valentine's day Quick Recap: Cupcake Stop Meetup

valentine's day

Last Sunday, we had a meetup at Cupcake Stop's new location in Greenwich Village (70 Greenwich Ave). It was a nice group of attendees many of which had just joined our Meetup Group. We also met the owner Lev Ekster, his business partner Rich Kallman, and the Cupcake Stop's lead baker John.

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I personally loved the Almond Joy cupcake. The mound of coconut with a light airy cupcake was delicious. BTW, you can see Lev Evster and I speak January 25 at the Social Media Club of Long Island.

valentine's day The Beatles, Yellow Submarine, Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones cupcakes

These 60's rock cupcakes are by New York City custom company Man Bakes Cake, who made some beautiful and delicious cupcakes for our 6-year anniversary party (I know I owe you my recap of that). Check them out on Facebook, where you can contact them about orders, and the Man Bakes Cake blog, for more custom cupcake creations. They're coquito and red velvet cupcakes with spicy chocolate ganache and fondant.

valentine's day Cupcake resolutions and peppermint chocolate frosting at Butter Lane

I stopped by Butter Lane in the East Village (Manhattan) the other night. They were out of eggnog frosting, which I would've tried out of curiosity, but I bought a chocolate peppermint frosted chocolate cupcake (I was told to try it with chocolate) for $3 and was very happy. It wasn't quite as full-on peppermint as I might have liked (the frosting equivalent of, say, Starbucks' peppermint hot chocolate, which is very pepperminty), the peppermint seemed more concentrated in the crushed candy cane at the top, but it was very good, and also rich.

I couldn't finish it - that's actually a compliment! See butterlane.com and follow them @butterlane on Twitter for the latest news and info on their cupcake classes. I did appreciate their cupcake resolution sign. Still trying to work on my 2010 cupcake recap before I get to my 2011 cupcake resolutions!

valentine's day NYC Cupcake Crawl for charity hits Little Cupcake, BabyCakes NYC and Everything Frosted Sunday, December 19th

This is not our event, I found it online and wanted to pass on the details, especially since it's for a good cause, via Upcoming.

Cupcake Crawl
Sunday December 19, 2010 at 11:00am
Little Cupcake Bakeshop
30 Prince St.
New York, New York Get Directions

Join us for a Cupcake Crawl on Sunday December 19, to eat the best cupcakes on the Lower East Side, NoLita and Chinatown. Purchases are optional.

We’ll start with Little Cupcake, an experienced and new arrival from Bensonhurst Brooklyn. Then we’ll head to Sugar Sweet Sunshine, one of the highest rated according to Zagat. Next stop is Baby Cakes, a delicious gluten-free alternative. And lastly a new shop called Everything Frosted in Chinatown which received excellent press from the NY Times.

To help support the good work of the Food Bank For New York City, a non-profit helping to feed the hungry, we ask for a $5.00 donation per person. 100% of donations go to charity. Since December 2008 your donations have helped feed 67 New Yorkers for a month. We wish to thank all who generously donated. If you’d like to donate online, please go to Pay Pal at; http://www.paypal.com and send your contribution to; sales@walkingtoursmanhattan.com

Meet our tour guide with the red ball cap saying Walking Tours Manhattan on Sunday December 19, at 11:00am at Little Cupcake, 30 Prince St, corner of Mott Street.

Walking distance is 1 1/4 mile, tour lasts 1 ½ hours.

For additional New York walking tours please visit our website below:

http://www.walkingtoursmanhatan.com

Ticket Info: $5.00

valentine's day Gingerbread cookie coffee & cream cupcakes for our NYC party by Lux Sugar

Look what custom cupcake company Lux Sugar made for our 6th anniversary party at Brooklyn Winery in Brooklyn tonight! Join us, why don't you? Yum! Via Ow.ly. You can find out more about Lux Sugar on their website, see their photos on Flickr and follow them @LuxSugar on Twitter and on Facebook.

