Cupcakes presented art gallery style is how I would describe MORE cupcakerie in Chicago. Smoother-than-silk frostings. Sculpted icings. Chocolate curls as tight as Shirley Temple’s.
And the flavors? MORE’s list of cupcakes includes a blackberry, salted caramel, and chocolate mint (pictured).
I’m thinking Chicago Museum of Art, stroll along the lakefront, and some downtown deep dish pizza, followed by MORE, MORE, MORE.
So my theme word of the year is “sparkly,” and what better place to start than with sparkly cupcakes!
There are cupcakeries named “Sparkle Cupcake Company.”
There are cupcake products with “sparkle.”
And then there is “Sparkle and Hay” with step by photo step illustrations of how to make these beautiful, sparkly cupcakes. Their website and Facebook are all about rustic country chic weddings, so kick up your heels and get into your kitchen, turn on a little Sugarland, and start the new year off with sparkle!
Thinking of what to put together for your New Year’s Eve party?
Why not cook up your brew instead of drinking it? Here’s a recipe for Guinness and Bailey Irish Cupcakes that strikes me as rather top-o-the-morning.
Take it one step further, and here’s a recipe for Chocolate Guinness and Whiskey Cupcakes with Bailey’s Frosting. I’d put this into the later-in-the-day category.
And this recipe variation includes a bittersweet ganache with whiskey option within the Guinness Cupcake.
Cheers!
Just in the nick of time, Magnolia Bakery now offers a monthly cupcake club with nationwide shipping. Pre-orders are being taken and shipping begins on January 2 with caramel cupcakes, followed by a different cupcake each month.
So if you find yourself in a line that’s too long for someone who is too hard to please, how about putting at least yourself in the spirit? And while you’re placing your order, why not order Magnolia Bakery’s “Truffled Chocolate Cupcake.”
I know what I’m going to click on as soon as I click on “publish!”
Hot off the press! Apparently, gel cupcake frosting qualified as a potential security threat at the Las Vegas Airport, causing the TSA to confiscate a cupcake!
The cupcakerie is Wicked Good Cupcakes and just looking at their website has me wanting to fly to their shop to get samples. The ‘wicked good’ cupcakes made for the MSPCA are pictured here. If the TSA dogs had discovered these puppies, I might understand what took place.
But my conclusion will simply be this: it’s just another part of this year’s great cupcake recipe operation…
Good Morning ATC Community! and welcome to the official start of crunch time. These are the days that we second-guess whether we did enough of everything and end up doing too much!
If you’re like me, you’ve baked a fair amount of holiday treasures.
But holiday week is a bit like a marathon and, in the home stretch, who isn’t looking for fresh ideas to keep inspired? The challenge I set to myself is whether I can come up with a week of images, recipes, and instructions to keep us all – myself included – at 350F from now through next Saturday.
These Baked Ideas images are cookies, but so fresh and original they will inspire your cupcake decorating ideas. Here’s a smorgasbord of cookie decorating ideas from “Baked Ideas” by Patti Paige, along with the Baked Ideas’ Facebook page and the video on the Baked Ideas mini gingerbread houses. 3,000 each season!
If you’re still looking for last minute gifts, Baked Ideas even sells yoga cookie cutters. How did she do that? Here’s her video on piping royal icing onto each one of the yoga posed gingerbread men and here’s the Baked Ideas gingerbread recipe.
Ah-ha! My Muse gripped that one!
Today, I’m going to springboard those Baked Ideas into spice cupcakes with yoga shapes drawn on the top, including some Sandskrit symbols, such as “Namaste.” And I know just who is on my list for these yoga cupcakes…
Now that’s what I mean about taking inspiration and giving yourself permission to be creative at the holidays! What’s your idea?
Countdown: 6 days.
Christmas stollen is such a favorite food at the holidays, who can resist the notion of converting it into a cupcake? 
Here’s one recipe for Christmas stollen cupakes from The Cupcake Project.
Raisins, dried cranberries, dried currents, dried cherries…we’ll let that negate the bit of pleasure we’ll take from a bit of cherry liqueur and brandy. And, of course, we’ll only pour those into the recipe, won’t we?
Just in case you have some cherry liqueur left over, here’s a companion recipe for Black Forest Cupcakes. Well, if I’m on that theme, let’s be sure to have on hand a recipe for White Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes.
Now there’s a cupcake trio that deserves a Ho-Ho-Ho!
Glitter, glitter, and more glitter! I just want these holidays to shine so that I can sing “Silver & Gold” along with Burl Ives when spinning the Rudolph soundtrack.
What’s more perfect to go with those silver and gold ornaments than cupcakes decorated as ornaments?
These ornament cupcakes come from Hoosier country, Indiana! “Hoosier Homemade” had several holiday cupcake decorating ideas from a multi-week cupcake challenge.
Find other inspiration in actual vintage Christmas ornaments. The 1950s ornaments were the very essence of elegance in design and can still be found at antique co-ops and flea markets and also on etsy and e-bay.
Mmmm. Here’s the cupcake for you to share with Santa by the fireplace: mulled wine cupcakes.
