White wedding mini cupcakes by Baked by Melissa, June's flavor of the month

Yesterday I stopped by the Baked by Melissa shop on 14th Street off Union Square, one of multiple Manhattan locations, and bought one of their mini cupcake flavor of the month: wedding cupcakes. They get their cake whiter than any cake I've ever seen! The cupcake was pretty good, the best part being the Bavarian cream filling inside; obviously, these are small cupcakes, so there wasn't much in it, but there was enough. The white chocolate shavings are a nice touch too. They're $1 each, with price breaks the more you buy. Baked by Melissa also does mail order, and I learned that they sell colorful gift cards (see below) and that owner Melissa Bushell is getting married this month! Visit bakedbymelissa.com and their Facebook page for more information.

Review: peanut butter and jelly filled cupcake to make you feel like a kid again

I was taking a walk yesterday and stopped in at Empire Cake in Chelsea (Manhattan), lured in by the sign outside touting peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. On the top, there's only a small round dollop of jelly, but inside there's a lot, which is just the way I like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or cupcake. The frosting was actually very light and whipped and didn't taste as strongly of peanut butter as I would have suspected. The jelly was, I think, grape jelly, and that was thicker and I wound up scooping most of it out with a knife and pairing it with small amounts of cake and peanut butter frosting. A deconstructed cupcake is still a cupcake, right? I wish the frosting had been a bit stronger tasting, but other than that, this cupcake was definitely worth it.

Magnolia Bakery opening soon in Kuwait, plus plans for Doha, Abu Dhabi, Lebanon, Japan and Russia

This just in, from the Facebook page of world famous Magnolia Bakery: "Magnolia Bakery is opening soon in Kuwait! (And Doha, Abu Dhabi, Lebanon, Japan and Russia, among other international locations.)" This location will be at Al Hamra Mall in Kuwait City and you can follow @Magnoliakuwait on Twitter for more details (@magnoliabakery is their regular Twitter account).

More details from a February ArabianBusiness.com article:

The brand, known for its classic American desserts, will remain focused on its current menu, while developing a few specific items for each culture, Steve Abrams, owner and CEO of Magnolia Bakery, said in an email statement.

The company currently has eight locations worldwide, including five in New York and one each in Chicago, Los Angeles and Dubai.

In addition to the four franchises in the Gulf, the company is planning to open cupcake stores in the UK, Japan, Brazil, Jordan and Morocco.

They've also launched another site-specific cupcake (they have a Grand Central Station cupcake that's only available in their Grand Central shop). This one's their Bloomingdale's Cupcake and is available at Bloomingdale's in Manhattan, and is Chocolate cake swirled with chocolate buttercream and whipped vanilla icing, topped with a dark chocolate disc."

They're also selling graduation cupcakes and today started selling a new flourless chocolate cupcake, available with peanut butter buttercream or whipped vanilla bean meringue buttercream. And I think that catches us up! Find out more at magnoliabakery.com. There's so much going on with them I can't fit it all into one post, so stay tuned for my review of their chocolate lemon cupcake.




Magnolia Bakery's Bloomingdale's cupcake




I know Mother's Day is over but I didn't get a chance to post this earlier


their limited edition NATO cupcake (I think this is in Chicago only, celebrating the NATO Summit) on sale through May 25th: "The NATO cupcake is a vanilla cupcake with rich vanilla buttercream frosting topped with decorative blue nonpareils to coincide with the colors of the NATO flag." (via Red Eye)


graduation cupcakes

Brooklyn blackout chocolate pudding cupcakes in Manhattan

Empire Cake, located in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood at 112 8th Avenue, where Lulu's Cake Boutique used to be, is selling this Brooklyn Blackout cupcake ($2.75), a chocolate cupcake filled with chocolate pudding. I stopped in yesterday and was intrigued by it. The liquidy pudding inside is delicious and sweet, while the chocolate frosting is a darker and less sweet chocolate, and all of it, including the chocolate cake, go wonderfully together. Highly recommended!

I'm a Red Velvet and I'm a tie dye t-shirts at Baked by Melissa, plus Peanut Butter Fluff mini cupcakes

I stopped by Baked by Melissa in SoHo in New York yesterday and got one of their April cupcakes of the month, the Peanut Butter Fluff. I love how they can pack so much into one tiny cupcakes, and I also love peanut butter and marshmallow. It reminded me of the first time I ever had marshmallow fluff; I'd never even heard of it, and I was at a summer day camp and everyone was eating peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches, and while whether I liked it is a bit fuzzy, feeling totally out of the loop for not knowing what fluff was is what I recall. These were interesting, and a good mix of peanut butter to fluff, salty and sweet. Sometimes, even for a marshmallow lover like I am, marshmallow can be too sweet, so this wasn't the case. And for $1 it was a great snack!







Baked by Melissa is also selling cupcake t-shirts that say "I'm a Red Velvet" or "I'm a Tie Dye." What I want to know is where's my "I'm a S'mores" t-shirt? I'd wear that! Baked by Melissa ships their mini cupcakes nationwide and has six locations in Manhattan. Visit bakedbymelissa.com and their Facebook page for more information.



They are running a contest where you can win by uploading photos of Baked by Melissa cupcakes to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.:



What else is happening with Baked by Melissa? They've launched an iPad app! You can create cupcakes, play with cupcake art, find store locations and order cupcakes. Here are some screen shots from the store page:





Last but not least, today through April 8th, you can get Easter mini cupcakes at all Baked by Melissa bakeries: