Happy New Year 2011

New Year's resolution...eat more cupcakes!

Anita Jamal

cupcake collar by Chica and Jo

cupcake collar by Chica and Jo

Hoosier Homemade

Broken Heart Cupcakes

I wish there were no broken hearts...even a cupcake can't fix everything.


I'm falling to pieces
One's still in love while the other one's leaving
I'm falling to pieces
"Cause when a heart breaks it don't break even.
                                             Breakeven  lyrics by The Script

sweetsandhearts  via  Flickr

Angry Birds

I am addicted to Angry Birds - an app that I wish I had never found. I downloaded it to my iPod Touch and playing this game makes me almost as angry as the birds.  Here's the deal....green pigs have stolen the eggs of the birds and now the birds are angry.  You shoot birds out of a slingshot and try to destroy the pigs.  Good luck!

Xiasi  via  Flickr

@bakerhand

Kwanzaa Cupcakes

Kwanzaa is a weeklong celebration held in the United States honoring universal African-American heritage and culture, and is observed from December 26th to January 1st each year. It features activities such as lighting a candle holder with seven candles and culminates in a feast and gift-giving. It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated in 1966-1967 (Wikipedia).  Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles:


Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems, and to solve them together.

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Imani (Faith): To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Kwanzaa cupcake collar

Chica and Jo

Kwanzaa cupcake picks

Hometown Celebrations

Africa cupcake cake

An_Ann-Marie_cake!

Christmas RVCs - revisited

I just got off the plane and am finally home after a great Christmas!  Here are more pictures detailing the making of the red velvet cupcakes on Christmas Eve.  A fun time was had by all....especially eating them.

putting on the white chocolate leaves

we found some boards by the barn

and used them for the display

 

the finished product

sampling the RVCs

The Recipe of the Week is taking a break today

Sorry...but I have been overserved this Christmas weekend so I cannot post a recipe today. I will rest my gastrointestinal system and return tomorrow. Visions of New Year's cupcakes are dancing in my head!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all.....

Christmas Eve Cupcakes

My niece has been emailing me for weeks with her request to make red velvet cupcakes (we call them RVCs) with cream cheese icing.  This afternoon we made them...and my brother captured the decorating process on video - see "Maidee's first cupcakes 1" on You Tube if you dare.

P.S.  Hope Santa puts some RVCs in your stockings tonight!

Ski Cupcakes

For the past week, the Lake Tahoe basin has been slammed with a series of storms that have delivered 9-15 feet of snow (depending on your exact location and elevation).  Skiers & snowboarders rejoice!

shereenscakesandbakes (UK)

Cupcake Madrid

Baa, Baa Cupcake...Have you

any frosting?

Christmas in the Magnolia State

Mississippi is the Magnolia State and as you read this today, I am on a plane headed there.  When I arrive my mom will fry catfish with french fries & hushpuppies.  Yum!  After supper, I promised my niece we would make red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing.  Yum squared!  Oh yes...there will be photos.

Enjoy these holiday cupcakes while I fly!

Disney Family Fun

abakedcreation

jdesmeules (Blue Cupcake)

ryansbakingblog

ghholt

The Winter Solstice

The winter solstice occurs when the Earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the winter solstice lasts only a moment in time, the term is also a turning point to midwinter or the first day of winter to refer to the day on which it occurs. This occurs on the shortest day and longest night, when the sun's daily maximum position in the sky is the lowest.

Enjoy a winter cupcake today!

asa-hello sugar!

Asa Hellgren

Christmas Tree Cupcake Cakes

I love cupcake cakes...maybe because they are larger than your average individual cupcake and the phrase "the bigger the better" always sounds good when you are talking about cupcakes!

cup.cakers  via  Flickr

cupcakeninja

cakecentral

Easy Christmas Wreath Cupcakes

This video shows how to make a Christmas wreath cupcake using a ziplock bag (cutting a leaf tip into the bag).  Very easy and festive! 

Recipe of the Week - Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

I love chocolate cupcakes and Ghirardelli chocolate.  I used to date someone who traveled frequently to San Francisco and would bring me Ghirardelli chocolate squares after every trip. I called it his "admission ticket" to my house.  It has been a long time since then, but it is one of my favorite memories. 

Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

lucindalunacy

Christmas Cupcake Pops

Christmas cupcake pops...these photos speak for themselves!

My Little Cupcake

No Bake Cupcake POP Mold

My Little Cupcake

No Bake Cupcake POP Mold

Bakerella's photostream via Flickr

Bakerella's photostream via Flickr

Reindeer Cupcakes

You know Dasher & Dancer & Prancer & Vixen....Comet & Cupid & Donner & Blitzen.  But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?  Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer of course! 

Get some rest guys - only a week left til Christmas Eve! 

natashaogle  via  Flickr

Reindeer Cupcake Collars

Chica & Jo

daintyindulgence  via  Flickr

Reindeer Cupcake Pops

MyLollicakes

Tree Update #2

Great news Christmas tree fans...it has been 4 days and the tree is still standing.  Can I tie a tree to the wall or what?

Christmas Wreath Cupcakes

This cupcake wreath is simple and oh so elegant! 

rebekahl

National Cupcake Day!

May I suggest that you celebrate today...National Cupcake Day...by eating a red velvet cupcake! 

My niece Maidee Parker and I are going to be making a big batch of RVCs just 7 days from today!

kirstinmckee

Grinch Cupcakes

In the past 24 hours I have watched my FAVORITE Christmas cartoon & movie...How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  I own it in the original cartoon form and the movie with Jim Carrey - who did the cartoon Grinch justice and then some.  Did I mention that I can recite the entire cartoon version from start to finish - including all the songs?

These Grinch cupcakes are from the Flickr photostream of sugarswings...excellent!

I cry every time the Grinch's heart grows three sizes

(you know you do it too)

Tree Update

I went back out to the woods and cut some extra fir boughs (from another tree) to disguise the ropes holding the tree in place.  So far so good!

Merry Christmas!

Got the Christmas Tree Blues...I need a cupcake!

Yesterday I put up a 14 ft. Christmas tree by myself.  We live on 54 acres and I hiked out in the woods, cut the tree, managed to get it in the truck and inside the house, then put it in a stand.  It took almost 3 hours to get to this point in the story.   After several failed attempts (my arms were almost noodles), I was able to get the tree to stand up and I began to turn the screws of the tree stand into the trunk...only to discover the screw threads were stripped (now I understand the tree problems from last Christmas).  I could not let go of the trunk and I could not secure the tree.  I was stuck inside a monster tree with nobody to come to my rescue.

I decided to lean the tree against the window and get some rope.  When I returned with the rope, I tied the tree to a flower-hanging bracket on the wall.  What a beautiful Christmas image...a giant fir tree tied to the wall with bright yellow, red, and green rope.  But all was well and I put on the lights and garland.  I built a fire, ate supper by the lights of the tree and went to bed.

4 AM....a loud crash!  The tree fell over.   Note to self:  don't tie a tree to only one side of the wall.

7 AM...I found the strength to lift the tree with my sore arms, untangle the lights and garland (which were in a knotted mess) and retie the tree (on both sides this time). 

I sure could use a Christmas tree cupcake! 

cakeebakey

two parts sugar

Bodacitos y Colores (Erika)

(Costa Rica)

Recipe of the Week - Eggnog Cupcakes

It's the holiday season and eggnog is being served all over the place!  So why not make a batch of eggnog cupcakes....the recipe is from Bake & Destroy.  I would suggest a vanilla or cinnamon (or even mixed spice) buttercream.  Top them with a Teddy Graham or gingerbread man cookie!

P.S.  This recipe is different from the one for 2009.


EggNog Cupcake Recipe

kristin_a  (Meringue Bake Shop)

Hershey's Kiss Cupcakes

My favorite Christmas commercial is the one where the Hershey's Kisses are playing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as bells.  Love it!  That red kiss at the end is adorable...and haven't we all felt relief when a performance we were nervous about was over. 

Here is the video and some cupcakes to celebrate the holidays (with kisses as decorations of course)!

createdbydiane

the bake shop

iheartcuppycakes1

Holiday Cupcake Wrappers

These holiday cupcake wrappers are from the Flickr photostream of Yummy Cuppy....soooo cute!
Check out all of their fabulous crafts!