Bake and Destroy offers Girl Gourmet Cafe Bakery Prize

Here's a chance to win a Girl Gourmet Cafe Bakery for your little ones.

It features Duff Goldman (Ace of Cakes) and is being giving away by Bake and Destroy. All you have to do is tell the story of your first cake creation.

Wish I knew about this sooner....TODAY IS THE LAST DAY! Visit HERE

A Very Memorable and Fun Wedding Entrance

Last week, Totally Tabletops blog posted this great article and video of one of the funnest wedding entrances I've ever seen. I would have loved to been there.

Congratulations Kevin and Jill! Wishing you many happy (and fun dance) years together.

Check the video out HERE.

I heart Cupcakes Take The Cake!

I'm overjoyed today! One of the BIGGEST cupcake blogs around; Cupcakes Take The Cake posted an interview about my business and love of cupcakes. Check it out HERE.

I've lived on reading this blog for over a year and a half. It is full of all sorts of amazing information about cupcakes; recipes, flavors, bakeries, decorations and more.

Thanks Rachel, Nichelle and Stacie! You ladies always do an amazing job keeping people informed about ALL things cupcakes. I'm so proud to be a part of your blog posts.

Sweet Baby! Sweetkups!

I received this adorable photo from Sweetkups cupcake shop in Miami Florida.

I like how they paired our cupcake wrappers with their cupcakes and added a little baby-themed gift bag. What a great baby shower gift!

They also have a blog post about our company and our eco-friendly styles. If you're in Miami, please stop on by and try a cupcake for us. Then let us know your thoughts. While you are there, you can also ask to order some Bella Cupcake Couture.

Clara French Ceramique

Check out this beautiful cupcake stand!! It was created by Clara French Ceramiques.

When you visit her site, it has the sweetest music. I typically tend to turn the sound off on websites, but this one is so pleasant and has a magical feel. As do their creations.

Clara French has beautiful designs to select from or choose a custom cake stand designed to beautifully complement the tone of your celebration. Inspired by the details of your wedding this heirloom piece will be cherished by generations to come.

We want your "Glitzy" opinion!

Images from Wedding Bells

We're contemplating a new color option for our wrappers. We've heard a few requests for a more subtle color; like soft beige along with a bit of sparkling champagne gold.

What are your thought? Is this a color you would like to see? Any other colors? Looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Austin Cupcake Tasting

I recently visited Austin, Texas and of course had to visit some of the local cupcake shops. Here is a review of three local cupcake bakeries.

SUGAR MAMA'S BAKESHOP

First stop, Sugar Mama's Bakeshop. I was looking forward to going here since my last visit to Austin a year ago. During that visit, they weren't quite open as the result of construction delays. It was well worth the wait!

The storefront is darling with a sweet old-fashion feel. Their logo is darling with the red, white and black cupcake with a little Texas star on top. When we walked in we saw all these darling designer aprons hanging on the walls. Then, we saw their bakery case full of delicious cupcakes.

Each cupcake had it's very own style and design. You can tell a lot of work, thought and heart went into creating these masterpieces. Each had a star-quality name; Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemon, Hemingway, Frida and more.

One of the owners was there, Steve O'Neal (unfortunately his wife Olivia was out this day) who shared the history of all Olivia's hard work. She spent years perfecting the recipes. Boy, did she do an outstanding job.

Here is what we chose (note: this was over 2 different days):

Odd Couple cupcake: This sweet and salty delight consists of a rich moist chocolate cupcake topped with salted caramel cream cheese frosting. Opposites attract in this Sugar Mama's favorite! It was another crowd favorite. It was such a great flavor combo.

"Hula" : Moist coconut cupcake topped with coconut cream cheese frosting and a generous sprinkling of toasted coconut.This frosting was DREAMY!

Elvis: Moist banana cupcake with creamy peanut butter buttercream with edible gold sparkles. "Thank you very much" this was a very nice light treat. The two together was a good combo and the peanut butter frosting was very creamy.

Mud Pie: This one gets the record for the "most ingredients". It is a chocolate cake covered in whipped coffee buttercream frosting, crushed chocolate cream sandwich cookies, whipped cream, and a drizzle of dark chocolate syrup. It was VERY delicious. I'm not a big coffee fan but it wasn't to overwhelming.

