Red, White & Blue Cupcake Tower

How great is this??? My vote for dessert displays this 4th of July are definitely the Cupcake Kabobs and THIS - a delicious and festive cupcake tower!

Fancy Flours, one of my fave websites for buying fun baking stuff, shows us how to make to make this great display. I've copied and pasted the instructions for you below! If you do make it this weekend, be sure to send a picture!

You will need:

1 large styrofoam cone (at a local craft store) and around 24 3-6″ wooden dowels, plus several toothpicks for the fruit.

5 cups fresh fruit (red strawberries, raspberries and blueberries preferred)

Cupcakes can be baked and frosted as usual, however a more dense cupcake batter will work better for attaching to the tower. Try using a pound cake, chocolate cake or carrot cake for best results. Lightly frost with buttercream or cream cheese frosting using a star tip. The heavier the frosting, the more likely it will not stay connected to the tower as it will be side heavy.

Affix cupcakes to tower by first sticking the wooden dowels firmly into the styrofoam tower. Place them evenly apart, making sure to be able to affix fruit in between each cupcake. Attach cupcakes to wooden dowels by pushing cupcake onto dowel (you may need to cut a small hole in the bottom of the cupcake wrapper (or don’t use any wrappers to avoid this step).

Now poke each strawberry, blueberry or other piece of fruit with a toothpick and push toothpick into styrofoam, in between each cupcake. You can make fruit kabobs as well and place a few pieces of fruit onto each toothpick. Make sure to completely fill up styrofoam tower so there is no syrofoam showing. Add sprigs of fresh mint to complete the look.

Owen Wilson loves cupcakes!

Pretty much everyone knows Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, and Paul Rudd are in town filming their new romantic comedy, “How Do You Know,” and according to NBC Owen Wilson took some time off the set to drop by Georgetown Cupcake:

WASHINGTON -- Actor Owen Wilson was spotted eating in Georgetown Tuesday.

After dining at the Peacock Café, he stopped by Georgetown Cupcake for a red velvet and a white chocolate raspberry cupcake, according to Georgetown Cupcake. He ate alone at a table in the store.

According to the staff, Wilson dropped by Georgetown Cupcake on Monday but it was closed.

My question is, how in the world did he manage to snag that one lonely table! It’s always taken!

Starbucks Red Velvet Cupcake

I finally found a standard sized Red Velvet Cupcake from Starbucks! The only one I have had so far is the little version, with the chocolate candy on top. This one tasted exactly the same as the smaller version - like a sweet sugar cookie - but bigger! Have you tried all the Starbucks flavors? What's your favorite?

A Red Velvet Cupcakery Review

Last posting on Red Velvet Cupcakery for the day, I promise! I’m just excited for our upcoming meetup! I took some parts of the ModernDomestic's (Jenna Huntsberger) review of her experience with Red Velvet Cupcakery and posted them below for you guys to see!:

Photo courtesy of the ModernDomestic

"I tried three cupcakes on my visit: the coffee-flavored Morning Call, the Red Velvet, and the Peanut Butter Cup. Each was $3.25/piece or $36 for a dozen.

The cupcakes were well made, with the exception of a small technical difficulty. All the cupcakes I sampled had a hard, slightly bitter, crust on their tops, as if they’d been left in the oven too long. But that problem is easily fixable, and may just have been opening day jitters.

Photo courtesy of the ModernDomestic

My favorite cupcake, by far, was the Peanut Butter Cup - a chocolate cake topped with a slightly salty, rich peanut butter frosting. The cake was tender and had a deep chocolate flavor, but the frosting really stole the show. It had a fluffy texture, with a rich salty-sweet peanut butter flavor. I love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter together, and this cupcake was really to die for.

Photo courtesy of the ModernDomestic

The Red Velvet was also a strong contender - the cake was fluffy and tender, and had that deep red color of a proper red velvet cake. The cream cheese frosting was the right balance of tangy and sweet, with a smooth texture.

Photo courtesy of the ModernDomestic

The Morning Call, an espresso-chocolate cupcake with mocha buttercream, was my least favorite. I didn’t taste the espresso in the espresso-chocolate cake, although it had a rich chocolate flavor and tender crumb. The frosting tasted like a classic buttercream - it tasted strongly of butter, had an oily texture, and was overwhelmingly rich. To be fair, the mocha flavor was well balanced, and the richness and the texture are all things I’ve encountered in buttercreams before. But I’m not a huge fan of classic buttercreams, so my dislike of the Morning Call may be more a matter of personal taste than anything else.

