Super delicious birthday cookies

Over at The Awl a few weeks ago, Jolie Kerr told us how to make margarita cupcakes with tequila shooter toppers! Those are pictured below, and apparently, very popular. She writes:

The recipe for margarita cupcakes is built around a white cake mix with a whole bunch of add-ins. Normally I wouldn’t advocate for the use of boxed cake mixes because, really, how hard is it to mix together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt? That’s pretty much what a cake mix is, but also are you really going to trust that the fine folks at Betty Crocker aren’t cutting their cake mixes with laxatives and baby powder? Right, do it yourself, if only to ensure that your cake mix is as pure as possible and the DEA isn’t going to bang down your door to confiscate your Sachertorte.

For the sake of this recipe though, it’s fine to use a boxed mix and here’s why: This is not the simplest cake to make. It's not hard, it's just got a number of steps and also? We’re hardly talking about fine pastry here. We’re going to shoot tequila off the tops of these cupcakes, so I think we can all agree to relax our standards a bit.



And Village Voice food blog Fork in the Road lets us know about a New York margarita cupcake coming up from Robicelli's:

Robicelli's will be hawking its latest cocktail cupcake -- or caketail -- creations at Joe the Art of Coffee locations February 21 and 22 in honor of National Margarita Day.

Robicelli's Partida Margarita Cupcake is a lime cake infused with Partida Blanco tequila and lime butter cream, and garnished with candied lime zest and Maldon flake sea salt. The Angry Mango Cupcake is made with chili-spiked Partida Reposado tequila and topped with mango butter cream and a sweet-salty jalapeño slice.

See robicellis.com for more information and to keep up with their innovative new flavors.

I stopped by the Wall Street area Crumbs Bakeshop today, which was overrun by customers. They were out of red velvet and also most Valentine's Day cupcakes. I tried the top of an Almond Joy cupcake that was delicious but gave the rest to a friend.

But what really struck me was seeing the calorie count on their new blackbottom cheesecake brownie cupcake:





1,090 calories in one cupcake? WOW.

That's all I can see. Check out Crumbs.com to find a location near you.

Yes, it's a Valentine's Day onslaught...of hearts!


Almond cupcake with cherry jam center and chocolate buttercream by Sugar Daze Cupcakes of Paris (via Flickr).


And this chocolate cupcake from Sweet Vegan Dublin (via Flickr).

I stopped by Spot Dessert Bar in New York's East Village yesterday and got their special Valentine's Day raspberry cupcake, with two cute little heart cookies on top, and their vanilla lemon yuzu cupcake. Both were delicious, and I couldn't get enough of the yuzu lemon-filled cake, or the glitter on the raspberry one. They've got cupcakes packaged specially for Valentine's Day (see below) and a festive atmosphere and I have to say, it smelled divine in there - more buttery and cozy than I can ever remember. See more in this Flickr set. Spot is part of Seamless Web and Delivery.com, and can be reached via spotdessertbar.com or at 212-677-5670.

Kickass Cupcakes of Somerville, Massachusetts (via Facebook) is catering to the cynics of the world on Valentine's Day with these "I Hate You" and other Valentine's Day cupcakes...we'll obviously be bringing you lots more Valentine's Day cupcakes on this big cupcake-related holiday, but thought we'd share these too. Visit www.kickasscupcakes.com for more information.



And for the more traditional romantics, here are some of their Red Velvet, Champagne Bubbly Cupcakes and Chocolate Dipped Strawberries cupcakes:

This Valentine's Day chocoholic lover's cupcake is by Pleasantville, New York's Flour & Sun Bakery via Flickr - visit flourandsunbakery.com for daily flavors and custom ordering information.


chocoholic lovers cupcake: "Chocolate cake topped with chocolate buttercream, drizzled with chocolate ganache and topped with a brownie heart"

Bonus - more heart cupcakes!

Fresh off their win on Cupcake Wars on the Food Network, Old Towne Orange, California bakery The Perfect Circle Cupcakery is baking up some Valentine's Day cupcake flavors. Images via their Facebook page, where you can go to learn more about their holiday offerings, including red hot velvet. Click here to check out their other seasonal offerings, so you can be ready when they serve Caramel Bordeaux and Tiramisu cupcakes.





White chocolate raspberry cupcakes: "White cake with a fresh raspberry surprise inside and white chocolate frosting with fresh raspberries drizzled in white chocolate on top!"


