Yum cinnabun

My last post from Asos for tonight - a couple more cupcake lip glosses, which I think are cuter than the ones in the last post. I like the sound of the cinnamon one..yum. Also comes in peanut butter flavour.

Cupcakes make you lick your lips

This lovely pack of 6 baking inspired lip balms is available from Asos now for £6 - perfect little stocking filler for your (cup) cake obsessed (or lip balm obsessed) friends/girlfriends/mothers :)

As well as vanilla cupcake, flavours include lemon meringue pie, blueberry muffin, strawberry shortcake, choc-chip cookie and glazed doughnut!

Cute cupcake Pyjamas

These cute cupcake pj's with either trousers or shorts are on sale at Asos at the moment - with reductions the shorts set is £11 and the long ones are £14! A bargain, and perfect for cuddling up next to the heater with a cupcake and a hot choc on these cold nights!

Bea's Halloween Spooktacular

I shall definitely be popping by to get a couple of the Halloween cupcakes and to see the fab window - was hoping to get there this weekend but have been too busy cleaning the kitchen and keeping warm sitting on the computer by the heater (I have the sniffles). From what I've seen so far Bea's have made the most effort with their Halloween window.

It's Halloween time!! What do you think of the display? We have cupcakes available for halloween available for pre-order by the dozen or half dozen. You can also stop by the shop and pick some up for Friday and Saturday. We have Ghosts, Jack o'Lanterns, Vampires, Eyeballs, and Creepy Crawly Spiders! We're also doing a special Red Velvet Cake with Red Icing---sure to please!

Check out their website for ordering info.

The above pics are from Bea's flickr - thanks Bea!

Spooky baking from Bake it Pretty

Bake it Pretty's site makes me have to be really strict with myself - otherwise I'd be going mad with my credit card and ordering loads!

Their Halloween selection rocks - my favourite being the zombie hand cupcake toppers! Also love the Wrath chocolate chilli sugar - great for spicing up your cupcakes for Winter.

They do ship to the UK so check it out - they have a superb range of Christmas stuff also! I wonder if this is where Primrose bakery got their very cute cupcake decorations from last year?

More Halloween/Cupcake goodies for me

My friend Dennis from Ann Arbour visited last month and came home with a HUGE bag of Halloween goodies for me, including the Martha Stewart cupcake cases I really wanted and blogged about previously.

He also brought me lots of other spooky cupcake cases and picks, decorating stencils and also a lovely cupcake stand - I'm aiming to make some cupcakes next week for Halloween to use these! My favourite thing, after the Martha cases, is the FAB skull silicone baking tray - I'll have to make some brownies or something in it asap.

How cute are these?

These are almost too cute to eat!

From Albuquerque's Cupcakeology cupcake store, found via Cupcakes take the Cake, these were too cute not to share them with you!

Warning - if you click on the cupcakeology site be prepared to drool... I want that butterscotch top hat cupcake on their homepage!

The cupcake revival

Quite an interesting article from the BBC re cupcakes - I'm particularly interested in the idea of cupcakes gentrifying an area

... cupcakes are a clear cultural barometer. Academics in New York are constructing a map of emerging cupcake shops throughout the city. The theory is that these give a more accurate guide to gentrification than traditional demographic and housing surveys.

If you look at the areas where cupcake cafes have sprung up in London I would agree this is certainly the case. They tend to be in the more exclusive areas, for example from the Kings Road area you can easily walk to 4 cupcake cafes. You'd have to be wearing some pretty sturdy walking shoes to walk to my local cupcake cafe - not many cupcakeries in the New Cross/Peckham area!

I also agree that the cupcake phenomenon has a lot to do with nostalgia. For Christmas I want one of these - something I remember using when baking with my mum/gran/aunt...

We're returning to things we've done in childhood, activities like baking, which gave us joy. It could be about the legacy of heritage. People are trying to hang on to a recipe that was sacred, that granny used to make."

Whatever gets people back into baking can only be a good thing surely so bring on the cupcake love :)

The picture is of last years Halloween cupcakes from Lolas (yes we tried a few different Halloween cupcakes)

Hallowen cupcakes in Brighton

Last year we went to Brighton for Halloween and ate some fab cupcakes from the Angel Food Bakery. This year we'd planned to go to Brighton (and Parklife in Worthing), however as we're going to Berlin in November we thought we'd best be a bit canny with money. However if you live nearby I highly recommend going to either as they're both offering Halloween cupcakes!

