Happy Summer Cupcakes

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. We made the Making Waves cupcakes in What's New, Cupcake? because we both love waterside vacations with our families. We even made the folks tubing through the rapids look like caricatures of ourselves. One of our readers, a very talented cupcaker named Christine Roe, took the challenge and decided to make cupcakes of her own family on vacation. She sent us these adorable Family Camping Cupcakes with a note about how she made them. Everything about it is fantastic from the fire ring to the jumping fish and fishing poles, the little bunnies and the couple in their sleeping bag. Christine added a photo with a campsite sign marked ROE pointing to the sleeping couple, sweet touch!

Here's Christine's cupcakes and her description:



Here are some pics of my camping cupcakes for you.
Hubby and I in our "sleeping bag". I used the idea from the slumber party in your book Hello, Cupcake!.
The trees are sugar cones.

The fire ring is the leftover part of a cut sugar cone. I used chinese noodles for the firewood and leftover rolled
starbursts to cut flames. The sand is just a mix of crushed vanilla wafers and famous chocolate wafers.
The log is just 2 marshmallows drizzled with chocolate frosting. And the plate to lead you to your campsite...
just a pretzel "glued" with frosting to a vanilla melting wafer. The fishing poles are wheat sticks with left over flattened starbursts.
The water is decorating gel tinted blue. Found a box of bunny crackers to add to the scenery and goldfish for the water.
I used 6 large cupcakes and 11 regular size cupcakes.

Hubby loved them.

Happy summer,
Chris




Hey Chris,
Thanks so much for sending the beautiful photos and wonderful ideas. We love them and hope you guys had a great camping trip too!
I think everyone will be inspired to create their own summer vacation cupcake scene.

And to all you cupcakers out there, if you haven't already, be sure to go to our website www.hellocupcakebook.com and sign up for our newsletter
Hello, Cupcake's
What's Newsletter CLICK HERE FOR NEWSLETTER LINK
The premier issue has Cupcake Cocktails with a whole cupcake in each martini glass. It's such a fun party idea.
Sign up soon, the next issue has a great back to school cupcake project.

Happy cupcaking.
Alan and Karen

        

The corn is fantastic in Wusconsin this summer. Especially ours at the
Wisconsin State Fair. The cobs are made from 3 cupcakes covered with
Jelly Belly jellybeans and the butter pat is a fruit chew. We are
having a blast on the center stage in Milwaukee today and hope to see
you there and share an ear of corn at the fair.

Happy cupcaking,
Alan and Karen

        

I had the pleasure of tasting the top ten entries in the Duncan Hines
Red Carpet Cupcake Challenge yesterday. Along with judges from Saveur,
Ladies Home Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, and the fabulous
Cupcake Cafe in Manhattan I helped to choose a really tasty recipe to
be served at the Emmys. The judging was tough, there were so many
great recipe ideas. Ingredients ranging from salted caramel to
homemade toffee to peanut butter and even beautiful star fruit slices
were used. But in the end the judges found consensus around a cupcake
that was aptly named Red Carpet Glamour cupcake. It has raspberry
flavor in a red velvet cake and a tasty smooth raspberry buttercream
and a fresh berry on top. Delicious! Congratulations to the winner
Katie Rousonelous of Wisconsin. What a terrific recipe. Her Red Carpet
Glamour cupcake will be served at the Performers Nominee Reception
next month and Katie gets a seat on the Red Carpet for the event.
Below is a shot of all ten entries, the Red Carpet Glamour cupcake is
the one with the raspberry in the center. Congrats to all ten
finalists, I really enjoyed eating them and think there was so much
creativity represented in the finalists. Recipes should be on the
Duncan Hines web site soon. www.duncanhines.com/red-carpet-taste-off

Personally I can't wait to taste them again.

Cheers to all and...
Happy cupcaking!

        

Hey Cupcake Fans, Welcome to

        

Candy stores can be a terrific place to get inspiration for your next
cupcake design. This one on Cannery Row in Monterey (Steinbeck
Country) was really inspiring. It has lots of terrific old fashioned
candy as well as taffy in a wide array of colors and flavors. The next
time you go into a great candy store, don't just think candy, think
cupcakes. You may just find the inspiration for your next great
cupcake project.

Here's to all you great candy detectives!
Alan and Karen

        

This is Alan and Karen on set with Kathie Lee, Hoda, and Bobbie Thomas
right after the Style Cucake segment on the TODAY Show I mean these
are seriously the nicest folks we have ever met. We just loved making
the high heel, handbag, makeup, and jewelry cupcakes for them. We even
designed custom perfume bottle cupcakes for each of them. Bobbie chose
the most amazing things for us and then challenged us to craft them
out of candy on cupcakes. Well we did it and it was a blast. So much
cupcaking fun. To see the video clip go to our web site at www.hellocupcakebook.com
and click on the Hello, Video! page. The TODAY Style segment will be
at the top of the page. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Happy cupcaking,
Alan and Karen

        

        

Here I am on my busman's holiday loving the Aquarium and eating
fantastic cupcakes at a brand new cupcake bakery. The banana w cream
cheese frosting and the Oreo cupcake were both incredible. Light
delicious cake and dreamy frostings. We'll be back for more later.
Good luck to Mary at Mrs Delish's Cupcake Boutique, 1 day old today!

