Smiley happy cupcakes!

How cute are these frocks by London fashion company Criminal Damage? It comes in black and white (for some reason the white is cheaper at Play.com) and both feature the adorable cupcake print (see close up above!)

As well as cute cupcake dresses, Criminal Damage do some rather fab hoodies and tops so go check them out ...now!

Slow food Market - where the fruit was tastier than the cupcakes!!

Last weekend we visited the Slow Food Market at the South Bank for a little dinner date. After nearly breaking my tooth on a hog roast bone (sob!), I cheered myself up with a FANTASTIC Venezuelan Hot Chocolate Shot from the ever fabulous Choc Star - I also got THE best brownie I've ever tasted, again from Choc Star, no photo as the "full" Manny who didn't want any stuffed it all in his hamster cheeks before I barely got a bite!! It was utterly tasty and chocolatey, the bit I had melted in my mouth, which was good as my tooth hurt! Seriously - track down Choc Star and buy one!

We also bought a couple of cupcakes to have - one each from the Cupcake Boutique and from Franklins. I liked the sound of the Cupcake Boutique cakes and they looked nice, however I'm sorry to say they didn't taste quite right and the topping on mine just tasted wrong and I couldn't eat it. The base was really dry and tasteless as well and even chocoholic Manny wasn't impressed with either. It takes a lot for me to leave a cupcake but I just couldn't eat it! The fresh fruit on top was yummy though. Franklins cakes were like good old homemade cakes - nothing that exciting but yummy enough!

Apart from the FAB goodies from Choc Star, the highlights of the night were, Sam Smiths Cherry beer from Utobeer/Beer2Love's stall, the fab freebie apple we got given from the apple stall. I can't remember their name but they have a stall at Borough, which was really juicy and sweet (I'm going to Borough to buy a big bag this weekend) and finally meeting Petra from Chocstar who was really lovely...oh yeah and obviously a date with Manny is always a highlight :)

Pumpkin-tastic cupcake finds

To Halloween - one of my favourite times of the year. Firstly its my wedding anniversary and secondly I love all the spooky stuff that appears in stores around Halloween! Although we're nowhere near as obsessed with it as they are in the US (I MUST go there one year for Halloween!) or even Berlin, where they had some fab stuff in the stores when we visited!

Anyways whilst doing my monthly browse of Williams-Sonoma, following a conversation on the phone with Dennis, my Sarah Palin loving friend, today, I spotted these fab Halloween cupcake items! I want!!!

I really love the pumpkin moulds, how cute and the Sprinkles Pumpkin Cupcake mix sounds yummy! I really must make my Sprinkles mixes that Dennis bought me soon - maybe this weekend?

I wish we had Williams-Sonoma here - I CANNOT wait to go to NY!!!!

The ultimate guide to Red Velvet cupcakes

Good grief...Abby Denson of The City Sweet Tooth blog has been a busy bee! Her fantastic guide to the best red velvet cupcakes in NY appears in the L Magazine and is intended to be a "field guide and checklist to assist NYC's cupcake fiends on their quest for red velvety goodness"

Seriously, I think I heart Abby a little right now - not only has she provided me with a fab checklist but also even MORE cupcake places to add to my tour of NY!

Autumnal cupcakes

Something about Autumn turns my mind to food, but then again most things tend to make me think about food! I love this time of year though - time for soups and lots of squash/pumpkins!

How cute are these gorgeous pumpkin cupcakes, cute and seasonal - what more can you ask for! A taste perhaps...??!

A new cupcake discovery in South London

wuhu - a new place to buy cupcakes and about 30mins walk from my house (the long way round, up lots and lots of steep hills to work up an appetite!)- Sarah's Cupcakes in Brockley. I shall be heading up that way asap to try some of these from Dandelion Blue deli.

Btw I found Sarah's Cupcakes via a recent article in the Telegraph about cakes.

L'Shanah Tovah cupcakes

Time to reach out to your friends and family to say L' Shanah Tovah with our spirited Rosh Hashanah gift box. Wish them a happy, prosperous and sweet year ahead with our scrumptious honey, vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, freshly baked every morning.

Available from Lola's Kitchen.

I like the sound of honey cupcakes - very interesting! According to Wikipedia it is traditional to eat honey for Rosh Hashanah

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Titfer or cupcake cute?

Hmmm I do like this lovely hat (titfer = tit for tat = rhyming slang for hat) but I'm really not sure if (a) it'd suit me and (b) I'd ever go anywhere to wear it!

Cute as a cupcake though :)

Birdie says...

Found while searching for cupcake goodies this afternoon - Gisele Jaquenod's blog and this utterly cute birdie says cupcake goodies!

