A group of young ladies in Wisconsin have turned to the power of cupcakes to help them in their quest to raise money for charities. The Girls Bake Club was created by Madison Cloutier, Alysha Nelson, Cynthia Manson, and Ajia Hayden when they wanted to raise money for the Go Bo! Foundation. Baking cupcakes with orange frosting to match the foundation’s color scheme. Selling the cupcakes in local stores, the girls were able to raise over a thousand dollars for the charity. Wanting to continue what they started and help other worthy causes, the Girls Bake Club is reaching out with further cupcake sales. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re going to be in the Tampa Bay area tomorrow (August 17^th) and you’re interested in free cupcakes, then stop by the 3^rd Annual Great St. Pete Cupcake Contest. Organized by the Morean Arts Center of St. Petersburg, the money raised by the Great St. Pete Cupcake Contest is used to fund education programs run by the Morean Center, specifically their Connecting People With Art mission. There are eight judges for the two primary categories (professional and novice). The third and final category, People’s Choice, requires a one-dollar donation per vote. Sampling the cupcakes, however, is free. The winners for each category receive stunning handmade glass cupcakes as a prize.   Read the rest of this entry »

When the long days of summer end and it is time to board the yellow bus back to school, having a special treat can make the ride a little less bittersweet for both parents and children. Over at The Cup (an off-shoot of the famous Cakery in St. Louis), they aim to take the bitter entirely out of the end of summer vacation. Working with KidSmart’s Push for Pencils program, The Cup has two new cupcakes that will help send local kids to school better prepared for the days’ tasks. The limited edition school-lunch inspired peanut butter fluff and pb&j cupcakes will only be available through August 19^th.

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Duffy’s Sports Grill of Florida is celebrating Veteran’s Day the right way–with cupcakes! From now through the end of the month, spend a dollar on a cupcake and Duffy’s will donate $0.50 to Honor Flight, an organization that helps American Veterans of World War II visit the memorials in Washington D.C. that honor their service and sacrifices. What a great idea Duffy’s!

Now that is a cupcake tattoo! This photo was taken by Jacquie Gibson at the Ink for Heroes tattoo convention, which was held in York in June. Ink for Heroes raised money and awareness for injured soldiers.

One way that they did this is through the Cupcake Club. The Cupcake Club consists of Rose Green, Colleen Moss, and other talented volunteers who attend shows all over the UK, tattooing cupcakes and raising money and awareness for soldiers.

Here is what their website has to say about cupcake tattoos:  A cupcake is a permanent symbol and reminder that you have given and supported such a worthy cause. The Cupcake Club has tattooed hundreds of cupcakes on hundreds of supportive people.

Well it doesn’t get much cuter than giant panda cupcakes. (The pandas are giant, not the cupcakes.) But don’t eat them–they’re endangered!

My stand mixer gets quite a workout, and doesn’t have much time to collect dust, but I’m still tempted to pick up one of these cute cupcake stand mixer covers from Etsy seller PlayingWithDolls. The covers sell for $18 each and 10% of each sale goes to support Volunteers in Medical Missions, an organization that provides free medical care to people in developing countries.

While reading one of my favorite blogs, Paper Crave, I noticed a post about a recipe book complied by over 50 bloggers.  All proceeds from the cook book, titled Recipes to Help, go to The American Red Cross.  Cupcake recipes included in the book are a recipe for chocolate cupcakes with nutella, almond butter, and vanilla cream cheese frosting by Good Life (eats) and derby cupcakes from The Polka Dot Chair.  The book is available in print or as a e-book, each are $10.00.

Gigi’s Cupcakes of Savannah Georgia is using cupcake power to help a local foodbank, America’s Second Harvest. Customers who bring in food to donate are treated to a discount on in-store orders. Gigi’s has already filled a barrel of food in just three days and they hope to do even better this weekend. In fact, on Saturday, if you bring in five or more canned goods between 1 and 6, you get a free cupcake!

You are invited to the second annual Cupcake Camp Santa Barbara tomorrow from 1 to 4 at the Fess Parker Double Tree Resort, 633 E. Cabrillo Blvd. in Santa Barbara.

Ten dollars will buy you four tickets that you can trade for cupcake samples from several area bakeries. Proceeds from the camp will benefit Cupcakes for Cancer. Parking is free.

The camp will also feature an amateur competition, a cake auction, a fashion show, and a cupcake eating contest.

