Showing posts with label cupcakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cupcakes. Show all posts

Monday, April 4, 2011

The Anatomy of a Cupcake


Mr. Michie e-mailed this to me after coming across it. He knew I would love it and he was right! What a beautiful image. It was created by Allen Hemberger and Sarah Wilson as a birthday gift for a friend.

I think it is stunning! To see how they did it, watch the video here. Just looking at this poster makes me hungry!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Tea Party

We went shopping this weekend and I came across these silicone tea cups:


Unfortunately, the store was out of stock, they just had an empty display box, stating more stock would be in soon. I thought that this would be an adorable idea for a children's tea party, or even a grown-ups tea party for that matter. To have delicious cupcakes baked in these pipped with twirly-whirly swirls of icing in a rainbow of colors and sprinkles.

And you could serve them alongside these yummy lemon raspberry sandwich cookies:


These little ham & cheese thumbprints:


Mini cucumber sandwiches made with my Mom's mouth-watering cucumber and carrot spread and a selection of delicious vegetables with a homemade buttermilk ranch dip. I am getting hungry just thinking about it!

The day started out rainy this morning, but now has gone sunny and deliciously cool, the perfect tea party day, for bunting strung in trees, white tableclothes billowing in the breeze, good music floating through the garden and a group of friends to enjoy the afternoon with as day slips into night.

When these get back in stock, they might just jump into my hands, because I think this is a truly cute idea!


(Click on the cookie and thumbprints pictures to be taken directly to the recipe, tea party girl by Belle & Boo)

Monday, April 12, 2010

Candy Cakes

Well, Saturday took a different turn than expected. We headed out of our London burb and into the city center. Which meant a trip to Carnaby Street!

One of my favorite streets in all of London and a quick back entrace into Liberty's where I got to see a good portion of the Target range that is being offered Stateside, oh, how tempting it all was!

On our way there we took a short cut/ detour down a side street and went past this building: "Oh, Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your golden (in this case auburn) hair!" When you went up closer and peeked through the window the hair continued inside in this shell of a room, now completely filled with a cobweb of tangled locks. It was pretty interesting to see.

We also went past these cute painted drums, their faces made me smile! And then we headed onto Carnaby Street. I could hear the choir sing in my heart as we headed into Kingly Court, I thought this dress was Spring time pretty, standing in a shop window as advertisement for the vintage store upstairs. But, we  kept right on moving so we could get one of the best cupcakes going, from Candy Cakes.

I got blueberry with a blueberry yoghurt topping it was heaven as always! I had a little rainbow colored marshmallow twist on top of my cake, which of course I shared!


My sweet red head was in the mood for cake and got the most wonderful piece of carrot & walnut cake, I could have just eaten a bowl full of the icing on that cake and have been happy for the rest of the day.

So, an unexpected errand brought me the cupcakes I truly desired and I couldn't have been in more of a state of cupcake bliss than I already was. Hope you had a happy weekend?



(Click here to go to the Candy Cakes site)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Crazy Holiday Ideas

I have these crazy Martha Stewart ideas at times, I see something and I think, "Oh, wouldn't that be the cutest idea, all made, decorated, beautifully wrapped and lined up in neat rows to hand out...", the idea I am thinking of, are Thanksgiving goody bags, or boxes in this case.

Whether we had Thanksgiving at our house or someone else's, everyone always left with a bag of goodies, especially (my mom being an original New Yorker before she moved below the Mason Dixon) if cookies had been sent down from New York, you can't beat a good bakery! Divine cookies with sprinkles or nuts or a little cherry stuck in them; shaped like leaves and hearts and circles, they were a box of pure happiness!I was looking for something this morning and went to the Bake it Pretty website and saw their turkey cupcake picks and that started off my whole wave of crazy thinking. I thought wouldn't it be cute, if you made little pumpkin bread cupcakes, iced with mountains of cream cheese frosting (in these retro Sound of Music looking liners), stuck in a little turkey pick, whipped up some acorn shaped sugar cookies while you were at it and had everything all beautifully packaged in a box with some bakers twine or raffia tied through the handle, with something cute stamped on the box.
These are my Martha Stewart moments, the ideas that I would be insane enough to do, but will not. I just love the idea of it!

