A cupcake baked into a cupcake with a cupcake on top = cupcake WIN

Sometimes you see something and you just think, "The internet was created so I could have this moment of pure and total joy." That's how I felt when I saw this cupcake baked into the middle of a cupcake with a mini cupcake on top. I first discovered it while searching Pinterest (here's where we're pinning) and tracked it back to the wonderful Ninas kleiner Food-blog. She used an aluminum foil cutter and gives exact instructions on how to make these (her blog is in German, but at the top there's a button to get it translated into English, or whatever your preferred language is). Part of me is thinking, Well, I can stop cupcake blogging now because this is IT. But I also know that cupcake blogging is forever, and there are endless variations on our beloved dessert. Still, this is pretty amazing and I'm in pure food awe.

Lemon coconut cupcakes with 7-minute frosting and recipe link

Love how bright and bold these lemon-filled coconut cupcakes by The Foodess are! Visit her for the frosting (bonus, it's made with 7-minute frosting). From the post: "These cupcakes have a double hit of coconut: sweet, creamy coconut milk as the liquid; and fragrant, nutty toasted coconut folded in. Toasting the coconut, although it is an extra bit or work, is absolutely worth the effort. It makes a huge flavour impact."

Happy National Chocolate Ice Cream Day cupcakes

It's National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, which is fitting since is the year of Cupcakes and Ice Cream. It's also a good time to tell you that Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious are holding their annual Ice Cream Cupcake Contest - enter by June 30th! The cupcake below was an entry in the 2011 contest. It's a Fudgy Pistachio-Chocolate Malted Cupcake by Leah, using chocolate and pistachio ice cream!





For the bacon lovers, Stephanie of 52 Kitchen Adventures made a bacon chocolate ice cream cupcake (!!). It was a finalist in the 2010 Ice Cream Cupcake Contest and she writes: "The sprinkle of fleur de sel and bacon pieces on top adds a nice balance of salty to the sweet buttercream. Plus the little chunks of chocolate covered bacon provides bursts of salty flavor to break up the rich chocolate of the cake and ice cream." This one has Chocolate sorbet with chocolate covered bacon chips inside!



And on the cupcake/ice cream connection, thanks to Cocoa Van Cupcake of Memphis, Tennessee, whose Facebook page is where I found out it's National Chocolate Ice Cream Day! I don't have a photo of their cupcakes with chocolate ice cream, so here is their tiramisu cupcake with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream. Their cupcake flavors today are: coconut, sharland apple, two snaps up, lemon, foxy brown, red vel, van, cocoa, carmela.

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.

Memorial Day red, white and blue patriotic cupcakes

Happy Memorial Day to our United States readers! Here are some red, white and blue cupcakes and cake pops to celebrate.


American flag cupcake by The NY Melrose Family


Red, white and blue star cupcakes by Garden Grove, California custom cupcake company RooneyGirl BakeShop via Flickr


More patriotic star cupcakes by Hoosier Homemade, where you can find more Memorial Day cupcake ideas




Blueberry and cherry pie cupcakes (they're both on top and baked inside!!) by Wisconsin custom cupcake baker Amanda Cupcake

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.

Piñata cupcakes filled with candy!

What fun: cupcakes filled with candy that pours out of them when you bite in or break them open. Love it! These are by Brandon Cakes in Kailua, Hawaii, via their Facebook page. Their flavor of the month is cherry lemonade, and you can find out more at brandoncakes.com. The others aren't piñata cupcakes, but I thought they were cute too (though, sorry, not as cute). Contact Brandon Cakes at 808-780-3505 (call or text) or email sales at brandoncakes.com to place an order.

Filled cupcake cookbook Bake It in a Cupcake! is coming to a bookstore near you in October

Congratulations to Megan Seling of the fabulous filled cupcake blog Bake It in a Cake for her cookbook deal! Bake It in a Cupcake: 50 Treats with a Surprise Inside is available for pre-order will be out in October from Andrews McMeel. We'll share more information about it as soon as we can, but what's below should be enough to entice you. (I know this cover is different than the one on the publisher's site, which I believe is an older version. This cover is the one on Amazon and, as far as I know, the final version. Plus I think a heart baked inside a cupcake is one of the cutest things ever!)



