Lavender Moon Facebook Fan Page

I just found out today that while Lavender Moon Cupcakery still does not have a website, they do have a Facebook Fan Page! (I dont know if that link will work since I was logged in when I hyperlinked it, so if it doesn't just search "Lavender Moon Cupcakery" in your FB search). And it looks like they update it pretty frequently too. Last update was on December 5th during Alexandria’s Scottish Parade – they had Cranberry Chocolate, Chestnut Ganache, and Buttered Rum! You can always count on LMC to be carrying unique flavors.

Snowflake Cupcake from Georgetown Cupcake

A coworker went out for lunch and scooped up a box of these cute cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake in Bethesda, so of course I had to snap a picture. Love the snowflake!

Occasionally Cake Holiday Cupcakes!

Check out these adorable cupcakes being offered by Occasionally Cake this holiday season!

They've got a wide variety of holiay flavored cupcakes that can have some cute Christmas Decorations on top. Flavors include but are not limited to Candy Cane, Eggnogg, Perfectly Pumpkin, Cranberry Orange, Peppermint Patty and more!

And while you're there picking up your cupcakes, they have plenty of other festive treats - take a look at these sugar cookies and cakeballs!

Make sure you remember that Occasionally Cake will be closed for normal business from December 24th until January 5th 2010. They'll be doing custom cakes during that time, just not the normal cupcakes!

Pic of Curbside Cupcakes Truck

Here's a picture of the Curbside Cupcake truck! Now you'll recognize it when you see it!

Photo by urbnsuburbnite via Twitpic

Cupcakes Currently at Thyme Out

Drop by Thyme Out at 11401 Woodglen Drive in Rockville for the Chocolate Eggnog cupcakes!

Curbside Cupcakes!

Like an ice cream truck...only better!!!

Many Washingtonian's might have noticed a cute little cupcake mobile making its way around the district lately - it's Curbside Cupcakes! The Cupcake Mobile trend has been making its way around many major US cities, and finally has come to the DC/Metro Area.

Curbside Cupcakes says you can find their pink cupcake truck Downtown and around Capitol Hill. How can you find out where they are, you ask? Easy! Check them out at their website, on Facebook, or on Twitter! They also list what flavors are available each day on the calendar located on their site. Looks like today they will have Chocolate with a Peppermint Top, Classic Chocolate, Classic Vanilla, Red Velvet, and Vanilla Mocha.

Cupcakes from Curbside Cupcakes; photo from Curbsidecupcakes.com

Cupcakes from Curbside Cupcakes; photo from Curbsidecupcakes.com

Cupcakes from Curbside Cupcakes; photo from Curbsidecupcakes.com

This map, taken from Curbside Cupcakes' website, shows the area in which they serve up their goodies. Check their site for more details!

Cupcakes are $3.00/each, $15.00 for a Half Dozen, and $27.00/Dozen!

More Alexandria Cupcakes, Coming Soon!

I got an email earlier this week from Melissa B, telling me about a new cupcake place she spotted in Alexandria! It's not open yet, and actually all it says in the window is "Coming Soon Alexandria Cupcakes," but with all the cupcake fans in Alexandria it's exciting to know there will be a new place to try out!

Photo by MarieMcC

Melissa was walking west on the south side of King Street (west of N Washington St.), and spotted it in an old multi-story townhouse-like building. Do anyone of you Alexandria natives know anything about it? I tried doing some research myself and couldn't find anything!

Weekly Cupcakes at Thyme Out

Thyme Out across from White Flint Mall has fresh cupcakes weekly! Available this week are Gingerbread and Cookies N Cream!

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!

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!

Halloween Cupcake Gallery

I'm sure lots of people will be making Cupcakes for Halloween parties this year, so I went through some Google Images and gathered up a bunch of cool Halloween Cupcake decorating ideas!

YoCake Montgomery Mall

I walked through the eatery at Montgomery Mall for the first time in I'd say about a month, and saw this new place called YoCake. They had TONS of cupcakes - has anyone tried them?? I'm on a strict diet so I can start trying on wedding dresses soon, so I refrained from buying one, but I'd love to know what anyone else thinks?

The flavors I saw: Pecan Hazelnut, Amaretto Chocolate Ganache, Amaretto, Chocolate Chocolate, Vanilla Vanilla, Chocolate Coconut, Red Velvet, Vanilla Chocolate, Coconut, Triple Chocolate, and Pecan Hazelnut Chocolate Ganache. There were a few more but I can't remember them!

Their website is still under construction, but you can access it by clicking here.

Creepcake Cupcake How-To

Martha has some fun Halloween Cupcakes this year. To make cupcakes like the ones pictured below, you can follow these instructions!

Spider Creepcakes

Make a vanilla or chocolate cupcake recipe, pouring batter into 2 1/2 mini muffin tins with paper liners. Ice mini cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and coat icing with black sanding sugar. Use cinnamon candy for eyes. For legs, attach 8 pieces of black licorice. For fangs, cut out tiny cone shapes from a marshmallow and attach.

Tentacle Alien Creepcakes

Spread cupcake with a thin layer of buttercream tinted with a few drops of green food coloring. Cut strips of green taffy and attach around top of cupcake. For eye, slice a yellow gumdrop in half and press into top of cupcake. A piece of black licorice attached in front the gumdrop completes the creepy gaze.

Big-Eyed Alien Creepcakes

Spread cupcake with a thin layer of buttercream tinted with a few drops of green food coloring. For small eye, attach a mini marshmallow and create pupil by painting on melted chocolate (microwave 1/2 cup chocolate chips for 1 minute). For large eye, push chocolate chip, tip down, into regular size marshmallow, then cut gummy tape for an eyelid. For teeth, place 5 mini marshamallows along the bottom of cupcake.

Mummy Creepcakes

Spread cupcake with a thin layer of buttercream. Add jelly beans dotted with melted chocolate for eyes and red gummy candy for mouth. Using a ribbon tip (such as Ateco #44), pipe bands of buttercream.

Brain Creepcakes

Use a medium round tip (such as Ateco #12) to pipe a mound of Vanilla Meringue Buttercream in the center of cupcake, then outline and pipe a brain design over it.

Decorating Techniques

To decorate, use marshmallows and candy-coated chocolates for whites of eyes; jelly beans or gumdrops for peepers with an eerie glow. For pupils, paint on melted chocolate (microwave 1/2 cup chocolate chips for 1 minute). Or use candies whole: candy-coated chocolates will stick to marshmallows sliced to expose their stickiness; for our aliens' eyes, we pushed chocolate chips, tip down, into marshmallows, then made a hole in the other side with a toothpick and inserted a licorice lace. Cut gummy tape for an eyelid. Sandwiched between halved gumdrops, marshmallows form a toothy grin; snip irregular pieces for fangs. Bend licorice or gummy rings into grimaces, or cut taffy tape for a tongue or tentacles.

Vote for Halloween Cupcakes at Lola's!

Lola's has two ideas for Halloween cupcakes and can't decide which decoration they prefer. The cupcake on the left is Chocolate cake with Vanilla Buttercream and Halloween-themed sprinkles, while the cupcake on the right is a version with chocolate sprinkles and a tinted white-chocolate pumpkin on top. Click here to cast your vote and help them choose!

Along with Halloween Cupcakes, Lola Pumpkin Cupcakes are back! These moist pumpkin cupcakes are iced with pumpkin buttercream and topped with a candied pecan. I've never tried them, but apparently they're a must have!