Coconut bliss cupcakes


Buttercup cupcakes: "Decadent Peanut Butter cake studded with chocolate chips with rich Valrhona chocolate frosting and topped with a Peanut Butter Cup!"

The Perfect Circle Cupcakery
165 N. Glassell St.
Old Towne Orange, CA
714-997-CAKE
info at tpccupcakery.com

Always innovative Rutherford, New Jersey cupcake bakery Sweet Avenue Bake Shop is baking up one-day-only cupcake flavors of the world. See them all on their Facebook page and get details, hours and ordering information (they also do custom cupcakes, including photo cupcakes) at sweetavenuebakeshop.com.

This is today's special cupcake, for sale today only (all descriptions via Facebook):


Persian LOVE cake♥♥. Lemon and cardamom infused cake filled and topped with rosewater-saffron frosting and chopped pistachios.

And two previous cupcake flavors of the world:


inspired by Japan - MOCHI MOCHI!! Green tea cupcake topped & filled with sweet red bean frosting. Then it's topped with a mochi (sweet rice ball).


Bésame Mucho is a caramel dulce de leche cake, filled with caramel sauce, and topped with whipped cream frosting and a cinnamon sugar churro.

These cupcakes are by Sale, UK's Jellytots & Dollymixtures via their Flickr account. You can also find them on Facebook.


"A vanilla cupcake filled with a bavarian cream centre. Topped with a chocolate fudge frosting, a bavarian cream filled shoux pastry profiterole and dark chocolate drizzle."


blueberry waffle cupcake

And we couldn't forget Valentine's Day - here are the special cupcakes they're offering, including on spelling out "I Heart You:"




a closeup on this chocolate one! "a rich chocolate cake filled with delicious caramel. Topped with a chocolate fudge frosting, a single Rolo and chocolate curls!"

Jellytots & Dollymixtures
185 Cross Street
Sale, United Kingdom, M33 7JG
louise at jellytotsanddollymixtures.co.uk
Phone: 0161 637 2199

Last Thursday, we had a meetup at Everything Frosted in Chinatown (105 1/2 Mosco).  To celebrate Chinese (Lunar) New Year, there were special flavors including green tea, taro, black sesame and red bean. Chef/Owner John Wu studied under White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses. He was kind enough to save some cupcakes for us and take a picture with the group.



Everything Frosted doesn't have any seating but it is right across the street from Columbus Park in Chinatown, which is perfect for a spring day. Check out the Facebook Page for Everything Frosted.

I'm pretty sure the episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay I judged is airing tonight, so I hope you'll watch at 8:30 pm ET. Other air times, according to the Food Network site, are:


Feb 19, 2011

7:00 PM ET/PT

Feb 24, 2011

7:00 PM ET/PT

Official show description:

What happens when a 6 foot 5 inch guy decides to open up a bakery that makes the best cupcakes around? You get 'Big Man Bakes" of course! Cupcakes are the hottest food trend, but William "Chip" Brown was ahead of the curve when he opened "Big Man Bakes" now LA's biggest little bakery in town. What will happen when chef Bobby Flay brings his best mini's west to put them to the test against LA's sweetest tastemaker. It's a mini cupcake Tinseltown Throwdown!



And they have recipe links for you:

Mini Vanilla Bean Yellow Cupcakes with Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Rum Raisin Cupcakes with Rum Raisin Buttercream

I stayed in downtown Los Angeles last week and found a food court where I stumbled across lunch spot Lemonade. I was intrigued by their flavored lemonades and pleased to find they also sell cupcakes for $1 each. I tried each of their six flavors, and a honeydew lemonade, and was pleased with all of them! They were moist and good-sized and tasty; the frosting was rich but not too sweet and not heavy in my stomach. I especially liked the lemon curd. The mocha cupcake was good too, with a pretty strong flavor. Sorry the photos aren't better, I was in a bit of a hurry. They have multiple locations in Los Angeles (downtown, where I was, in a food court, as well as Beverly Boulevard, Venice, MOCA and USC).

