Martha Stewart has a recipe here for Twitter cupcakes made with chocolate buttercream frosting and toasted coconut. The cupcakes are technically called Nesting Baby-Bluebird Cupcakes by Martha Stewart, but they look like Twitter cupcakes to us.
New Juicy Couture Children's Jewelry Features Cupcakes, Ice Cream Cones
Juicy Couture has launched a collected of children's jewelry that contain
delicious treats. The collection includes ice cream cone earrings, strawberry necklaces and cupcake chain bracelets. The 14K yellow gold plated jewelry items range in price from $18 to $78 and can be purchased here from Neiman Marcus.
Froggy-in-the-Water Cupcakes from Princess Tiana's Cookbook
Here is a recipe for adorable Froggy-in-the-Water Cupcakes from pages 54-55 of kids cookbook, The Princess and the Frog: Tiana's Cookbook. The Princess and the Frog DVD and Blu-ray will be released on March 16th. You can whip a batch of these Froggy cupcakes to eat while you watch the film.
INGREDIENTS:
Blue food coloring
1 cup buttercream frosting
1 dozen baked cupcakes
12 large green gumdrops
2 dozen white chocolate chips
Black decorators' icing
DIRECTIONS:
Stir drops of food coloring into the frosting until you have a shade of watery blue. Frost the cupcakes.
For each cupcake, create a pair of frog eyes by slicing a gumdrop in half. Press a white chocolate-chip tip down into the cut surface of each gumdrop half, centering it near the bottom edge. Squirt a dab of black decorators’ icing onto each chip.
Set the frog eyes on the cupcakes, gently pressing them partway into the frosting to hold them in place.
Rating the Overnight Gourmet Cupcake Delivery Services
Many people are addicted to the cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery or at Crumbs bakery in New York. But what if you live somewhere else and crave gourmet cupcakes? If you don't mind paying around $10 per cupcake once the shipping cost is factored in, you can have them overnighted to you. Abigail Pesta of The Wall Street Journal tested out several of the top overnight gourmet cupcake delivery services. Georgetown Cupcakes in Washington, D.C. and Godiva came out on top. Take a look:
You can read the article, which has overnight gourmet cupcake ratings, here.
Horchow sells three cakes that resemble handbags. They include the Quilted Chocolate Handbag Cake, a white chocolate butter cake filled with chocolate ganache and white chocolate buttercream. The other two bags include the Zebra-Striped Handbag Cake and the Sassy Satchel Cake. The handbag cakes range in price from $235 to $280 and can be found here on Horchow's website.
Video: Chef David Guas Makes Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
Chef David Guas, author of the cookbook DamGood Sweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth New Orleans Style, demonstrates how to make Jambalaya, a traditional food for Mardi Gras. He also shows Kathie Lee and Hoda how to color sugar for a traditional King's cake, and presents some traditional cocktails, such as the Hurricane and Brandy Milk Punch. Take a look:
You can see Chef Guas' recipes for Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya, Caramel Peanut Popcorn, King Cake and Brandy Milk Punch here.
Just Born has launched new Peeps Marshmallow "I Luv U" treats for Valentine's Day. They have also added a new Peeps Layered Heart Cake recipe that incorporates the new I Luv U mashmallow treats. The recipe also uses Peeps Strawberry Creme Flavored Marshmallow Hearts. You can get the recipe for the Valentine's Peeps cake here (PDF file).
Mini Cupcake Maker Bakes Seven Tiny Cupcakes at a Time
Your crowded kitchen probably doesn't need any more specialty appliances but this mini cupcake maker from Small Planet looks like a lot of fun. The non stick cupcake maker can make mini cupcake treats in five minutes. You can makes up to seven tiny cupcakes at a time. The mini cupcake maker can be purchased from What on Earth and on Amazon.com. Small Planet also makes a mini donut maker.
Video: Waverly Inn Chef John DeLucie Makes Pumpkin Ravioli
Author and chef John DeLucie of The Waverly Inn appeared on The Today Show to cook pumpkin ravioli and pumpkin cheesecake. The host teased him by telling him that she was going to put the unlisted number of The Waverly Inn up on the television screen so everyone could call in to make a reservation. He laughed, but was clearly horrified (she didn't really post the number). Take a look:
Ace of Cakes Duff Goldman has a new book out called Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes. The book is not a cookbook. Instead the book tells the story about how Duff Goldman's unusual bakery, Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, became a success. Duff Goldman studied pastries at the Culinary Institute of America and worked at the French Laundry under acclaimed pastry chef Steven Durfee, at the Vail Cascade Hotel and Resort, and at Todd English's Olives restaurant in Washington, D.C. Duff's brother William is the co-creator and coexecutive producer of the Ace of Cakesshow on the Food Network.
