Happy Halloween!

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Mini Chocolate Chip Maple Pancake Cupcakes from Two Peas & Their Pod

I love mini cupcakes. They are the perfect size to not make me feel too guilty for eating a few. Two Peas & Their Pod recently posted a recipe for Mini Chocolate Chip Maple Pancake cupcakes inspired by a cupcake from Baked by Melissa in NYC. I can see why she wanted to recreate this recipe, as it was one of my favorite cupcakes from Baked by Melissa too! (Check out my review here.) You can find more photos and the recipe here. Enjoy!

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Last weekend I baked up a different recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod's website. These Pumpkin Gingersnap cookies were delicious, especially when saturated in milk. You can find the recipe for these cookies here.

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Welcome new bakery

The Orange Circle by my house has sprung a lot of new life over the past couple of years. With the additions of Bruxie Gourmet Waffle Sandwiches, The Perfect Circle Cupcakery, and soon Wahoo's Fish Tacos, I don't have to go far for great food. My husband spotted this sign in front of Watson's Soda Fountain and Drug Store the other day. Might be hard to compete with The Perfect Circle and Blue Frog Bakery, but I always welcome a new bakery to the area. Must check it out soon.

Angel Food Cupcakes from Cupcake Project

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Don't these cupcakes look so light and delicious?! Cupcake Project posted these Angel Food Cupcakes, complete with angel wing cookies. You can find the recipe and decorating instructions here.

Halloween Cupcakes 2011

Halloween is just around the corner! I knew time would fly when the holidays got here. Today marks 6 weeks that I have left until my bundle of joy arrives. I can't believe I'm coming down the home stretch.

Halloween is one of the best times of year to be creative in your cupcake decorating. I've come across lots of great Halloween cupcake ideas. Enjoy these ones from this year, as well as the cupcakes I've found in previous years.

Photo: Love From the Oven

Photo: Taste and Tell

Photo: The Cooking Photographer

Photo: Cookies and Cups

Photo: Kirbie Cravings

Halloween Cupcakes 2008

More Halloween Cupcakes 2008

Halloween Cupcakes 2009

More Halloween Cupcakes 2009

Halloween Cupcakes 2010

Everything Fall Cupcake from Cupcake Project

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If you're like me, then you love this time of year because of flavors. My favorite autumn foods include pumpkin and apples. Cupcake Project is brilliant and has combined all of my favorite flavors into one super cupcake: The Everything Fall Cupcake. This cupcake has pumpkin, apple, maple, spiced rum, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cranberry. All of our fall flavors in one cupcake! And that isn't even the best part: this cupcake has a cupcake inside!

Drool over the description, then make it yourself. The recipe can be found here.

Pumpkin, spiced rum, and maple cupcakes topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and dried cranberries - with brown sugar frosting-topped apple cobbler cupcakes baked inside.

I just wish the weather would cool down so I would feel like baking. It was really 105 degrees last week. Fall....where are you?

Spaghetti Cupcake at Disney's Hollywood Studios

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Don't be deceived, this isn't what it seems. It's not the savory spaghetti cupcake that it looks like. On Top of Spaghetti is available from the kid's menu at Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano at Disney's Hollywood Studio. This chocolate cupcake is topped with yellow-tinted vanilla buttercream that's piped to create the spaghetti look. The chocolate cake meatball rolled in chocolate sprinkles is drizzled with strawberry "red sauce" and dusted with white chocolate shavings. Nine dozen are sold every day.

Blog Sugar Treats

I recently attended my first blogger conference. I have to admit that I was lured in by the name: Blog Sugar. Although I did learn a lot that night, the highlight was the desserts. Even after stuffing myself full, I still wanted more. What else would you expect from a pregnant woman?

The desserts pictured here were provided by Modern Foodie. The pink frosted sugar cookies in my swag bag were made by Baby Boy Bakery.

Can't remember the last time I had a Shirley Temple. Wish I drank them more often.

Halloween Treats from Love from the Oven

Halloween is such a fun holiday to make treats for! Love from the Oven has some great ideas. I especially love these Halloween Push Pop Peeps.

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Chocolate Covered Oreo Pops

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Halloween Cupcake Cake Pops

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The Cupcake Classic Virtual Race

Cupcakes and running. I'm in. Oh wait....let's hear the details first.

Running blogger Run with Jess is hosting a virtual race to raise money for DetermiNation - American Cancer Society. The Cupcake Classic Virtual Race will take place the week of October 17-23 and participants will be running 3.7 miles (in honor of Jess' 37th birthday). After you run, you submit your race time and photos for a chance to win prizes! You can get all the info here on Run with Jess' website.

SusieCakes October Specials

I love fall because it's the start of holiday baking! SusieCakes is offering some delicious treats during the month of October.

