M&S cupcake yummyness

A couple of items in store for Mother's Day including this gorgeous recipe journal (which I'm totally getting for myself) and these cute little cupcake magnets. I'm sure any mother would love to receive them.

Also in store this cute little t shirt - and for every shirt sold £1 goes to the Clic children s cancer charity - and any little girl would look adorable on it! If only they did it in adult sizes!

Some cupcake treats from M&S

A couple of new cupcake bits from Marks and Spencer for cupcake lovers - yet another set of oven gloves covered in cupcakes (I already own some ultra cute cupcake oven gloves thanks to Manny) and a cute little apron to match.

They are also doing some mini strawberry and chocolate cupcakes for Christmas, and fresh cream lemon ones as well, however after trying a couple of cakes from their cupcake range I shall be giving them a miss!

Percy Pigs

I love Percy Pigs, but I've not tried the Percy Pig cupcakes from M&S as they just look wrong and going on previous M&S cupcake experiences I won't like them. However this Percy Pig cupcake kit could be a cute little gift for a little girl to try and get them into baking - although you could be cheaper to buy the ingredients and do it yourself - it's £7.50 for a cupcake mix basically!

This is not just any cupcake...

This is a Marks and Spencer cupcake.

After months of publicising the fact that they're going to launch a cupcake range, M&S are finally launching them in store tomorrow.

There was an article in today's Metro today about them which featured a bit of background about the research the M&S cupcake guru, Matt McAuliffe, did to come up with their new range, including eating at 40 different NY bakeries in a week (if he'd gotten in touch I could've emailed him my extensive list of NY cupcake places, reaching about 47 at last count!)

Not sure I agree with his assumption that the UK isn't ready for full on New York style cupcakes...

The problem is there is a big difference in taste over the pond, he reckons. 'Brits have a sweet tooth but not as sickly as Americans. This large amount of icing was the biggest challenge when making our cakes. In the end, we decided to balance the sweetness in the buttercream with fruit.'

I think cupcakeries/bakeries such as Hummingbird, Buttercup and Primrose (to name just 3) are doing very well selling American style cupcakes and whenever people ask me where to get cupcakes they tend to ask for "American style". I will give these a try - I'm hoping to get my hands on some tomorrow on the way into work so expect an update soon!

The whole article can be viewed here, and includes recipes for Hummingbird Bakeries banana chocolate cupcakes (from their FAB book) and a M&S 'all natural' strawberry cupcake recipe, although I personally wouldn't make it as it has oil in (the article says that in NY rapeseed oil is often used instead of butter but I know this isn't the case in the better bakeries we visited so I'll just stick to baking buttercream cupcakes - oil cupcakes when I've had the misfortune to try them just seem oily to me and I just can't imagine myself pouring oil into a cake mix!)

Will report back on these asap!

Cute birthday card

My mums birthday is in March so I was chuffed to see this adorable card on one of my many trips to Marks and Spencer's. I'm sure she'll love it! I always want to send her a cupcake but they go off too quickly in the post as they're all buttercream and stuff so I usually send her some magic cakes from Konditor and Cook or yummy macaroons from Paul or Laduree which she loves!

The card can also be bought online.

Lets have a cupcake party!

This cute set from Marks and Spencer is perfect if your child wants to have some friends over for a bake party!

It includes:
Includes:
4 aprons
4 spatulas
Cup cake shaped timer
Recipe cards
Baking party invites
Cookie boxes
Cookie mix and chocolate chunks

If its in the January sales I may purchase it solely for the kitchen timer as its ultra cute and my one from Debenhams is beginning to die on me!

Cupcake Undies

From Marks and Spencer's Limited Collection and only available online are these lovely bikini briefs made from stretchy silk costing just £12. Aren't they cute!