How adorable!!!

Living the cupcake dream!

Todd and Marsha Rowe run the Cupcake Truck. It is like an ice cream truck, except they sell cup cakes.

They wake up at 3:30 a.m. every morning to start baking, make icing and get on the road to deliver cupcakes to hungry clientele.

Marsha Rowe has always loved baking but a having a shop wasn't feasible, so she and her husband found a way around that. "The money's just too much, so we became creative and decided to see if we could do something mobile," Todd said.

In August, they started parking it in a prime spot in New Haven, where carts are a popular place for people to get meals and snacks. They set up the cart near the Yale campus. In addition to baking, they blog about where they will be, what's on the menu and how things are going.

The Cupcake Truck takes credit cards and they're going solar soon.

These people are truly living the dream - I'd love to do this -anyone wanna buy me a van??? And be my driver!

You can watch a video about the cupcake truck here.

Desert Wars in Ann Arbour

The Cupcake Station opened last Friday and gave away 500 free cupcakes!

"People like the individuality of a cupcake," said co-owner Kerry Johnson. "They get their own choice of what they want for dessert that day. And it's the perfect size - it's not too much."

The Cupcake Station will sell up to 25 different kinds of cupcakes, including Michigan bumpy cake, red velvet and Snickers - a caramel-filled chocolate cupcake topped with butter cream frosting, peanuts, more caramel and dipped in dark chocolate.

Their cupcakes are making me HUNGRY and I'm too hungover to go out and get a cupcake! I love the look of the Michigan bumpy cake, the snickers, the vanilla filled and oh I just want them all!!!!! And Ann Arbours just too damn far :( I love their idea of build your own cupcake with up to 4 toppings and you can choose a filling too!!!! Their frosting choices, including Oreo butter cream are making my mouth water!

In case you're wondering why I get excited about a cupcake place so far away its because my lovely chum Dennis lives there and I'm forever bombarding him with cupcake news, and he brings me lovely things like Sprinkles baking sets :)

Holy moly, more NY cupcakes!

I keep finding more - I have a feeling we're not going to be able to try all the cupcakes I've found in NY.

Number 21 on our cupcake tour of NY is Tribeca Treats, which has some rather yummy looking cupcakes! The fact that they have four normal flavours then between 2-4 specials scares me as if I go there I'm bound to want to try them all, especially if they have the fluffer nutter and s'mores flavours! I know Manny wont be able to resist their chocolate cakes! Even the above pic will make him drool ;)

I am never going to be thin with all this temptation!!!!

Showing Shana some love

I really DO love Shana Logic! They have the cutest items in the world including this rather yummy cupcake love necklace! They have an array of other cupcake items including the lovely track jacket which I already own (its GORGE!!!)

And although it's not cupcake I couldn't resist posting a pic of the adorable little blue penguin! As they say on the site...Eeeek - so cute!!!

Breaking the law, breaking the law!

Oh dear oh dear found on today's round up of cupcake news on Google.

Two Louisiana high school girls are fighting their expulsion and criminal charges after officials discovered laxative-laced cupcakes left in the teachers' lounge.

Jeannie Nguyen, 17, of Kenner, and Kamrin Kennedy, 17, of Marrero, were expelled from Patrick F. Taylor Science and Technology Academy after their principal, Kristi Phillippi, found 22 cupcakes made with the over-the-counter laxative MiraLAX, The Times-Picayune reported.

Authorities said that Nguyen and Kennedy made the cupcakes as a senior prank, but other students warned a teacher to avoid the treats, the New Orleans paper said.

The girls admitted adding the laxative to a cupcake mix and icing, according to a police report. They were booked on charges of mingling harmful substances, which carries a two-year prison sentence and $1,000 fine as punishment, and were suspended for the rest of the school year, The Times-Picayune said.

It's a punishment that parents are calling too tough.

"We're not justifying what these kids did," Kamrin's mother, Marietta Kennedy, told the paper. "But the thing is, we just think the punishment doesn't fit the crime."

We've hit the big 20!!

I'm currently busy planning my cupcake tour of NY for March and we have now hit 20 cupcake places to be visited in 8 days. The 20th cupcake store to add to the list is How Sweet it Is, and its about 10mins from where we're staying! wuhu! (so far we have about 4 cupcakeries within a 10minute radius..HEAVEN!)

I've been doing some googling (a girl has to do her research!!) and I like the sound of their spicy Mexican chocolate cupcakes...yummy! These sheep cupcakes look FAB!

Thanks to Pam S for the pic of the bakery - it looks cute as a cupcake :)

Dennis hearts Sarah

My chum in Ann Arbour hearts Sarah Palin, even though she wants to "cure" him with her "pray away the gay" campaign!