Jack Lemon: This had a very unique cake. It almost seemed like a chewey cookie crust (like a snickerdoodle texture) with a moist lemon cupcake. Then it was topped with tangy lemon buttercream.

The Hemingway: Saving the best for last....this was my ULTIMATE favorite. Buttery vanilla cupcake filled with fresh key lime curd and topped with key lime cream cheese frosting and crushed graham crackers. A true masterpiece. (Wish they shipped to Seattle).

DELISH CUPCAKES

Next we visited Delish Cupcakes. As we approached the shop we saw a nice selection of outdoor seating on the tree-lined sidewalk. It was very sophisticated and had this cool sofa chair which was made of hard plastic but was surprisinlgy comfortable. The shop seemed very modern from the exterior.

We were greeted by very friendly staff and the decor had a very hip, trendy feel to it. They had lots of great artwork which we were informed was all done by the owner.

We chose two cupcakes:

Ginger Carrot Cake: It was a very moist cake and the ginger wasn't to overwhelming. The cake was topped with a cream cheese frosting. It had candied ginger pieces on top as well. We really enjoyed the cream cheese frosting.

Milk and Honey: The cake seemed light with a bit of dryness and vanilla-honey flavor. It was topped with a sweet Mexican vanilla frosting. It seemed a bit too sweet but maybe it was because we had sample three other cupcakes a half hour before hand.

WICKED CAKES

Wicked Cakes does not have a storefront, so the owner Nicole McGarry, was sweet enough to bring several of her cupcakes to our Austin Cupcake-meet up which occured on July 7th.

Nicole had the sweetest personality. You can tell she really cares about her customers and is passionate about cake. I'm so glad she could attend and bring us all her scrumptious treats.

Wicked Cakes provided the following:

Coconut: This had a chocolate cake with a coconut cream frosting. All her cakes were a great size and easy to eat. I really enjoyed the coconut frosting. I secretly wished for a coconut cake as well but it was very delicious combination.

Red Velvet: The cake was a wee bit dry but the cream cheese frosting was soooo good.

Peanut Butter Chocolate : This was my favorite! The peanut butter frosting was creamy and delicious. The cake was moist and tasty. She had these cute sugar flowers on top and we dressed up all the cupcakes with some Bella Cupcake Couture.

It was a delicious day of cupcake tasting, even in the 102 degree weather. Thank you Austin! Look forward to our next visit to try more shops. For more photos visit our Facebook site.

I love New York in June!

I recently got back from a trip to New York. This was my first visit to the Big Apple. I came in search of cupcakes and to visit the Fancy Food Show.

For today’s blog post, I’m going to share my adventures of the trip and the cupcakes and foods we had along the way. My goal is to provide insight for future New York visitors or any foodies who want to "live vicariously" for a moment.

You’ll notice at some of the bakeries we got more cupcakes than others. This typically was because of the size group who may be involved in the tasting. Note: It is very hard to only try one.

MAGNOLIA BAKERY
First stop was to Magnolia Bakery on Columbus Ave. When we arrived it was busy with cupcake-loving visitors. We were happily surprised it wasn't to touristy though. Definitely more of a neighborhood feeling. They had a variety of yummy baked goods including ice-box cake, banana pudding, cakes, cupcakes and more. Bobbi Lloyd the manager was going to tour me around. Unfortunately she wasn't able to be there this day. Her trusting manager, Shana was sweet enough to oblige.

During the tour, I found racks and racks of cupcakes everywhere. Shana explained they go through thousands of cupcakes a day. When we went downstairs to the storage area we also found several shelves of frosting. She said they will go through this in a day or two minimum. That is a LOT of frosting.

At the end of the tour we picked out the piece de resistance....6 tasty cupcakes to sample. Starting from top left going clockwise; red velvet, chocolate mocha, caramel meringue, chocolate cake/chocolate frosting, vanilla/vanilla and hummingbird. TOP PICK: Caramel meringue rocked our world!!!

