A cupcake for movie buffs, and we wish we were at the beach cupcakes

These movie and beach cupcakes are by Toronto, Ontario cupcake bakery Short & Sweet Cupcakes, via their Facebook page. I love when people get creative with a theme and truly create cupcake art, and they totally have (hi gold dragees!). It's been cold and rainy in New York so the beach cupcakes made me wish I were on a warm beach. You can also follow them @shortandsweetTO on Twitter.






Short & Sweet Cupcakes
1945 Avenue Road
Toronto, ON M5M 4A2
416-519-6633
info at shortandsweet.ca

Sweet potato cupcakes, Samoa, cotton candy, cute dog, salted caramel crunch and more from Sweet B Cupcakes in Cour d'Alene, Idaho

Sweet B Cupcakes in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho is getting ready for fall--and Thanksgiving (!!)--with their special seasonal cupcake flavors. Photos and captions via their Facebook page.





Sweet potato cupcake: "It is a playful rendition of a favorite Thanksgiving side dish complete with marshmallow cream frosting toasted to order...and topped with candied walnuts."



cookies and cream cupcake



Doggies!



Salted Caramel Crunch- A chocolate toffee cake filled with salted caramel and topped with a ganache dipped caramel buttercream drizzled with caramel.



On the left we have Cotton Candy, a vanilla cupcake topped with a cotton candy butter-cream swirl! And on the right we have our Bubble Gum cupcake, a vanilla cupcake with a bubblegum butter-cream topped with a gumball!



Samoa cupcake



White chocolate raspberry cupcake

Sweet B Cupcakes
501 Sherman ave
Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814
208-704-2506
SweetBcupcakes at gmail.com

Kids 12 and under can win a prize for best cupcake decorating at Little Pearl Cupcake's Sprinkle Station

Little Pearl Cupcake in Grand Rapids, Michigan is hosting a Sprinkle Station at their bakery through October 9th, with an Art Prize for the best decorated cupcake. Here's one example, from their Facebook page. Fun! Anyone can do this with some Halloween candy and a little imagination, too, at home or at a picnic or anywhere. Visit littlepearlcupcake.com for more information.



And these are their Halloween cake pops, available for special order:



And for those who are like "Halloween, whatever," here's their caramel apple cupcake:

LeBron James calls Georgetown Cupcakes' cupcakes "amazing"

Miami Heat basketball player LeBron James Tweeted that Georgetown Cupcakes' cupcakes are "amazing" and shared this photo.

Jessie Oleson of Cakespy wants to draw you a cupcake on her nationwide bakery book tour!

The countdown has begun for beloved Cakespy blogger, artist, baker and author Jessie Oleson's first book: Cakespy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life. She will kick off a nationwide book tour on October 13th at her retail store, Cakespy, in at 415 E. Pine Street in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, and visit cupcake bakeries around the country, including Portland, the Bay Area, Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Chicago and more. Her New York City visit coincides with my birthday, November 10th, which is also National Vanilla Cupcake Day. She'll be at Brooklyn bakery Baked on the 9th (and Butter Lane on November 9th).





From her blog post (where you can find her tour dates):

Basically, we're going to hang out, eat baked goods, and then you will buy like 30 copies of my book (Official Tour de Sweet Promise: I promise to sign and draw a unicorn, cupcake, and/or robot in each and every copy of my book you buy).

Woo-hoo! Go see her on tour, you won't be disappointed.


photo of Jessie Oleson by me, in her Cakespy store

In a word: yum! Photo via Flickr; if you want to know h ow to make your own "yum" cupcake, which is, to call it by its proper name, a chocolate chip cookie dough filled funfetti cupcake (!!), see this Cakespy post for the recipe and bake your own.

Free cupcakes next Saturday at Customer Appreciation Day today at Swirlz in Chicago

Next Saturday! Heads up for Chicago cupcake lovers from Swirlz Cupcakes, whose cupcakes I've enjoyed and who specialize in gluten-free cupcakes as well as regular ones...Visit their Facebook page as well as @swirlzcupcakes on Twitter and swirlzcupcakes.com for more information.

Free cupcake details for Customer Appreciation Day:



And some of their special flavors of late:


"Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcake for Mexican Independence day anyone? Cayenne chocolate cake with a layer of chocolate ganache and CANDIED JALAPENOS, topped with a cinnamon buttercream." (this was available yesterday, and may be again)



Limited edition creme de menthe cupcake: "Celebrate with this delicious cupcake: chocolate cake filled with mint chocolate ganache, topped with a layer of chocolate ganache and mint buttercream."



Chocolate strawberry truffle cupcake: "Chocolate cake with a strawberry truffle filling, layer of chocolate ganache & fresh strawberry preserve, topped with a bittersweet chocolate buttercream and finished off with a strawberry flower!"



Tailgating cupcakes

Bid on a 10-person master cupcake class taught by Allison and Matt Robicelli

Tickets for our August 2012 Cupcake Cruise to Bermuda go on sale next week - sign up at cupcakecruise.com for the inside scoop, and we'll also be posting here and on @cupcakecruise on Twitter and on Facebook.