Duff Goldman says the coolest cake they every made is actually being made right now. It's a life-size working model of a Ducati motorcyle. Take a look:
Haunted Manor Stand Provides Spooky Showcase For Your Halloween Treats
If you spend a lot of time creating creepy cupcakes this Halloween you might want something spooky to display them on. The Haunted Manor Treat Stand from Wilton should do the trick. The three-tiered stand holds 24 cupcakes. It could also be used for cookies, brownies, rice krispie treats and other goodies. The stand is currently available on Amazon.com for $9.99. Wilton also offers a recipe for creating the cupcakes pictured above here.
Neiman Marcus has unveiled its 2009 Christmas Book. The 83rd edition includes some unusual, lavish gifts as it does each year. Last year, one of the unusual gifts were lift-sized His and Hers Lego Sculptures. One of the most unusual gifts this year is the Cupcake Car (pictured above), which costs $25,000. Some of the other unique items available this year include a His and Hers Icon A5 Sports Aircraft, a sustainable design art chandelier, the Algonquin Round Table Experience and Mission One, the world's fastest electric sport bike. You can see photos of all the gifts here. This year's featured car is the 2010 Jaguar XJL Supercharged Neiman Marcus Edition.
"Our annual tradition of fantasy gifts allows our devoted customers to give a gift or gift experience that will create wonderful memories to last both the giver and recipients a lifetime," said Gerald Barnes, President and CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct. "This year's array of gifts has raised the bar to new heights, featuring items at the highest levels of quality and technology."
You can see more of the unusual items in the 2009 Neiman Marcus Christmas Book here.
At long last, Mrs. Butterworth's first name has been revealed: it's Joy. Joy Butterworth.
The New York Times reports on this breaking pancake syrup news:
The Pinnacle Foods Group plans to announce on Thursday morning the long-unknown given name of Mrs. Butterworth, the make-believe character for whom Mrs. Butterworth's syrup is named. The mysterious first name is Joy.
Mrs. Butterworth's was introduced, sans given name, in 1961, and is now owned by Pinnacle, which also owns the Log Cabin syrup brand among other pantry staples. Pinnacle sponsored a contest among consumers to guess the character's first name and the winners are being announced along with the name: A 15-year-old from Logansport, Ind., Shayla Doty, and a 44-year-old from Champaign, Ill., Cynthia Harmon.
The winners each receive $500 and a year's supply of Mrs. B's syrup. The contest is among many being sponsored by consumer-product marketers to stimulate interest in venerable brands.
Joy Butterworth? We didn't see that one coming. We thought she always seemed more like a Margaret. When we were growing up we always had Mrs. Butterworth's syrup with our pancakes and waffles.
In any event, it's nice to see that she's embracing the Internet. You can follow her on Twitter
here. Tee hee!
The cupcake craze has
spread to the Middle East. Fadi Jaber always preferred the desserts of his American friends when he was a boy at the multinational Aramco school in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. And when he visited the famous Magnolia Bakery in New York, he said it changed his life. He quit his job in marketing at Unilver, went to cooking school and then apprenticed at cupcake shop. Then in July, 2007, he opened the first American style cupcake store in Amman, Jordan, called Sugar Daddy's which has been a huge success. The trend has ignited like wildfire since then.
Members of Jordan's royal family stop by the shop in jeans and sweatshirts, ordering boxes of cupcakes while their bodyguards wait outside. It is rumored that Queen Rania is a fan.
Since December 2008, the shop, which also sells cheesecakes and brownies, has been in the well-to-do neighborhood of Abdoun, which is thick with embassies and upscale restaurants. Mr. Jaber has also opened a Sugar Daddy's in Beirut and in Dubai.
Most of his clientele (95 percent are women, he estimates) were familiar with cupcakes from living or studying abroad. Others knew them from the TV show Sex and the City, which has been shown on regional satellite stations for a few years. One customer asked him to draw lips on every cupcake. When he asked her why, she replied, "Because that's soooo 'Sex and the City.'"
Nabil al-Rabaa, Mr. Jaber's partner in Beirut, where the shop opened late last year, said that while most customers had encountered cupcakes before, there was initial confusion. "There were a lot that would say, 'I'll take that muffin, and one of those muffins,'" Mr. al-Rabaa said. "Please, these are cupcakes!"
American style cupcake stores have now poppped up in Tel Aviv, Israel, Istanbul, Berlin and Seoul, South Korea. World peace through cupcakes. Works for us.
Choosing the right wedding cake is a big decision for a bride. So what does a wedding cake maker do when it's her own wedding? She outsources, of course. Who wants the stress of making your own wedding cake, even if it's what you do for a living? She turns to Mich Turner of Little Venice Cake Company, who has made cakes for Queen Elizabeth, Madonna and David Beckham. Take a look:
