Shake yer Shamrocks

St Patrick's day is always a big event in parts of America. When we went to NY last year (a year ago today infact..sob) stores were full of everything to help you celebrate from tshirts and hair-dye to deely boppers. My grandfather is half Irish but I've never really seen a need to reclaim that part of me once a year, and have only once gone out for St Patrick's day with a friend from Dublin and that ended messily after a night of cheap Jamesons and Guinness!

However this year I'm planning to make some stout cupcakes to celebrate and was planning to use a Nigella recipe for Guinness cake, but with vanilla frosting as I'm not that keen on cream-cheese frosting. However after receiving this weeks Cakespy mailout that idea has changed. I will still be using the Nigella recipe for the base but will be topping them with baileys frosting after being inspired by this gorgeous cupcake from Trophy.

If you suspect that these cupcakes are comprised completely of awesome, you are right. The stout adds a wonderful density to the cake, leaning more toward chocolatey than toward a beer-y flavor; the Irish Cream in the buttercream gives it a little zing just enough so that you know it's there, but not so much that it drives you to distraction

It's just so pretty, and has left me feeling rather foolish for not thinking of making Baileys frosting as I love Baileys!

As usual Layer Cake Shop is full of fabulous decorating goodies for St Patrick's day, including green top hats and shamrock pics and some really evil, (while slightly camp) leprechaun's.

Thanks to Cakespy/Trophy for use of the pic of the cupcake and Layer Cake Shop for the topper pics

MyChelle's Baketique

It seems I've mentioned Cakespy lots recently but I can't help it - she just keeps tweeting fabulous news that I have to share.

Today I was sitting on the bus catching up on recent tweets when I spotted this:

in London, MyChelle's Baketique has a cupcake bar with frosting shots. Wonderful London!

Along with this message was a link to their website, so I just had to click and read more about it - alas the website is infact just a front page with some basic details about what they offer, all in all not very inspiring.

Then when I got to work I got my daily Daily Candy email and lo and behold it was about MyChelle's Baketique;

We’ve found a better way to rack up green credentials.

Energy-efficient MyChelle’s Baketique — the adorable cupcake shop inside new ecofriendly hotel...

uses farm-fresh ingredients and recyclable packaging. New Yorker Michelle Husserl bakes delicious cakes and cupcakes in gourmet flavours like margarita, lemon meringue, carrot, fig, and peanut butter and jelly with an oozing centre. A cupcake bar serves icing shots — perfect for a quick, intense sugar high.

Hmm sounds more and more interesting, so I checked out the Hotel Rafayel blog;

Founded by Michelle Husserl, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute, Mychelle’s Baketique offers a full range of pastries and sweets for any occasion. Located in the lobby of Hotel Rafayel, the Baketique will be an irresistible diversion for anyone who passes its appetising window display.

Imagine tables stacked high with beautifully designed cupcakes decorated in the brightest Bollywood colours. Then imagine a row of delicious ice cream cones....wait, that won’t work. They’d melt. But, no. These are no ordinary ice cream cones. These are Mychelle’s utterly divine ice cream cone cupcakes. They have to be seen (and tasted) to be believed

So - margarita cupcakes, ice cream cone cupcakes, frosting shots, cupcakes - I'm sold!! I must go there soon! I was thinking about dragging Manny there on Monday as we have the day off but it depends on how keen he is about going to Battersea - although there is a brewery there so he may be up for it! I also read in BMI Voyager magazine that the cupcake shots are only 90p! Bargain, for that price you can have a couple!

Thanks to Hotel Rafayel and MyChelle's Baketique for use of the pics.

If cupcakes were Scottish

They would most definitely be deep fried. These adorable deep fried bites of cupcake goodness were made by Jessie Oleson (Cakespy) and you can read how to make your own here and here.

Thanks to Jessie Oleson for use of her photographs and original art. Please check out Cakespy - its one of my favourite sites!

I heart Heinz Tomato Soup...

but I'm not sure about the idea of a tomato soup cupcake.

