Valentine's Day Cupcakes 2010

There's not a more perfect holiday than Valentine's Day
to give or receive cupcakes.
I can't imagine a better gift than a dozen cupcakes
from my favorite cupcake shop!
::hint, hint to my husband::

But making cupcakes for someone shows just a little more love. Here are some of my favorite Valentine's Day cupcakes for this year.

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More Ways to Display Cupcakes

After posting about this new way to display cupcakes a few weeks ago, I've come across some other interesting ways to display cupcakes (via Party Cupcake Ideas).

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Looking for Baby Shower Dessert Ideas

My little sister is a baby-making machine! She has already produced the cutest little baby boy ever and now she is ready to pop with baby #2. This time she's having a girl. How perfect!

I'm throwing a baby shower for her in less than two weeks. I put myself in charge of making the desserts. I would like to have three desserts, one of them being cupcakes (of course).

I'm looking for two delicious desserts (brownies, cookies, cake, etc) and a cute decorating idea for cupcakes. The theme for the baby shower is the ocean/beach. Any ideas?

Cookies-N-Creme cupcakes

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I love mixing my favorite desserts with cupcakes. Thank to Java Cupcake, I now have a recipe for Cookies-N-Creme Cupcakes. The only item the recipe omits is a glass of milk...how can you eat Oreos without milk?

Vegan, Gluten-Free Cupcakes Debut at Sprinkles

Over the weekend I saw read some interesting news via Cupcakes Take the Cake. Apparently, Rachel (from CCTC) found out a few months ago that Sprinkles was working on a vegan cupcake.

Well, it's official! The Daily Dish from the LA Times is reporting that, starting today, Sprinkles is now offering both a vegan and gluten-free version of their signature Red Velvet cupcake.

"The vegan red velvet cupcake is made with soy milk, tofu-based cream cheese , and pure coconut oil. Gluten-free red velvet is made with gluten-free flour and topped with Sprinkles' original cream cheese frosting." (Daily Dish)

Congrats to Sprinkles for expanding their line for more people to enjoy their delicious cupcakes!

Featured: Dots Cupcakes

So close, yet so far!

Dots Cupcakes is only an hour away, yet I haven't visited them yet! I am rarely out in the Pasadena area, so that's my excuse for now. BUT that doesn't mean that I haven't wanted to visit Dots many, many times!

Dots Cupcakes has two locations in Pasadena, CA. They feature different cupcakes each day of the week, so check their menu to see when they are serving your favorite. Their cupcakes are $2.75 (good price!) each and their Minis are $1.50.

My wishes:

Apple Pie: Cinnamon Granny Smith apple cake with cream cheese frosting and caramel swirl

Dulce de Leche: Caramel vanilla cake with condensed milk and cream cheese frosting with loads of caramel swirled

PB & Banana: Banana cake with loads of peanut butter chips and peanut butter frosting


Dots Cupcakes is on my list of cupcakes to visit this year. I hope they are as good as they sound!

Hot Chocolate Goodness

In case you don't live in Southern California, you might not know that we are currently in the middle of the heaviest rainstorm that we've had in years. It has rained for five days straight and is still going strong!

I love rain because it means snow in the mountains. But while I'm not snowboarding in Mammoth, I love to be at home, drinking hot chocolate while the rain is flooding the streets. In honor of this wonderful rain, I'd like to highlight hot chocolate.

I've been a hot chocolate fan my whole life. There was even a time that I used to drink a mug of hot chocolate every night before bed (before I watched calories). I still treat myself to a zebra hot chocolate from Starbucks once a month.

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I Heart Cuppycakes has a recipe for a Hot Chocolate Cupcakes: a chocolate-chili cupcake with marshmallow whipped cream frosting, topped with chocolate sprinkles.

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This makes me want to stay home from work, get warm with my Snuggie, and eat a hot chocolate cupcake (while drinking hot chocolate, of course).

New Cupcake Shop Openings

It's always exciting to hear about new cupcake shops opening, especially when they are close to home. See where two of my favorite shops are expanding to and where the newest cupcake shop in southern California will be.

Photo: SusieCakes

SusieCakes has opened a new bakery in northern California, Greenbrae to be exact. The new bakery is having a grand opening party on Saturday, January 23 from 11am-4pm. There will be prizes, sample, face-painting, ballon artist, and music. SusieCakes in Greenbrae will also be doing a Golden Ticket Contest, similar to the contest they did in Newport Beach during the summer.