So just for him a fab Sarah Cupcake from the girls at Haphazard Gourmet!

Some dates for your diary

Three cupcake dates for your diary!

October 18 - National chocolate cupcake day

November 10 - National vanilla cupcake day

December 15 - National cupcake day

The devil eats cupcakes

Slightly more grown up than Pinkilicous, is Devilish by Maureen Johnson about a cupcake munching demon intent on gaining the schools of high school girls in exchange for popularity and good hair!

The only thing that makes St Teresa's Preparatory School for Girls bearable for Jane is her best friend Ally. But when Ally changes into a whole different person literally overnight the fall of their senior year, Jane's suddenly alone - and very confused. Turns out, Ally has sold her soul in exchange for popularity - to a devil masquerading as a sophomore at St Teresa's! Now it's up to Jane to put it all on the line to save her friend from this ponytail-wearing, cupcake nibbling demon...without losing her own soul in the process.

I bought this a few weeks ago after being recommended it by Amazon, and while its obviously meant for teens it was quite an enjoyable read!

The girl who ate too many cupcakes

Not me! Although maybe I should read this as a cautionary tale before I end up with Pinkititis!!!!

Pinkalicious eats so many pink cupcakes that she wakes up the next morning with pink skin and hair. The color just won't wash off, and the doctor diagnoses her with Pinkititis and tells her to eat green food to get better. Still, when her parents aren't looking, she sneaks just one more treat–and turns red. Startled, she starts to choke down her veggies and finally returns to normal. When everything seems okay, Daddy asks what happened to the other cupcakes, and Pinkalicious's little brother bounds into the room with one in hand, happily showing off his new pink skin.

Madras curry cupcakes??

So I wrote about More cupcakes opening in Chicago a few posts ago and today I found a review of their cakes...

We were smitten with a BLT cupcake, whose Ranch dressing frosting was dusted with a slice of Heirloom tomato and microgreens. The Madras Curry cupcake was a delicious experience, with its goat cheese frosting and blackberry topping.

If you want to read more click here.

Can I just say I LOVE curry and as you know I heart cupcakes but I just cannot imagine them going together!

Thanks to Gapers Block for the pic

Is that a cupcake or meringue?

No you're right, it's a cupcake!*

Not from this weekend, honest, a couple of yummy meringue cupcakes from the ever great Hummingbird.

Ever since I noticed that Thursday is meringue cupcake day I've been meaning to pop along, and about 2/3 weeks ago I had a day off so I popped over to grab a couple - as you can see I couldn't resist another 2 - a red velvet for me (my FAVE!) and a chocolate for Manny (his FAVE!).

The meringue cupcake was lovely - I really loved the sticky topping. Not sure if I'd forgo frosting for it every time but it made a lovely change and was really tasty - I managed to get a bit glob of it on my nose when I ate it which is always the sign of a good cupcake!

*By the way my title of this post comes from one of my favourite jokes from Billy Connolly, which you'll perhaps only get it you're from Scotland - "is that a doughnut or meringue, no you're right its a doughnut"....hehe

Its the final cupcake!

of the cupcake weekend!

Desperate for a wee on Portobello Road and spotting a Coffee Republic I decided upon a fiendish excuse to use their loo...buying a Lipstick Jungle cupcake, which I mentioned wanting to try earlier this week.

They do a chocolate and a vanilla, and although the manager tried to persuade me to take two I stuck with one, the vanilla. It comes complete with little red lip sprinkles, although they seem to have been a bit miserly with them as mine had very few. So the taste....well, it was like a rubbish mass produced cupcake I'm afraid. The base tasted like a very cheap cake, it felt kind of sticky and not right the frosting wasn't really frosting, it was very sweet and not at all light - instead it was heavy and artificial tasting, definately not good vanilla frosting!

While its nice that coffee shops are trying to introduce cupcakes to the UK market this isn't really going to persuade people to eat cupcakes I don't think - if you want a high street cupcake go to Eat!!

That's it - I'm FULL of cupcakes and am now planning a sugar free few weeks! Well a couple anyways - Manny's promised to take me to Bake-A-Boo in a couple of weeks so until then...

The cupcake snuffling weekend continued

So today we ate the Hummingbird Cupcakes and oh my they were yummy!!!

Manny had a nutella and a red velvet (bottom pic) and I had a red velvet and a carrot (2nd pic). I think their red velvet is one of my favourite ever cupcakes and their carrot wouldn't be far behind! It was really nice, with a little bit of a kick to the batter - it had a ginger/cinnamon hint and was really soft and scrumptious!

