Cupcakes and coffee

go together like vanilla and frosting...isn't this cute! From girlzlyfe.com

Do blondes have more fun...?

Or are brunettes sweeter? You decide with these ultra cute cupcake tshirts from Girlzlyfe.com (there's more to come from them in a moment!)

Panda nom noms cupcake

Two of my favourite things in the world...pandas and (of course) cupcakes, united together in the art of squishyfox via Etsy. 

Cute overload!

Image courtesy of squishyfox.

Vegan cupcakes take over Hove

I never thought I'd say this but after reading about Heather Mills' new vegan restaurant VBites in the Guardian I simply MUST visit ...

There will be a wave-shaped bar, and a sushi-type mini conveyor belt which will spin vegan cupcakes around during the day and vegan tapas at night

yummy! cupcakes on a conveyor belt...how fab and much tastier than raw fish!

Thanks to VBites for the pic of their yummy looking cupcakes. 

The worlds largest cupcake

One foot tall, two feet wide, taking fifteen hours of cooking, seventy pounds of cake batter, sixty pounds of icing and fifteen pounds of fudge filling - amounting to  130, 000 calories - gives you the worlds largest cupcake as verified by the Guinness Book of World Records in the Minneapolis Mall of America at the weekend.

The cake was made by cakes.com and you can see a video of it on You Tube.

Cakes.com gave away 4,000 free cupcakes for the event, and arranged for the world record-breaking cupcake to be sent to a local pig farm where the residents are used to disposing of edible garbage!

I have a feeling by the worlds largest cupcake they mean one solid cupcake that was baked as a whole item, rather than the larger big cupcakes which are formed of many cakes (like the one in Covent Garden last week, and this whopper from Merengue Bakers (above) which costs $400 and feeds 210 people..wow!)

Cupcake cuteness

Need somewhere to store your jewels and trinkets? Then look no further than the cupcake trinket boxes and stand which you can buy here. There are 5 little cupcakes on the stand to keep your goodies in.

Good enough to eat

I spotted these in the Femail section of the Daily Mail today and thought I'd share the cupcake cuteness - click the pic to see them in their full glory! I think the cakes are from Primrose, or maybe Lola's but there's no credit so can't be sure! 

Crowds witness the giant cupcake of Covent Garden

So today was the day the GIANT cupcake finally arrived in London's Covent Garden. I got there about 30mins before the official cutting ceremony and it was already sat there under a canopy with a crowd of rather excited people round it. I popped to get some shopping and when I got back the crowd had grown...people were wandering through the market asking others "have you seen a giant cupcake?" so it wasn't a surprise that so many were excited about it. I got a place to see the cutting ceremony and was happy to see I recognised the person cutting the cake - the girl from Crumbs and Doilies - who later said she read my blog..hello!!

There was a lot of photographers so it was sometimes difficult to get pics as one of them stood on a table taking constant pics - I know its exciting but the cake wasn't going anywhere - once you've got a good pic of it, its time to get off the table and let others take a pic!

The queue for cake was immense, and the heat was getting worse - also I'd seen the slices they were cutting (ie take a tiny slice and then cut it in half, and maybe again!) so decided queuing for an hour for a bit wasn't how I planned to spend my afternoon off and went to Crumbs and Doilies instead! From what Londonist have said I didn't miss much - it must've been warm as it'd been out in the scorching sun for quite some time! And my crumbs and doilies cupcakes were fab as usual! 

I do hope the guy next to me who arrived with a giant spoon in anticipation got his bit of cake!

Iron Cupcake London

I recently discovered the Iron Cupcake London website and I think I may take part in next month's cupcake challenge as it's to make a cupcake of one of my favourite things...dessert! Dessert and cupcakes...double yum!

ICL Challenge III: Dessert

Think of your favourite dessert and turn it into a cupcake. Make one batch (i.e. 12) of cupcakes interpreting the theme of “dessert” in any way you wish…

On the night everyone will have a say in declaring the winner, who walks away with the ICL Winner’s rosette plus a cupcake themed goody bag (presented in the much-coveted ICL bag!).

Event details:

Monday 3 August 2009

6.00pm – 8.30pm

Barrowboy & Banker pub, 6-8 Borough High Street, SE1 9QQ

Entry fee: £5 – even if you don’t wish to enter the competition why not come along to taste the cupcakes? (Entry fee includes tea or coffee)

Please email me or leave a comment on my Caked Crusader blog, to let me know if you plan to enter or just come along to eat. Everyone welcome - particularly hungry people!