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And this Christmas tree green tea Lux Sugar cupcake isn't for our party, but I saw it on Ow.ly and liked it too!

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valentine's day Cupcake parties for our blogiversary tonight! See you in New York and Seattle!

As a sign that cupcakes and Cupcakes Take the Cake just keep getting bigger and better, tonight we are celebrating 6 years (!!) of cupcake blogging in New York and Seattle. We can't wait to party with you!

valentine's day

December 7, 7-9 pm
Brooklyn Winery
213 North 8th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211

$10 admission; RSVP here

Come celebrate six years of cupcake blogging with Cupcakes Take The Cake with a fun party at the new Brooklyn Winery in Williamsburg. Come party with founding editors Rachel Kramer Bussel and Nichelle Stephens as well as contributing editor Stacie Joy and columnist Melissa Zhang. There will be cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes! Plus there will be a raffle for cupcake-related goodies like cookbooks, cupcake ornaments, and much more. A portion of the proceeds will go to Cancer Care.

We'll be updating this invite with the cupcake sponsors and raffle prizes regularly.

Cupcake sponsors include Robicellis, Lux Sugar, Sugar Sweet Sunshine, Little Cupcake Bake Shop, Nibbles By Nora, CRUMBS, Magnolia Bakery, Tonnie's Minis and more.

Raffle sponsors include cupcake ornaments by Amy Miller Designs, and a cupcake book, 1000 Ideas for Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies and Cakes, Sweet Bling and more.

valentine's day

Cupcakes Take the Cake is turning 6 blog years old and what better way to celebrate then by throwing a party! Come out and enjoy great people, great food and of course great cupcakes! Door prizes and contests as well as live entertainment will be available at the party as well!

WHEN: Tuesday, December 7, 7-9:30pm

WHERE: Chopstix Piano Bar – 11 Roy Street, Seattle, WA 98109

Click here for map & directions

Thanks to Betsy Eves, blog intern at Cupcakes Take the Cake, and owner of JavaCupcake.com for hosting this event!

More special thanks go to Carrie Middlemiss of Bella Cupcake Couture for helping plan and organize the party as well as Jessie Oleson of CakeSpy for the artwork and Lisa Johnson of New York Cupcakes for providing the cupcakes!

Party Details!

In case you were wondering what’s included in your $20 ticket… here’s what you get!

- A buffet to include:

• Ground Beef and Pulled Pork Sliders with all the fixings


• Vegetarian Spring Rolls with chili dipping sauce


• Tomato and Basil Crostini with Olive Oil and Cracked Pepper



• Spinach and Artichoke Dip with pita wedges


• Assorted Cheese and Crackers


• Fresh Vegetables with dipping sauce


• Coffee, tea, soda and water are included in per person price


• All alcoholic beverages will be paid on individual cash bar basis

- Entertainment from two dueling piano players!! If you’ve never seen a piano show… you won’t want to miss out!! It’s so much fun!!!

- Cupcake Piping Contest – See who has the best piping & decorating skills in this piping contest! Winner gets a great prize!

- Tons and tons of door prizes! You’ll receive a raffle ticket at the door which will enter you into a drawing for dozens of fabulous cupcake prizes.

- Cupcakes, cupcake cookies and cake pops! There will so many cupcakes on hand as well as other cupcake goodies for you to enjoy… you’ll think you’re in CUPCAKE HEAVEN!!!

valentine's day New York City Inspired Cupcakes From Bath Baby Cupcakes

valentine's day

Is this not super sugar adorable? Hannah from Bath Baby Cupcakes in England made these.

valentine's day Cupcake tattoo done by artist on herself!

I was at a party the other night and met a tattoo artist, Jess Versus of Glamour Garage Salon and Tattoo Parlour in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. While I got my first tattoo this year (not a cupcake, alas), I don't tend to encounter too many people with cupcake tattoos, but at this party, I met her, and another woman she had inked with cupcakes and other desserts.