Not familiar with “mulled wine?” It’s wine, simmered with ingredients like cinnamon, allspice and cloves until the air smells as warm and inviting as the holidays. Don’t be timid about experimenting with your wines or your spices. Then trust your nose. (Although sampling might be half the fun of being the chef for this one!)
“May Bakes Cakes” of Corby, England has a Facebook page and she labels herself as “Artist.” It’s the right label. With creations like these snowmen, santa, and penguin, it’s the title I would confer upon her, too.
Novel in her approach using FB, May’s Facebook page also has a “snowman tutorial” with step-by-step instructions for snowmen that would be perfect cupcake toppers.
May is also so kind as to provide a separate Facebook page with a “penguin tutorial,” as well.
As far as I can tell, there is only one flaw: who could ever eat such sweet treats?
May Bakes Cakes snowman tutorial
I’m going to put this under “cupcake,” even though I’m generally a purist and a round ball wouldn’t qualify as a cupcake.
But ’tis the season, I’m on a quest for the most beautiful of holiday cupcakes, and these cupcakes were created by Cupcake Envy, a bakery of “sculpted cakelets” by owner Amy Eilert. Cupcake Envy’s Facebook photos sport so many great shots, you’ll have no shortage of inspiration.
You may also want to notice that Cupcake Envy sells “how-to” videos. Not a bad idea, if you think that you’ve been nice!
Let’s face it. We start strong. We mean well. But in a few days, we’ll be thinking, “Smile!” as we count the remaining hours.
I’ve found the perfect inoculation to the upcoming holiday stress: cupcakes with bling!
Have you seen a more sparkly cupcake? These darlings were created at The Voluptuous Cup Cake Company, down under in Perth, Australia. Just clicking on this blog spot of her cupcakes is enough to cheer a girl’s heart.
What’s your most sparkly, glittery, magical cupcake topping for the holidays?
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!
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!
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!
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?
Since watermelon the fruit is such a fun, messy, summer treat, what opportunities doe we have to use watermelon fruit in a cupcake?
From an Indiana kitchen came a watermelon cupcake recipe with instructions for making your own wrappers on a silhouette machine. The recipe uses watermelon gelatin – very neat.
Getting warmer, I found a recipe for watermelon cupcake frosting that offers a substitution of watermelon juice for milk.
Still on my quest, I landed on What About Watermelon?, where I found a cake recipe with 1-1/3 C of watermelon, using watermelon juice in the frosting. All the fun of the fruit and no napkins required!
Having recently feasted on a Cumbs Bake Shop “Almond Bliss” cupcake (pictured), I thought to gather some almond cupcake recipes for you.
How about a Vegan Chocolate Cupcake with Almond Buttercream and Raspberry Glaze? The “Oh She Glows” blog site has both the recipe and fantastic photographs for step-by-step instructions, including a video to guide you through piping.
Or, how about Honey, Lavender, and Almond Cupcakes, complete with the directions for making your own lavender milk for the frosting? The recipe from Lily Vanilli in England is in metrics, but worth the math exercise to get you there!
Finally, from the Love & Olive Oil site, let’s go for the Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting. This yummy recipe includes almond extract, vanilla bean seeds, and coconut milk.
Is it possible to cupcake topping your way to happiness?
Let’s start with the basics: a white cupcake with a white frosting. Vanilla-on-vanilla, and I’m going to add a little vanilla ice cream. Vanilla signals simple, uncomplicated, neat, cool enjoyment.
Put mini M&Ms on that same vanilla-on-vanilla cupcake, and it’s a game changer! It’s not just adding the chocolate of the candies. It’s adding everything associated with rainbow-colored M&Ms, like childhood, blue skies, remembering the brown ones, and even reminiscing about UK Smarties.
Likewise, take the Crumbs Bake Shop cupcake “Good Guy.” How do I know, just by looking at it that it will be good? It’s vanilla cupcake, vanilla frosting, rainbow sprinkles, and white drizzle. Think Glinda, the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz.
Or, how about tye die and peace sign cupcakes at Cupcakes by Carousel? Now there’s a sure-fire way to make me smile. I don’t even think that there’s a flavor associated with this visual, but it signals to my whole being: “Don’t worry – be happy!”
Cupcake with a smiley face, anyone?
As I said in my bio (albeit jokingly at the time), I thought my spot with ATC might entice my parents to get into the act. Sure enough, while visiting them, my mother and I went out on a cupcake expedition. In Ridgewood, NJ, we found a local cupcakerie with flavors to spare.
Cupcakes by Carousel is on Main St. in Ridgewood, next to the movie theater.
The product line starts with “Classic White/Chocolate with Fudge” and “Red Velvet” and moves on to “Vanilla Dirt Worm” and “Chocolate Pretzel.” “Pink Marshmallow Snowball” and “Turtle” looked almost too pretty to eat.
The winners in our taste selection included “Key Lime Pie,” which my mother said included candied lime, made by taking lime zest and packing it in sugar (the moisture makes the sugar adhere to begin with until it soaks in).
Dad had the gluten free vanilla cupcake with vanilla icing and gave it a thumbs up. This is a new product line for Cupcakes by Carousel, and, from pans used only for gluten free to individual cupcake holders for gluten free, it’s just the recipe for those with celiac disease.
I might just be going home to visit my parents again…soon!
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.
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!
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!
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?
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!