Photo courtesy of the ModernDomestic

I was pretty happy with Red Velvet Cupcakery - just writing this makes me want to make a b-line for the store so I can get that Peanut Butter Cup cupcake again. But I also think that Red Velvet has some room to grow.

Red Velvet’s flavor combinations are classic, but seemed a little boring and expected - as though they took a gourmet dessert menu and adapted it for cupcakes. This isn’t a bad thing, but Red Velvet Cupcakery is competing with stores that are passionate about cupcakes, and which offer daily rotating menus in addition to seasonal offerings. Doing classic flavors well just isn’t enough to compete."

All around, great reviews so far for RVC! Have you meetup members have picked out which flavors you're going to chow down on?! I have!

Coconut Cupcakes Recipe

Looking for a good Snowball (Coconut) Cupcake this winter?? Try this recipe adapted from "Baking By Flavor," by Lisa Yockelson and tested by Joe Yonan, Food Editor for the Washington Post. Yonan raved that in all the coconut cupcakes he tried during his judging of the 8-week cupcake war series, not a single one came close to these!

(Joe Yonan - The Washington Post)

Coconut Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients: For the cupcakes

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons unsifted flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup sour cream (do not use low-fat or nonfat)
1 cup lightly packed sweetened flaked coconut

Ingredients: For the frosting
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
5 tablespoons (1/2 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons heavy cream (may substitute coconut milk)
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
5 1/2 cups unsifted confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cups lightly packed sweetened flaked coconut

Photograph from Fresh From The Oven Blog

Directions: For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg on a sheet of wax or parchment paper.

3. Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or a hand-held electric mixer; beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add half of the sugar and beat for 1 minute; add the remaining sugar and beat for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating on medium speed for 45 seconds each time, then add the vanilla extract. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

5. Reduce the speed to low. Alternately add the sifted mixture in 3 additions and the sour cream in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the sifted mixture. The batter will be smooth and moderately thick. Add the coconut, beating on low until incorporated.

6. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners, filling them slightly more than half-full. Bake for 18 minutes (start checking at 15 minutes) or until the cupcakes have risen and completely set. A wooden toothpick inserted in the center of a baked cupcake will withdraw with a few moist crumbs attached.

7. Cool the cupcakes in the pans on wire cooling racks for 15 minutes, then transfer the cupcakes to the wire racks to cool completely.

Directions: For the frosting

1. Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or a hand-held electric mixer; beat on medium speed for 1 minute, until creamy and well incorporated.

2. Add the vanilla extract, heavy cream and nutmeg; beat to combine, stopping to scrape down the bowl as needed. Reduce the speed to low; add the confectioners' sugar in 3 additions, beating between additions until thoroughly combined.

3. Use a flexible palette knife to spread the frosting as thickly as possible on top of the cooled cupcakes, creating a generous 1- to 2-inch cap on top. Sprinkle the frosted surfaces of the cupcakes with the coconut.

Happy Birthday Elvis (Cupcakes)!

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

Yes this picture is quite the throwback, but I like to remember him in his more attractive days! In honor of The King’s would-be 74th Birthday, I thought you should know of the two places you can pick up an Elvis cupcake in the DC/Metro area!

Hello Cupcake
Velvet Elvis – Banana Cake topped with Peanut Butter Frosting

(This flavor is on Thursday’s menu, so go pick one up!) $3.00

Hello Cupcake Velvet Elvis Cupcakes, photograph from PanacheNosh.com

Edibles Incredible
Elvis – Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Filling, Peanut Butter Frosting, and Peanuts on top! $3.95

Edibles Incredible Elvis Cupcakes, Photograph from their website.

And I wanted to give a shout out to one of my favorite out-of-towner cupcakes (Indianapolis):

The Flying Cupcake

Red Velvet Elvis - Red velvet cupcake loaded with chocolate chunks and topped with cream cheese icing.

Flying Cupcake(s)! Red Velvet Elvis is on the left

If you plan on picking up an Elvis cupcake from Hello or Edibles, remember, always call ahead to make sure they haven’t sold out!

New Storefronts in the Near Future...

According to a recent article in the Washington Post, Cup of Yumm is searching for store space in and around Gaithersburg. Cup of Yumm is a Maryland based online cupcakery who offers at least 24 different flavors, as well as two seasonal flavors.