SusieCakes
310 Bon Air Center
Greenbrae, CA 94904

Photo: Crumbs

Crumbs Bake Shop has opened a new shop in Ridgewood, NJ. The new shop opened on Monday, January 18. Although this shop is far away from me, it's still interesting to see where cupcake shops are expanding to.

Crumbs Bake Shop
123 E. Ridgewood Ave.
Ridgewood, NJ 07450

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Thanks to Cupcakes Take the Cake, I discovered that a new cupcakery will be opening in southern California. Cupcake Land is located in La Habra, CA. Their website is under construction so I don't have much info about them, besides their address.

Cupcake Land
1951 E. La Habra Blvd., Ste. C
La Habra, CA 90631

LA Cupcake Challenge

If I could spend a day doing anything, I wouldn't mind spending it eating cupcakes! The LA Cupcake Challenge is perfect for that. Last year was the first year of the LA Cupcake Challenge. I had planned on going, but had to miss it at the last moment. This year I'm not going to miss it!


Never heard of the LA Cupcake Challenge? It's a sampling of LA and OC's best cupcakes. It takes place on Saturday, February 20 from 12-3pm at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, CA. The bakeries will be competing for titles of three categories: Best Traditional, Best Original, and Best Overall. (You can find a list of last year's winners here.)

The cost for this event is $40 and well worth it! You get to sample cupcakes from over 25 different cupcake shops/bakeries. Two of the bakeries in the competition were recently featured on The Food Network's "Cupcake Wars." And two of the bakeries are local favorites in Orange County (Meringue Bake Shop and Two Parts Sugar).


Now for the exciting part: I've been selected to be a judge! Now there's no excuse for me to not attend. I have been looking forward to this event for several months. I hope to see some of you there eating lots of cupcakes (and going into a sugar coma) with me!

LA Cupcake Challenge
Saturday, February 20 12-3pm
Renaissance Hollywood Hotel
Buy tickets here.

Heavenly Hostess Cupcake Products

I've been wanting to get an apron for quite a while, but haven't put much effort into finding one before now. There is this cute little shop in the Orange Circle that always has aprons in the window. Today I made the effort to find their website. I was successful! Meet Heavenly Hostess.

Of course I have to share them with you since I found this darling Cupcake Party half apron.

But the fun doesn't stop there. I also found a Cupcake Party kitchen towel and Cupcake Party glame headband to match.

But the apron I was craving the most was this Faith - Just Black cocktail apron. I can definitely see Lucille Ball wearing something like this in I Love Lucy.

But I have to be a little more practical than that, so my pick would be this Courage - Tweety half apron. Maybe I'll get lucky...Valentine's Day is coming up!

Super Bowl Giveaway from Two Parts Sugar!

Who doesn't like a good giveaway? Especially when it involves winning cupcakes!

You remember Two Parts Sugar, right? Monica, the owner of Two Parts Sugar, was a contestant on "Cupcake Wars" on the Food Network last month. Well, Two Parts Sugar is teaming up with Kitchen Couture and Sugar Cat Studio to do a Super Bowl Giveaway. What can you win?

2 dozen gourmet cupcakes , complete with

custom-made Super Bowl decorations

from Two Parts Sugar

"Sporty Couture" apron from Kitchen Couture

24 custom cupcake wrappers from Sugar Cat Studio

I really want to win this giveaway, but you have a chance to win too. Go to Two Parts Sugar's blog and enter the contest. Good luck!

Review: Sweet Tooth Fairy

Last stop on my Utah cupcake quest: Sweet Tooth Fairy! I've been wanting to visit Sweet Tooth Fairy for a year; they opened just after my trip to Utah last winter. I was pretty excited about my visit to Sweet Tooth Fairy because not only would I be eating cupcakes, but I would also be meeting Becky of Utah Loves Cupcakes.



Becky was as sweet as I thought she would be! It was so much fun to talk to someone who is as passionate about cupcakes as I am. Megan, the owner of Sweet Tooth Fairy, was not able to be there for the tasting, but she asked Becky to fill me in on everything, since Becky knows so much about the store.

First glance at the cupcakes and I knew I was in heaven! They were so beautiful and I just knew they were going to taste marvelous!

Sweet Tooth Fairy provided a cupcake tasting tray for me. Almost all of the flavors were available for me to try. Scroll to bottom of post to read about which flavors I enjoyed.

I also got to sample their famous Double Fudge Cake Bites that were featured on The Rachel Ray Show. I thought I knew how these would taste, but they were so much better. The chocolate wasn't overwhelming and the moist cake-frosting inside was perfect!

Becky and I had a great time talking about cupcakes: how we eat them, how we review them, our favorites, etc. She has quite a reputation in Utah. All of the cupcake shop owners know who she is.

