveaway!

Check out these comfy cupcake slipper socks for girls! I found the pair above at JCPenney on sale for only $4.99! What a steal! The three-pack below is available from Kohls, also on sale for $8.40! Stockings make great stocking stuffers!

Having trouble deciding between cupcakes and cookies? Don’t! With cupcake cookies, you can have the best of both worlds. These darling creations are courtesy of The Sweet Cupcake Company of Dublin, Ireland. You can visit them and view more tasty treats on Facebook!

I don’t watch a lot of sports which might explain why I have never heard this term before.  According to Urban Dictionary‘s definition, a Cupcake Team “refers to the crappy team many Division FBS colleges use as a warm-up for their football season and to sell tickets to alumni.  Teams that fill up on cupcake teams often get fat and lazy.” Being a cupcake team seems to have a very negative connotation attached to it, have you heard any sports fans use this term?

Did anyone out there brave the mall this weekend and happen to buy any of these cute cupcake items from Gap Kids?  I have been avoiding shopping malls but there are still tons of great deals on the internet.  The cupcake clutch is marked down to $17.46 and the socks are $9.00 for a three pack.  I seriously wish the pink and green cupcake pajamas came in my size instead of little girls.  And of course every little baby wold look cute in the cupcake sleep set for $19.80.  Gap is offering free shipping on orders over $50.00 and 20% off your purchase through tonight so hurry and place those orders!

This cupcake cake comes from a bakery in Massachusetts.  I thought it was so creative and I wanted to pass along the idea.  I love the idea of making gingerbread houses, and a cupcake gingerbread house sure would taste yummy!

After hours of shopping and trying to find all those great deals, you are probably exhausted and ready to put your feet up and relax.  Why not kick back with a cupcake?

I searched for Black Friday cupcakes and found these yummy-looking creations.  It’s not too late to whip up a batch of these!  This one is a dark chocolate cupcake filled with vanilla bean cream, topped with ganache and drizzled with chocolate sauce.

What is it about Thanksgiving that invariably leads to pleas from turkeys for clemency?  Do we see similar images from cows at Fourth of July?  Fish and shrimp at New Year’s Eve?

Perhaps the answer is that we draw the turkey as children, tracing our hands with crayons, turning our thumb into the smiling turkey face, our fingers into the colorful feathers.  Seemingly every child is connected to turkeys, while all other animals are, well, options.

In an hour-long scan of turkey cupcakes, ranging from cupcakes made from ground turkey to cupcakes celebrating turkeys, this is the one turkey who captured my heart and made me think twice about the bird in my refrigerator.  If I had seen this handsome Tom earlier this week, perhaps I would have served up imitation cupcakes, under silvery domes, to be lifted to the surprise of my guests.

(Maybe next year.)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ever thought of turning a boring old meatloaf into a cupcake?  The Meatloaf Bakery in Chicago specializes in meatloaf cupcakes.  They have taken the average meatloaf recipe and turned it into something unique.

Check out this meaty Thanksgiving cupcake, made of lean ground turkey, fresh garlic, herbs, and Parmesan cheese and topped with stuffing.  Go here to check out some of their other original creations, including “El Loafo del Fuego” and “No Buns About it Burger Loaf”.  I just might have to give this place a try since they’re not too far away from me!

So, what are your thoughts? Would you try a meaty cupcake?

So I’m interested to know what you would do.

Here’s a story from England’s Daily Mail – “Cupcake Calamity” – about cupcake bakery owner Rachel Brown of Need-A-Cake, who offered a Groupon and had to bake an “astonishing” 102,000 cupcakes in response.

Apparently, Brown offered a dozen cupcakes for £6.50, instead of the usual £26, resulting in 8,500 orders…at which point Brown cut off the orders.

What’s your perspective – any sympathies?  A baker offering 75% off?  Groupon saying their offers are for an unlimited number of orders?  The angry customers, complaining that their orders were taking longer than they expected?

For those of you already gearing up for Christmas, you will love this week’s giveaway.  It is sponsored byKamNCo and check out these adorable cupcake Christmas ornaments they create.  Many people call them “cupfakes” because although they look real, they are made with inedible ingredients.   I have one and am amazed by it’s realistic appearance.  And they are light enough to go on a children’s Christmas tree.  How unbelievable  would a whole tree decorated with these be?

One lucky winner will receive a cupcake ornament!  So sweet!  To enter this week’s giveaway, click on the comment area below and tell us how you love to decorate for the holidays.  Do you use cupcakes?  Or maybe you go for a traditional country look?  Tell us what you do!  One winner will be chosen on Monday November 28th.  Thanks KamNCo for sponsoring this giveaway! 

I posted some fuzzy cupcake slippers yesterday, and today I am posting some cute cupcake hats for little girls.  What a great stocking stuffer idea (especially when they’re only $4.95 a piece)!  With such an adorable hat, they will be sure to keep it on in the cold weather.

ATC recently reviewed the new Martha Stewart 2012 cupcake calendar, and in case you want one for every room in the house, here are some more choices, available from Barnes and Noble and Amazon!

Looking for a stylish way to keep you or your little ones’ toes warm as the temperatures drop this winter?  Here are several pairs of cupcake slippers that are both fun and functional.  Click on each picture for more information.  The last two pairs of slippers are linked to patterns in case you are feeling like a knitting or crochet project.  And if you don’t like any of these, be sure and search for more, because there are tons of cupcake slippers out there!

Slippers to match your American Girl doll:

Slippers for your toddler:

Crocheted toddler slippers:

More crocheted toddler slippers:

Remember those trendy Fisker’s cupcake toppers we showed you over the summer?  Well now Lisa Stroms has a twist on the mustache cupcake toppers, edible mustache cupcake toppers!  These are really easy to make, just sketch or print out the mustache shape you want to use as your template and cover with wax paper.  Next melt chocolate and fill into a ziploc bag.  Snip the corner of the bag and pipe the chocolate following the outline of the template first and filling in the mustache second.  Then use chocolate to “glue” on a lollipop stick, once dry you have edible mustache cupcake toppers.

I just spotted this cupcake crafts kit in the kids’ section of Barnes and Noble. For $11.95, your young cupcake artist can create fairies, flowers, and even a princess crown! The kit includes 53 liners, 172 stickers, a glue stick, and instructions, which of course, your child will probably pay no heed to. I must admit, it looked fun!

By the title, you might think I am talking about cupcakes and ice cream and a carbonated beverage, but I am actually referring to the floats that we will be seeing on Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and other holiday parades.  Since I will be attending a parade this weekend, I got to thinking about what kinds of cupcake floats have been done.  I thought I would share what my search came up with.  I wonder…will there be any cupcake floats in Macy’s Parade this year?

Yesterday, The Seattle Times published this delicious photo along with a recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes with Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting! Yum! Don’t put too much rum in the frosting, now!

I was treated to a local production of Red Velvet Cake War this past weekend, and they did a very cool thing! A local bakery (renowned Hilman’s Bakery of Fairfield, Maine) donated a giant red velvet cake, along with many, many mini red velvet cupcakes. During intermission, actors in costume came out into the audience with trays of the mini cupcakes, handing them out. Then, as we were all contentedly munching away, they announced that one of the cupcakes had an X on the bottom. The person who got the X’d cupcake got to take home the giant cake! What a great idea! (And the play was great too!)