I find the images of Belle and Boo to be absolutely adorable.  One of my favorites is the Happy Halloween print where Boo is inside a Jack-O-Lantern and Belle is dressed up like a cat.  I was excited when I came across these Halloween Parade Cupcake Wrappers available on their Etsy site. Ten decorative wrappers, which are not meant to be baked in, come in a pack for $9.50.  Belle and Boo also sells matching invitations.

Momiji dolls are adorable little message dolls that are categorized into little collections.  Each doll has a cut out hole in the bottom and a card inside the hole for writing a little personalized note.  While looking around on the Momiji site I noticed that they have a few fun cupcake related items.  There are two Momiji dolls that have cupcakes on them.  Each of the dolls are pixies, one is from the vintage collection and the other from the random collection.  Once is blond haired and wearing a pink dress while holding a yellow cupcake while the other has a cherry theme. Read the rest of this entry »

Organize.com offers a selection of cupcake baking items for Halloween they have sprinkles, stencils, liners and more.  One item that I like is the set of 12 silicone cupcake molds with halloween designs.  With cute spiderwebs, bats, witches, ghosts, cats, and caldrons, the $20.99 set is a nice alternative to paper liners.

*Tip: if you buy these, bake in them once or twice before Halloween.  This will ensure the cupcakes come out of the molds easily.  When I bought my molds I didn’t realize how important this was!

Every now and then we come across adult cupcakes, most of which include alcohol.  This time, Cosmopolitan has and article with several recipes for alcohol cupcakes by Lucy Baker, author of The Boozy Baker: 75 Recipes for Spirited Sweets.  Start with a basic recipe included on the Cosmo website then follow with one of the 9 alcohol variations of your choice shared below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Layer Cake Shop has two fun cupcake kits for halloween.  The zombie cupcake kit includes 24 black and green cupcake liners, white bone sprinkles, royal icing eyes, and assorted zombie cupcake toppers.  Similarly the Halloween cupcake kit has cupcake liners, assorted cupcake toppers, orange sprinkles, royal icing pumpkins, and pumpkin bakery labels.

Be sure to look around the site, they have lots of other cupcake decorating products for Halloween and other occasions!

Baked: New Frontiers in Baking is one of my favorite cookbooks and I loved visiting the Charleston location last summer.  I was really excited when I read on design*sponge that a second book had hit bookshelves.  Baked Explorations is said to have over 80 amazing recipes (including sections on Breakfast, Cakes and Cupcakes, Pies and Tarts, Brownies and Bars, Cookies, Confections and Chocolates, and Drinks), 40 color photos, various tips, tricks and more!

The Kitchn not only reviewed the new book but also blogged about the Maple Cupcake recipe found in the book. Now that the cooler fall weather has finally arrived here in North Carolina it’s the perfect time to try the recipe, found below!  Read the rest of this entry »

Sasha from The Gilded Bee was recently a guest blogger on Oh, Hello Friend while Danni is away on her honeymoon.  Sasha’s post was a tutorial on how to make paper carnations out of cupcake wrappers.

I have included the instructions but for the step-by-step pictures that go along with the written directions or variations on the project you will have to check out the original blog post.

Read the rest of this entry »

Martha Stewart is holding her annual cupcake contest again this year.  To enter for a chance to win a copy of Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes all you have to do is agree to the contest rules and upload a photo of your cutest cupcake creation to the contest website!

Cupcake Cuties are cupcake decorating kits for weddings, birthdays, holidays and other celebrations. And using them is really as easy as 1, 2, 3!  Each kit contains a 24 self adhesive themed sleeves and decorative garnish, so all you need is a frosted cupcake.  The kits also include easy to follow instructions and a picture of what the final product is supposed to look like.

We here at ATC were sent two cupcake cuties, the scary scull and the football.  For the scary skulls I made vanilla cupcakes and used vanilla frosting.  Once they were frosted I dipped them in the provided white sprinkles.  Then wrapped the sleeve around the cupcake and topped with an included spider.  For the footballs I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  As instructed I used a toothpick to draw a football then using the included white writing gel to draw the lines.  The kit also had green sprinkles to use as grass and a sleeve to finish the cupcake. Read the rest of this entry »

I know we have shared Sweet Paul with you in the past; like the True Blood cupcakes or his white paper cups.  Recently Sweet Paul came out with an online magazine and the Fall 2010 issue features a chocolate orange cupcake recipe.  I love the food styling and photography for this cupcake, the chocolate cupcake on the elephants back is just too cute for me not to share with you! Check out the latest issue for this cupcake recipe along with other great recipes, crafts, and fun finds!

While running the other day I passes a father and daughter biking.  I noticed the little girl’s biking shirt had a cupcake on it. The shirt was by Sugoi and it has a cupcake images on the front and back in addition to three pockets on the back.  There is also a cupcake recipe inside the pocket!  I found the shirt on two websites, Bike Nashbar for $29.99 or Sun Rise Cyclery where it costs $34.99.

Flowers In May, a design and stationary company was launched in 2007 by Massachusetts based graphic designer Emily Dumas.  In the “about” section of her website it mentions that she enjoys baking cupcakes which explains two of her prints.  One print, titled The Best Things In Life Are Sweet, is an 11×13 print of all things sweet, including cupcakes! Another print which shows Dumas’s passion for baking is named, Today I Feel Like Baking, and a little cupcake can be found hidden amongst the baking necessities. Prices for prints range from $15 to $25 and look around her website to view the other products she offers.