The best part about her tattoo is that she tattooed it on her ankle herself! Check it out:

valentine's day Cupcake review: Au Bon Pain French vanilla, double chocolate and red velvet cupcakes

Last week we told you about the new limited edition cupcakes for sale at the restaurant chain Au Bon Pain, and I can now report on how they taste! You can see more photos in my Flickr set.





I was impressed with all of these cupcakes because not only were they tender and moist, they tasted like what they were supposed to. I can't tell you how many times I've had "vanilla" or "chocolate" cupcakes where all the flavor was in the frosting. That's too much work for frosting. These cupcakes were all delicious and flavorful and very rich; I couldn't finish them, but they're great for sharing.

I think the chocolate would be my favorite of the three; it's rich and dense but not overly sweet, which is something that can easily turn me off from a cupcake. I like the presentation of the cupcakes, too, with chocolate shavings atop the chocolate and red velvet, and little white chocolate chips (I think that's what they are) on top of the French vanilla cupcakes.





I'm not sure how limited "limited time" means, but look for them at Au Bon Pain.




red velvet cupcakes, which have the most calories at 400 each (350 calories for double chocolate cupcake, 320 calories for French vanilla).

valentine's day Limited edition Pinkalicious cupcakes at Crumbs Bakeshop

Pinkalicious, the popular New York Times bestselling children's book (click here to read our interview with the autor and illustrator) and now theater character, has her own limited edition cupcake at Crumbs Bakeshop. I also got in trouble for the first time in years of taking photos at Crumbs - perhaps it's a new rule, or the Crumbs I went into was particularly persnickety, but whatever, I got these before I was told no more photos. And yes, in New York City, due to our labeling laws, you can find out exactly how many calories are in your cupcakes. See Crumbs.com for ordering and shipping details and store locations.




Apple Cobbler (as opposed to Apple Pie cupcakes, pictured below), is their flavor of the month


blackbottom cheesecake cupcakes


pumpkin cupcakes


chocolate pecan pie cupcakes


apple pie cupcakes

valentine's day Animal print wedding cupcakes, Nick Jr., chocolate espresso and more from Treat

All of these cupcakes are by NYC custom dessert company Treat, via their Flickr account, and they're also on Facebook and can be reached at treatnyc at hotmail.com (as always, if you found out about a bakery via Cupcakes Take the Cake, we'd love it if you'd let the bakery know).




beautiful animal print wedding favor cupcakes


Nick Jr. cupcakes


chocolate espresso with mocha latte buttercream & chocolate shavings


Canada cupcakes

valentine's day 5 frosting shots from Butter Lane: hazelnut chocolate, cranberry, blackberry, pumpkin and apple spice

I'd read that NYC's East Village cupcake bakery Butter Lane has new Thanksgiving frosting flavors and I wanted to check them out last night. I love their moist cakes, in vanilla, chocolate and banana, but at $3/cupcake, and after dinner, I was more in the mood just for the purity of the frosting. They do a great job with their frosting shots; they're $1/each and mine were very carefully prepared and packaged so as not to spill, plus they had garnishes on top.


5 frosting shots: Cranberry, Blackberry, Pumpkin Spice, Apple Spice, Hazelnut Chocolate (which is different from their other chocolate frostings)


hazelnut chocolate frosting shot closeup

Out of these, cranberry was far and away my favorite. It was a little tart but sweet as well, and refreshing. It very much tastes like cranberry, and the same for blackberry tasting like blackberry - if you like those fruits, check them out for sure. Pumpkin spice does have a bit of a kick, as does the apple spice, which was my least favorite of the five. The hazelnut chocolate was intense, in a good way, and the nut shavings added a little texture. They also have tiramisu frosting, but they told me that that wouldn't be so good as a standalone frosting shot because it works better on a cupcake so you get the full experience.

I think I've said this before, but unless you have an extremely high sugar tolerance, these are almost impossible to finish. I recommend bringing a friend or two; you really notice when eating frosting shots how rich frosting itself is, and how much the cupcake is actually the marriage of frosting and cake, and how each complements the other. What I like about Butter Lane is that because it's mix and match, you can ask them which cake would go best with which frosting, and they're happy to share their opinion.

