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

Hello Fellow Cupcake Lovers! I was at the hardware store today just mulling around before I went up to the register and I saw this box with a cupcake on it, so I went right up to the box to explore a little bit more. I found this fun Tasty Science Kit for kids. Right on the box it poses the question, How does a cupcake rise?.  I wish that I had had this when I was a kid. If you kids love baking, science or both I am sure that they will love this.

You can find this Tasty Science Kit at OverStock.com

We are stillwaiting to hear from one past cupcake winner! If this was your entry to our Diva Entertains giveaway, please send your mailing address to [email protected].

Mariah
September 11th, 2010 at 1:08 pm

I love the cupcake placecard holders (SKU #: 602-PCH)! They are adorable, and so realistic!

And in non-cupcake favors, I’d like to see house-warming favors, or maybe microwaveable mugs–I’m a fan of function as well as decoration!

Continuing the run of Uncommon (cupcake!) Goods posts, here is just the sweetest little sugar and creamer set I’ve ever seen.  Artist Beth Mueller hand-paints these herself in her studio in Vermont. I love how adorably but simply she conveys the ideas of cream and sugar!  This ceramic duo isn’t cheap, but then again you’re getting what you pay for in cute creativity and handmade in the USA quality.

 Have you entered this week’s cupcake crayon giveaway from Red Elm Designs?

If not, click here!

ATC grandmaster Harrison Hung recently sent me this comic, which cracked me up and reminded me of a timely cupcake recipe…

So as not to just tease our faithful readers with mentions of pumpkin cupcake recipes, and also since it’s almost fall, here is an award-winning recipe for Cream-Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes, courtesy of Taste of Home.
Read the rest of this entry »

Jessie Oleson, also known as Cakespy, recently upped the ante for filled cupcakes by creating…a cupcake-stuffed cupcake.  I do not kid.  She really made cupcakes that were stuffed with an even smaller cupcake.  We have the picture and the recipe to prove it.

Those cupcakes are full of it...and by it we mean more cupcakes. (photo courtesy of Cakespy and Serious Eats Recipes)

Read the rest of this entry »

My great friend Anne just shared this awesome cake she ordered from her Target bakery for her son’s seventh birthday.  The party had a mad science theme and the beaker pull-apart cupcake cake was a perfect fit.  This would be a great cake to make for a Halloween party too.   I wish my local Target had a bakery!

Happy Birthday Avery!

Feeling down about another blah Monday? Well, this colorful giveaway should cheer you up!  This week we are introducing you to fabulous Etsy crafter, Red Elm Designs. They specialize in unique handmade crayons. With over 100 different designs, it was hard for me to choose my favorites, but here are a few Fall ones you have to see:

Wouldn’t these be perfect party favors for your Halloween party?  In addition to these crayons, they also have many, many cupcake crayons to choose from.  This week Red Elm Designs is giving away 6 colorful cupcake crayons to one oh-so-lucky ATC fan! 

I personally own and love these little beauties too!  To enter this giveaway, go to Red Elm Designs and have a nice look around.  Then come back here to ATC and click on the comment area below.  Tell us your favorite crayon and what type of crayon you think Red Elm should make next.  One winner will be chosen on Monday, September 27th.  Thanks Red Elm Designs for sponsoring this colorful giveaway!

Make sure to become a fan of Red Elm Designs on Facebook too!

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!

Awww it is sad, even when you know I am talking about the last summer cupcake fling.  I am too settled and contented to think about the other type of flings, but the cupcake one I am open for, especially when it looks as good as these Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream!  How hot pink is the color of these?

These cupcakes have been dreamt up by The Crafty Penguin and are a great way to use up the last of those summer berries!

You can find the full recipe along with heaps of step by step photos on her website here.

All of a sudden I have a real hankering to go watch Grease!  “Ahhh… those summer… NIGHHHHHTTTTTSSSS….”