You can check out previous winners on the Iron Cupcake website.  I've already decided what to bake - I'm going to practice next week and decide whether to take part -plan to definitely pop along to the pub to test the entries even if I decide not to bake this time! Fingers crossed my ideas work out! Think I might be able to drag Manny along to this also as he loves this pub...they have ale and pie (and now cupcakes!) ...all of his favourite things!

Thanks to the Caked Crusader for the use of her Iron Cupcake logo!

Jelly Pong Pong cupcake cuteness

From Jelly Pong Pong -aren't these cupcake bath fizzers ultra cute? If you're in Covent Garden early on Saturday you so get them as part of JPP's birthday celebrations in a gift bag for a tenner with over £40 worth of other stuff...bargain! I'm in Germany this weekend or I'd be there for sure to pick up a gift bag. Think I'll have to pop along and get some of these kumquat and pomegranate fizzers asap though.

Pop these scrumptious fairy cakes into your bath & watch as they explode into a ball of effervescent fizz & froth, softening the water & coating your skin in moisturizing palm oil. The cake base actively sizzles away, releasing invigorating skin conditioners & scents, while crushing the meringue top creates a light bath froth.
Comes in a pair.

The added palm oil acts as a mild skin conditioner, softening skin while you bathe

Are you a cupcake queen?

Then you can wear this rather yummy colour 'cupcake queen' by Ciate on your nails :) 

Cute cupcake bag

I can't remember if I got round to blogging this when I originally saw it so am blogging it now its in ASOS's sale. And a bargain at £8!

Cupcake porn

or a couple of cupcake cookbooks to look out for...and perhaps drool over :) 

First up is The Primrose Bakery Cupcake Book which is due out later this year (mid-September) - you can email them for further details here. Primrose make some of my favourite cakes so I'm v.excited about this and the cover looks gorge!

Secondly is Xanthe Milton's aka The Cookie Girl's book -Eat Me!: The Stupendous, Self-raising World of Cupcakes and Bakes According to  Cooke Girl. If the book lives up to the title it should be a good one and worth the wait as its not due out till March 2010! Lets hope Xanthe's courgette cupcake and her Jack Daniel's and Coke recipes are in there! 

Vanilla cupcake candles

I treated myself to some lovely yankee vanilla cupcake tealights on Thursday- you can buy them online, however they were a couple of pounds cheaper in Clintons. I really want the huge jar one but £17 for a candle...I'd never burn it at that cost! 

GIANT cupcake update

From viewlondon.co.uk

Where Can I Find It?
Although the giant cupcake at Covent Garden won’t be hard to spot, you’ll need to know exactly where to go to enjoy its sugary sweetness. It will be located on the eastern side of the Piazza in the heart of Covent Garden during the Real Food Market, so is the ideal stop-off for a slice of cake whilst checking out the other wares of the market. 

Get In Quick
The giant cupcake at Covent Garden is sure to be hugely popular – after all, who can resist free cake? Make sure you get there early. It starts at 1pm and will run until hungry market goers munch their way through the entire cake. That could take an hour, it could take three. Who knows how hungry people will be?

The giant cupcake at Covent Garden will be available from 1pm on Thursday 16th July 2009. Slices of the cake are free on a first come, first served basis.

I will be aiming to get there before 1pm hopefully will be able to get a good spot to get some pics! I'm SO excited about this

Cupcake decorating classes @ The Make Lounge

...or the night I realised I'm not particularly good at piping and that even if I was it's not really for me!

I was very excited about my cupcake decorating class at the Make Lounge on Tuesday however I left a little disappointed. Not because of the class which was good but because I realised that I don't particularly like buttercream (I prefer good old American butter and sugar frosting) and that I'm not really one that fru fru's my cupcakes with fancy decorations - I like sprinkles and lots of glitter :) 

