The Shoppe - Denver, Colorado

I like cupcakes - ok, I LOVE cupcakes! When I travel, I make sure I go to at least two cupcake bakeries as part of my itinerary. I do internet searches to see what bakeries I want to visit. So far I have had cupcakes from Magnolia, ButterCup, Kumquat, Happy Cakes, Sprinkles, Crumbs, Lovely Confections, Yum Yum's and The Shoppe...and I know I am missing a few in there. I am not a food critic - I just know what I like in a cupcake. My expectations are simple...the cupcake must be moist and the frosting not too sticky sweet. Presentation of the cupcake is also important. And, of course, I can't help comparing them to what I bake at home (which get rave reviews from their consumers!). So...I have to rate The Shoppe in Denver as the BEST cupcake I have eaten outside of my own home. Emma's cupcakes are moist and her peanut butter frosting is to die for...Denverites, if you haven't visited The Shoppe - you must put it on your agenda. It is fun and funky as their menu consists of cereal (yes, cereal) served in big bowls. You can mix and match your cereal flavors, and they have toppings you can order for your cereal. They have a good coffee/expresso bar so you can get your coffee fix. The Shoppe also has a Design Goods Area that features books, jewelry, novelties, etc. And then there are the cupcakes...yummmmm -the cupcakes!!! You can check them out at theshoppedenver.com. They are located on Colfax and St. Paul...you will not be disappointed! The ones pictured are eggnog, banana split, peppermint, pumpkin and cranberry. My daughter, Kristin (have I raised her right, or what?), brought these home for me after I had to fast for 48 whole hours...it's amazing how you feel starved when you are told you CAN'T eat - whereas, if I chose to not eat for 48 hours - I probably would be fine! Thank you, Kristin, for enabling your mother's cupcake addiction!

SnowBaby

Once again, too cute to not post. I bought this snowman suit for Kailyn when she was born last year. She never had an opportunity to really wear it and now she is actually too big for it. She was a good sport and let me take pictures of her in it - she was a little upset that she couldn't move in it...but she did a good imitation of melting!

Reindeer, Moose or Mice???

Kristin & I were up until the wee hours of the morning making lollicakes for her office...we made Rudolph - but I am not sure if Rudolph is a reindeer, a moose or a mouse - oh well, he still is cute! The pretzels give the lollicakes that salty/sweet taste that I believe we women often crave... I love dark chocolate covered potato chips...and french fries dipped in a Wendy's frosty - you can't go wrong!!! We also made snowballs and Christmas trees to go with Rudolph...he and his friends had fun all night playing and shouting out with glee...yipee!

Starbucks for Baby!

Another had to post picture of the Princess Baby...she does love her Starbucks - cup that is!!! Is she wishing that she had a cupcake to go with her coffee??? Soon...December 31st she will be turning one and she will getting her first cupcake - YUM!!!

Macy's Day Parade

One of my Thanksgiving traditions has been to watch the Macy's Day Parade with my girls while getting the turkey in the oven. This year I actually got to watch it in person! We stayed at a hotel on 52nd and Broadway and had a view of the parade from the 7th floor terrace. Though it was COLD outside, it will be a memory to cherish always. While in NYC - I did taste a few cupcakes from Kumquat, Magnolia and Crumbs...and I brought my lollicake supplies so we were able to make some lollicakes for Thanksgiving. The security at the airport took away my can of frosting - I guess they thought I was going to do something dangerous with it!!!

Cupcake for Santa!

Santa and I had a long talk about all those cookies he has been getting over the years - and fellow bloggers, he's tired of cookies! This year he was thinking cupcakes would be a nice change for him on his travels around the world...I told him about all the deliciously wonderful cupcakes that we all make, and I swear I think he popped a button or two as visions of cupcakes danced in his head!!! So not wanting to upset Santa with the same old "Cookies for Santa" plate - (hey, I'm done with coal unless it has been made into diamonds!)- I created a "Cupcake for Santa" plate. My Princess Baby granddaughter and her cousin will have their plates ready on Christmas Eve with maybe a gingerbread or red velvet cupcake for Santa to enjoy after he fills their stockings...and don't be surprised when you hear him exclaim "Happy Christmas to all and cupcakes are just right!"