Tweet Tweet Cupcake Set by Uncommon Goods

Cupcakes of a feather flock together!  Apparently, so does good cupcake merchandise, since this is my second great cupcake accessory find from Uncommon Goods.  The Tweet Tweet Cupcake Set is $12 and has enough wrappers and toppers for 24 cupcakes, which seems like a decent deal to me.  The folks at the Uncommon Goods labs were also kind enough to throw in the recipe for Orange Pineapple Sunshine Cupcakes in their blog post as well:

Orange-Pineapple Sunshine Cupcakes or Cake (Serves 21 or 16)
Cupcakes/Cake:

1 box yellow cake mix
1/4 cup applesauce
4 eggs
1 can mandarin oranges in light syrup (11 oz.)

Frosting:

1 8 oz. container Cool Whip (Lite or Regular)
1 pkg (3-4 oz.) INSTANT vanilla pudding mix
1 can (15 1/2 oz.) crushed pineapple in juice

1) Preheat oven to 350 deg. In a large bowl, stir together all the cake ingredients until moist. Beat by hand for 2 minutes. Chop up the oranges as you mix.

2) Line a muffin pan with cupcake papers or coat a 13×9 cake pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the papers/pan. Bake cupcakes for
25 minutes or bake the cake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.

3) Frosting: In a large bowl, mix together all the frosting ingredients until well blended. Spread over the cupcakes/cake. Store in fridge. Enjoy!

Toolkit for Tasty Filled Cupcakes :)

I was paging through the Uncommon Goods catalog the other day when I came across this cupcake corer and decorating set.  You can find decorating sets and kits all over the place, but I thought that the corer that’s included in this kit set it apart.  Getting just the right-sized filling hole in a cupcake can be fussy, possibly crumbling the cupcake in the process.

In case you’re skeptical about this corer’s usefulness or the quality of the kit in general, Uncommon Goods did a gift lab on this product to see how well it worked. While

Finished Filled Cupcakes!

a manufacturer’s take on their own product isn’t exactly objective, the post is pretty informative about the kit’s performance.

You’ll want to click the link to get the long version, the short version is that the cupcakes weren’t picture perfect, but they turned out better than they would have without the kit.  All in all, it sounds like it’s worth the $20 price tag if you’re into making filled cupcakes on a regular basis.

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 »

Have you used these?

I’ve been reading around and everyone that has used them says they are really good and make the cupcakes look fantastic, then I stumbled across this post on the Simply Caked Blog.  I love the combination of pink and brown they look stunning.

Apparently the cups also come in Red and White and I found a great image of Banana Bread baked in white tulip cups on An Art Nest.

So where can you get them?  I can’t find them here in Australia yet, but in the US you can get them from Simply Caked by clicking here.  But best of all, as a new ATC Sponsor, Simply Caked has decided to create a special discount for ATC Readers!  15% off your total order!

They are a new store so are constantly expanding their range!  To get your 15% off, you will need to type the secret code in the coupon field at checkout.  Lean in close and I’ll whisper it to you… ATC15

So let us know what you think of them? and shhh secret squirrel on the code ;)

Being the freelance photographer that I am and a cupcake freak  as well, you can only imagine my excitement when I found these —

Fuzzy Cupcake Camera Strap

Swanky Cupcake Camera Strap

I found these lovely lil’ gems at Swanky Camera Couture’s Etsy Shop. They carry many different patterns of camera straps.

This is like heaven for me, Cameras and Cupcakes! The photography and Cupcake Gods have been looking out for me.

What are your other passions besides cupcakes?

And our winners this week are:

Mariah
September 11th, 2010 at 1:08 pm

I love the cupcake placecard holders (SKU #: 602-PCH)! They are adorable, and so realistic!

And in non-cupcake favors, I’d like to see house-warming favors, or maybe microwaveable mugs–I’m a fan of function as well as decoration!

Jessica C.
September 10th, 2010 at 5:48 pm

My favorite is the Cupcake Lip Gloss Favors, I think it is so cute to giveaway! I also think they should include incense for favors, because it is something everyone could use and smells good.

Bekka
September 6th, 2010 at 3:01 pm

wow! those cupcake boxes are amazing! love them!!
other cool favors i didn’t see on their site are little themed note pads – love having fun paper to jot notes down on

Congratulations! Please send your mailing address to [email protected].   Special thanks to Diva Entertains for sponsoring this week’s giveaway.