(Images from the Bake it Pretty website)

P.S. I heard my 1st Christmas song of the season on the radio this morning, I did a Charlie Brown Peanut's dance of happiness!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Pumpkin Patch Love

I love the festive look of these Pumpkin Patch cupcakes from Martha Stewart. We went pumpkin hunting this weekend and I came back with another pumpkin to add to my collection. He is small with a cute curl of a stem, and has lots of personality!

I haven't seen any teeny pumpkins yet this year, I love the little munchkin pumpkins! I thought these cupcakes would be perfect with a glass of cold apple cider to wash away those hungry pumpkin hunting appetites. They also would taste just as yummy if you cheated and used a gingerbread cake recipe instead of a pumpkin one, you decide.

Happy Hunting!

Get the Recipe

(Image used copyright Martha Stewart Living)

Friday, October 2, 2009

Gnome is Where the Heart Is

Well, as you may or may not know I love gnomes! I think they are just cute, whimsical, funny and kitsch. While searching for a particular cupcake item, I went to one of my favorite sites, "Bake It Pretty", it has an array of goodies and lots of those hard to find retro/vintage looking cupcake picks. They were established before "Layer Cake". Although, they have some product cross over, I think each have their own unique qualities.

I started going through their cookie cutter section while I was there and came across this guy! I thought he was too cute for words. He would be adorable iced with a little red or blue hat. Maybe even a little beard piped on with a small star tip.

When I was in high school, our local baking supply store was holding a Wilton Cake Decorating course and being the nerd that I am, I set aside some babysitting money and my mom let me sign up!

I love to bake and cook and I thought this would be a way to expand on that. I had so much fun, making roses, learning how to make the clown bodies to stick the clown head pick in for cupcakes or cakes, and best of all, you got to take home your finished products and eat them, now that alone was worth it for me, a guaranteed chance to have scrumptious cake once a week with that heavenly "wedding cake" icing, mmm!

You can buy him on this own or in an adorable "Pretty Magical Forest" set. Which gives you a really nice shaped mushroom that you could easily decorate to go along with him. He will need a place to sit on and rest of course!

This little gnome was too cute not to share and so sweetly photographed against the yellow gingham, I felt something needed to be said about this little character. If looking at these sites doesn't make you want to run out and start whipping up cupcakes with the cutest toppers to put on them, I don't know what will!


(All Images from "Bake it Pretty" website)

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Apple Cupcakes for Autumn Days

The weather is so beautiful here today in England. The sun is actually peeking out and there is a nice breeze going. Autumn is coming, you can hear it whispering through the trees. The trees along our common are just starting to turn a delicious gold, along their edges. This is perfect picnic weather.

I would love nothing more right now than some fried chicken, a homemade pimento cheese sandwich and some sweet tea from Chick-fil-A, and then to nestle down on a nice quilt in the sun. If the weather holds we might be doing that this weekend, sans the Chick-fil-A tea. Sadly, they are not in England yet!

I am listening to my "Little Women" soundtrack, it seems to hold the best promise of autumn and winter in its notes. I was in a cupcake mood today and decided to try something new. I came across these cupcakes on the Martha Stewart website and thought they were too cute for words. I like the idea of an apple cupcake, but I think that pumpkin spice would be just as lovely with the cream cheese frosting on top.

My local grocery store is out of marzipan at the moment, so this is a recipe that will have to wait till I go shopping in the bigger village. Until then, I will just dream of Autumn and festive apple topped cupcakes, complete with a smiling worm.

Picture and recipe are copyrighted to Martha Stewart