Vinylmation Mystery Bakery Featuring Cupcakes

Are you a Vinylmation fan? I guess I'm a little behind because I'm new to the craze.

At Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World there is a whole store devoted to Vinylmation and other edgier Disney items called D-Street. I pretty much fell in love with all of the Star Wars shirts there.

Anyways, I spotted this line of Vinylmation called Mystery Bakery. There are 18 collectible figures, each hidden by a cupcake frosting top. Each figurine is $12.95 each and are designed by Ron Cohee.

Disney Cupcake Ornament

I recently spent a few days at Walt Disney World in Florida and I found sprinklings of cupcakes EVERYWHERE!

I found this Mickey-themed cupcake ornament at Disney's Day of Christmas at Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World.. Did you know there was a Christmas store open all year round there? I didn't, but it gave me the perfect excuse to start my Christmas shopping.

More Disney cupcake fun coming up this week!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cupcakes from Your Cup of Cake

Photo

It's the most wonderful time of the year!....pumpkin time! I love trying all different kinds of pumpkin recipes. This week's find is Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cupcakes from Your Cup of Cake. These pumpkin cupcakes are topped with a cinnamon sugar cream cheese frosting. And the good news is these pumpkin cupcakes are made with a yellow or spice cake mix. Yay! The cupcakes are then dipped in butter before the frosting is added on top. Delicious! This one is definitely going to happen at my house.

Sprinkles Ships Cookie Dough and Ice Cream

Did you know Sprinkles ships ice cream and cookie dough? I didn't!

Photo

Yes, this is yummy news! So now I can bake my own Sprinkles brand cookies at home as well as eat the raw cookie dough? Oh wait...you're not supposed to do that?! Come on, I would never do that. Each container will make 6 cookies and costs $12. 

Ice cream is also available by the pint at $10/pint. 21 flavors are available for purchase. Can someone please ship me some Red Velvet ice cream for my birthday?! It' actually today! You can order HERE.

Review: Cupcakes Actually

It's taken me a while to write this review because it kinda got lost in the shuffle of my marathon, work, Halloween, and birthdays. This is my first review of a cupcake shop in Virginia. Yes, you read that right...Virginia.

In September I was in Virginia for a quick two-day business trip. It was my first time there and I had little free time. But somehow I managed to find the time to squeeze a 20 mile training run in. I was in the midst of marathon training and it gave me a chance to see the scenery.

I finished the run and I was famished. I searched around and found a burger place called Burgerfi. I'm pretty sure it was the best burger joint I've ever eaten at. Then again, I had just ran 20 miles and I'm pretty sure almost anything would have been delicious to me.

Anyways, after dinner I noticed a cupcake shop in the same parking lot. What luck! Cupcakes Actually looked like the perfect way to end a delicious meal.

Even after a full meal of burger, fries, and Cherry Coke, I still had room for more. What did I try? Pumpkin, Key Lime, Flourless Chocolate, Vanilla, and Salted Caramel.

Pumpkin: the cream cheese frosting was light, but still had a good flavor. I wish the frosting could have been stronger.

Key Lime: whipped lime frosting on lime cake. I'm not a big whipped frosting fan, but the flavors were pretty good.

Flourless Chocolate: the chocolate was so intense! The cake was like a brownie. I liked the vanilla buttercream frosting, which lessened the intensity of all of the chocolate.

Vanilla: such a boring cupcake. It was like eating nothing.

Salted Caramel: here's the winner! Caramel cake filled with salted caramel, topped with salted caramel buttercream and dipped in ganahce. Also topped with salty pretzels. I LOVED this combo of flavors! My favorite part was the salted caramel filling. 

Cupcakes Actually

1607 Village Market Blvd., Suite 108

Leesburg, VA 20175

Twitter: @cupcakesnobs

Facebook: Cupcakes Actually 

Sprinkles to Sell First Toy

Photo

Sprinkles Cupcakes is expanding their line to include...toys?!

Yes, Sprinkles' first toy will be offered this holiday season for $15. It will be available for sale at Sprinkles store and through their website.

I would have loved something like this as a little girl. What do you think, good idea or not?

November Specials from SusieCakes Bakery

I follow lots of bakeries on Instagram (@elisewallace). Which is a bad thing most of the time because it makes me want cupcakes, cookies, and cakes all the time!

Last week SusieCakes posted their November specials on Instagram and they sound delicious! I absolutely love their pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I've never tried their pumpkin cheesecake or pumpkin bread pudding, but I can only imagine they are divine too.

What is your favorite item from SusieCakes? I love anything that has frosting on it and their chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

Surprise Sweets from my Sweetie

Last week my husband came home with two purple boxes. Was it our anniversary, my birthday, Valentine's Day? Nope, he just wanted to say "I Love You." Ahhh....what a sweeite!

So what was in the boxes? Macarons from Bottega Louie. I knew they had to be awesome because my husband liked them (he's a tough critic when it comes to macarons).

He hand-picked the flavors for me: Vanilla, Lemon, Chocolate Orange, Strawberry, Raspberry, Salted Caramel, and Grand Cru. We both agreed that the Salted Caramel was the best...absolutely delicious!

These macarons had just the right amount of crunch, no chewiness in sight. The flavors were scrumptious. The strawberry even had pieces of candied strawberry in it. High quality comes with a high price tag, right? These macarons cost $2.50 each. Ouch! That's almost as much as a cupcake, yet these delicacies were gone in two bites. Well worth it though.

Bottega Louie

700 S. Grand Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90017

What to do with Leftover Halloween Candy?

Photo

Halloween is over and if your house is like mine, there is still plenty of Halloween candy to make me sick for the rest of the year. So what to do with it?

Me and My Pink Mixer came up with an idea for "getting rid" of your Skittles. These Skittles Cupcakes are filled with Skittles and have crushed Skittles in the frosting. Genius!

As for the rest of your Halloween candy, I think I saw a recipe for a 7-layer chocolate candy dip....

Cactus Cupcakes from Alanna Jones-Mann

Photo

I absolutely adore these cactus cupcakes from Alanna Jones-Mann. I've seen plenty of flower cupcakes before, but never cacti. She gives a tutorial on how to make the cupcake base, ribbed cacti cupcakes, leafy plant cupcakes, and succulents. These would be such a great idea for a housewarming gift.