Harry Potter and The Order of the Cupcakes!

This Nerdcake of the Week post comes from ATC fan Kelsie and her baking blog, Cakes by Kelsie:

I love your weekly Nerdcakes post on the blog (I’m quite nerdy myself), and I just wanted to share my favorite “nerdcakes.” I made these Harry Potter cupcakes for the premiere of the 6th movie last summer. They’re too cute and I hope they can put a little smile on your face like they did for me! ;o)

Thanks Kelsie! After reviewing the (hilarious) video myself, the likenesses look spot on. If you’re a Harry Potter fan, or just like very silly YouTube videos, I highly recommend the Harry Potter Puppet Pals Channel. If you click below, you can judge if Kelsie captured the essence of the HP3 yourself.

Harry Potter and the Myterious Ticking Noise

How many of you out there are fans of knitting? A lot of people that I know love knitting, and who doesn’t love cupcakes. Now only if i knew how to knit.

Check out these Knit Night Cupcakes from VeganYumYum.com —

VeganYumYum was even on The Martha Stewart Show showing Martha how knitting and cupcakes were done! (clip at above link)

My wonderful sister-in-law, Holly, called my this week to excitedly tell me about this new adult cupcake costume she found in Costume Express.  How awesome is this at only $46.99?!  I think it’s more of a sexy cupcake costume  and you might need to wear a little something underneath or you might reveal more than you planned!

   They also had a child’s version for $34.99.  Both are brand new and aren’t available until September 22nd.   

I also found this adorable cupcake candy bag and costume from Pottery Barn.  The costume is $59 and the matching bag is only $14.  So stinkin’ cute!

So what are your sweet (or spooky!) costume plans this year?

Have you entered our sweet cupcake giveaway this week? If not, please click here  for all the details and to enter!

 _____________________________________________________________________

A big thanks to The Twisted Kitchen for allowing us to share this ultracool recipe with you!  Everyone loves S’mores, right?  And how often do you get to use a blowtorch in the kitchen?

S’more Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes and 12 mini cupcakes (approx.)

General notes (before cooking):

• I used milk chocolate chips to try to get as close to the flavor and texture of the chocolate as possible yet still have a brownie.
• I highly recommend using cupcake liners for this. I made a few without them, and they were a bit difficult to get out of the pan.
• Be careful when “toasting” the marshmallow frosting. Those cupcake liners tend to be HIGHLY flammable.
• It is extremely important you don’t overfill the cupcake liners. I know it’s tough, but resist! The frosting is incredibly sticky and soft, and needs the liners to set properly.

For the Graham Cracker layer:

1 cup graham crackers Read the rest of this entry »

There is one word that describes these fun cupcakes and that is BRIGHT and there is nothing that kids love more than colorful cupcakes.  These ones are from Spearmint Baby’s blog and will not only bring a smile to your kid’s faces but probably yours as well!

The best news is that Shari takes you step by step through how she made these including her hints to avoid color mix!  I love the ones she did in the plain white wrappers, which were their own gorgeous rainbow color by the time they were done.

Try them yourself and if you have any great tips for rainbow cupcakes, let us know!

Yesterday Applecupcake introduced you to Diva Entertains, an online store specializing in favors for all types of parties. Today we are hosting a giveaway for this fantastic site.  Check out what you can win!

 Diva Entertains is giving away 3 adorable faux cupcakes (with photo wire or without) to 3 lucky winners!

 So how do you enter this giveaway?  Just go to Diva Entertains and pick your favorite cupcake item.  Click on the comment area below and tell us about it and also tell us what kind of non-cupcake favor you’d like to see on their site.  Three winners will be chosen on September 13th.  Good luck cupcake fans!

Pac-Man Cupcakes by hello naomi

hello naomi takes the nerdcake for the second week in a row with her Pac-Man Cupcakes. This 80 cupcake set is an expansion on an earlier batch of Pac-Man cupcakes; the set shown above is actually a wedding cake for a friend of Naomi’s.