TRIBECA TREATS

Next stop Tribeca Treats. This is such a cute little shop. I loved their big open window. This store has so many great little gift options. You can find cards, cook books, gift bags, chocolates, and more. They had a great selection of cupcakes. We loved the lemon and the caramel cupcake.

They also had frosting shots in these terrific little cups. Great cupcake shop for the sweets lover!

BABYCAKES

Babycakes is a smaller shop with little standing room. No light in the cupcake case, made it difficult to see the selections. For anyone who has to or prefers to eat gluten-free (for my niece Kim) this is a gluten-free lovers dream shop. I had the Blueberry Cream Stuffed Vanilla Gluten-free Agave Cupcake and it was sooo delicious. Moist, flavorful and not sickly sweet.

SWEET SUGAR SUNSHINE

This Sweet Sugar Sunshine shop had a very casual and homey-feeling with couch, chairs and coffee tables at the front of the store. We had the pistachio cupcake and it was perfect! It had a nice mild flavor and great pistachio goodness. The frosting had more of a sugary taste but not to overwhelming.

IVY BAKERY

Ivy Bakery does movie-themed cupcakes to raise money for local charities. This weeks movie theme was "Twilight". I liked the werewolf and it was fun to decipher the other cupcake meanings. Very cozy shop and had kind of a coffee house feel. Not much sitting room but a great “around the corner” shop. The best “how’d you get here” story of all time! Ivy grew up in a tough neighborhood and baked her way to entrepreneurship. Check out www.ivybakery.com for more details.

We chose a Peanut Butter cake with Chocolate frosting, Red Velvet and Pineapple. I’m a sucker for the PB and chocolate. Frosting was very creamy.

THE LITTLE CUPCAKE SHOP

Here is a shop not to far from Ivy Bakery called the the Little Cupcake Bakeshop. Very cutesy cupcake shop, which made you, feel like smiling when you walked in. Lots of seating and nice staff. The Little Cupcake Bakeshop had a bright selection of cupcakes to choose from. The owner was super nice and helped us pick out our soon-to-be devoured Coconut Cloud. The meringue on top was AMAZING! Seriously I still feel like I'm on "Cloud-9" when I think of this cupcake.

BUTTER LANE

What a greeting! The Butter Lane staff (and customers) was super nice and down to earth. Tables and benches outside to relax with cupcakes and friends. We had the Blueberry, Caramel Popcorn, Banana Cake, and a sneak peek sample of their “Big Red” frosting (so tasty). The caramel popcorn was so unique. It was a bit sweet so I'm glad I could share. The flavor was spot on though. They really know what they are doing. The banana cake was sooo moist and frosting very buttery.

CHIKALICIOUS

ChikaLicious is very Chic! It had a very sophisticated feel and the cupcake frosting was very elegant. They had the cutest little frosted crowns. Don't laugh (to hard) but they reminded me of little tiny cute cartoon aliens for some reason. They just looked so perfect and shiny. LOVED the flavor of frosting and cake together; seemed like pillows of heaven. And for $1.60 -- a phenomenal deal.

ELENI'S AND BUTTER @ FANCY FOOD SHOW

While walking around the very large Fancy Food Show, I was pleased to run into two booths of cupcake/bakery shops I have been wanting to try. One was Eleni's of New York and they had one of their cupcake selection (amongst all their other delicious baked goods) to try. It had a very chocolatey moist cake with a light butter frosting. The other was Butter Bake Goods of Vancouver, Canada. They didn't have any of their cupcakes but their homemade marshmallows are so unique and tasty.

FUN AT THE FANCY FOOD SHOW

While in New York, I also attended the Fancy Food Show. When I visited the Barefoot Contessa booth they were sampling the red velvet cupcake mix and coconut macroons-- both were soooo good.

We had the privilege to meet the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten and Bobby Flay. Both were super nice. Ina even signed one of our Bella Cupcake Couture wrappers (Hannah- soft pink/grey). What an amazing trip!

I had hoped to meet with some of the top cupcake bloggers of Cupcakes Take the Cake while in town however we had a few schedule conflicts. Hopefully next time I'm in town.

Hope this blog will help with any future New York cupcake tours or that you enjoyed living vicariously through my dream get away. For all photos visit our Facebook Fan Page.