They've also just launched a loyalty program using PlacePunch (more next week on other cupcake bakeries with loyalty programs). I'm not 100% sure how it works, but you can log in using Twitter, Facebook or Foursquare, and you get points for checking in, like this:





See more of my photos from last night in this Flickr set


sea salted chocolate frosting on vanilla cupcake

Visit them at Butterlane.com as well as Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook for the latest news. They offer cupcake classes twice a week.

valentine's day Make your own cupcake flavor, color and decorations at Baked by Melissa

New York's mini cupcake company Baked by Melissa (which also does nationwide shipping) has now introduced a very, very cool new aspect of their website and cupcake ordering process - you can customize your cupcake, picking your cake color (I liked purple so I named mine Pretty in Purple!), frosting flavor and color, topping and filling - some of those toppings are ones I've never seen at Baked by Melissa before. You can order your custom cupcake for orders of 300 cupcakes or more. Visit www.bakedbymelissa.com to make your own and add your cupcake creation to their gallery of over 500 submissions.

From the Baked by Melissa newsletter:

valentine's day We heart Bakerella and Cake Pops

I've had a tumultuous day, and will be posting more about our small but delightful meetup and Bakerella soon. My iPhone got stolen at Grand Central today - totally my fault for plugging it in a few tables away from where we were sitting and not watching it like a hawk; one minute it was there, the next minute someone had stolen it. It's an excuse to upgrade to a G4. But I want to post about Bakerella! She had by my estimation over 200 people at Williams-Sonoma for her Cake Pops signing.

I was running late so wasn't there at the start where she gave this very blog a shoutout and told me she was inspired to make the cupcake cake pops so that we'd post them. Well, we love Bakerella and are thrilled that her cake pops and cookbook have taken off in a huge way.



valentine's day
Williams-Sonoma sprayed chocolate-covered cake balls (golden cake and red velvet) with gold and silver. I ate a golden one, and it was delicious!

Make sure to visit Bakerella.com and Toronto residents are lucky because she just added another signing date!

TORONTO, ONTARIO
Saturday, December 4, 2010
12:00 p.m.
Williams-Sonoma
100 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON

I'll post more about the meetup later; if you're in NYC, join our meetup group and make sure you RSVP for our December 7th 6th anniversary blowout party (to RSVP for the Seattle Cupcakes Take the Cake 6th Anniversary party, organized by Betsy Eves of Java Cupcake and Cupcakes Take the Cake, visit cttcbirthdaybashwa.com).

valentine's day Peppermint frosting from New York's Kumquat Cupcakery is a winter winning flavor

I ordered some custom cupcakes from New York's mini cupcake company Kumquat Cupcakery from owner Keavy Landreth, who's now a friend and who shares my birthday. I've had plenty of her cupcakes before but I think her peppermint frosting stands out as my new, ultimate favorite, supplanting even her peanut butter frosting that I love. I've been describing it as "like the inside of a York peppermint patty," in that it has that cool burst of peppermint onto your tongue, and is the kind of frosting that even in mini cupcake form, you want to take small bites of to truly savor.




red velvet and peppermint cupcakes

I also had her make red velvet cupcakes with vanilla frosting, because I'm not a big cream cheese frosting lover. All were a hit!


peppermint frosting on vanilla and chocolate cake





Email orders at kumquatcupcakery.com to order, visit kumquatcupcakery.com for flavors and their blog for the latest. Ordering details:

Each dozen is $15.
The minimum for delivery is THREE (3) dozen cupcakes.
All Orders must be placed THREE (3) days prior to delivery.
Deliveries are being made up to 100th Street in Manhattan, Williamsburg, Green Point, Fort Green, Park Slope and Carol Gardens in Brooklyn.
There is an extra $5 charge for all deliveries under $100.
Due to the delicate nature of frosting, we do not ship cupcakes.
All orders are nonrefundable, unless we fail to deliver.