Chocolate Cupcakes, Photograph from Cup of Yumm Website

Cup of Yumm cupcakes come in standard and mini sizes; $29/dozen for standard and $16/dozen for mini’s.

Cup of Yumm Cupcake, from their Website

Through the same Washington Post article, I also discovered that online-only Bakeshop DC, who sells their cupcakes at Murky Coffee, is planning to open a storefront in Clarendon. Bakeshop DC's cupcakes are priced at $36/18 cupcakes and $42/24 cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes, Photograph from Bakeshop DC Website

And of course don't forget that Sprinkles has been hunting for space in Northwest DC, with plans to open in late 2009!

Sprinkles Cupcake Photo, Victoria Pearson

Juicy Cupcake Merchandise

When I was looking up the prices on those Juicy Couture Charms in the posting below, I came across some more Juicy Cupcake items, you know, incase you're looking for a way to spend those giftcards from the holidays!

Juicy Couture Candy Filled Cupcakes

What's better than nine silicone cupcake molds filled with a variety of Gummi Bears, Fruit Chews, Runts, Jelly Beans, Gumballs & Sour Patch Kids!? All this comes packaged in a Juicy Couture Cupcake Box, and you can currently find it on sale for $24.90 at Nordstrom by clicking here.

Juicy Couture Yorkie & Candy Filled Cupcake

If the last one was too much candy for you, there's this adorable Pink Yorkie Stuffed Animal that comes holding a silicone cupcake mold filled with Gumballs! This little guy is on sale at Nordstrom as well, for $27.90. Click here to check it out.

Juicy Couture Logo Boyshorts with Cupcake Gift Box

Sold individually, these logo-printed boyshorts are sweetly gift-boxed with a silicone cupcake liner at $18/each. Sorry, no sale here!

Georgetown Cupcake Charm Bracelet Collection

Seriously, how cute is this?

Georgetown Cupcake has come out with their own charm bracelet! They're promoting this charming little thing for Valentine's Day, so scoop one up for your cupcake lover! And even better, tie it to a box of cupcakes!

The charms come in handpainted sterling silver, and from what I gather you can choose from Georgetown Cupcake's 12 most popular flavors: Red Velvet, Chocolate & Vanilla, Key Lime, Lemon Berry, Chocolate PB Swirl, Mocha, Chocolate Mint, Coconut, Carrot, Vanilla Squared, Chocolate Squared, and Lava Fudge.

The Sterling Silver charms are $45/each, the Sterling Silver Open Toggle Clasp Charm Bracelet is $75, the Sterling Silver 18" Cable Chain is $30, and the Sterling Silver 16" Cable Chain is $25.

Just to put the prices in perspective for you, charms from a name brand like Juicy Couture range anywhere from $38 to $52 each. Juicy Couture's Cupcake Charm (seen below, towards the bottom left) is 14K Silver Plated Brass with a crystal on top and sells for $38. Juicy's 7.5" Silver Plated Brass Toggle Clasp Charm Bracelet goes for $45.

For shipping information or to place an order for Georgetown Cupcake Charms & Charm Bracelet, you can call 202.333.8448 or email info@georgetowncupcake.com

Juicy Couture Cupcake Earrings

A girlfriend of mine told me about these adorable Juicy Couture Cupcake Earrings. I'm thinking I need to pick them up to match my Juicy Cupcake Necklace!

Available at Nordstrom, these enameled cupcake studs are 12k gold-plated brass and feature pave stones, and come packaged in a hinged cupcake box. You'll have to scoop them up in the store though, as they're sold out at Nordstrom.com. I can't tell you what the price normally is, but I can tell you they're on sale! So go quick!

Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes, and other Holiday Flavors

Photo from BashDC.com

Can you believe it's December already?!? Crazy! One good thing about a new month though, new cupcake flavors! So for all you Georgetown Cupcake lovers out there (and from that constant line around the corner, I know there's a lot of you!) Georgetown Cupcake's new monthly flavors are Chocolate Peppermint, Gingerbread, and Snowball (Coconut), as well as Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years Eve-themed Cupcakes. Be sure to stay tuned later this month when Georgetown Cupcake will be releasing their 2009 Seasonal Flavor listing.

And speaking of Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes, when I was in Alexandria this past weekend I stopped to have brunch at one of my favorite places: Bread & Chocolate on King Street in Old Town. If you've been here you know they have a large dessert case at the front of the restaurant, and sure enough they had cupcakes! I was way too stuffed from my Mediterranean Omelet to even fathom eating a cupcake, but I took a picture for you guys. They have Chocolate Peppermint as well as traditional Vanilla and Chocolate. They're $2.50 each or $9 for 4.