Here's the publisher's official description:

Bake It in a Cupcake takes the cupcake craze to the next level with 50 recipes for all kinds of sweet and savory treats baked inside cupcakes. These whimsical creations are presented in a bright, colorful format that looks as good as the cupcakes taste. All of Bake It in a Cupcake's creations are mouthwatering and fairly simple to make, even for those without baking experience. The fabulous recipes are accompanied by easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, with beautiful color photographs. While traditional cupcakes are still wildly popular, Bake It in a Cupcake takes the classic treat beyond complicated decorating techniques. As the saying goes, it's what's on the inside that counts.

The recipes are organized by chapter by what is inside, whether that's another baked good like a mini pie or lemon square, or different kinds of your favorite candy. Recipes include Lemon Bar Vanilla Cupcakes with Fresh Raspberry Frosting, Cherry Pie Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting, Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate-Covered Pretzel Brownie Bites with Salted Caramel Frosting, and Egg-Filled Croissant Cups with Swiss Cheese and Chives. There is something in this cookbook for everyone's taste, kid and adult alike.

Below are some double rainbow cupcakes she recently posted by a reader named Daniela.

Salted caramel filled cupcakes with recipe link

These salted caramel brown sugar cupcakes look wonderful! Get the recipe at In the Pink and Green (via her friend schue love, who raved about them).

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!

Foofa and Brobee Yo Gabba Gabba! raw vegan cupcakes from Rawdorable

Yes, Shannonmarie at Rawdorable has yet again taken a Cupcake Wars cupcake theme, in this case, the popular kids TV show Yo Gabba Gabba!, and created her own version of raw vegan cupcakes with characters Foofa (beloved by my cousin Ellis) and Brobee, her daughter's favorite characters, using strawberry and kiwi (find out exactly how she made them in her post). What fun! The two photos below are what they look like inside.

For chocolate lovers only: chocolate cookies and cream cupcakes and recipe link

How do you make something good even better? Add chocolate! That's what blogger Confessions of a Cookbook Queen did to her most popular recipe for cookies and cream cupcakes and this is what she got:





As she writes: "Cookie bottom. Chocolate Cupcake. Cream filling. Chocolate and crushed cookie frosting. Dipped in chocolate shell. This is not a cupcake that cuts corners." Enjoy! Visit Confessions of a Cookbook Queen for the recipe.

Easter bunny lemon curd filled cupcakes

Lemon curd is one of my favorite cupcake fillings and these Easter bunny cupcakes by Tidy Mom tie in Easter and springtime perfectly!

Cupcake flavor adventures: Cotton candy, Pink Snowball, blueberry Earl Grey

Look what new vegan cupcake flavors Sweet Avenue Bake Shop in Rutherford, New Jersey has in store for you. They are always cooking up fun flavors and designs and mixing things up so you can never get bored, and as a blogger and customer, I appreciate that! They've also set the date of June 23rd for their annual Cupcakefest event, featuring bands and cupcakes and much more. Get all the details and keep up with them on Facebook and at sweetavenuebakeshop.com.


Cotton Candy: vanilla cake filled and topped with cotton candy marshmallow fluff (available Wednesday & Saturday)

Pink Snowball: chocolate cake filled and topped with coconut marshmallow fluff (available Wednesday & Friday)

Blueberry Earl Grey: earl grey tea-infused cake filled with blueberry preserves and topped with brown sugar frosting (available Wednesday & Friday)



From their Facebook page:

Sweet Avenue offers a daily selection of 12 to 14 different flavors of vegan cupcakes, with gluten-free cupcakes also being offered daily. We also make a variety of cheesecakes, brownies, cake balls, cookies, etc. Everything is 100% vegan, dairy- and egg-free.