Manny's nutella was really nice and from the Mmmmm Mmmmm MMMMM sounds coming from him while he snuffled it I think he enjoyed it LOTS!

I am so indecisive I can never say which is my favourite cupcake place but Hummingbird would deffo be in top three!! Luckily I don't live closer or I'd be even fatter!!!

The perfect marriage proposal?

Seriously could anyone say no to this magnificent proposal?

From the superb Cupcake in Berlin (which I visited last October and MUST write up and post some pics soon!)

The tale of the Cookie Girl and a courgette!

First visit on our mini-cupcake tour of the Notting Hill area was the Cookie Girl's stall in Portobello Rd market! Manny had been keen to visit the Cookie Girl ever since seeing her website and was rather excited to finally go there today!

As usual the selection of cupcakes was FANTASTIC! We opted for 4 - vanilla, courgette (top pic) and Jack Daniels and coke and chocolate praline (second pic). Other flavours included beetroot, pina colada and some other fab ones I can't remember! I opted for the courgette due to the fab green frosting! Manny also had a chocolate and orange brownie - no pics as he snuffled it as soon as he got it - he said it was magnificent!

We had the cupcakes when we got home with a nice cuppa tea and my favourite was definitely the courgette - the base was really really nice and the frosting was absolutely gorgeous - I could have eaten it by the cup. Who'd have thought something like a courgette could make one of the best cupcakes I've ever had! Manny's Jack Daniels and coke one was really nice as well - the frosting was very dense and chocolaty! Manny declared these his favourite cupcakes ever!

I do kinda regret not having the beetroot one now - I wasn't sure how they'd taste, but after the courgette one I'm thinking the beetroot one would've been yummy too!

Am looking forward to the Cookie Girl's cookbook coming out -it'll be a fave on my shelf for sure!

As you can see Angel enjoyed a bit of the vanilla frosting as well - her nickname is pudding due to her tendency to run over to me and look at me imploringly if ever I have anything pudding-like! Today she got a bit of frosting and she's my best friend :)

EAT cupcakes - a cupcake weekend

Manny took me up to Ladbrooke Grove/Notting Hill for a bit of a cupcake day out (and a sneaky visit to the Notting Hill Record and Tape Exchange for him!) as I'd not had a cupcake for over 2 weeks!!!

We visited the Cookie Girl's stall and also popped into Hummingbird Bakery, will post about those later (we've not eaten them all the Hummingbird ones are packed away for tomorrow!), but when we wanted a coffee we popped into Eat and I couldn't resist one of their new range of cupcakes. I've had a vanilla one before which was really nice and this time plumped for something different, a coffee and walnut - I'm not usually a fan of coffee items but this looked really nice and it was absolutely lovely! The base was really soft and tasty and the frosting was very nice, with a hint of cinnamon! Definitely the best "chain" cupcake I've ever had.

They have a whole range of new cupcakes; including Sicilian, Belgian Chocolate and a rather scrumptious sounding Victoria sponge cupcake which I MUST check out!

The second pic is of the chocolate muffin Manny had in Eat - he insisted I take a pic of it and mention it was one of the best muffins he'd had - full of chocolate!! I had a bite and it was rather yummy!

More rather odd cupcakes!

What is this messing about with cupcakes in aid of??

Figs and blue cheese? Peanut butter frosting with bacon? They're just not making my mouth water like a good old vanilla cupcake!

Well you can get such delights from Chaos Theory cupcakes (brought to you by Bleeding Heart bakery) and More Cupcakes

Michelle Garcia, co-owner of Bleeding Heart Bakery, also co-opened Chaos Theory Cakes, where you can order a cupcake like the Oaxacan, a dark chocolate infused with cayenne and black pepper, along with cinnamon, and topped with a bitter chocolate ganache dusted again with a bit of cayenne. While a glass of milk might seem quaint here, it's a necessity. It cools off some of the heat.

This is the only way Garcia, who's been offering her savory version of the treats since October at Bleeding Heart, would offer cupcakes and a wonderfully over-the-top line at Chaos Theory Cakes, 2961 N. Lincoln Avenue.

"I hate cupcakes," says the always-hip Garcia. They were just a little too cutesy for her. But she also knows that as a businesswoman there are laws of supply and demand. So while she's offering vanilla, chocolate and red velvet varieties, she also has a spinach cake with a purple-onion frosting and sauteed apple on top.

I'm afraid I have to say give me "cutesy" any day!! While the spicy cupcakes sound interesting I don't think I'll be giving up my cutesy pink sprinkled cupcakes for spinach anytime soon.

Read the full article here