For more information, call 805-448-7336.

On Thursday, June 30 from 4 pm – 6 pm, all Washington, D.C. military and their families are invited to “Cupcakes for Courage” at Hello Cupcake at their new location on Barracks Row (705 8th Street, S.E., WDC).  An R.S.V.P. is requested.

Hello Cupcake Goes Patriotic

According to the e-vite:  “Families will decorate patriotic themed cupcakes, meet with friends and celebrate Independence Day early.  Light fare from Matchbox Restaurant and Zest Bistro will be provided.”

Hello Cupcake is also serving charitable cupcakes from June 30 to July 4, when a portion of the proceeds from the sale of patriotic-themed cupcakes will be donated to Camp Desert Kids, a program under Military Families United that helps service members’ children.  This 2 minute YouTube video about this special camp will more than inspire you to participate in this fundraiser.

In case you’re in the neighborhood, the first ever “Cupcake Throwdown and Artist Cakewalk” is happening TODAY from 3 to 6 p.m. at Antenna Gallery, 3161 Burgundy St., in New Orleans!

Artists and bakers will compete to produce the most creative confections in a range of categories, followed by a benefit cakewalk. Art and cupcakes. What could be better? Free cupcakes for kids in costumes! All proceeds benefit the nonprofit programs of Antenna/Press Street. Admission to the event is free.

Crumbs' Apple Cobbler Cupcake

This just off the cupcake Tweet wire:  today only, Crumbs Bake Shop is asking you to help a family in need through the purchase of two cupcakes for $8 using NY Daily Deals.  I called their main office and you can also walk in to their Brooklyn Heights location to make an in store purchase, too – just let them know that you’re buying for the Bond family charity.

Elisa, 36, was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer on 2/23/2011 and – only 9-days earlier –  her husband Nathan, 38, was diagnosed with Stage III cancer.  Parents of an 18-month old little girl, Sadie, this family is now facing all things medical.

Here’s the blogspot, including a YouTube video put together by their friends.  Have a tissue ready, and then get on that Daily Deal or to the Brooklyn Heights Crumbs and let’s share the love of our cupcake community.

Crumbs Bake Shop – Brooklyn Heights location
109 Montague Street, Brooklyn
(718) 935-9600

Red Velvet Razorback

This morning when I typed in “cupcake” to Google News, I was pleasantly surprised that the second search result featured a cupcake cafe in my own hometown!  I’ve been meaning to try their cupcakes for quite a while now, and I decided this was the perfect excuse to check them out!

Bliss Cupcake Cafe is located just off the downtown square in beautiful Fayetteville, Arkansas.  It was tough to decide on a cupcake with yummy options like cinnamon roll and chocolate milkshake, so I decided I’d break the tie by going with one of their local favorites, the ‘Red Velvet Razorback’ (red velvet cupcake and cream cheese frosting), in honor of the University of Arkansas’ mascot.  It was absolutely delicious! Read the rest of this entry »

This past week a huge crowd of cancer survivors and supporters came together for Barrington’s Relay for Life in Barrington, Illinois to honor those who have lost their lives battling cancer and to raise funds for cancer research.  Cupcakes took center stage at this event.  A tower of 16, 478 cupcakes stood at the center of the Barrington High School Community Stadium, setting a world record for the most cupcakes on a display tower.

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The Cupcake Collection, a bakery in Tennessee, is helping four of their high school graduates pay for college.  This summer the bakery owners will be lending their “cupcake bus” to these employees so that they can take a road trip to four major east coast cities, beginning in Atlanta and ending in New York City.  They will sell cupcakes along the way and put the profits toward their college education.  Be sure and track their trip on the bakery’s Facebook page.  Who knows–they just might be visiting your city!

The Cupcake Bus

Justine Brancato and Tori Winters, two education majors from The College of New Jersey and Boston University, respectively, are heading to Kenya to volunteer in a rural school. Tori’s godmother Grace Ouma and husband Henry founded the Alego Community Development Project in 1986. The Oumas will host the young women.

Alego’s mission is to “establish long-term and sustainable community development projects in Alego, Kenya and surrounding areas in education, social and economic development, health and wellness and to empower residents to utilize local resources available to them to their fullest potential.”

Justine and Tori are using their own money to pay for the trip. They also want to raise money to help the school. Enter the cupcakes. Baker’s Treat of Flemington, NJ is donating the ingredients for a special cupcake fundraiser. Tori hopes their efforts can restore the nursery school breakfast program, which currently is only offered to orphans because of a lack of funding.

