Crumbs Invading DC Metro, Spring 2010

Check it out cupcake lovers - looks like Crumbs will be landing in the DC Metro area early 2010! Check out their press release with all the D's below!

NEW YORK, NY (November 16, 2009) – Due to a tremendous demand, CRUMBS Bake Shop, the first bake shop to introduce the gourmet cupcake, will debut their signature sized cupcakes and delectable sweet treats in the Washington, D.C. market in March 2010. The stores will be found in several neighborhoods including the downtown central business district, Georgetown, Cleveland Park, Foggy Bottom, Rockville (Maryland), Clarendon (Virginia) and Reston (Virginia), offering a variety of their delicious cupcakes, muffins, cookies, brownies, coffee and other baked goods.

“The D.C. market was the next logical choice for our expansion,” said Jason Bauer, CRUMBS CEO and co-founder. “The CRUMBS brand has strong name recognition in the market and we decided to listen to our fans who have been asking us for many months to come to D.C.”

I was shocked to read they were opening so many locations - I was thinking it was just going to be one shop in DC, especially since there is so much cupcake competition in the area. I'm definitely interested to see how Crumbs competes with the rest of the area's major cupcake players!

Georgetown Cupcake Bethesda Grand Opening

Drop by Georgetown Cupcake's Bethesda location this Sunday between 12pm - 6pm to celebrate their Grand Opening and to snag a free cupcake! They'll be handing out the free cupcakes - one per person - all day.

4834 Bethesda Avenue - be there!

Free Cookie or Cupcake at Lola's!

Sorry for the late posting on this, but if you're in the Leesburg area and have never tried Lola's Cookies & Treats, then this is the perfect opportunity! It's Lola's 3rd Anniversary and they're celebrating by giving their customers some free baked goods! Just right click the coupon below and save the picture to your computer. Print it off and take it into Lola's for a free cookie or cupcake! Only good through the end of Saturday - so hurry up!

Halloween Cupcakes

Tombstone & Spider Web Cupcakes available at Thyme Out - call for availability!

Martha Stewart Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

Looking for a Pumpkin Cupcake recipe this fall? Here's one from Martha Stewart! For a gallery of other Pumpkin-flavor dessert recipes from Martha, click here!

Ingredients

Makes 22
1 sugar pumpkin, (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and seeded
1/2 cup Pumpkin Puree, or canned pumpkin puree
1 cup pecans
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 seven ounce packages almond paste
Gel food color, orange, brown, and green

Cream Cheese Frosting

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two muffin tins with paper liners. Grate pumpkin in a food processor or on the large holes of a box grater (you should have about 2 1/2 cups). Transfer to a medium bowl, and add pumpkin puree and pecans.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves; pulse to combine. With machine running, add oil and eggs; process until smooth, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Add pumpkin mixture; pulse to combine.

Spoon about 1/3 cup batter into each cupcake liner. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Make the marzipan pumpkins: Tint two-thirds almond paste orange, adding food color a dab at a time until desired color is reached. Tint a quarter of remaining paste brown and the rest green. Shape into leaves, stems, and pumpkins (see instructions below).

Decorate cupcakes with frosting and marzipan pumpkins. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days

Marzipan Pumpkin How-To: Using a small rolling pin, roll out green almond paste about 1/8 thick; use a leaf cutter to cut out leaf shapes. Roll brown into small ropes; cut and shape into stems. Using the palms of your hand, shape orange into three-quarter-inch globes. Use a toothpick to poke holes in tops of pumpkins and to press creases from top to bottom. Attach leaves and stems to tops with a bit of frosting.

Halloween Cupcake Products II

And here are some Wilton Halloween-themed Cupcake Products to follow up the most previous post on products from Fancy Flours. These are all pretty much out of stock online, however I know for a fact they are in stock at Michaels stores, and I've even seem them at my local Target!

Halloween Cupcake Products

Since I did a post yesterday on Halloween Cupcake Decorating Ideas, I thought I'd do a post on some products that could help you get that festive look on your Halloween Cupcakes this month. All of the Halloween-themed products in these pictures are available at Fancy Flours!

For a gallery of Halloween-related products from Fancy Flours, click here!