New Website

I am getting serious about my blog! I have purchased the web address for my website. My new web address is www.cupcakeactivist.com. The difference is that "blogspot" is gone. You can still access my website through the old address, but you can save your fingers by typing my new address and bookmarking the page. Happy Halloween!

This weekend I will be sharing cupcakes with racers in the Muddy Buddy. Look for me handing out "muddy" cupcakes. My husband and I will also be racing in the event.

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Happy early Halloween! I love making treats! I have fond memories of baking on Sunday afternoons with my mom. I still have those desires, but I end up with a kitchen full of treats and no one to eat them. Curse my metabolism! Anyways, I chose Candy Corn Cupcakes as my Halloween cupcake experiment.
I decided to try out my mini cupcake tin. I figured that since I would be using a lot of frosting on each cupcake, I should make them small. I used a yellow cake mix and vanilla frosting. I separated the frosting into two bowls and dyed one bowl yellow and the other bowl orange. I made sure to refrigerate the frosting because it was losing its shape as it got warmer. I topped the cupcake with a little squirt of whipped cream. The whipped cream didn't work as well as I had hoped because it melted after just a few minutes. Overall, these cupcakes turned out ok. Maybe next year I will make some scary ones instead.
Lucky for me, I have another event that I need to bake cupcakes for! I am also in the mood for some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I may be on a sugar high for the next week or so!

Support Before It's Too Late

Earlier this year I read about a bakery in Costa Mesa that sold cupcakes. I decided that I would ride my bike 16 miles to Five Sweets, buy some cupcakes, and ride 16 miles home. This was during my pre-cupcake-blog days and it was only the second cupcake bakery that I had ever been to, the first being Sprinkles.
The cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies I bought were really good. The lady that helped me was so nice...she gave me a free water bottle when she saw that I had biked all the way to their bakery. This experience really sparked my interest in cupcakes. I began wondering if there were other places that sold cupcakes. One month later, I started my blog.

So Saturday, seven months later, I decided that I need to go back so that I could officially review Five Sweets for my blog. Upon my arrival, I found an empty store with a lone piece of paper in the window.
The sign reads: "As of October 1, 2008 Five Sweet will be closed. Thank you to our loyal customers. We had a great 2 1/2 years. Hope to see you soon. Love - Cassie + 5 Sweets." I am so sad to see this bakery go.
I wish I had gotten the chance to post a review of Five Sweets, but I don't think it would have done very much good. I am not sure why they went out of business, but it could have easily been because of our country's current financial situation. The economy is in the trash and everyone is suffering. Cupcakes can be seen as a luxury, so I am sure many cupcakeries and bakeries are facing hardships. I sincerely hope that the economy can turn itself around, so that people are not losing their jobs and their businesses. How can we help? Support your local cupcake store and bakery...eat a cupcake!

More Halloween Cupcakes

Saturday night my husband and I will be attending a Halloween party. I really want to bring cupcakes that say "TA-DA!" I think I have finally figured out what I am going to bake for my Halloween treats. As I have been searching the internet, I have come across more ideas for Halloween cupcakes. Some of them look very time-consuming, others look so simple. Enjoy!

Skeleton Cupcakes

Pumpkin Cupcake

Bat Cupcake

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Ghost Cupcake, Polka Dot Cupcake, Spider Cupcake

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes (with recipe)

Check back to see what I end up making!

Baby's First National Chocolate Cupcake Day

Turns out that my friend's son's birthday is the same day as National Chocolate Cupcake Day. What luck! Sloan turned one on Saturday. To celebrate, his parents asked me where to buy some cupcakes. I recommended Sprinkles and Bristol Farms. They took my advice and bought a few cupcakes from each place.Sloan's first cupcake was a Sprinkles Milk Chocolate cupcake. I would say he loved it! The bad part about eating a Sprinkles cupcake as your first cupcake is that it is only downhill from there.
Of course I had to eat some chocolate cupcakes to be a part of both special days. I enjoyed slivers of a Bristol Farms Chocolate cupcake and Sprinkles Peanut Butter Chocolate, Black & White, and Red Velvet (just for fun!) cupcakes.

(These pictures were taken by Sloan's talented mom, Amelia Lyon. She is an amazing photographer. Check out her blog.)

Halloween Cupcakes

October is one of my favorite months of the year! It is the start of Autumn and it begins my excitement for cold weather, snowboarding, my birthday, and Christmas. The month is already flying by so fast...it is almost Halloween! I haven't decided how I will be decorating my Halloween cupcakes yet, but here are a few of my favorite:

Monster Cupcakes

Witch Cupcakes

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Black Cat Cupcakes

Ghost Cupcakes

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Tour de Cupcake

This is my kind of race!