The pics above are from the Angel Food Bakery and the bottom one shows the Halloween devil cakes we got there last year.

Boo!

Halloween cupcakes available from Lola's - in store now (at Selfridges or Harrods) or you can order boxes online. If you order online you can choose pumpkin -not sure if they're available in store but will try and get to Selfridges on Friday to check, and check out the new cupcake bar.

Thanks to Lolas for the pics.

Next...more gifts

Couldn't miss out this fabulous cake stand (sorry the pictures a bit ropey) and mugs similar to the ones I got last year.

Think I might have to get the cake stand - its gorgeous. Next to the mug in the first picture is a packet of chocolate Westies....too cute :)

More cupcake gift ideas

It's exactly two months till Xmas and I'm sure some of you will be adding lots of cupcake items to your Xmas wish list. Next is always one of the best stores to visit - but be quick, they tend to sell out very quickly!! Last year we had to search all over till we got the cupcake hot chocolate set I wanted.

This year my list will definitely be including the diary and calendar, the book and the tea cosy! I already have a teapot (which is an ornament - Manny won't let me use it in case he breaks it washing up!) so I don't really need another one, although this one is really cute! You can find all the items by going to Next's website and searching for cupcakes.

I also really like the ceramic "cake" lettering - would look fab in my kitchen - think I may have to get it as its only £8!

Happy National Chocolate Cupcake day

And to think I didn't even have a cupcake this weekend...pah!

Thought I'd share some pics of chocolate cupcakes Manny's enjoyed over the years seeing as I tend not to have chocolate ones!

From top to bottom - my chocolate rolo cupcakes, Hummingbird's bling chocolate cupcake, Primroses chocolate cupcake, Love Bakery's glittery chocolate cupcake and finally a behemoth from Magnolia in NY :)

Sea Monster cupcakes

From the fab sounding Ghoulish Goodies, this cthulhu-esque sea monster cupcake is bound to make anyone's Halloween :)

You can get the recipe here - thanks to Readers Digest.

Photo used with thanks to Kevin Kenefick

Cupcake Bar in Selfridges

Lola's opened a cupcake bar in Selfridges a few days ago and I've not had a chance to go check it out yet - will do soon though as it looks rather funky.

I do with they'd update their website a little more frequently - there's nothing about the cupcake bar on there except some "coming soon" pictures - also the flavour of the month is always a month behind :(

Oh yes and fellow Blogger Bellaphon should be happy to visit here as the coffees supplied by Vida e Caffe.

Buttercup...don't break my heart

If you've read this blog for any length of time (thanks!!) you'll know that Buttercup in Kensington (and now Westfield) is one of my all time favourite cupcake places. Unfortunately my love of Buttercup has now been thrown into doubt, following a visit on Wednesday.

It was a work colleagues birthday and she mentioned previously she's like to try a cookies and cream cupcake - so I thought I'd pop to Buttercup and get her one as Manny'd previously had a beautiful one from there and said it was one of the best he'd tasted. I took the morning off work and headed to Kensington. When I arrived I was disappointed to see that the display case was half full and those cupcakes that were there were kinda sad looking. I wish I'd taken a photo (and then just left) to share how sad it looked. I asked if they had any cookies and cream and was told they were "too difficult to frost early in the mornings", it was 11am and they'd been open since before 9am but anyways I was there and I didn't really have time to go anywhere else so I got 4 cupcakes - a Fantasy (vanilla) and a Chocolate Purist for my work colleagues and a vanilla (for me) and chocolate purist for Manny. As the two for work colleagues were gifts I asked for separate boxes and was charged 50p each for the privilege - even though at £2.50 a pop for half frosted cupcakes they're amongst the most expensive in London!!!

So to the half frosted - both vanilla cupcakes were half frosted - and STALE!!!! Again with the stale vanilla cupcakes. When I bake cupcakes we are still able to eat them 4 days later and they don't taste this stale - I really think that if this was my first ever foray into the world of cupcake I'd have just given up there and then - which may be a good thing for my waistline I have to say. The two chocolate ones I'm told were moist and fresh - maybe they sell quicker as they're more popular so aren't left on the shelf for so long? I really don't know. All I know was this cupcake made me feel nauseous to the point I couldn't eat it and is there a sadder feeling than throwing a cupcake in the bin? The frosting was hard also - obviously not fresh and quite tasteless - quite a difference from their usual vanilla cupcake which I've previously announced as one of my favourite cupcakes ever.