There were about 10/12 of us in the class. First we learned how to spread buttercream with a pallete knife onto our ready prepared cupcakes - so far, so easy. Then came the more difficult tasks - firstly rolling our own piping bag for icing -this took me a few tries (all the while thinking "why would I do this you can buy them ready done from Lakeland"), but that's not a good attitude as I was here to learn, so I persevered and finally got it - my very own made piping bag! Then we were given lots of royal icing and some great food colour paste (v.good - someone unfortunately left a toothpic covered in the blue paste in the clean toothpick cup so I got covered in it - went home with blue hands and it took a lot of scrubbing to get it off!) and mixed up some colours for our piping. We then practiced on some greaseproof paper with stencils and I was quite proud of my butterfly as it was my first attempt at one! Then came the difficult bit - piping on the cake, freehand! The teacher, Michelle of Lavender Bakery, said a good way is to etch the outline onto the cake using a toothpick which maybe I should've tried as I was pants...it was my first time so I didn't feel too bad, until I looked around and it seemed most of the others were pro's with a piping bag - I did wonder (a bit meanly perhaps) why some people had come on the course when they all seemed to be fab at it already. I was a bit despondent when I left as mine didn't look as professional as a lot of those who were in the class but I cheered up when Manny was so excited to see them and so very proud of me (last time I used a piping bag I covered myself in the contents of it and this time I was completely buttercream free!). Looking at them now,they're not the prettiest but this really was my first proper go at icing so I'm actually quite proud of them. If you look closely you can see the glitter in the pics. Sorry the pictures aren't that great - my camera got all sticky from my blue hands! 

I do recommend taking the class however if you're a complete beginner like me perhaps having a little practice with a piping bag first is to be recommended! I shall be sticking with my cupcakes covered in lashings of frosting and plenty of sprinkles/glitter! I also realised that all my favourite cupcake places (Hummingbird, Outsider Tart, Buttercup, Crumbs and Doilies etc) stick to this style of cupcake - what's good enough for them is good enough for me!

Oh and "hello" to the girl who said she read about the classes on my blog if she's reading - I'm really sorry I've forgotten your name (I'm hopeless with names -sorry) - your cakes were absolutely gorgeous btw!

Not the prettiest cupcakes

but the couple Manny allowed me to try tasted FAB! I love coconut so just had to give the pineapple and coconut cupcakes in my Hummingbird cookbook a try! The cakes were really moist - the pineapple chunks in them made them nice and sweet (Manny also felt it contributed to his five a day...hmm not sure!) and the coconut frosting was yummy. I deviated slightly from the recipe and put some vanilla in the frosting as I tried it with just the coconut milk and it was a little bland - some yummy Nielson-Massey vanilla upped the yum factor though :)

I think they'd have looked better if I'd not used the giant cases from Waitrose - think I'll stick to the slightly smaller ones. Also next time I'd get some of the food colouring that turns your frosting white - I meant to buy it from Jane Asher but just didn't get a chance to pop there. 

Oranges and Lemons...

say the cupcakes of St Clement's. This months Crumbs and Doilies flavour is St Clement's:

made with real organic unwaxed oranges and lemons feature an orange sponge topped with zesty orange and lemon buttercream. Light, zingy and perfect for summer. 

We popped along to the Covent Garden Food Market last Thursday for lunch and picked up a couple and they were absolutely gorgeous (as usual with Crumbs and Doilies!). As you can see they got a bit squished on the way home but that didn't detract from the yummy taste - really soft sponge with a gorgeous zesty frosting - I agree, they're totally perfect for summer!! You can pick them up on Thursdays at Covent Garden Food Market or Saturdays at Partridges Food Market. 

Beware the cupcake of doom!

Rather a cute t-shirt from Genki Gear - available from Play and also from their official site. Comes in lilac and sky blue for girls and red and blue for boys!

Beware the evil buttercream filling!

Beware! GIANT cupcake in Covent Garden

My friend Kirsty just alerted me to this:

For those visiting on Thursday 16th July, Covent Garden's Real Food Market will see a massive cupcake arrive in its midst. Measuring 1.25m by 2m and designed by Culinary Olympic winner Michelle Wibowo, the giant cake is the worlds largest, feeding up to 2000 people. 

Our advice? Be prepared. Take a spoon, a doggy bag and an empty stomach!

All I can say is WUHU!!! Oh and I'm quite excited to see what Michelle creates - I've seen her cakes before on Market Kitchen and they're fab!

I'm SO excited - the biggest cupcake I've seen so far (and resisted) was from Angel Food Bakery...this is going to be FAB!

Thanks to Angel Food Bakery for the pic of their huge cupcake!

Celebrate the 4th of July

I shall be celebrating July 4th at the American Beer Fest at the White Horse a day early (so spending the 4th with a kool n soothe on my head, drinking diet coke feeling sorry for myself in other words) but you can celebrate with a red, white and blue cupcake from Lolas. If it wasn't so baking hot outside I'd go to Selfridges tomorrow to buy one as I have the day off, however the thought of Oxford Street when its 30+ degrees scares me! Too hot to travel for cupcakes..there's a first!