Chocolate Peppermint is on the left, Chocolate & Vanilla on the right.

Starbucks Red Velvet Cupcakes

Finally! After 7 months of hunting, I found a Starbucks Cupcake! Well technically my friend Lauren found it, but either way, I got it! And I was pleasantly surprised.

This was the only cupcake they had that wasn't a Cheesecake Factory Cupcake: a Red Velvet Cupcake with Chocolate Truffle Filling, and it was great! One thing though, I thought the cake itself tasted fantastic without the filling. I don't think the filling hurt the flavor, but I could have done without it.

The frosting did the job - not too sweet, but not something you want to eat by the spoonful either. The whole package was very fresh and moist, and after finishing the last bite, I realized I thought it tasted more like a really good sugar cookie than your average Red Velvet cupcake! Would I eat this cupcake again? Most definitely!

Bubble Bath Cupcakes

This holiday season, everyone is cashing in on cupcakes! My friend Eve sent me the link to these "Bubble Cupcakes" from Bath & Body Works. They even come in standard and mini size! Take a look:

The product description reads: "For a sweet treat, indulge in a fat-free, no-calorie Delish Bubble Bath Cupcake. Each cupcake is handcrafted in the USA, using the highest quality ingredients to ensure a tranquil, blissful experience. Once you begin filling your tub, simply place the bubble bath cupcake under the running water. Let the sweet aroma melt all your cares away as the long-lasting bubbles hydrate your skin."

The single cupcake with pink frosting (seen above) apparently smells like buttery vanilla, and the single cupcake with white frosting smells like yellow cake. Mmmm! And check out these little mini's below:

The mini flavors are Cotton Candy, Lemon Fluff, Creamy Vanilla, Oh Honey, Fruit Sorbet and Birthday Cake. They'd make great stocking stuffers!

DC Cupcake Contest Photos

I finally uploaded all of the pictures from the contest to my Photostream on Flickr, so feel free to check them all out by clicking here!

Cupcakes Cupcakes Cupcakes

Cupcakes have taken over the newspapers today, in both the Express and in the Washington Post. I'll get to the third week of the Cupcake Wars in the next posting; this post is in regards to "The Lion of the Dessert" article in the Express this morning.

It seems that Fiona Zublin, whose articles I've blogged about before, took a cue from the Post Food Editor Joe Yonan and conducted a cupcake taste test of her own. Zublin and a team of taste testers scooped up some cupcakes from Cakelove, Georgetown Cupcake, and Hello Cupcake to pit them against eachother in a battle of the tastiest. And no surprise here, Hello Cupcake came out on top. Here's what Zublin had to say:

CAKELOVE
"The beloved D.C. stalwart did not fare well with testers. The frosting (even peanut butter frosting, which generally has the same consistency as, well, peanut butter) was runny, and the cake - particularly the vanilla cake - was dry and too crumbly."

GEORGETOWN CUPCAKE
"This was D.C.'s first all-cupcakes, all-the-time joint, and the store has gotton less crowded than it once was. Its selection is still lovely, though, with rich, thick cake and a tasty, gooey frosting. The carrot cake was the best of the bunch (if you like carrot cake, that is)."

HELLO CUPCAKE
"This is the newest addition to D.C.'s cupcake cavalcade, but it has appeal in more than just novelty: These are the best cupcakes around. Their flavors are creative, and the cake bits are moist and tasty. But the real triumph in these cupcakes is the frosting - it's intensely flavorful and rich without making you feel ill. It never overpowers the rest of the cupcake, which is unexpected, because each cake comes topped with a mound of frosting the size of K2."

Zublin's reviews reaffirm the general consensus of the three shops, don't you think? Speaking of Georgetown Cupcake, I have heard they've got a new seasonal flavor, Caramel Apple, which is supposed to be pretty sweet and tasty. Anyone tried it yet? While you know I'm more of a Hello Cupcake than Georgetown Cupcake girl, I will be on the lookout for Gtown's Gingerbread cupcake this December!

Meetup No. 4 - Hello Cupcake

Our DC/Metro Cupcake Group is having another meetup! This one will be held at Hello Cupcake in early October. If you've been thinking about joining the group and coming out to a meetup, here's your chance!

Click here to check out the Meetup page and to join the group; while you're there, take a look at the Hello Cupcake Meetup details and see if you can make it!