Allison and Matt Robicelli of Brooklyn cupcake bakery Robicelli's will be two of our many presenters on the cruise. If you just can't wait until August, right now you can bid on a 10-person master cupcake class taught by them. Click here to bid, and visit their Facebook page for more information.

Item Description

Learn the secrets behind the best cupcakes in Brooklyn! Allison and Matt, husband and wife owners of Robicelli's Cupcakes, will lead you and 9 friends through a class of approximately one and a half hours at Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center. You'll come away with the basics of baking and decorating, and a taste of their artful philosophy behind cupcake flavors with unique ingredients.

About Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center:

Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center specializes in a wide range of recreational cooking & education classes for adults and children, promoting healthy eating and living habits through hands on and lecture style classroom environments. Our commitment to our community, as well as our planet, and an exceptional understanding of the culinary needs of our students of all ages allows us to focus on the entire cooking and eating process, from grower to “cooker”.

Classes must be scheduled on Monday or Friday; Expires March 31st 2012

Two mouth-watering cupcake photos from their Facebook page:


cupcake topped with espresso salted caramel buttercream, rolled in Liddabit Sweets "Breakfast of Champions" Caramel Corn & drizzled with chocolate



fresh fig cake with goat cheese buttercream, fig balsamic gastrique and crisped prosciutto

Childhood cancer awareness benefit cupcakes by Houston's Crave Cupcakes

Via Houston food blog Eating Our Words:

The cupcake company has partnered with MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospitals's Art in Medicine program to raise awareness about childhood cancer.

Pediatric cancer patients have designed a logo for the project, which will be featured on all of the CRAVE Cupcakes's Childhood Cancer Awareness boxes. In addition to this artwork, a portion of the proceeds from each box purchased will go to support MD Anderson's crucial Art in Medicine program, which helps to provide a better quality of life for pediatric cancer patients through art instruction and therapy.

Even better, a portion of the proceeds from each box of CRAVE Cupcakes delivered anywhere within the Medical Center -- whether they're Childhood Cancer Awareness boxes or not -- will also go to benefit the program.

See Crave Cupcakes on Facebook for more information.

New cupcake bakery alert: Moxie Cupcake to officially open in New Paltz, New York September 23rd

New Paltz, New York cupcake bakery Moxie Cupcake, which we tried a few months back at the cupcake festival in upstate New York, will have its official grand opening on Friday, September 23rd and Saturday, September 34th, with cupcake giveaways and contests! Via their Facebook page, where you can stay up to date. They're located at 215 Main Street in New Paltz and can be reached at moxiecupcakenp at gmail.com or 845.417.8121. And I know the photo below says August 24th but this is their official official opening. We hope to visit in the fall for a cupcake meetup, so stay tuned!



"We are happy to announce our Grand Opening Event on Friday, Sept 23 and Saturday, Sept 24, 11 am to 8 pm!! Great door prizes, live music, samples, and two SUPER raffles to enter! 1: A 100 piece cupcake tower for your next event and 2: a membership in the Cupcake of the Month Club (6 assorted cupcakes each month for a year!!)"





cannoli cupcakes!



Campfire Song, aka, their s'mores cupcake: "Campfire Song: A piece of graham cracker lay at the bottom of moist chocolate cake filled with milk chocolate ganache topped with crunchy graham cracker crust (you need the crunch of course!) and marshmallow topping. Torched to perfection!"

Last but not least, this was for an art and wine cupcake challenge:


"Very excited to be chosen as a finalist for the Hudson Valley Wine Magazine's Grand Celebration Art & Wine Cupcake Challenge! Our submission: Blank Canvas ~ Chocolate Red Wine cake (made with Brotherhood, America's Oldest Winery Mariage, a truly artful blend of Cabernet Sauvignon & Chardonnay), glazed with a local blackberry Mariage glaze, topped with our Madagascar vanilla bean buttercream, decorated with a chocolate easel, fondant blank canvas, and white chocolate red and white grapes. We hope to encourage the perfect union of art & wine, chocolate & vanilla, red grapes & green grapes, and of course the Hudson Valley & the blank canvas within us all."

1,000 free cupcakes tomorrow at new Crumbs Chicago, and new flavor: Caramel Latte

Chicago cupcake lovers can get one of 1,000 free cupcakes Crumbs Bake Shop is giving away tomorrow at their latest location at 42 S. Clark. Stay tuned to their Facebook page for all the latest news, and visit crumbs.com for locations and cupcake flavors.



And their new flavor is Caramel Latte, pictured below. "This chocolate cupcake is filled with coffee cream cheese frosting, topped with caramel cream cheese frosting, swirled with caramel drizzle and edged with white chocolate curls."

Georgetown Cupcake owners: "Our business plan was obsolete on day one"

From a U.S. News & World Report interview with Georgetown Cupcake Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne, whose cookbook The Cupcake Diaries comes out in November.

Did you make any financial mistakes along the way?

Tons. We probably started way too small, but that was all we could afford at the time. We spent a lot of money rebuilding things. We were undershooting every single time. We did our kitchen three or four times in the first location, and finally moved to M Street, trying to keep up with demand. If we had planned that from the get-go, we wouldn’t have wasted all that money.