I first read about these on Cakespy's fabulous blog last week when they visited the Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co in Seattle, where the tomato soup cupcake is their signature cupcake.

Cakespy describe the tomato cupcake as a pleasant spice cake-y confection--if you didn't know it was made with tomato soup, you probably wouldn't know the source of its je ne sais quoi. The cake was pleasingly moist.

Then Cakespy published another article charting the history of the tomato cake and it turns out its been around for years, first mentioned in the press about 90 years ago, and was a favourite during the Great Depression. They also included a recipe for the tomato cakes, so if you fancy making them check out Cakespy and give it a go - let me know how they turn out! Think I'll stick to making some of Martha's from my blog earlier this week! This does however sound like something the Outsider Tart David's could make and make it taste great (of course!).

Thanks to Cakespy for the pic of the cupcake!

Cakespy take it to the sweet!

Cakespy decided to something cute (in their words "touchy feely") about the fact that sometimes life sucks..long commutes; waiting in line; dealing with rude people; being broke...I'd personally add having a cold that NEVER goes away (possibly due to long commutes and people with not enough manners to cover their hand when they cough/sneeze on me..hmmm), but all in all, I'm with Cakespy, sometimes life does suck.

So what to do? If you're me - eat a cupcake, if you're Cakespy, bake a load of cute plaster of paris cupcakes and leave them inspirational messages around the neighbourhood - how sweet! You can see more pics and read what happened here.

This reminds me of our good old UK version, The Great Cake Escape. I've still not managed to get to one of their events, or find a cupcake, but they're going to be at the Amersham Arms pub on the 7th Feb so I may try and get along then, although I aim to be in Richmond as its Outsider Tarts cupcake day and I'll miss March as I'll be in NY so am planning a pre-birthday treat from my fave cupcakers!

Thanks to Cakespy for the pics and the cuteness!

I spy cake!

The awesome Cakespy have published their Totally Sweet list - their 25 most delicious bakeries of 2008 and it includes a few bakeries I plan to visit in NY, including Make my Cake which Cakespy have made me definitely want to visit!

Owner JoAnn Baylor originally hails from Mississippi, and the cakes do seem to subscribe to the laws of Southern cookery--that is to say, don't skimp on butter or sugar; use fresh ingredients; and--very importantly--make 'em pretty. These are not necessarily subtle cakes--but they are good, with light (almost springy) cake which somehow still manages to be very rich, moist and buttery, and thick, dense, frosting with a touch of "bite" to the texture. And sweet. In fact, just as we remembered it, so sweet that it would be overkill to add sugar to your coffee. To some, this may sound like a bad thing. Fair enough, although we can't say we understand you.

You can read more about their visit here. Doesn't the shop look adorable!!!? I cannot wait to go there!! I'm sure Manny'll want to check if their gorgeous voluptuous baker lady logo is based on anyone working there ;)

Thanks to Cakespy for the picture of the cupcake - there are some pics of the store/interior on their Flickr.

And now for something completely different...

Sick of all these frosted Christmas cupcakes...how about some meat!

With its endless variety of pies, cakes, and tarts, the bakery is a wonderland of delicious possibility, undermined only by the fact that none of its goods are made of meat. Baking up some protein, The Meatloaf Bakery.

Loaf's a four-seat takeout nook serving a motley armada of gussied up meatloaves, showcased in a pastry case, and formed in the shape of cupcakes, tarts, cakes, bread loaves, bite-sized “loafies”, and pies that'd make mincemeat outta mincemeat.

They look great - not sure about the taste however!

Thanks to today's Cakespy email for the heads up on this, and also to Thrillist for the picture! Maybe I should ask my friend in Chicago to pop along and try one!

Valley of the Cupcakes

Based on my favourite book, from Etsy, (http://www.etsy.com/), is this fabulous print by seller Jessieoleson (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382) - there is lots of fabulous prints on there featuring cupcakes so go check them out :) I especially like the one of the cupcake v's the muffin - check out the evil looks..lol