Halloween Jack-o-Lanterns

My first attempt at Halloween Lollicakes! I think most of them look too happy to be scary...some of them even appear to have been drinking from the wine bottle that is behind them...

I have to admit that I might be having too much fun making these little creations. Wait until you see what I have come up with for Christmas...

Yes, but can you just eat one?

My stepson, Nick, requested cupcakes with almond in them for his 26th birthday. I took a recipe that my mom has had for years and recreated it into a cupcake. Almond Cream Puff Cupcakes may now be the family favorite. Nick has also decided that he doesn't want to share his cupcakes anymore!!!

We do like to tease the babies!

This is Sydney, Kailyn's cousin from California, who we got to visit with during Brian's wedding. We got to tease her with a lollicake! Maybe she and Kailyn will be future lollicake bakers and keep us well into our old age? Are they discussing strategy in this picture?

Let's get baking, Grammy!

Just too cute to not post...is Kailyn drooling to get going? She definitely is a baker in training! Now to teach her to not put EVERYTHING in her mouth...

French Toast Cupcakes

I never liked French Toast as a kid - I could SO taste the eggs! My dad taught me to dip my bites into peanut butter - and YUM - it became a favorite. I will still go into restaurants and order French Toast if they have peanut butter. I decided I needed to try a cupcake with the French Toast theme. I added maple extract, vanilla and cinnamon to give it a true French Toast taste. My frosting is a peanut butter buttercream. The picture shows my frosting cut into squares like butter (easier said then done) with a little maple syrup drizzled across it with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Hmmmm...breakfast in bed?

Wordle Fun

This is fun - I want to make a t-shirt with one on it!

Come on - Stop Messing With Me!

Kailyn - at some much later date - will actually enjoy a lollicake - maybe when she has teeth???

Cupcakes are a Girl's Best Friend!

Only one piece of my jewelry is insured (okay, not necessarily smart, but...). It's a little trinket my husband gave me for our 10th Valentine's Day (we got engaged on Valentine's Day ten years ago...). He had asked my daughter for some recommendations, and she came across this "cute" cupcake necklace from Tiffany's. She had put it on his list - assuming that he would NEVER buy it...but HE DID! Neither of them knew that I had seen this cupcake necklace on an internet search - and then had seen it at Tiffany's in NYC when I was there with some friends. I thought "if I ever have a thousand plus dollars to blow...maybe..." And then my husband SURPRISED me!!! What can I say - spoiled and loving it and my husband!

Cupcakes & Martinis Cookbook

"Create My Cookbook" is a website where you can make your very own cookbook just like one you might find at a bookstore. You can either select a hard back book or a coil bound book. The website is user friendly - you just add your recipes and download pictures...and you can share it via internet with your friends. Being that cupcakes and martinis are two of my favorite food groups, I decided that I would create a cookbook with a cupcake and martini theme. Each cupcake will have a martini that will complement it - such as a White Chocolate Wedding Cake Cupcake with a Flirt-tini Martini or a French Toast Cupcake with an Orange Slice Martini...or how about a Coma Cupcake with a Mind Eraser-tini? Some recipes are my own - some I borrowed from other diva cupcake bakers (credit is given to them) but all have been baked and tasted and have reached STAR quality - therefore, cookbook status!
*The picture is my back cover.

Sometimes, I even surprise myself!

I did it...I created that yummy cupcake (see May 28th)!!! Thanks go out to Bakerella for sending me the right direction in suggesting that it looked like a hi-hat cupcake. This sent me on an internet search. I found various pictures and recipes of a hi-hat cupcake. I had never seen nor heard of this divine creation. My little baker's brain started mixing up how I could tweak the recipes in order to produce a masterpiece...and after hours (yes, it did take a long time to make) and a sugar coma - I did it!!!

It actually should be called a coma-cupcake with the rich chocolate cake, the fluffy vanilla/almond filling and the scrumptious chocolate ganache topping...
As you can see from my pictures, I did not do the swirled top like a hi-hat - I thought that would surely kill us all...but we would have gone satiated and with a smile on our faces!

How many points????

