Halloween Cupcake Eaters

Check out the some of the people in my office eating the Halloween cupcakes:

Halloween Cupcake Eaters!

Week 27: Halloween Cupcakes!

These cupcakes are from Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn. They are called Jelly Doughnut Cupcakes. I was looking for something that would look like blood to stuff in them, so I used strawberry jelly.

For the frosting, I used Martha Stewart's "Vanilla Buttercream." It tastes sooooo good!

I had the most fun yesterday going to Wegman's in Fairfax, Va., where I found all kinds of candies to decorate with...But, back to the cupcakes again. The thing that took the longest was actually putting the first layer (foundation) of frosting before you get started with the decorating! I made 36 cupcakes and this part took me about a 15 minutes. I started with the photos in Martha Stewart's Kid's magazine and then spun off that. Then I decorated about 24 of the cupcakes, each in a different way...they became like little cupcake people (I know...they're a wierd bunch!)...but it was really fun.

You can see more photos of my Halloween cupcakes at flickr.

Download recipe Here (PDF)

Killer Cupcakes Make Comeback

Here's a newspaper article about "cupcakeries" or "cupcake boutiques ....includes some cute ideas for Halloween cupcakes and recipes, too!

So, did you watch Sugar Rush last night? What did you think?

Oh Boy! Cake Love Man's New Show "Sugar Rush" Begins Tonight!

Warren Brown visits sweet shops nationwide at 9:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on the Food Network. The show is called Sugar Rush. Here's the description of tonight's show!



"Join host Warren Brown, owner of the bakery Cake Love in Washington DC, when he meets award-winning pastry chefs to discover the tips and tricks behind incredible desserts. As a lawyer turned baker, Warren is truly passionate about finding handcrafted sweets with fabulous ingredients. From designer cookies to decadent truffles, four -foot tall cakes to flaming tableside treats, Sugar Rush showcases the most sinful, the most artistic, and the most theatrical desserts on the planet, complete with tips and recipes from Warren himself."--The Food Network

Donna Hay Magazine Responds--Cupcake Liners

Early in October Niki suggested that I write to Donna Hay Magazine about the cute cupcake liners (see photo)...Lucy (Market Editor and Stylist for Donna Hay Magazine wrote back tonight! Here's what she said:

"The paper cases you are asking about are imported from France, I think they say something in French!?!
They also have a waxy finish which helps them keep there shape.
A fan of yours Niki was correct, they were originally purchased from Supply and Demand, but they no longer stock them...
You could try an Australian Company called Essential Ingredient. They have a website www.theessentialingredient.com.au , though it's not very detailed. You could contact them.
You could also try www.bakerysugarcraft.com.au.
I tried googling some other patisserie suppliers, but wasn't able to find that many.
Let me know if you need any more assistance... or even if you find them... we'd love to use them again.
Keep up the baking!"

Anthropogie Cupcake Ornaments!

I was at Anthropologie at Tysons Corners (VA) this past weekend and I had just made the comment to someone that I hoped I could find some cupcake ornaments for Christmas. I turned around and there they were...I bought this one!




Here a two from their website...little knitted ornaments...Very cute! Also, I don't know Surcie (except thru blogging), but I just found out that she was at the Anthropologie store in Tysons this weekend and saw the ornaments, too!

Week 26: Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Fudge Frosting...Half Way There

It's Week 26...only 26 more weeks to go. It's hard to believe these weeks have gone by so quickly! I don't believe it myself...I find myself already thinking about what I'm going to do when the 52 weeks are up...cookies?? pizza?? I have no idea....This cupcake is your basic vanilla version. And the frosting is from Sara Neumeier's cupcakes YEAR ROUND...it's called Chocolate Fudge Frosting and is very fudgy...mmmmmm

I went to Michaels and bought some fondant for the circles on top and the numbers. Buying it was a lot faster than making it like I did that one time. Here are some of the cupcakes I've made during the 26 weeks: it all started with the coconut cupcake, afterthat, espresso cupcakes, Oh Baby! Cupcakes, Lemon Butter Muffins with Lemon Glaze, Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes, The Best Birthday Cupcake, Chocolate Marshmellow with Chocolate Drizzle, Chocolate Marshmellow Cupcake, Lemonade Stand Cupcake, The Snowball Cupcake...Whew...and that's only 11 of them!


I think I have been waiting to get thru this weekend just to get over the hump of 6 months...now I can really concentrate on Halloween! Here's a hint of what my cupcakes are going to be about next week...this is the front of the spider/lady....

This is the back of the spider/lady....i can't wait!

Week 25: fruity, nutty harvest cupcakes

All of a sudden fall has arrived in Washington, D.C....a little cold and windy, too. The temperature started to drop yesterday afternoon, on the way back from a wedding in Baltimore. That's when I remembered this really cool recipe in Elinor Klivan's cupcakes! book. It is a cupcake that evokes fall feeling all by itself...the colors, the aroma, the beauty of it!

Oh, something really funny happened about that wedding. I was going with a collegue of mine, Margaret, who like me is on the creative side and both of us are a bit mindless about details like directions...and could not find our invitations with the directions and other important info. Oh well. I remembered three things about the location: it was in Baltimore, at a castle, and it was on Falls Road. I googled it and found the directions, so we were golden! It said it was about 50 miles from my house. We left home at 9:30 a.m. for an 11:00 a.m. wedding. We actually got to the castle at 10:45..plenty of time to spare. We walked up and a few people were there. We went inside and signed the guest book and while Margaret was in the bathroom someone handed me a little bottle of bubbles and a program. I was looking around for someone I knew and glanced down at the program.

