Back in December I posted a craft idea by Real Simple for using cupcake liners as light embellishments, now Martha Stewart has another creative  craft:  Hanging Bubbly Ball Decorations.  Martha suggests using these festive balls as decorations for New Year’s Eve however they could easily be used for any special occasion.  While Martha stuck to a white and silver color scheme, cupcake liners, as any cupcake fan knows, come in almost every color and pattern.  The best part is these do-it-yourself decorations seem easy and inexpensive.

Outside Crumbs Bake Shop in Westport, CT

While on a trip back home to Connecticut last week my best friend and I visited one of Crumbs Bake Shop newest locations in Westport.  We absolutely loved the cupcakes!  When visiting cupcake shops, we have a system, we each pick one that we really want then one we agree on for a total of three cupcakes then we share all three.  When choosing the flavors we try to pick three that are all different to get a good idea of what the shop has to offer.

Our three cupcakes: grasshopper, good guy, and coconut

We ended up with the following flavors: Grasshopper, a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache filling and mint buttercream frosting.  The Good Guy which was a funfetti cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and lots of sprinkles.  And a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and coconut shavings to top it off.

Inside the Grasshopper cupcake

After trying all three I would have to say my favorite flavor was the Good Guy.  A classic cupcake with a slight twist is always good.

What was left of the Good Guy

Crumbs Bake Shop has over 25 locations in the tri-state area and California with more opening soon.  The company offers shipping which is perfect for those looking for a sweet Valentine’s Day surprise.  Additionally there is a wide variety of flavors too choose from including classic and more unique flavors.

One half of the cupcake case at Crumbs!

My sister passed along this image titled “Sweet Music” was created by Sarah Illenberger, a Berlin based photographer.  After looking around on her website you will notice a common theme throughout her portfolio, food! Illenberger has worked in various media outlets including magazines and advertisements, she has even won several awards for her work.

This weekend I made Red Velvet Cupcakes from Stefanie’s Red Velvet Cupcake Mix.  The package comes with just about everything you need to make the cupcakes, the cupcake liners are even included. Read the rest of this entry »

On Sweet Paul’s Etsy he has listed white cupcake paper cups.  The set of 24 paper cups that are made from grease proof paper cost $4.50.  They remind me of Sweet Revenge’s cupcakes that use parchment paper as liners.

sweet revenge cupcakes

I love how create people can get when it comes to coming up with unique cupcake flavors.  Baa Baa, Cupcake, Have you Any Frosting? has created prickly pear cupcakes.  I have only had prickly pear once and it was with lemonade but this recipe along with the photographs make me think I just might have to try these!  There are tons of fun and different cupcakes on the blog!

The Champagne Cupcakes she made for New Years sound delicious!

Anyone with a sweet tooth is sure to love these Snickers Cupcakes

These Honey Lavendar Cupcakes with Grapefruit would be great to make since it's citrus season.

I love the detail put into decorating these Pistachio and Cardamom with Mango Frosting Cupcakes.

I read on Eat Me Daily about Aluminum Cupcakes created by Timothy Thompson.  The cupcakes, created out of aluminum and bondo are part of the Camper Contemporary exhibition. The exhibition is in an old camper which means it is mobile! According to the website it was last parked in Baltimore.

In October StayHomeCupcake had shared the cupcake car by Neiman Marcus that costs $25,000.  In December David Letterman test drove one of the cupcake cars on The Late Show.  In the video he gets off to such a fast start that he crashes and the hat flies off!

Pottery Barn Kids has a realistic looking toy version of everyone’s favorite food.  They have a cake and cupcake set made out of fabric, making it safe for little kids.  The set includes 4 differently designed cupcakes  for $24.00 and the cake which is purchased separately for $34.00.

This cute image of a deer approaching a cupcake is by Elizabeth Soule Photography.  While the image is from her “Little Zoo” series, it is the only one that features a cupcake.  The image can be ordered as a card, or various sizes of prints including 6″x6″ or 12″x12″ or two photo box sizes.  The prices range from $3.50 for the card to $70.00 for the largest print size option.

If you are looking for a unique gift for the cupcake lover you know, this customizable cupcake sign available from Three Potato Four might be just what you have been searching for.   You choose the between red, yellow, green and blue for the text color.  Then add the name, and the shop/service, as show in the picture above it is cupcakes! This vintage sign is approximately 24″w x 16″h and costs $150.00

Sarah Hough Paper has created several products featuring cupcakes.  There is the 200 page spiral bound Cupcake Crazy Chunky Notebook which costs 4.95 euro.   The Cupcake Crazy Skinny Notebook containing 40 blank pages for 1.95 euro.

Or there is the Dancing Ledge Notecard Collection which contains 8 notecards for 5.95 euro.  The pack is mixed which means you get four images, two of which will be the Cupcake Crazy pattern.  All Sarah Hough Paper products are entirely make in the UK.

Cupcake Recipes compiled a list of 10 Christmas cupcake ideas.  These include the obvious like sprinkles to more complex ideas such as elf faces.  There are only descriptions and no pictures which leaves room for creative imaginations to come up with their own versions of these cupcake ideas. Be sure to email us any cupcakes you create or share them on our facebook page!

My best friend told me about this restaurant and I had to share it! Located in New York City,   Burgers and Cupcakes has only two options on its menu.  There is a variety of burger choices as well as an assortment of cupcake flavors to choose from.  The menu includes breakfast burger choices one of which is bacon, egg, and cheese. Or select a breakfast cupcake like spiced apple with yogurt and granola.  As their website says, the burgers will please the guy in your life while cupcakes will of course make you happy, it sounds like a win-win dining destination.

