The recipe for these strawberry cupcakes from Milwaukee’s Honeypie Cafe calls for strawberry gelatin and a healthy dose of puréed fresh strawberries.  Jen Vernig, the one who requested this recipe, wrote, “This is my favorite sweet treat in the city…tasting so fresh and so delicious. I cannot say enough about how amazing this dessert is and how it represents the best of what Honey Pie does.”  This recipe might berry well be worth a try!

Oh, Hello Friend: You Are Loved is one of my favorite daily blog reads.  Dani has amazing style, a beautiful Etsy shop and I love reading her posts, some of my favorites were about her engagement and wedding! And I check every monday to see what the weeks’ good cheer deals are.  The good cheer deals are discounts and specials to different websites and Etsy shops.  I was excited when I saw her post for a DIY: Summer Succulent Garden that included a cupcake liner garland. I really like her color choices and think the cupcake liners add a nice pop of color to the little garden.I’m thinking about making my own garden to give my mom as a birthday gift in a few weeks.  Of course I will be baking cupcakes for her as well!

These lemon cupcakes with raspberry buttercream icing sound like a refreshing treat in all this heat!  The lemon cupcakes are made extra light and fluffy by using cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, and you can use fresh raspberries and candied lemon peel for some added flavor and decoration.

Another thing that I love about summer is the Summer BBQ’s! I went to a big BBQ this weekend with friends and family and it was lovely!

I love the smell of BBQ cooking — whether its hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, turkey burgers — I could go on.

Here are some cupcakes that are an ode to BBQ’s!

BBQ Cupcakes from Disney Family Fun

This week we are hosting a giveaway for Sugar Coded Apps.   They specialize in useful applications for any iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) product.   Thirty fans (yes, thirty!) will receive an app code good for three weeks of free use of the Kitchen Decoder app.   This app is a handy guide to common kitchen weights and measurements and has helpful cooking convertions, abbreviations and so much more.   To enter this giveaway, just visit Sugar Coded site and then tell us what app you liked best in our comment area below.  30 winners will be picked on Monday, August 8th. 

Sugar Coded Apps is on Facebook and Twitter too!

As opposed to heavy chocolate cupcakes these lemon cupcakes with lime & ginger whipped cream sound light and perfect for summer.  These cupcakes were created by Rachel from The Pleasure Monger.   If you’re not a ginger fan I’m sure you could make these cupcakes without the ginger in the whipped cream for a purely citrus cupcakes.

Ever heard of a cupcake crawl?  It’s the equivalent of pub crawling or bar hopping, except it involves cupcakes.  Basically, you spend a day or an evening visiting several different bakeries and sampling cupcakes.  Sounds pretty sweet, huh?  According to one cupcake enthusiast, a cupcake crawl is best done in a place where there are a number of bakeries to choose from.  Mandy Bekoin, an Illinois newspaper designer and editor, and her friend Sara embarked on a cupcake crawl in Chicago and came back with this tasty treat (and many others, I’m sure!):

The Twixie, inspired by the Twix candy bar at Swirlz Cupcakes

One word of advice from Mandy to aspiring cupcake crawlers?  If you’re going to be out in the heat of summer, bring a large, insulated bag for leftover cupcakes.  If you’re visiting several bakeries, chances are you won’t be able to finish off every single cupcake (sounds crazy, but four or five cupcakes is a lot!), and you’ll want to get your money’s worth out of the adventure.  When you get home, you can freeze the leftovers and enjoy them another day.

Sounds like a fun way to end summer vacation!

My friend recently brought to my attention a new theme among cupcake apparel: Monster devouring cupcakes.  The Monster Face Tee shown to the left is from Delia*s and is $19.50.  The Domo-kun Nom Nom Nom Cupcakes Babydoll seen to the right is from ThinkGeek is $19.99 and shows a monster eating cupcakes!

For those of us who don’t live close enough to Brennan’s (the New Orleans restaurant that is known for creating the original bananas foster dessert), we can get our bananas foster fix by giving this cupcake recipe a whirl.

The base is just a simple yellow cake recipe with a mashed, ripe banana added, and the icing is plain buttercream with cinnamon added.  The cupcakes are then rolled in chopped, toasted almonds and topped with candied pecans and a rum-laced sauce consisting of bananas caramelized in brown sugar and butter.  Use your own recipes for the batter and icing, and you can find the recipe for the topping here.  This sounds heavenly!

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!

Pop Tarts were always a last minute, rushed breakfast option when I was growing up.  Even though they lack nutritional value they were always delicious!  Continuing with the breakfast cupcake posts, these Pop Tart Cupcakes by Cookies and Cups look amazing!  According to the directions you simply hollow out a vanilla cupcake, fill with strawberry preserves and top with buttercream frosting.  Garnish the frosted cupcakes with a swirl of strawberry preserves and sprinkles and you have your strawberry pop tart cupcakes.  I wonder what other pop tart flavors could be transformed into cupcakes.

ATC reader Jasmin at 1 Fine Cookie shared these cupcakes with us that she crafted for a bowling birthday party. She created the bowling shoe, bowling pin and bowling ball toppers from cookies.  I am impressed with her attention to detail!  What a great idea!  And if you’re not a huge bowling fan, you could use a similar idea for your favorite sport or hobby.

Check out these elaborately-made chili cheese fry cupcakes from Jasmin at 1 Fine Cookie!  The “batter” is made of homemade french fries, and the topping is your favorite chili.  You can even add all the fixins…cheese, green onions and sour cream.  Now tell me, who said cupcakes were feminine?