Sweet Tooth Fairy has recently started making a new kind of cupcake: the MashUp Cupcake. "We're taking our most delicious stand-alone flavors and mashing them up with other decadent flavors to create the perfectly paired cupcake (STF)." The day that I was there, the MashUp Cupcake was Chocolate Raspberry. Wow, they have a good thing going on! They have continued to make different MashUps. Last week they had Raspberry Cheesecake and Black Cherry Cordial.

Sweet Tooth Fairy doesn't just sell cupcakes, they also have a large assortment of other tasty treats. I spotted cookies, brownies, lemon bars, and cake bites.

Cute decor! I loved the jars of sprinkles on the wall. I thought that was a nice touch.

As much as my head told me that I wouldn't be able to eat all of those cupcakes, my stomach thought differently. It was just so hard to stop eating when the cupcakes were fantastic! Let me share some of the highlights with you.

My favorite: Cheesecake.

I have always been a huge cheesecake fan, so the combination of cupcakes and cheesecake was delightful for me. Sweet Tooth Fairy puts cheesecake in the cake and frosting. Cake-perfect, frosting-perfect. I couldn't get enough of this one!

Runner-Up: Dulce de Leche.

I don't believe that I've ever had a dulce de leche cupcake before and I'm sad that I had to wait this long to try one. Again, there was dulce de leche in the cake and frosting. So delicious!

Honorable Mentions:
Vanilla Chocolate.
The frosting on this one was unbelievable. Sometimes I'm turned off by a chocolate frosting that is too heavy, but this frosting was just right.

Strawberry Shortcake.
Strawberry frosting. Mmmmm...yummy.

Peanut Butter.
Hard to go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate.

Observation: Becky told me that Sweet Tooth Fairy is famous for their frosting. Me, being a big frosing critic, put Sweet Tooth Fairy to the test. The result: (as if you couldn't tell before) absolutely delicious! The one thing I noticed was that the vanilla frosting was different than any other vanilla frosting I had ever tasted before. Becky and I discussed what we think makes it different. Possibly the addition of almond extract or marzipan. Not sure, but it doesn't matter because whatever it is, I like it.

I took a few cupcakes from the shop to share with my friends. My friend Kristen described these cupcakes perfectly, "It's like a song in my mouth."

If I could only eat from one cupcake shop in Utah ever again, this would be the place! Everything about Sweet Tooth Fairy is exactly how I would want my dream cupcake shop to be. From the flavors, to the frosting, to the other treats...it was perfect! The only downfall: it's in Utah and I live in California. Oh well, that will just make my trips to Utah more exciting. Thank you, Sweet Tooth Fairy!

Sweet Tooth Fairy
1227 S. University Ave.
Provo, UT 84601
801-375-3484
www.thesweettoothfairy.com

Opening soon in Draper and St. George

Review: Cupcake Chic

Continuing with my Utah cupcake quest, next up is Cupcake Chic. Cupcake Chic is a cupcake bakery that bakes cupcakes for special events (weddings, parties, business meetings) and sells their cupcakes at local coffee shops in the Provo, Utah area.

Becky of Utah Loves Cupcakes picked up a box of cupcakes from Cupcake Chic for me. I was so excited when I opened the box and saw these cute white and pink cupcakes. They almost looked too cute to eat (I got past that quickly).


In my box of treats I found Red Velvet, Strawberry Vanilla, Strawberry Chocolate, and Chocolate Coconut. Becky sure was right...these cupcakes were good! I especially liked the frosting, which is the biggest factor in cupcake reviewing for me. There was just the right amount of creamy, sweet frosting for me. The cake was a little dry, but I was assured by Becky that this was because I waited over a day to try these out. I definitely agree with her though, it was my fault for not trying them right away (I was on cupcake overload at the time!). I can't imagine that Cupcake Chic would put such great frosting on a mediocre cupcake.

Overall thought: Becky was right...Cupcake Chic is definitely worth checking out if you want a great cupcake!

Cupcake Chic
Springville, UT
801-368-9469
www.cupcakechicutah.com

Where to find Cupcake Chic cupcakes:

• Art City Cupcakes (Springville, UT)
  
• Jaxies (Spanish Fork, UT)
  
• Coffee Pod (Provo, UT)
  
• BYU Bookstore (Provo, UT)

Got my Elvis Cupcake

Last Friday was a lucky day for me. Not only was it the end of my work week, but I was able to snag a special Elvis cupcake from The Perfect Circle Cupcakery. It was my first peanut butter banana cupcake. Thick, peanut buttery frosting on top of a moist banana cupcake. Wow, I've been missing out! Thanks TPC!