I also liked seeing cupcakes at a non-bakery, amidst other types of food, and these would work very well as a post-lunch snack.




lemon curd cupcake is on top left






lemonade actually wound up going pretty well with cupcakes

Flavors:

I'm a little late in posting some of these, but wanted to share these cupcake designs from Chicago's Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique, via their Facebook page. They have special flavors each week, so follow them there or on Twitter or sign up for their newsletter for the latest updates at sugarblisscakes.com. I don't know for sure if the Chinese New Year ones are still available, but you can always call and ask (that goes for any bakery - why not?).






Chinese New Year cupcake: "Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting topped with gold sprinkles and a 'Congrats and Prosperity' logo."

These cupcakes are all from the Facebook page of Minnesota custom cupcake company Mon Petit Cupcake. Yes, expect to see lots of hearts in the days leading up to Valentine's Day! The pumpkin pie ones look adorable...and one of the great things, in my opinion, about custom cupcake companies is that if you see something you like, you can have them make it (or something like it) for you. They can be reached at monpetitcupcake at yahoo.com and their cupcakes can also be found at:

Bluff Country Co-op 121 W. 2nd St. in Winona, Minnesota and Good Food Store, 1001 6th St NW, in Rochester, Minnesota.


candy heart conversation cupcakes


Frozen River Film Festival cupcakes


pumpkin pie cupcakes


colorful flower cupcakes

This is like a mashup of today's Super Bowl teams, the Packers and the Steelers, plus Valentine's Day and gingerbread latte cupcakes for no other reason than I thought they looked gorgeous. And Samoa Girl Scout cookies because I know Girl Scout cookies are always a hit with our readers (as, I imagine Girl Scout cookies are all on their own, but combining them with cupcakes and...bingo!). Those, according to Man Bakes Cake on Facebook, will be back on the menu soon. All by custom cupcake company Man Bakes Cake via their Facebook page, where you can contact them for ordering information or email martinez_rudy at msn.com and tell him you heard about Man Bakes Cake from Cupcakes Take the Cake.




Super Bowl cupcakes


"'Gingerbread Latte' Cupcakes created for DINNERfix at CULTUREfix NYC. Gingerbread Cake topped with Coffee Buttercream, Cinnamon, Dulce de Leche and Mini Chocolate Chips."


Valentine's Day conversation heart cupcakes


Samoa Girl Scout cookie cupcakes - stay tuned to Man Bakes Cake on Facebook to find out when they'll be on the menu again!

One of the best things about being a cupcake blogger is that you start to notice that cupcakes are everywhere, not just at bakeries. They're at the movies and at theaters. One of the worst things is when you find out too late that you've missed a cupcake opportunity. I skipped the concession stand when I was at Berkeley Repertory Theater recently, and therefore apparently missed out on the cupcakes they sell. From their blog, in a post called "Confessions of a concessionaire: a delicious dilemma" by Kate Vangeloff, in which she opines on the cupcake options provided by local bakery Love at First Bite (which I have been to):

We received a new shipment of cupcakes in which there were two, yes, two cupcakes that would have fulfilled my own personal visual requirements to earn a “Cookies & Cream” flavor designation. This new development shocked me, as I was unable to identify the new cupcake as anything other than “Cookies & Cream: Version 2.0.” Being inquisitive by nature, I did some internet sleuthing, and I am proud to announce that I have solved this cupcake mystery.

On the left of exhibit A, you will find the true Cookies & Cream cupcake, notably marked by its rakish, Oreo-crescent chapeau. On the right, you will find what Love at First Bite calls their “Mud Pie” cupcake—a devil’s food chocolate cupcake topped with whipped mocha frosting and Oreo crumbs.

Here’s to knowledgeable cupcake consumption for all!


photo via Berkeley Rep blog

It was my first visit, and I loved the design of the theater (I was there to see The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, which I highly recommend), so I will definitely be back, with my first stop being the concession stand!

These cupcakes are all via Twitpic by Patty Cake Bakery in Columbus, Ohio, who also ships their cupcakes. And you can also find them on Facebook and @pattycakebakery on Twitter.


chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter mousse


gluten-free chocolate cupcakes with strawberry mousse topped with fresh strawberries


gluten-free green tea cupcake


these were from the holidays...peppermint cake with peppermint icing and all natural sprinkles


Mexican chocolate cupcakes, made today

And last but obviously not least, the cat in the mixer, which I just couldn't resist even though, technically, it has nothing to do with cupcakes:



Patty Cake Bakery
3009 N. High Street
Columbus OH, 43202
614-784-2253
info at pattycakeveganbakery.com