The Perfect Circle is on Cupcake Wars Tonight

My local cupcake shop, The Perfect Circle will be a contestant on tonight's episode of Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. Obviously I love The Perfect Circle (as you can see from my many, many posts), so I'm rooting for them. Can't wait to see what happens!

To see the full episode guide, go here.

Red Velvet from The Perfect Circle

Aloha Cupcakes?

Photo

Don't be too jealous, but right now I'm on my way to Kauai with my family! I am super excited to ride bikes with my husband, lay in the sand for hours, hang out with the family, and eat lots of good food.

Of course, I'll be on the lookout for cupcakes in Kauai. My internet search wasn't much luck, but if you know where I can find a cupcake, please let me know. Aloha!

Chocolate Glazed Donut Cake from Baked Perfection

Photo: Baked Perfection

Yummm...I love donuts, of course not as much as cupcakes, but it's pretty close. I mean, look at this cake. Who couldn't resist this?

Using a giant donut cake pan from Williams-Sonoma, Baked Perfection shows us how to make a delicious Chocolate Glazed Donut Cake. She used the recipe that came with the donut cake pan, but said it was a little dry. She deviated from the recipe by adding an extra layer of chocolate glaze between the two layers. That will teach a cake to be dry!

The giant donut cake pan is available from Williams-Sonoma for $19.95.

Blueberry Granola Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes

Stefani from Cupcake Project has recently started writing recipes for Paula Dean's website. This month she came up with a delicious-sounding cupcake:

Blueberry Granola Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes

Photo: Paula Dean

Cupcake Project wanted these blueberry cupcakes to be better than your average blueberry muffin, so these cupcakes contain fresh blueberries, homemade blueberry granola, chocolate chunks, maple syrup, and apple butter. As if that didn't sound good enough, she tops these cupcakes with homemade whipped cream (although some people {me} might prefer a simple buttercream frosting).

Duncan Hines Red Carpet Cupcake Challenge

Have you dreamed about a celebrity eating one of your cupcakes? Well, now's your chance.

Duncan Hines is the official dessert sponsor of the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards and Creative Arts Award Governors Ball. What does this mean to you? Duncan Hines is giving you the opportunity to have your cupcakes featured at this year's event! Your cupcakes will be sampled by Emmy winners, celebrities, and guests who will be in attendance at this year's Performer's Nominees Reception on August 27th.

That isn't all...you will also receive a trip for two to Los Angeles and two tickets to Fans in the Stands. What a fabulous prize! I would love for a chance to celebrity-watch.

How to Enter: Submit a photo and your recipe through duncanhines.com or through the Duncan Hines Facebook page before July 21, 2010. Visitors will vote for their favorite cupcake. The cupcake with the highest votes will enter the Top 10 phase. The winning cupcake will then be chosen by a panel of celebrity judges based on creativity, ease of preparation, and taste. The winner will be announced on August 3, 2010. Go here to view full rules.

Good luck!

Jill's Baby Shower - Take 2

In April I attended a baby shower for my best friend Jill (thrown by her sister-in-laws). She had her baby on April 22, a cute little girl named Lola Dee.

Although I already blogged about the cupcakes at her baby shower, my pictures didn't serve them justice. And so I re-present Book Baby Shower Cupcakes, courtesy of Amelia Lyon.





Just a reminder: Tonight is Cupcake Wars on the Food Network! Tonight's episode features Crushcakes, a shop I reviewed two months ago. I'm rooting for them!

Baby Shower Cupcakes

Photo: Flickr

Being the ripe old age of 28, I have a lot of friends that are having babies. I love coming across cute decorating ideas for baby shower cupcakes. The latest I found on Party Cupcake Ideas. These were made using fondant and Nilla Wafers.

One day it will be my turn to have a baby and my baby shower will have the best cupcakes. I still have plenty of time for planning...

Happy Father's Day!

Photo

My dad is wonderful! I don't want to make anyone jealous, but I actually have the best dad in the world....except for one thing: he doesn't eat chocolate. I'm not sure if he just doesn't like it or if he just doesn't want to eat it, but I would say this is a minor flaw. (Don't worry, I got my sweet tooth from my mom.)

About a year ago my dad tried his first Red Velvet cupcake from Sprinkles. He really liked it. This surprised me because red velvet is pretty much chocolate (the only difference is that red velvet has a lot of red dye). No one bothered to tell my dad this and he was shocked to find out a year later that he had been eating chocolate cupcakes!

Although my dad is still adamant about not eating chocolate, he won't turn down a red velvet cupcakes. That's my dad! Happy Father's Day!

What is your dad's favorite cupcake flavor?

Pioneer Woman and Cupcakes

We all know that Pioneer Woman is an amazing woman. She takes beautiful pictures, she bakes yummy food, and she home-schools her kids...there's practically nothing that she's not good at.

Have you seen her recently-new Tasty Kitchen Blog? Every single recipe she has posted on there looks beyond delicious!

Last week she did a feature on CUPCAKES. She explains that cupcakes are the perfect desserts for graduation season. Along with lots of pretty pictures, she posts links to recipes of all kinds of cupcakes, some of them her own and some not. There's sure to be a recipe you haven't tried yet.

Cupcake Wars Has Begun

Did you catch last night's episode of "Cupcake Wars" on the Food Network? It was the first of eight episodes to air this season. What did you think?

For more info on each episode, look here.

Batmobile Cupcake Cake

When I was younger, I LOVED everything Batman. I loved watching the cartoons with my brothers and I love the movies. Seriously though, wouldn't you agree that Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are two of the best movies ever?




Anyways, I got super excited when I saw this Batmobile cupcake cake on Cupcakes Takes the Cake! The Mom Buzz created this Batman cupcake cake by modifying the Formula One Race Car cupcake cake from What's New Cupcake?. Wish I had a son with a birthday to make this for. Maybe I'll just save the idea for my birthday.

Cupcake in a Jar

My friend Kelly, my other training partner, dropped off this cupcake in a jar for me the other night. She made these as gifts for her son's pre-school staff. Super cute and very easy to make. She used Funfetti cake mix for the cupcakes and whipped up her own frosting. She then used a concept that I blogged about a few months ago.

Cupcake, frosting, cupcake, frosting, cupcake, frosting.

Add a bow and spoon and the gift is complete. The addition of a spoon is such a cute idea, but then again, she is such a creative lady.

Will Run For CUPCAKES

Aren't friends the best? My friend Carrie, also one of my training partners, got me this Bondiband at last week's San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon expo (she ran the marathon the next day). She was looking for a logo that represented me. Well, this couldn't say Cupcake Activist any better.

"Will Run For CUPCAKES"

Team USA Cupcake for FIFA World Cup

Crumbs is celebrating the start of the FIFA World Cup by selling a cupcake that shows their Team USA pride. This special limited-time Patriotic Cupcake is red velvet filled with chocolate ganache, topped with blue vanilla cream cheese frosting, and edged with red, white, and blue star sprinkles. A star cookie with blue fondant sits on top. You can also get a vanilla/vanilla or vanilla/chocolate cupcake with the same decorations.

Team USA cupcakes are $4.50 each and $27 for a six-pack (with all three flavors). Red velvet with chocolate ganache filling?...sounds delicious! Might be worth the $4.50 price tag.

Know of any other cupcake shops with FIFA World Cup related cupcakes?

Photo: Crumbs

Cookie Casa's Pop-Up Bakery

I would probably say my second love behind cupcakes is chocolate chip cookies. But if I find a bakery that sells them both (like SusieCakes), then I'm in heaven!




Cookie Casa Bakery is just such a bakery. They don't have a retail store yet (they are a custom order company), but you can try out their cookies and cupcakes at their first Pop-Up Bakery at Polkadots & Moonbeams this Friday and Saturday!

Polkadots & Moonbeams
8381 W. 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA
Friday, June 11 & Saturday, June 12 11:00a - 6:00p

Cookie Casa Bakery's cookies and bars sell for $18.00/dozen and their cupcakes for $33.00/dozen. I would assume that you can buy individual treats at their Pop-Up Bakery. They don't have many varieties of cupcakes (three), but they are a cookie company. For now, I will drool over the pictures of the chocolate chip cookies...

Cookie Casa Bakery
Los Angeles
310-922-9396
Twitter: @cookiecasa
Facebook: Cookie Casa

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

Talk about a small world! A friend of mine (Ashley) has been living in Switzerland for the past year. So she travels to England to visit her boyfriend and sits next to a girl in church who has a cupcake baking blog. The subject of cupcakes somehow comes up and mAshley mentions that she has a friend who writes a cupcake blog (me). Well, the girl gets excited and says that she follows my blog too. How crazy is that!

Photo: Cupcake Crazy

The girl Ashley met writes the blog Cupcake Crazy Gem. She has a lot of great recipes on her blog that I make reference to often. Her most recent baking adventure is Root Beer Float Cupcakes. She uses a root beer bundt cake recipe from Baked Perfection (another of my favorite cupcake blogs) and vanilla frosting. She says these cupcakes are "absolutely fantastic amazing!" I guess that means I need to give them a try sometime. I've never tried root beer cupcakes, but I think it's time.