Uh Oh...it read Amelilia Brittany Libernini...Yikes...it should have been Melissa Sweeney (our colleague)...OMG! We were at the wrong castle! Forcing a calmness I didn't have, I casually went outside and called a couple of people also supposed to be at the wedding, but got no answer. Finally, I tried my boss. She answered right away and all I said was "we're lost!" I just couldn't admit that we had gone to the wrong castle....Well, we arrived 1/2 hour late, but luckily, the wedding was late, too. Here's what happened. It turns out that there are TWO castles on Falls Road in Baltimore...only a couple of miles apart (who would have known?)! One is called Cloisters Castle and the other is called Maryvale Castle. WE WERE WEDDING CRASHERS...this became the biggest laugh at the wedding...but it did lead to a very nice cupcake recipe, in the end!

Download the recipe: Week 25: Harvest Cupcakes PDF

Featured on Inside My Yahoo!

On Thursday 52 Cupcakes was chosen on my.yahoo.com as the featured RSS content feed for Yahoo’s incredible newsfeed aggregator. I couldn't figure out where all the traffic was coming from for a while. It was amazing. Over 10,000 hits in 24 hours! WOW!

Week 24: Vanilla Cupcakes with Vermont Maple Frosting

We had a great time in Burlington, VT, even tho it rained pretty much all the time...we went to the Lake Champlain Chocolate place near Stowe that is hooked up to the Cabot Cheese store...do I have to say it out loud that this trip was all about food? Sunday night we went to the New England Culinary Institute (everone there calls it neci) restaurant, NECI Commons, for dinner. It was pretty good and very reasonable...(although it did lead to nightmares for one of our group (but I can't go into here)...hmmmm. The next morning (fully recovered from the night before), we ate breakfast at this cute place (highly recommended) called Penny Cluse Cafe which is named after a dog...which is okay with me, I love dogs.

This is a photo of the only cupcakes I could find in Burlington...and these actually turned out to be mini-cheesecakes...They are from the City Market Coop (yup...another food place...sigh) . It was a cool place and I bought some stuff for my cupcakes there, including, genuine Pure Vermont Maple Syrup, genuine Pure Vermont Maple Candy, homemade looking chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. I don't think cupcakes have discovered Burlington, VT yet...

And so, to my cupcakes. When I got home, I took Layla to a dog training lesson with our trainer, Rachel Jones, who owns K-9 Divine. She's so cool! When I got back home again, I conjured up some basic vanilla cupcakes so that I would have time to dedicate myself to the maple frosting I decided to make: Julie Hasson's 125 Best Cupcake Recipes Maple Buttercream Frosting. [Did you know that Julie Hasson commented on this site last week?] I did embellish it with my addition of genuine Vermont Maple Syrup and then I crushed up all of my genuine Vermont Maple Candy and threw that in, too. It was great, it left tiny chips of Maple candy in the frosting. Afterward, I decorated some of the cupcakes with the chocolate and white chocolate chips.

Comment from one taster: It tastes like I'm eating pancakes with maple syrup...yummm! Recipe later today.

Headin' to Vermont!

[Note to Turner Krew and that other special cupcake group in Main Admin: No cupcakes Monday...they will appear Tuesday morning]

I 'm going to Vermont for three days starting tomorrow. So, just to to get into the feeling for the trip, I went to google and typed in Vermont cupcakes and this photo came up. They look pretty good, don't you think? Now I feel a little bit better about not being able to bake cupcakes on Sunday......

I do plan to look for cupcakes along with admiring the foliage (what is foliage, anyway?) in Vermont. I even found this cool flash "Vermont foliage" map thinggie. I'm going to Burlington, actually. My niece goes to the University of Vermont.

This does mean, however, that I won't get to make my Week 24 cupcakes until Monday evening. hmmmm, cupcakes...vermont...cupcakes....vermont...definitely a hard choice to miss that Sunday baking spree...but I don't think I can work it out at the local Holiday Inn! I'd have to bring my cupcake baking junk with me on flyI...and my mixer, apron, and, don't forget the spatula.

I guess will just have to eat...I mean, conduct some cupcake taste tests while I'm there! I'll let you know how it goes....

Week 23: Wellesley Fudge Cupcakes with Fudge Frosting

In 1898, two Wellesley graduates spotted an intriguing recipe for chocolate fudge cake in a Boston newspaper. Supposedly, they used Baker's baking chocolate for its unique richness. Apparently, Baker's had already been making fine chocolate for 135 years. The graduates made the cake for the Wellesley Tea Room. And this simple, incredibly fudgy cake has been famous ever since. The cupcakes, an offshoot of the famous cake, really do taste like fudge! I made them a bit smaller because I knew they would be very rich...which they are...so while this recipe is for a dozen, you actually can get 15 of them. They were easy to make and so was the frosting. The recipe is from Linda West Eckhardt's Cakes From Scratch in Half the Time.

The fun part was the "little people" decorating. I saw this idea on a french web site that is actually about artistic photography. It's called "minimiam." The site is all flash and very cool. I wanted to try this so I went to the local hobby store and started looking around for some "little people." I found the HO sized peeps and brought them home and the fun began!

However, the little people were very hard to photograph!

Download recipe: PDF