Featured: Butch Bakery

I've decided to add a new feature to my blog. A few times a month I will be featuring a cupcake shop from around the world. This will give me a chance to showcase cupcake shops that I haven't been to, but would like to visit.

First up...Butch Bakery. Just the sound of this company is awesome.

Butch Bakery is different than any other cupcake bakery I've seen, as it caters to men. How do they cater to men? Well, they give their cupcakes manly names and add alcohol to most of their cupcakes.


Some of their flavors include:

Rum & Coke: rum-soaked madagascar vanilla cake with cola bavarian cream filling

Beer Run: chocolate and beer-infused cake with beer buttercream, topped with crushed pretzels.

Driller: maple cake with milk chocolate ganache and bacon bits

B-52: Kahula-soaked madagascar vanilla cake with Baileys bavarian filling



According to their website, "Butch Bakery has born when David Arrick felt it was time to combine a masculine aesthetic to a traditionally cute product--the cupcake." I like the idea of appealing to men. Hopefully this concept will allow Butch Bakery to differentiate enough from the hundreds of other cupcake companies/shops in New York.

Butch Bakery is a made-to-order cupcake company, with no shop as of yet. They deliver to greater Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, New York. You can order from four different sample boxes, which range from $16 (4 cupcakes) to $48 (12 cupcakes).

Butch Bakery
646-221-3477
www.butchbakery.com

P.S. Thanks to Party Cupcake Ideas for the lead on Butch Bakery.

Spotted! Cupcakes Back at Starbucks!

I stopped by Starbucks on Saturday to pick up a gift card and was excited to see cupcakes back in the store. I can't believe it's been almost a year since I first spotted them. I was in a hurry so I didn't get a chance to try one. I'm curious if they taste the same as last year or if they've changed at all.

S'more Bakerella Treats

Leave it up to Bakerella to create her own version of a oh-so-yummy s'more cupcake. She never ceases to amaze me!

First, bake a marshmallow-stuffed graham cracker and chocolate cupcake.

Photo: Bakerella

Top with chocolate ganache and a large marshmallow.

Photo: Bakerella

Just like a real s'more...gooey and delicious. You can find the full recipe on Bakerella's website.

Review: The Chocolate

I started off the new year by doing two things that I absolutely love--snowboarding and eating cupcakes! Utah is a great place to do both. The cupcake scene in Utah has really blossomed in the past year or two. Last year I visited my first Utah cupcake bakery. This year, I had my choice of places to visit. Luckily I had the help of Becky from Utah Loves Cupcakes to point me in the right direction.

First stop: The Chocolate. I didn't get the chance to visit The Chocolate's store, but Becky was sweet enough to bring me a sample box.

I got to try Red Velvet, Lemon, Chocolate with Caramel, and Pineapple Coconut. My favorite was the Chocolate with Caramel (also Becky's favorite). The frosting had a good consistency and the flavor combination of sweet and salty was great! The frosting on the Red Velvet had almost a pudding-like consistency. It was different, but good. I'm not a whipped cream fan at all, so I didn't enjoy the frosting on the Pineapple Coconut, but I do think this is a good accent to the pineapple cake. Last, the Lemon had a tasty, thick lemon frosting. Usually I will pass on a lemon cupcake, but this one was very tasty.

One of the most appealing aspects about The Chocolate is the price. Regular-sized Gourmet Cupcakes are $2 each and Gourmet Babycakes are only $1. Great prices! The Chocolate also sells cookies, bars, brownies, and signature cakes.

The Chocolate: A Dessert Bakery
212 S. State St.
Orem, UT 84058
801-224-7334
www.thechocolatedc.com

Happy Birthday Elvis! Now Eat a Cupcake

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Elvis Presley was born 75 years ago on January 8, 1935. Did you know that two of his favorite foods are peanut butter and bananas? That's why cupcakeries like to serve special cupcakes in honor of The King. Where can you find one?

The Perfect Circle Cupcake
Banana cake with creamy peanut butter frosting
Available today (January 8) only


Sprinkles
Banana cake with cream peanut butter frosting
Available today through Sunday


Crumbs Bake Shop
Vanilla cake filled and frosted with banana cream cheese frosting, topped with creamy peanut butter frosting and edged with peanut butter chips
Available all month long (January)


Sweet Tooth Fairy
Blue Suede cupcakes
Available today only


Let me know if you see any other cupcake shops selling cupcakes to celebrate Elvis' birthday.