Baking Cookbook Giveaway Winner

Thank you to all who enter the giveaway for your favorite cookbook from Snubbr's recommended baking cookbook list. The winner of this giveaway (chosen using random.org) is:

Lisa Smiley

Congrats Lisa! The baking cookbook she chose is:

"Oh, I'd love The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. I actually have a similar one checked out from the library and would love to own this one. They do an amazing job of researching the best recipes and their recipes are the top!"

Enjoy your new cookbook Lisa! Email me and I will get your cookbook sent out to you right away so you can start using it. And thanks again to Snubbr for sponsoring this giveaway.

Chocolate Crumb Topped Cupcakes

Photo: Picky Palate

I'm a sucker for desserts with crumb topping. Yum...I love crumb cake! Picky Palate has taken a typical dessert (crumb cake) and added a little twist to give us -- Chocolate Crumb Topped Cupcakes!

Instead of the usual yellow cake, these cupcakes are made with chocolate cake. And the crumb topping is Beth's Strabucks Coffee Cake. I think I can deal with no frosting on this cupcake if it has some delicious coffee cake crumbles on top.

You can find the recipe, along with step-by-step instructions on Picky Palate's website.

Bakerella Book Coming Soon!

We all love Bakerella! And who wouldn't?...she's the one that started the whole cake pop craze!

Cake Pops by Bakerella will be available online starting in September and in stores in October. This 160-page book has more than 40 cake pop projects with step-by-step photos showing how to make basic cake pops and how to dip them. Hallelujah! I love making cake pops, but I'm not so good at dipping them. I must have this book!


Don't miss your chance to win a cookbook from snubbr's website. Enter the giveaway here!

Photo: Amazon

Krochet Kids

A few weeks ago my husband I attended a fundraising event for Krochet Kids. You would think that the cupcakes they served to us would be the most exciting part of the night to me, but actually learning about their organization was.

Krochet Kids is a non-profit organization that employs women in Uganda to crochet hats (beanies). I like them because not only do they teach these women how to crochet, they also teach them other useful skills that they can use after they leave Krochet Kids. Essentially, they give these women jobs and empowerment instead of giving them the items they need for survival. I really like the idea of giving people tools instead of the product. Krochet Kids is a great humanitarian organization that I would recommend to support to everybody.

If you'd like to learn more about them, you can check out their website. Or if you're interested in purchasing a hat, check out their store.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a free baking cookbook of your choice from snubbr!

Sweet Surprise From Sweet Husband

My husband recently started a new job in Torrance. His commute just happens to take him past Sweet & Saucy Shop in Long Beach, so a few weeks ago I emailed him the address and casually mentioned that if he ever wanted to make me super happy he should stop by.

Well, last Friday he wanted to make me super happy, so when I arrived home from work there were a couple of treats sitting on the counter. I literally jumped for joy!

I reviewed Sweet & Saucy Shop last year and fell in love with everything they make! And let me tell you, everything is still amazing!!

Nutella Cupcake

Red Velvet Cake Lollipop

Candy Bar Mini Cupcake

Sweey & Saucy Shop
6400 Stearns Street
Long Beach, CA 90815
M-F 11a-7p, S 11a-5p

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a free baking cookbook.

Giveaway: Baking Cookbook

The nice people at Snubbr have offered to sponsor a giveaway for my readers! Yeah! Want to know what you can win? A cookbook of your choice!

What do you have to do? It's easy. Just check out the list of Snubbr's recommended baking cookbooks (www.snubbr.com/guides/what-are-the-best-baking-cookbooks.php). Leave a comment on this post with the title of the cookbook you'd like to win (any cookbook listed on their website less than $30). Don't forget to tell me why you want this particular cookbook. The winner will be chosen randomly after one week. See, it's that simple!

Here are my picks from Snubbr's recommended list:

Gluten-Free Baking Classics

My best friend is semi-allergic to gluten, but she loves sweets as much as I do. This cookbook would be perfect for making her happy!

The Cake Mix Doctor

Everyone uses a cake box mix sometime in their life to make desserts. Your cake doesn't have to be boring because of it. This cookbook would be great for making a delicious cake taste like it was made from scratch (even though it wasn't...shhhh.)

Hello, Cupcake!

One of my favorite cookbooks out there! If you want to create some amazing (and I mean AMAZING) cupcakes, you must check out this cookbook. You won't believe that some of these designs are cupcakes!


Just a few rules:
1. Giveaway opens Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 6:00am PST and closes Sunday, June 6, 2010 at 11:59pm PST.
2. Giveaway open to US residents only.
3. One entry per person, except
4. One extra entry given for tweeting about giveaway.