I was really disappointed on Wednesday - I'd wasted a half day at work - not to mention money on cupcakes that were inedible, I also felt awful that my friend may be tucking into a stale cupcake for her birthday (thankfully her chocolate one was ok - my friend with the fantasy one was not so lucky). Next time I'll go to Hummingbird who've yet to let me down.

Also - please note: having someone try to shove a big box of cupcakes into a bag that he couldn't fit the single cupcake box into is not good for your business.

Crumbs and Doilies Halloween cupcakes

are available to pre-order now and aren't they just the cutest Halloween cupcakes you've seen!

Think I may have to pre-order a munchbox although I'd prefer 6 big ones as then you get the spider, bat and skulls - maybe I should give them a ring and see if that's possible! Getting there on the day to pick them up may be a problem too as its our wedding anniversary on the Sat and we're meant to be out and about that day - maybe I'll order them to collect on the Friday and head over to C&D HQ -sounds fab :)

We’ll be selling our great Halloween Cupcakes by the dozen in big and mini sizes and there’s also our brand new Munchbox size (2 big and 9 mini cupcakes) for smaller gifts. All boxes will contain a spookily tasty mix of flavours including this month’s flavour of the month, ChocolateOrange, and are available on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st October.

That’s not all though - it being Halloween we’ve slashed the prices of our special Halloween Cupcakes to just £20/dozen for big cupcakes and £10/dozen for minis and munchboxes!

Orders will be available for delivery in Central and SW London or you can collect from C&D HQ near Wandsworth Town (Friday 11am-7pm and Saturday 10am-3pm), or from the Kings Road (Saturday only, 10am-3pm).

Thanks to C&D for use of their photo!

Cupcake gift ideas..the countdown to Xmas begins ;)

The time of year when Slade are playing 24/7 and shops are full of mince pies is fast approaching and thankfully it also means that the stores are filling up with cupcake gift ideas.

Debenhams is usually a good place to look as they have a good cupcake cookware range (or which I own most much to Manny's dismay!) and now they've added even more cupcake goodies :)

These include the cake fund money box (which I LOVE!), cupcake address book, cupcake set of mini books and cupcake writing set - there's also keyrings, pens and other bits - just go to Debenhams website and search for cupcake!

For the cupcake lover that has everything..

The cupcake car - a snip at $25,000!! Yes that's right $25, 000!!

Currently for sale at Neiman Marcus;

Put on your matching hat, slip under the muffin top of your Cupcake Car, and let the world figure itself out for awhile. Get (or give) the sheer, joyful chaos of a gift that is mind-blowing, triple-dog-dare, double-infinity forever cool. Make the kids or grandkids literally squeal with joy. Bring it to work and buzz the breakroom. Crash parades! Putter about the ‘hood. Ever had a crowd of kids chasing after you just for the crazy gleeful heck of it? (No worries, the top speed is a comfy-safe 7 mph.) What’s it made of? A 24-volt electric motor, a heavy-duty battery, sheet metal, wire, fabric, wood…and mad genius. Launched at Burning ManSM as a cooperative art car project, the Cupcake Car sprang from the fevered mind of Bay Area artist Lisa Pongrace and her less-rules-more-laughs posse of artists and techno geeks. Yours will be tricked out with your favorite topping, so start thinking flavors.

I LOVE the thought of anyone "puttering about the 'hood" in one of these - I can just imagine the looks you'd get driving through New Cross or Peckham in one..lol. And I adore the fact you can get it pimped to resemble your favourite cupcake...pimp my cupcake on MTV anyone?

This is one cupcake fad I can't really see catching on!

Crumbs and Doilies October flavour of the month is...

Chocolate Orange. Wonder if they're to prepare our tastebuds for the festive onslaught of these?

I shall be popping over to Covent Garden this week to try one as Crumbs and Doilies will be there Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week as part of the London Restaurant Festival.

Back to the cupcakes:

A rich, dark chocolate orange sponge topped with a a smooth orange buttercream. Ourchocolateorange cupcakes are made using Valrhona cocoa, organic orange zest and juice, treacle and dark brown sugar well as our usual Lescure butter, organic eggs and Doves Farm organic flour.

YUM.

Oh and prepare for November's flavour - Red Velvet! Also C&D will be announcing details of how to order their Halloween cupcakes in the next few days so I shall post info here asap.

Thanks to Crumbs and Doilies for use of their pic and cupcake description :)