Every year, we here at ATC try to provide you with the latest and cutest cupcake costumes.  This year in my search for great new cupcake costumes I have come across a few cupcake costumes that are definitely more grown up.  I know not everyone will be interested in these cupcake related costumes, especially since they are not actual cupcakes, but there might be a reader out there who was looking for just this type of costume.

Cupcake Cutie Costume $56.95

I have found that you can always count on Urban Outfitters to have unique, and somewhat random products. The nail polish remover pads which they currently have in cupcake vanilla fragrance, is a perfect example of a unique product.  The container of 100 alcohol and acetone free pads is on sale for $3.99.

Last Halloween we shared with you two options of Martha Stewart cupcake liners available at Michael’s Craft Stores.  This year, the Martha Stewart website offers 4 different designs for standard size liners and two additional options for mini cupcakes!  The prices vary depending on the design with some images, for example the vampire icon or blood spatter wrappers, costing as little as $2.47 for a package of 48 wrappers. Or the most expensive designs include the Happy Halloween mini wrappers which cost $9.40 for 96 wrappers in two designs.

Skull & Crossbones, Spider, Bat & More Stencil Kit

Martha Stewart also offers two options for stencil kits to decorate your cupcakes.  One version is the Vampire Cupcake Stencils which is only $3.93.  Or for $27.99 there is the Skull & Crossbones, Spider, Bat & More Stencil Set. Happy Halloween cupcake decorating!

I am trying very hard to resist buying this eye candy stationary set.  I know that at the moment I have enough stationary but I just love these googly eyes! The set of 12 notecards is $9.95 and comes with googly eyes for you to add your own custom touch.

My sister has always loved candy corns; so much so that my mom even made her a candy corn costume one year for Halloween.  When I saw these cupcakes I immediately thought of my sister and I think I’ll have to make them for her this year! The Curvy Carrot created these candy corn frosted cupcakes which are great because they are so simple yet festive!

Read the rest of this entry »

I absolutely love Etsy! The sellers on there never cease to amaze me with their creative and unique products.  My sister sent me the link to this cupcake ukulele handcrafted by Celentano Woodworks, which is a great example of how talented Etsy sellers are.  The $450.00 ukulele is made to order and you can watch this youtube video of it being played: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkIvYCb0L2I

Delia’s currently has two graphic t-shirt available which feature cupcakes.  The first is the cupcake stripe tee which is a white and black striped shirt with a large cupcake image on the front for $19.95. The rhinestone cupcake burnout tee is another option, it is a black tee with a cupcake made entirely out of cupcakes.  The second shirt is $24.50 but right now there is a buy 2 & save $10 promotion, so if you can’t decide you could always get both!

Mini and regular cupcake liners $3.95-4.95 per set

Thursday the latest Crate & Barrel catalog came in the mail and after looking through it I had to stop buy my local store.  I could not resist buying some of their Halloween items, especially since I know I will be baking cupcakes for Halloween! Don’t wait to long if you’re interested in buying these items, the sale’s associate told me the spider cupcake holders are going fast!

Spider Cupcake Holder, $1.95 each or 6 for $8.95

Juicy Couture always has great cupcake related items.  This week I was looking at Bakerella’s blog and realized I was just a few days too late to enter her contest to win the Juicy Couture Cupcake Oven Charm.  I figured I would still share it with our readers since it can be purchased from the Juicy Couture website for $58.00.  Although the charm it tiny, only 1 5/8in X 1in in size, it contains a great amount of detail including “bake me some couture” written on the back.

First we shared with you the sweet tea cupcake molds by Fred & Friends.  Then we showed you the gory numskulls cupcake molds.  Now we bring you the fun, Yumbots.  Included in each box are four robot cupcake molds in four assorted colors.  Yumbots are currently out of stock on amazon but other sites, like perpetual kid have them for $17.99!

During a recent stop in Borders I, of course, had to check out the cookbook section.  One of the books I came across was titled A Zombie ate My Cupcake: 25 Deliciously Weird Cupcake Recipes.  The graphic horror comic/illustrated cookbook is great for Halloween cupcake ideas because author Lily Vanilli is known for making gruesome yet gorgeous cakes! The book offers tips and directions for using fondant, piped icing, marzipan, gum paste, and more.

The book is available at borders locations or through their website.  Amazon offers the book for as little as $8.39 and be sure to check Vanilli’s website for book signing and demo days throughout the month of October.

While in San Francisco, California I wandered into Paperwhirl on Grant Avenue because of the cute cupcake apron in the window.  Although at the time I resisted the urge to buy another cupcake apron, I did find the adult sized apron by Happi on amazon for only $21.99; just in case I change my mind.

This past week I was fortunate enough to visit San Francisco.  Since I have done the well-known tourist attractions in the past, this time I had to visit some cupcake shops!  In one day I managed to visit four cupcakes shops in downtown San Francisco and will now share with you my thoughts.

The first cupcake shop we stopped in was American Cupcake.  The decor inside was unique and unlike any cupcake shop I have been in before.  Most cupcake shops are cutesy but this shop was very modern with crazy lighting. When you walk in to your right is a case full of cupcakes, followed by the cash register and then a bar.  American offers both a sweet and savory menu and cupcake wine pairings.

Although I was intrigued by the different flavors like pixie stick or cotton candy, I decided to go with a classic flavor, red velvet.  I have to admit I did not love the cupcake; in my opinion it was too dry and crumbly. Read the rest of this entry »