Occasionally Cake...and Cupcakes!

A few weekends ago I was lucky enough to met Sabrina and Marcia, the lovely ladies of Occasionally Cake, a cake (and cupcake!) business based out of Northern Virginia. While they don't currently have a storefront, they have plans to open one in early 2009.

I haven't had the privilege to taste their adorable cupcakes yet, but they sure know how to make them look good!! Check out these amazing pictures from their gallery:

LOVE this beachy theme

A Red Velvet cupcake for Valentines Day

Check out the detail on those flower cupcakes!

These delleicious looking cupcakes are priced individually starting at $2.25 each for basic flavors and the icing swirl on top. The specialty cupcakes, like some of the ones you see pictured above and below, start at $3.50 each. Click here to check out more on pricing both for the cupcakes, and for their cakes and cookies!

I plan to try Occasionally Cake's cupcakes in the near future, so I'll get back to you with my reviews! In the mean time, if you'd like to place an order with them, they can be reached at 703-780-3519 or you can email them by clicking here.

Wasington Post Cupcake Taste Test

It looks like Joe Yonan, the Food Editor of the Washington Post, has taken it upon himself to conduct a six-week cupcake taste test in and around the nation's capital in order to find the best cupcake in town. Sounds like a good idea to me!


Sticky Fingers Cupcakes, Photo Credit - The Washington Post (James Thresher)

One of the bakeries Yonan has tried so far is Sticky Finger's Bakery in Columbia Heights (where our DC/Metro Cupcake Group had our second meetup). He says that "Sticky Fingers's cookie cupcake earned high marks for presentation, but the taste just didn't win us over." I would have to agree. When I tried a couple different flavors back in July for our meetup, the cake and the frosting had a very flour-like taste to them and weren't something I would eat again.


Cakelove Cupcakes, Photo Credit - The Washington Post (James Thresher)

The other bakery Yonan has sampled is (gag) Cakelove/Love Cafe (same thing). Yonan tried a couple different flavors, one of which he writes "The thin layer of ganache-like frosting gave this CakeLove cupcake a Boston Creme Pie look, but the dry dessert had nothing else in common with its creamy counterpart." Of the second cupcake he tried, Yonan says "a tart cream-cheese frosting kicked this CakeLove cupcake up a notch. It scored a 4.5 on our 10-point scale." Kicked it up a notch to still score less than 5 out of 10 points? Hahahahaha. That pretty much sums up what everyone has said all along about Cakelove - gross, dry and a waste of money. Yonan also adds that "LoveCafe is hardly generous with its frosting. A thin shmear can hardly quench a dry cupcake."

I like this guy! Stay tuned for more of his cupcake adventures in days to come.

Woman's Day Magazine Cupcake Contest

Woman's Day Magazine is having a Cutest Cupcake contest! I know the image is a little hard to read, but basically they just tell you to get creative and send in a picture between September 1 and September 30, noon ET. The winning cupcakes will be featured in a future issue!

For more information on rules and details, go to womansday.com/cupcakecontest

The Elusive Starbucks Cupcake

Finally! I walked into the Starbucks in the Bethesda Barnes & Noble this afternoon to get my usual Grande Regular Coffee (I'm a simple girl), and alas! Cupcakes! I have been trying to track down Starbucks cupcakes for months now, and had come to the conclusion they were only available in late winter/early spring. I guess not.

However, I'm wondering if these are the same cupcakes I had heard about before...there were only two flavors, Chocolate Fudge and Vanilla Buttercream, and on the little signs was a Cheesecake Factory Logo. While it's news to me that Cheesecake Factory makes cupcakes, I thought the cupcakes I had heard about in the past were Starbucks originals. Interesting...

Anyway, I decided to go with the Chocolate Fudge. These cupcakes are Jumbo size, but still decently priced at $1.95. The frosting was good. It had a firm outer shell, but once you forked it, underneath laid fudgy goodness. The chocolate cake was egh, nothing special. The parts closest to the wrapper were a little dry, but the center was moist. I will say that once I cut it in half an bit into the middle, the combination was pretty good.

That being said though, I probably wouldn't have it again. The frosting was good but the cake missed the mark. And since it was a jumbo cupcake, that's a whole lotta cake. While it's better than your average grocery store cupcake, it's definitley not gourmet. I didn't exactly have high expectations for a Starbucks dessert, but I did have higher expectations for a Cheesecake Factory dessert. Maybe they should just stick to cheesecake...!