I usually treat myself to a cupcake or two after a big race, but the Tour de Cupcake knows that what I really want is a cupcake during the race! During this bike race there are 10 checkpoints. At each checkpoint, you are given the option of eating one or more cupcakes. For each cupcake you eat, you get a deduction off your total race time. (No details on race distance or time deductions.) Cupcakes during the race! Why hasn't anyone else thought of this? I seriously thought about flying to San Francisco for the weekend just so I could combine two of my favorite things!

National Chocolate Cupcake Day

Saturday, October 18 is National Chocolate Cupcake Day, according to MSBNC. That got me thinking, how am I going to celebrate? I should probably go to the cupcakery with the best chocolate based cupcake. Will it be:

Bristol Farms - Chocolate Coconut

Whole Foods - Chocolate

Elizabethan Desserts - Monkey Business

SusieCakes - Chocolate Peanut Butter

Sprinkles - Milk Chocolate or Peanut Butter Chocolate

I will let my instincts lead me.

A Second Chance for Sweet Lorraines

I have been meaning to go back to Sweet Lorraines at the Irvine Spectrum since they opened in June. I still had a bitter taste from my first visit, but in the name of reserach I decided to give them a second chance. The first thing I noticed was the addition of the words "Cupcake Shop" to the door. At least you will now know what is behind the doors at Sweet Lorraines.

Oh where do I start? I am still disappointed in the way the cupcakes are displayed. It looks tacky to put the cupcakes in these trays, especially with the pink paper hanging off the sides.

I have not ever seen another cupcake store do this, but Sweet Lorraines decorates the same type of cupcake differently. I don't like this. Notice this tray of Black & White cupcakes. They are essentially all the same cupcake, but there seems to be four different cupcakes. This may be some type of marketing ploy to make it look like there are more kinds of cupcakes, but in reality they had very few flavors.

Another negative point is how the cupcakes are decorated. They are not nicely done. Some of them look like little kids decorated them. I really wish they would try to look more professional.

I paid $3.25 for this?

Going off a suggestion from an employee behind the counter, I chose the Peanut Butter cupcake. I recently made some Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes for my sister's birthday, so I was anxious to compare them to Sweet Lorraines version.

So have they improved? Sadly, no. The cupcake was not very good. It was shaped like a mushroom, meaning the cake was spilling over the top. The cake was too spongey, almost rubbery. The frosting was a peanut butter frosting with cocoa added, not a chocolate frosting with peanut butter added like I made. The frosting was ok, but didn't go well with this cupcake.

I am not sure why Sweet Lorraines cupcakes fall short. I find myself wanting to hold back from giving them them another negative review, but I just can't recommend them as a place to get a good cupcake. They are way overpriced and their cupcakes are just not good. Sorry Sweet Lorraines, keep trying!

NOTE: Sweet Lorraine's went out of business.

One Big Cupcake

Last week was my sister's 11th birthday. She requested that I make the same cupcakes that I made for Skyler's birthday a few months. But instead of using a devil's food cake mix I used a yellow cake mix. (Side note: I liked the devil's food cake better with this cupcake.)
I also tried something new. I used my big cupcake tray for the first time! Interestingly, the cake mix only made 9 cupcakes as opposed to the normal 24 cupcakes. To compensate for being a larger cupcake, I had to pile on more frosting. No problem there! These cupcakes were a hit at the party. I can't reiterate enough how delicious chocolate and peanut butter are together.

I haven't decided if I like eating bigger cupcakes better. There has to be a lot of frosting on top for the cake/frosting ratio to be correct. Also, would my satisfaction be better if I ate two normal cupcakes instead of one large one? This is definitely something I need to think carefully about!

The High Price of Cupcakes

I have never been much of a jewelry person, but after my husband surprised me with a Tiffany's bracelet for Christmas last year, I have become somewhat of a fan. The other day I stumbled across this cupcake charm pendant on Tiffany's website. As much as I love it and it definitely showcases who I am, I can't justify $150 just for the charm. Maybe one day when I figure out how to make money with cupcakes, then I will be able to buy cupcake everything!

Benefits of Being an Activist

Last night my husband and I attended our first Ducks game of the season. As much as I love watching sporting events, I love eating the food just as much. We ate dinner before the game, so my plan was to find a good dessert to complete the night.

After returning to our suite with just a hot chocolate, I thought my dessert search was over. But then a knight in shining armor showed up. One of Skyler's co-workers, Ed, came over to our suite with a plate of Sprinkles Cupcakes!
At this point I almost didn't care if the Ducks won or not (they did and I still cared)! The two flavors of cupcakes were Vanilla (vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and sprinkles) and Pumpkin (pumpkin cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting). I have had the Vanilla before, but the Pumpkin was new to me. And since October just started, I was definitely in a pumpkin mood.

Wow! Pumpkin and cream cheese was such a great combination! This cupcake reminded me of a delicious pumpkin roll that my mom makes. The cake was moist, and combined with the frosting, it was heaven. I wish I had two of these! Sprinkles, you never disappoint. Thank you Ed! You sure know how to make this girl happy!