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."

CSI: Miami cupcakes! Plus s'mores, flowers, shoes and more

These fun CSI: Miami cupcakes as well as the others are by Pasadena, California company Ah How Sweet, via their Facebook page. They can be reached at ahhowsweet at gmail.com or 626-354-9033 and you can follow them @AhHowSweet on Twitter.

"Everybody's Frosting for the Weekend" - latest "frostism" from Frost Cupcake Factory!

I love these latest "frostisms" from Frost Cupcake Factory, whose "Frost me baby one more time" we'd previously highlighted, in Campbell, California, via their Facebook page. "Everybody's Frosting for the Weekend" seems like an appropriate way to wish you a Happy Friday!

















s'mores cupcakes!





Coconut Mojito - lime coconut cake with fresh mint topped with coconut meringue frosting

Bonfire s'mores and banana split cupcakes plus recipe links from Sweetology

Whoa! Most of you know I have a huge fondness for any and all s'mores cupcakes, but blogger Sweetology has taken what we know as the s'mores cupcake and added a summer twist to it by making bonfire s'mores cupcakes! Yum! They look amazing. Click through for the recipe.







And while I was poking around Sweetology I found these banana split cupcakes, which are also extremely impressive! Again, click through for the recipe.







You also get a bit of food history from her post - here's a snippet (and really, don't all of us wish we could go down in history as having invented a food that people delight in and eat for a hundred-plus years afterward?):



One of the most popular desserts in America, the Banana Split

was invented by David Evans Strickler, a 23-year-old apprentice pharmacist at

Tassel Pharmacy in Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 1904.



Strickler created his Banana Split with three scoops of ice cream (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry) on a halved banana topped off with chocolate, marshmallow, nuts, whipped cream, and a cherry (he also commissioned a local glass company to create a long, narrow dish to accommodate a banana).

Gluten-free s'mores cupcakes with toasted marshmallow frosting!

Continuing the s'mores cupcake theme for National S'mores Day...



Here's a s'mores cupcake that's gluten-free, and you can get the recipe at The Baking Beauties.



The bottom has a graham layer cookie crust, topped with chocolate, then the wonderful, moist chocolate cupcake, topped with more chocolate and graham wafer crumbs. THEN, the whole thing is topped off with a toasted marshmallow frosting. Delish!

11 S'mores Cupcakes To Wish You A Happy S'mores Day!

Happy National S'mores Day! Yes, there is a National S'mores Day amongst all the food holidays out there and since s'mores are one of my favorite cupcake flavors I wanted to share some s'mores cupcake photos and recipe links. And yes, some of these have been blogged before, but I wanted to share my favorites! I love all things s'mores, the gooey-er (spelling?) the better. So happy happy happy!

My personal three favorite s'mores cupcakes I've eaten come from:


Seattle's Trophy Cupcakes - get owner Jennifer Shea's recipe at Martha Stewart and visit trophycupcakes.com for more information


Cupcake in Minneapolis - I go there specifically for their s'mores cupcake! Photo by Aaron Landry via Flickr.


Sweet E's Cupcakes on Martha's Vineyard - this photo doesn't do it justice, but it's so good!

The wonderful custom cupcake seller/blogger Amanda Cupcake s'mores cupcakes that blew my mind; click here for the recipe!



Blogger Stuff Your Face writes of the recipe for these cupcakes below:

I really wanted that graham cracker flavor but the texture of melted chocolate and gooey marshmallow – to stay true to S’mores. So I decided to go with a graham cracker flavored cake, replacing some of the flour with ground graham crackers. Then topping the cake with Nutella (the texture is just like melted chocolate and it tastes so good) and using my favorite Meringue frosting and torching it – which is a good reason on its own to make these cupcakes!



Blogger Glorious Treats serves up a recipe for these cupcakes:



From their post: What could be a more perfect cupcake flavor for summer than s'mores? I first gave this recipe combo a try several years ago, and have since made them several times. They are always such a hit for summer parties! A delicious chocolate cupcake (using my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe) is paired with light and fluffy mashmallowy frosting and topped with the traditional elements of s'mores... graham crackers and chocolate.

Blogger The Snappy Gourmet has gone over the top (ha!) with these "chunky s'mores dipped cupcakes," aka hi hat cupcakes that look amazing! Go there for the recipe.