Next time you’re at your local Farmer’s Market, pick out some fresh summer fruit, like peaches, strawberries or blackberries and try making one of these scrumptious-looking treats.  These cupcakes were made by baking half-size vanilla cupcakes in foil wrappers, filling the rest of the wrapper with fruit pie filling, and topping it off with a latticed pie crust.  Go here to get recipes for making homemade pie filling as well as more tips for turning your favorite pie into a cupcake.  It sounds wonderful!

What a great idea! Gender revealing cupcake filling! And what pregnant woman isn’t in the mood for a cupcake? Amanda Johnson of Fargo went to her ultrasound like any other expecting woman, but instead of listening to the news directly, she asked the technician to write the baby’s sex on a piece of paper, which she then delivered to her … baker! Amanda then invited her friends and family over for a cupcake party. Everyone simultaneously took bites of their cupcakes, not knowing what color the filling would be, and then people started squealing, mouths full of pink frosting. It’s a girl!

Summer might be more than half-way over, but there’s still time for your kids (or you) to fit in some more books before school begins again.  I thought I’d entice you to do some more summer reading by sharing several cupcake-related books. Click on each book for a short review.

It's Raining Cupcakes

Tina Cocolina: Queen of the Cupcakes

Read the rest of this entry »

For my birthday, one of my friends went to our local Container Store to find cupcake packaging products that she gave as my gift.  The Container Store website does not offer the products but I was able to find them on other sites.  I can not wait to bake a batch of cupcakes and use my new Meri Meri Love Bake cupcake liners.  I was given the standard size liners which include two patterns that come in a package of 48 liners and can be purchased from the Meri Meri website for $4.25. The same patterns are available as mini liners, a package with 32 of each liner is $5.50.

My friend also found cupcake boxes by The Gift Wrap Company in Candy Dot Spot.  Included in the package are two food safe gift boxes with an insert tray that holds four standard size cupcakes.  I found a 12 pack of the packages on amazon for $51.00. Read the rest of this entry »

I love these ceramic cupcake stands!  They are classy, colorful, and just plain fun!

Continuing with the cupcake related gifts, for my birthday I was given Red Velvet Cupcake Taffy.  Since I haven’t had much taffy in the past, I don’t have anything to compare this flavored taffy to but I thought it was good.  It definitely tastes like cake and is very sweet! The taffy comes from Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York City but can also be purchased online for $5.00.  On website they also have a German Chocolate Cupcake flavor but they advise caution when purchasing candy that has to be shipped during warm weather.

DCI Product has so many great cupcake items and for my birthday I was lucky enough to receive some of them! Magnolia and Buttercup cupcakes were brought all the way from New York to North Carolina to be displayed in the DCI cupcake stand and are pictured above.  The stand which holds a dozen cupcakes has a hot pink base that looks like a giant cupcake wrapper.  I found The Cupcake Stand on Australian Ebay for AU $19.95.

I was also given the pink DCI cupcake measuring cups and spoons.  I found the measuring spoons and cups on an awesome site called: I’m With Cupcake.  The measuring spoons cost $6.99 and come with four measurements, 1/4 teaspoons, 1/2 teaspoon, 1 teaspoon, and 1 tablespoon.  The measuring cups include the 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup, and 1 cup measurement and costs $11.99. Read the rest of this entry »

Birthdays are great for so many reasons including cupcakes and gifts.  For my next couple posts I will be sharing a few cupcake related items I received for my most recent birthday.  To start things off I received a card by Tree-Free Greetings, an eco-friendly company.  The “Have Cupcake Will Travel” card was made with 50% recycled paper, mixed ec0-paper envelopes and soy based inks were used when printing the paper.    If you are interested in purchasing the cards, Peaceful Valley Greetings offers the card for $2.95.

I still vividly remember getting my ears pierced as a little girl.  It was an event that I had looked forward to for a long time.  I couldn’t wait to wear my first pair of “real” earrings.  Do you have a little girl who is about to get her ears pierced or who loves to play dress-up?  This earring and jewelry holder would be a great gift idea for her.

Last week we brought you a great giveaway from ATC sponsor The Smart Baker and this week they are giving something to every one of our sweet fans!  Not only are they having a special summer sale in their shop, but they are giving an extra 15% off your total purchase.  Just type “ATC15” at checkout between now and August 5th.  Thanks Smart Baker! 
 

Love fudge?  Been eating hot fudge sundaes?  How about cooling down while heating up some “Lava Fudge Cupcakes” in your kitchen?

Lava Fudge Cupcake

Georgetown Cupcake’s Sophie has a 2-minute video, courtesy of The Learning Channel, claiming to “reveal the secrets behind their famous Lava Fudge cupcake.”

While she doesn’t provide the recipe, Sophie does provide several excellent tips, from using apple corers to hollow out cupcakes before pouring in the fudge, to easy-pour tops for filling and decorating.

So I dug around the Internet at bit…and found the Georgetown Cupcakes recipe for their chocolate cupcake with vanilla cream cheese frostings with variations!  Add your own fudge and, “By George!  I think we’ve got it!”

I was reading over my last couple of posts and see that I have been writing about things that I enjoy during the summer (and their cupcake equivalent ) and I thought to myself, “Why not make it a summer series?” —  and that is exactly what I am going to do!

Another favorite thing of mine in the Summer is an ice cold beer! Perfect way to end a great summer day. But wait, beer cupcakes you say? Yes, yes and yes! Oh and did I mention these cupcakes have bacon in them? Beer and Bacon!

Golden Beer Cupcakes from 1 Fine Cookie