Did you create an official business plan before launching?

We did. I used to work in venture capital, so I’m used to working with start-ups and know the importance of a business plan. We drew up a rough business plan. But I also learned that your business plan goes out the window and doesn’t necessarily go how you think it will. So we drew one up for initial planning. We were very conservative in our projections, and we thought our business would be mostly special event orders, for baby showers and weddings, with little walk-in traffic. We didn’t plan on the walk-in traffic.

On the first day, we said, ‘We’ll bake 500 cupcakes.’ We ended up selling out in a couple hours, and now we bake 10,000 cupcakes a day. We couldn’t have predicted that. Our business plan became obsolete on day one. So it’s not about planning but about how you adjust to changes. The people who do well are the ones who will adjust.

Peanut caramel corn, Swedish fish, vegan apple cider, strawberry banana, blueberry almond struesel and butterscotch sundae cupcakes!

I was recently in Vermont visiting family and while we stopped by Essex Junction, I didn't get to try any cupcakes, but I plan to go back and will definitely visit My Little Cupcake. All of these photos and descriptions are from their Facebook page.


Peanut caramel corn cupcake: "It's a vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream, caramel dizzle, sprinkled peanuts, and cracker jack popcorn!"



Swedish fish cupcake



Vegan apple cider cupcake (from yesterday's vegan Tuesday special)



Strawberry banana cupcake



Butterscotch sundae cupcake



"Your taste buds will go absolutely bananas today over this blueberry almond streusel. It's a perfect combination of blueberry cake, vanilla buttercream, and homemade streusel with chopped oats and almonds."

Reminder: Our NYC Cupcake Crawl in Greenwich Village is this Sunday!

A reminder that this month's meetup is a NYC Cupcake Crawl - I've added photos from each bakery below their name to tempt you further! See you on Sunday! Cost is $5 per person, and you can pay at the link above. You will also have the chance to win a t-shirt from Rogue Cupcakes.

To celebrate the beginning of the fall and to welcome new bakeries in the area, we're doing a CUPCAKE CRAWL. We will visit five bakeries, starting in Soho at Little Cupcake Bake Shop and ending at Molly's Cupcakes in the Village.

We will be at Little Cupcake Bake Shop on Sunday, September 18th at 2PM for 30 minutes to get the crawl group together, and then we walk to next locations.

1st Stop: Little Cupcake Bake Shop 30 Prince St btw Elizabeth & Mott



2nd Stop: Baked By Melissa 529 Broadway btw Spring & Prince


current cupcake flavor of the month (through September 30th): milk and cookies

3rd Stop: Ivy Bakery (New bakery) 138 W. Houston St.


The Princess Bride cupcakes (these were a special one-time thing, but one of my favorites)

4th Stop: Sweet Revenge 62 Carmine St.



5th Stop: Molly's Cupcakes (New bakery) 228 Bleecker St



Bring money/debit/credit card for cupcakes and drinks. We will be giving away one prize at each location!

Follow @cupcakeblog on Twitter for updates.

I'm an official Retro Bakery cupcake fan, especially the butterscotch hi hat

This weekend I was given a wonderful gift of a delivery of cupcakes from Retro Bakery in Las Vegas! I had a fabulous time in Vegas (shoutout to the Flamingo Hotel) and hope to return, and these cupcakes were a highlight of my trip. I was very excited to try their butterscotch hi hat cupcake and wouldn't you know, of the dozen I tried, that was my absolute favorite, followed by a tie between Peanut Butter Cup and Mint Chocolate chip. Their September cupcake of the month, spicy pumpkin, which features cinnamon spice cake with pumpkin pie buttercream, cake was a bit spicy, which I found a bit too spicy, but I'm not a carrot cake afficionado. All of them were delicious, moist and interesting. The coffee frosting on the coffee and donuts cupcake was amazing; think coffee ice cream, which I liked even before I started drinking coffee, in frosting form. It was a strong flavor, complemented the donut well, and was sweet and wonderful.

So a big THANK YOU to Retro Bakery, especially Kari Haskell - these were even better than all the years I've spent lusting after them from afar.

I highly recommend them; their delivery fee is $20 to the Las Vegas Strip.

Some of my photos:







butterscotch hi hat cupcake (my favorite) - so buttery and rich and the shell wasn't hard but soft, and melted in my mouth. I could eat this cupcake if not every day, very close to it.








mint chocolate chip cupcake



spicy pumpkin cupcake



milk and cookies cupcake



coffee and donuts cupcake - there was much debate amongst my friends over which cupcake this was!



Peanut Butter Cup cupcake





Chocolate Fountain: chocolate cake plus chocolate buttercream plus chocolate ganache!



Red, white and blueberry


Click here to see all their flavors.

Retro Bakery
7785 N. Durango Dr. #130
Las Vegas, NV 89131
95 N Freeway/Durango Dr.
702-586-3740
retrobakery at hotmail.com
www.retrobakerylv.com
Facebook
Flickr
@retrobakery on Twitter