Beloved blogger Bakerella made these dripping chocolate s'mores cupcakes and gives you the recipe:



Blogger Pretty Tasty Things has the recipe for these s'mores cupcakes below:



This photo is by Cupcakes and Sundry in Toronto, via Flickr.



Vegan Amaranth Graham Cupcake with Ganache and Ricemallow Buttercream by QuintanaRoo on Flickr:

Vegan s'mores cupcakes with double the marshmallow and chocolate curls on top

If you've been reading this blog for even a month you know that I have a weakness for all things s'mores. All things marshmallow, really, but I love s'mores and I do see a fair number of s'mores cupcakes online but I don't encounter them very often in my cupcake tastings, and I think more bakeries should offer s'mores cupcakes. These look amazing. And they're vegan! And mini - though they look bigger than what I think of as "mini" but that could be the angle of the photo. That just means if they were in front of me I wouldn't feel as bad about eating 5. Or all of them. They're by Angel Cakes in San Francisco (via Flickr), and you can get more info on them in this blog post which I will also quote for you:

First up, s'mores. I've been wanting to do them for a while and had been debating - chocolate cupcakes with icing and graham cracker topping? Or graham flavored cupcake, maybe with a chocolate ganache (to mimic the melty chocolate of smores) plus frosting? I *know* - really important questions, right?

Well since the other flavor I was doing was fruit, i wanted one with a dominant chocolate flavor, so I took a dark chocolate vegan mini cupcake with a vegan vanilla buttercream, a piece of graham cracker, and a dark chocolate curl. I am very happy the way they turned out - very modern. They were quite popular, and a number of people commented that they liked the crunch of the graham cracker. I'll definitely try the reverse, because the idea of a dark chocolate ganache is so tempting!



And the fruit cupcakes referred to are strawberry balsamic cupcakes:



Want your own? Call or 510-910-5627 or email info at angelcakessf.com to place an order!

Fishing pole s'mores and lemon love note cupcakes! And bingo!

Yes, that's a pretzel fishing pole sticking out of these wondrous s'mores cupcakes cooked up by blogger and custom cupcake maker Amanda Cupcake, who you can also find on Facebook and who does custom cupcakes (and is based in Wisconsin). Want to order from her? Contact Amanda at msamandacupcake at gmail.com or 920-915-3409.



Plus there's more! She turned her love of cupcakes into love note lemon cupcakes, which you can read about at that link.



The business-minded among you will appreciate that these cupcakes sprang from her working on her business plan:

I was writing my business plan tonight.

I was on the first page where I had to state my mission. One of the my missions in my journey to start a bakery is to share joy and love with the world through my cupcakes. Another vision of mine is to bring community together to just forget about everything on the outside world, and perhaps for even a moment there would be "peace" in the realm of cupcakes.



They each have inspiration words baked inside:



And last but not least - I am a HUGE bingo fan and I love this bingo cupcake cake, with a special N-70 for the birthday girl (Amanda's grandmother). Love these! See more images on Flickr and Facebook.



Bingo ball with funfetti dots!



I'm truly in awe - what will she think of next?

Temptation at Sweet E's Cupcakes

I'll be buying, tasting and reviewing some of these soon, but for now, a peek at what they have at the Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard bakery Sweet E's Cupcakes:


s'mores cupcakes



apple filled cupcakes



grapefruit cupcakes



marshmallow coconut cupcakes



salted caramel cupcakes

Raspberry truffle, salted caramel, s'mores, El Diablo Mexican chocolate and ice cream sundae cupcakes!

5 gorgeous cupcakes, 5 intriguing flavors. Photos and captions from Cupcakes by the Beach in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, via their Facebook page. Visit cupcakesbythebeach.com or contact them at 850-362-6244 for more information.


Dark Raspberry Truffle. This decadent dark chocolate cake has a raspberry and ganache truffle filling, topped with a raspberry buttercream and dark chocolate swirls.



Salted Caramel. This delicious combo of salty and sweet is a cinnamon-vanilla cake, topped with luscious caramel buttercream. Drizzled with caramel and sprinkled with a pinch of sea salt




This chocolately cupcake has a chocolate chip filling and is topped with a yummy marshmallow frosting that has been hand torched.




El Diablo. Mexican chocolate cake, topped with a rich chocolate ganache frosting and dusted with red glitter sprinkles




Hot Fudge Sundae! Delicious chocolate fudge cake topped with a scoop of vanilla buttercream, drizzled with chocolate syrup and finished with a maraschino cherry!