Ok...I am in a "weight loss" competition with my girls so I have been researching recipes for low cal cupcakes but this is just so wrong in so many, many ways...a cupcake isn't meant to be skinny in just the same way that those size 9 black velvet jeans (that are still in my closet from mucho years ago) are never - never going to slide up these legs again. Seriously - those diet books that have reduced fat cupcakes are taking all the fun out of eating a moist, delicious, cream filled, frosting ladened cupcake! After all - it's not the whole cake...it's a cupcake. A morsel of calories in comparison to sitting down and devouring an entire cake...and by the way - I did calculate one of the recipes I use...six points. I could eat three and three-fourths cupcakes a day. Hmmmmm - something to think about...

Famous misquoted quotes?

There aren't many good quotes out there about cupcakes so I figured out that many of the quotes we have heard over and over again must have been misquoted...for example -

George Washington - "I cannot tell a lie. I ate the plate of cupcakes."
Mark Twain - "The only two certainties in life are cupcakes and more cupcakes!"
Marie Antoinette - "If they have no bread then let them eat cupcakes."
Paul Revere - "The cupcakes are baking...the cupcakes are baking..."
Rhett Butler - "Frankly, my dear, I just want a cupcake."
Dracula - "I want to eat your cupcake."
Forrest Gump - "Life is like a box of cupcakes - you never know what kind you're going to get."
Casablanca - "Bake it again, Sam."
Star Wars - "May the cupcake be with you."
Apollo 13 - "Houston, we have a cupcake."
Snow White - Mirror, mirror on the wall - who bakes the best cupcake of them all?"

Life can be so unfair at five months old!

This is my sweet princess baby granddaughter...I have her in training as a future tester of cupcakes! So far she has not been too helpful in the kitchen - though she did let me not only bake but also decorate cupcakes for my Sex In The City get-together. She was a little upset with me because she wasn't invited to the movie - and that I also wouldn't let her have a cupcake! Her day will come...I have her apron and cupcake chef's hat ready for the day she joins me at the Mixmaster!

Disclaimer - She only got to enjoy the wrapper for about 30 seconds...or at least long enough to take a few pictures! Her mom would have taken away my grandma license if I had let her actually get to the cupcake...

Love the new Cupcake Bites from Bakerella!

The original cupcake pops that Bakerella demonstrated on Martha Stewart were FABULOUS but oh so time consuming to make...no problem, Bakerella has come up with an easier way to make them. Check out her site at Bakerella.com for directions. She is showing them as cupcake bites using a candy mold. I took it a step further and figured out a way to still make them a cupcake pop without expending too much energy...they are FAB! And yes, Jody, I will be making them for Brian & Bethany's wedding in August...

If this isn't Heaven...what is?

OMG!!! This is absolutely the BEST cupcake I have ever eaten...and I, unfortunately, didn't make it and have no idea how to create it!!! My daughter was at a wedding in Detroit and they had a cupcake cake. It has a chocolate ganache top with a cream filling on top of the cupcake. She brought me back two - one for me and one for my husband...did I say husband or was that two for me? Any ideas out there on how to do this? I don't know if I am talented enough but I am willing to try...

Cupcake Divas

It is amazing to me to see all the cupcake stores springing up all over the country. I have visited quite a few in order to taste - not my competition - but my fellow collaborators' creations of yummy cupcakes. I typically bake for fun - I like coming up with the unusual cupcake...a cupcake that might bring back memories of my childhood (french toast with peanut butter frosting) - a cupcake for that girls night out (lemon drop martini) - a cupcake to imitate rainbow cookies from New York (rainbow cupcakes made with almond paste, orange marmalade and raspberry jam) or a cupcake to make up for gingerbread season being over at Starbucks (a gingerbread cupcake with cream cheese frosting). I enjoy finding new recipes, be it on cooking shows like who else but Martha Stewart, books (such as The Cupcake Doctor) and blogs (Bakerella). My short-term goal is to learn how to decorate like a pro! My long-term goal is to not weigh 200 pounds from eating one too many cupcakes...then again...to quote Erma Bombeck - one must..."Seize the moment. Think of all those women on the Titantic who waved off the dessert cart!"

Cupcakes