You can help by purchasing a special cupcake decorated by Justine at Baker’s Treat at 42 Route 12, Flemington. The jumbo cupcakes, in several flavors, cost $5 each. Call 908-782-9449 for more information.

How Charitable is Your Cupcake?

I can’t remember a school or church bake sale that didn’t include cupakes.  I fondly remember the ladies of my home church for their baking.  And who doesn’t have memories of counting all the shiny change after a bake sale – didn’t it seem like riches?

Publicly traded Crumbs Bake Shop has partnered with the non-profit “Success for Kids” to help at-risk children.  Their May 2011 Initial Public Stock Offering was a reported $66M, and it’s currently trading at $12.90/share.  (Look forward to a future post on just how much of that is going to be donated to the charity — I’m on it!)

The Cupcake Kids raises money through cupcake sales to help a ministry in Uganda, Africa.  It’s an international idea by kids for kids through cupcakes that has raised nearly $50k.

And, on an everyday basis, community groups, school groups, and individual people use the power of cupcakes to bring people closer together through events like a “Random Act of Cupcake.”

Looks like a little cupcake goes a long way.

What better way to begin your summer than lounging by the pool with a mojito cupcake?  With a hint of rum, a little bit of lime zest, and a sprig of mint to top it all off, it’s the perfect treat for a hot summer day.

While you savor its unique flavor, you can also take pride in knowing that this particular cupcake was used in an important cyber-warfare operation this week, which was appropriately called “Operation Cupcake”.  A group of British spies hacked an al-Qaeda magazine and replaced bomb-making instructions with a list of the best cupcakes in America.  The mojito cupcake from Main Street Cupcakes in Hudson, Ohio made the top of the list.

It seems that we are always hearing about ways we can give of our time and resources to help others, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to cupcake enthusiasts that cupcakes can also play a role.

This past Tuesday, singer Sheryl Crow used cupcakes to bring some cheer to sick kids at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, TN.  The popular singer visited the hospital as a part of the Music Gives to St. Jude Kids initiative, which aims to fight childhood cancer and disease through raising funds and awareness.  Crow participated by making cupcakes with children at the hospital.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cupcake Kids is not your traditional bake sale. These kids are baking, decorating, and selling cupcakes to raise money and awareness for SixtyFeet, an organization dedicated to helping the impoverished children of Uganda.

It all started in 2010, when a 6 year old girl and her 4 year old brother in Atlanta asked their parents if they could sell some cupcakes to raise money for SixtyFeet. Those two kids (with some help from mom) raised $260! Because they shared their mission with their shoppers, they ended up selling cups of lemonade for $25. The very next weekend, there were sales all over Georgia and in several other states. Cupcake Kids went viral.

As of today, The Cupcake Kids have raised more than $44,000 to help kids on the other side of the world. That’s a lot of cupcakes! Everyone is invited to join in the fun and host their own Cupcake Kids bake sale. You can find the details here.

If you can’t find a cupcake sale near you, you can still show your support by ordering a virtual cupcake. You can also buy a really cool t-shirt:

You can also follow Cupcake Kids on Facebook!

Can you imagine a world where the sale of a single cupcake buys thirteen meals for children in Uganda? We’re living in it.

Cupcakes for Kiddos was started by 10-year-old twins, Ella and Liliana, from Lawrence, Kansas. If you live in Lawrence, you can place an order for some homebaked cupcakes, and they will be hand-delivered to your door. If you don’t live in Lawrence, you can still make a donation, and if you wish, cupcakes will be delivered on your behalf to a deserving individual. All the proceeds go to Amazima Ministries.

For more information, or to order some cupcakes, email cupcakesforkiddos (at) gmail (dot) com by Tuesday, May 3rd.

Girl Scout cookies are one thing I will never pass up — Thin Mint, Samoa, need I say any more. And of course I love cupcakes, so when I saw this I said,”Yes Please”

Duffy’s Sports Grill and Girl Scouts or Southern Florida teamed up to create this lovely piece of work.It is a chocolate cake cupcake with chocolate ganache and butter cream frosting topped off with a famous Samoa.  They are 99 cents and for each one sold 50 cents goes right back to the Girl Scouts.

I wish I lived in Florida so I could try one of these.