Cannelle et Vanille made these delicious looking Sweet Potato,  Yogurt and Hazelnut cakes.  I generally do not like sweet potatoes but these look so good I am tempted to make them.  Possibly when my whole family is together for Christmas  since the post says that the first time she made the recipe it was gone before she could style or photograph them. The cupcakes shown were topped with a simple mascarpone and mace icing.

As a fun idea for new uses for old things, Real Simple Magazine suggests using foil cupcake liners as light embellishments.  Now is the perfect time to make them since the minilights are easy to find for holiday decorations.  The instructions are as follows:

For a string of minilights that takes the (cup)cake, poke the pointy bulbs through foil cupcake liners. Use them for the tree or around your little girl’s bedroom mirror to make her feel like a holiday star.

Sadly I am unable to translate this site and the description despite my years of high school French.  I do however know a cupcake when I see one! I can also deduce that “en stock” means that this cupcake card is available for purchasing.

For some time now I have known about Tuesday with Dorie which is an online club that aims to bake all the recipes for Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours.  What I did not know was that the same concept had been applied to the Martha Stewart’s Cupcake book.  The club is called MSC (Martha Stewart Cupcake Club) and the end goal of the club is to bake all 175 cupcake recipes.  To accomplish this, each month on a rotational basis, one member chooses one recipe that has not yet been made.  The members then blog about their version of the cupcakes or post them to the group’s flickr.  While the club is currently not accepting new members the website says that there will be openings soon.

Alphabet Plates offers two cute customizable cupcake plate options.   Both plates have blue background however you can choose between a chocolate cupcake with pink frosting or a chocolate cupcake with white frosting.  Of course you also choose the name.  The plates are $22.00 each and read “—– loves cupcakes.”  I know that when I was growing up I loved anything that was specifically mine and not my siblings so I am sure this will make any child happy!

Since Christmas is coming quickly, the holiday catalogs have begun to fill mailboxes.  While flipping through Pottery Barn Teen I came across this gift idea.  It is a set of three cupcake shaped storage holders.  The set comes with one cupcake of each color and size for $29.00.

Sugar Mountain and La-Tea-Da Owners

My friend in Rochester, NY sent me this news paper article and I thought I would share it.  Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe was originally a virtual bakery that operated out of other place’s commercial kitchens.  When the owners of Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe were considering closing, out of fear of losing her cupcake supplier, Maureen Becker, owner of La-Tea-Da Tea Room and Parlor offered Sugar Mountain the use of her space.  Now the two operate under the same roof only, with La-Tea-Da Tea taking the day shift and Sugar Mountain operating during the evenings.

My friend said she tried Sugar Mountain’s cupcakes, all of which are filled.  Her most recent cupcake try was Pumpkin Spice which she said was good but noted that there is a lot of frosting on these cupcakes.  She also mentioned that the unique flavors like The Elvis, a banana spice cake filled with chocolate hazelnut ganache, topped with a chocolate peanut buttercream and a banana chip, tend to sell out quickly.

My mom shared with me last week’s issue of Parade featured an article titled Five Unexpected Food Trends.  According to Joanna Prisco wedding cupcakes are the number one unexpected food trend.  Red velvet and chocolate cupcakes are among the most popular but crazy flavors like Twinkies, s’mores, and doughnuts are showing up at weddings.  I liked that the actual, physical article claimed “Cupcakes are the new wedding cake.”

Hello Sugar his already in the holiday spirit with several holiday cupcake images on their website that look amazing.  I think my personal favorite is the snowman.  They kept him simple and traditional but still managed to include a lot of detail.   I also like that they use edible glitter.  I always loved it when my mom did food styling jobs that included edible glitter, something about it is fun to me.  According to the website the cupcakes are Callebaut chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate chips and peppermint buttercream which sounds delicious!

Ornament Cupcake

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the recipes there are out there because I want to make all of them and I know I will never have enough time to do so.  While looking around Design Sponge I quickly had dozens of tabs open with all of the recipes I wanted to try.  The “In the Kitchen with” section is loaded with recipes and photography that looks amazing.  In the Kitchen with Sarah Magid includes the recipe  for dark chocolate cupcakes with espresso whipped buttercream and hand-sculpted sugar flowers.  The recipe comes from Magid’s book: Organic and Chic and the blog post kindly includes a video on how to make the sugar flowers.

I can’t help but want to try White Cake Supreme Cupcakes by Looolo, a textile designer, when the description claims that they are fun and easy to make!

White Cake Supreme

I had never heard of Enjoy Cupcakes, a cute little cupcakery located in California.  Design Sponge has beautiful pictures of the location, making me wish even more that I lived in California.

Enjoy Cupcakes

There are lots more cupcake related posts on Design Sponge, that I couldn’t possibly include them all in this post. Which is why I encourage you to check out the website, it seems to have so much more to offer then just cupcakes.

This weekend I came across Arrrt by Jessixa which has some unique cupcake illustrations.  These very different images fall under the “Robots” category on the website.  I would have to say that my favorite one is titled”Want.” Which is of a robot looking inside himself and seeing a cupcake where a heart would be.  I also like “In Deep” because the robot looks like it is wearing moon shoes but it’s actually cupcakes.  There are several more cupcake images on the website and her contact information is also provided.

Want

In Deep