Pumpkin Maple Cupcakes
Apple Crumble Pie
Caramel Apple Cake
Frosted Sugar Cookies (Candy Corn, Ghosts, Spider Webs, Pumpkins)
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Rice Crispy Treats
Praline Sweet Pie
Pumpkin Pie

SusieCakes also has a few other announcements. First, they now offer online ordering for store pick-up or local delivery.

Second, you can send free cupcakes to four friends by becoming a Facebook fan. I'm never used the OnMe program before, but it's telling me that each of my four friends can bring in the coupon to redeem for 3 free cupcakes. Pretty awesome!

Last, SusieCakes is offering fall baking classes at each of their six locations. Learn pie baking basics for $75.

Review: Merely Sweets

I've been waiting for Merely Sweets to open for several months. I announced in March that they would be opening within 60 days. Even though it took longer than expected, Merely Sweets was worth the wait.

Merely Sweets is located on Birch Street in Downtown Brea. North Orange County was in desperate need of a cupcake shop and I think this is a great location for one. The store was very clean. There were two display cases that greeted me as I entered the shop. The first one contained beautiful cakes, pastries, and tarts. The second case had the goodies I was there for: cupcakes!

Next to the cupcakes was a display of French macarons. I loved how pretty they looked with the rainbow of colors.

Toward the back of the shop was a wall display of decorated cakes. Another wall had this painted art.

I gathered my treats and headed home to try them out. I seriously couldn't wait!

First was the cupcakes. I had six cupcakes to choose from at the time I visited the shop. I chose three: Nutella, Peanut Butter Chocolate, and Red Velvet (of course).

The Nutella cupcake was a vanilla cupcake with Nutella frosting. The cake was moist and the frosting had a good consistency that wasn't too thick. The flavor wasn't too exciting though. Maybe it would be better as a chocolate cupcake?

The Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcake was a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting. The frosting was my favorite part because it was smooth, but not too heavy or overwhelming, as some peanut butter frostings can be. The chocolate cake had decent moistness.

Last, but not least was my favorite cupcake of the three: Red Velvet. I always get a red velvet cupcake when I visit a new shop because it's the standard that I go by. This red velvet had dark red velvet cake (which means it's real) and a tangy cream cheese frosting. The frosting wasn't too light or whipped, it was more silky. The cake was also moist. This was a great red velvet.

Although I'm partial to cupcakes, I'm a lover of all sweets. I couldn't resist getting this Lemon Meringue Tart. The tart crust was baked perfectly. It wasn't too hard, but also not too soft or crumbly that it fell apart. The meringue was well done. I would have thought I was eating a lemon meringue pie. The best part though was the lemon. I only wish that there had been more lemon in the tart. I would definitely order this again!

French Macarons are bite-size treats that are beginning to show up more frequently in pastry shops. I had to get one of each color to make sure that all of them tasted good. That's my excuse anyway. I bought these on a Friday night and my first thoughts of them were that the centers were gummy and chewy. I have very little eating experience with macarons, but they just didn't wow me. The next day I nibbled on them again and thought they tasted better. How could that be? Sunday night I finished them off and thought they were fantastic! Maybe my pallet prefers them to be a little crunchier. They certainly weren't crunchy at the end, but there weren't as gummy as the first day I tried them. I loved them! Maybe it is me that is the weird one. My favorite flavors were the dark chocolate, salted caramel, and vanilla bean. I'm really looking forward to eating them again!

I love cake shops that have more than just cake. Merely Sweets delivers on providing delicious cupcakes, as well as other desserts. Their shop is clean and set-up well. Since they're located in a popular downtown area, they are open late (yeah!). The selection of cupcakes was a bit small (only 6 flavors), but there they have rotating flavors so you'll find something different each time. The packaging was well done, as my cupcakes didn't tip over while I transported them home. The appearance of the cupcakes and other desserts was professional. The cake on the cupcakes was moist. The frostings on the cupcakes were well-made and not overly sweet. The taste and consistency of the cupcakes and other desserts were delicious and make me want to come back for more. The prices were competitive and not unreasonable.

I would recommend Merely Sweets as a great shop to go to for cupcakes and other desserts.

Merely Sweets

260 W. Birch St., Brea, CA 92821

714-529-9909

Facebook: Merely Sweets

Twitter: @merelysweets

Website: www.merelysweets.com (currently under construction)

This Prego Can Still Run

About a month ago I enlisted your advice to help me decide what to wear at the Disneyland Half-Marathon. This 28-week-along prego Minnie Mouse ran the full 13.1 miles and did it will a smile on my face. It wasn't easy and I was certainly slow, but I had a blast! If you're ever considering signing up for a running race, I definitely suggest a Run Disney race.

And yes I did indulge in a cupcake after the race. Luckily I live close to The Perfect Circle because my feet did not want me doing anything else for the rest of the day.

P.S. The Orange County Register wrote a little story about my race. Check it out here.