Happy cupcaking,
Alan

        

There are so many terrific things about this story, the people, the friendship, the cupcakes. First of all we have seen some amazing cupcake photos on our Facebook Fan Group page Hello, Cupcake! but one that had always stood out in my mind was the photo of sailor cupcakes that had been based on the groom cupcake design in Hello, Cupcake! I had written a note telling the designer of the sailor how impressed we were. While we were on book tour in Arizona a woman named Chris shows up at our Sur La Table cooking class accompanied by her daughter Lauren. Through some mix up they were not signed up for the class which already had a waiting list. We hoped for a change of heart (or size of kitchen) from the store but they couldn't make room. We were very sad they had made the trip to take the class and could not get in.That's when Chris pulls out her photo binder with all of these amazing cupcake projects, including the sailors we had seen on the group page. Suddenly a light bulb went on and Karen and I screamed "You're that Chris, the one with the amazing cupcakes!". Prep for the class came to a screeching halt as we poured over Chris' wonderful binder full of inspired cupcake creations. The sailors were just the beginning. Chris is very modest about them but her cupcake designs are just amazing. We finally had to part after lots of oohing, cheering, and hugging. After Chris and daughter Lauren left she sent me the following e-mail and photos. This is why we love what we do.

Enjoy the photos and Chris' note below:



Sailor cupcakes by Chris Roe


Hi Alan,

It was a pleasure to meet you and Karen. Although I couldn't join the class, I appreciate you and Karen taking time out of your prep time to talk to me and my daughter Lauren. I hope you enjoyed your time in AZ?

I love creating...haven't done as much  since my kids were little and I made their birthday cakes. I got the decorating bug when I got to decorate cakes and such when I worked at Baskin-Robbins as a teen. When I picked up the Hello, Cupcake book at the bookstore, it sparked me to decorate. I was laid off from my job last year and have been looking for work with no luck. I was inspired to get back to what I loved to do. I love coming up with ideas. Now when I go to shopping, I look at everything  much differently. It's how can I make that work for a cupcake design!!!

My son Michael was my inspiration for the sailors. He was home on a 5 day leave for his birthday which also was his 1 year anniversary in the Navy. When I saw your "groom", I figured it would be easy to turn him into a sailor. My son challenged me and said I needed to put his National Defense Ribbon on the sailor. Took some thought but the Peach Rings did the trick.  (I am also thinking about making his camo's and his "peanut butters" (brown shirt and black pants) It was a big hit at our BBQ.

Today is my hubby's birthday and I am working on a camping theme. We love to camp and fish so I have a few ideas. Of course I will post my creation on the FB site.

Once again it was such a treat to meet you and Karen.

Chris Roe


That's Michael Patrick McLaughlin in his graduation picture sworn in 03/2009
and a row of Chris' sailor cupcakes with the ingredients she used to create them.


Michael with new ribbons and stripes- aircraft mechanic 03/2010
Incredible how Chris got all the uniform detail, including crafting Michael's ribbons, using candy and cookies.


Thanks for sending this Chris. Best wishes to Michael and give him our thanks for his service.

All the best and of course...
keep on cupcaking,
Alan and Karen

PS Send those camping cupcake photos, can't wait to see them.

        

Here I am baking cookies and having a blast with my friend Dorie
Greenspan. We are working on photos for her new web site cookiebarnyc.com
which is soon to come so stay tuned. As for now I couldn't be
happier with the taste tests, lucky me!

Happy cupcaking!
Alan

        

> I couldn't believe it when my neighbor Kristen showed me these
> cracked egg cupcakes her husband Tom had whipped up for their
> family. Alyssa, their adorable daughter, thought they were real! You
> guys crack me up.
>
> Please keep sending us your photos when you make projects from the
> books, we love seeing what you do with them.
>
> Happy cupcaking!
> Alan

        

Try this out.

        

This how we fed 200 broccoli cupcakes to the crowd at Iron Cupcake
Milwaukee: The Candy Challenge!

        

This is what dinner looks like after we devour 200 broccoli cupcakes!
Go Iron Cupcake! Go Sarah! That fish looks fantastic!

Happy cupcaking
Alan and Karen

        

Watch how we made broccoli cupcakes for 300 for tonight's big Iron
Cupcake Candy Challenge in Milwaukee at the Harley Museum. Can't wait
to eat our veggies.

Happy Cupcaking
Alan and Karen

        

This is what it looks like to prep broccoli in your hotel room. We use
Tootsie for the stems and add a dollop of green frosting. Dark green
sprinkles give it the finishing touch.

Happy cupcaking
Alan and Karen

        

I went for pure Nutella for the frosting on these cuppies and added
pearlized Sixlets and Ferrero Rocher for the decorations. How could
that not taste grea! Having a blast here at the Sweets & Snacks Expo.

        

Yep, that's Alan and Karen hitting the road headed for Chicago, by way
of Lake Michigan we think. They will be at the Sweets & Snacks Expo
all week. They are bringing along some of their koi and duck pals too
and will be teaching cupcaking the Hello, Cupcake! way using candy and
snacks. Watch for their tweets on all the latest and greatest candy at
the Expo @whatsnewcupcake

We just hope those innertubes make it all the way there!

Happy cupcaking!
Alan and Karen

        

We got to class today sans green sprinkles, we had sent them to
Chicago with all of our tools for the Sweets and Snacks Expo. But
thinking quick, we grabbed two bottles of white sprinkles, several
drops of green McCormick food coloring, a Ziploc bag. With a zip and
few shakes we were back in business. We spread them on parchment paper
to dry and by the time we were ready to make lo mein noodles we had
plenty of rich green colored sprinkles for our broccoli. The class
couldn't believe how fast and how easy it was. We were impressed too.

Happy cupcaking!
Alan and Karen

        

Mike is so into cupcakes that he has worked his way through most of the
projects in our first book Hello, Cupcake! He came to our King if
Prussia class to get some first hand experience at the duck dip from
What's New, Cupcake? We are happy to say he didn't lose his head...in
the frosting! Great dip Mike, keep on cupcaking!

Alan and Karen