St. Patrick's Day Bailey's Irish Coffee cupcake

From cupcake mastermind Blake Anthony of BlakeyCakes in Los Angeles comes this St. Patrick's Day Irish coffee cupcake. Via Facebook. The official description: "A soft, moist chocolate cupcake made with Bailey's Irish Cream and a dark, coffee infusion chocolate bar. The toppings include a creamy chocolate buttercream frosting that has also been spiked with Irish cream with a swirl of whipped cream on top of that and decked out with a lucky shamrock clover marshmallow!" Email b.arias at hotmail.com or call 818-577-8302 to order.

Sprinkles Cupcake ATM Crashes

Image Courtesy of NBC Los Angeles

According to NBC Los Angeles fans of Sprinkles Cupcakes have actually crashed their new ACM (Cupcake ATM) while trying to fulfill their sweet tooths! But no worries, it's back up and running now!

From the NBC Los Angeles Report:

Sprinkle’s first-ever automated cupcake dispenser opened for business this week and it’s been so popular that, at one point, customers’ cravings outweighed the machine’s abilities.

"This kind of machine is built to do a couple hundred transactions a day," said Nicole Schwartz, Sprinkles’ director of marketing. "The amount of volume was unprecedented for this machine."

It wasn’t clear whether overheating or a misguided arm was the culprit, but a couple hours with an engineer and the popular machine was up and running again – and taking attention away from the flagship bakery next door.

After reading another report from LAist.com it's no wonder that the ACM finally crashed, it's been serving about 1,000 cupcakes DAILY!

From the LAist report:

Since the Sprinkles 24-hour cupcake automat opened for business on Tuesday, it has been insanely popular. At some points lines stretched halfway down the block, sometimes running 50 people deep. The lines were long, even when the bakery staffed by actual live humans was open.

"At points, there would be no line at the bakery itself while a few feet over, people queued up for their turn to 'withdraw' from the Cupcake ATM!" Nicole Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Sprinkles said.

The automat has been dispensing 1,000 cupcakes a day, which is more than Sprinkles anticipated. The popularity of the machine led to some hiccups Wednesday night, when the automat stopped working. It was dispensing one "withdrawal" a minute, which was faster than the machine could handle.

Wow! I still need to get myself down to Beverly Hills to try out the new ACM! Just in case you're in the LA area and want to take a trip yourself here's some more information on Sprinkles' Cupcake ATM:

Twitter: @CupcakeATM

Facebook: Cupcake ATM

9635 South Santa Monica Boulevard, 

Beverly Hills, CA 90210

Vegan fruit and flower cupcake spotlight on Cupcake Wars winners Bliss Cakes by Stephanie Sparkles

Last night, I started ogling the photos on the Facebook page of Bliss Cakes by Stephanie Sparkles, after seeing the beginning of TV competition show Cupcake Wars. I didn't get to finish the post before seeing that they'd won! For our recap, click here. They do custom cupcakes and delivery in the greater Los Angeles area, and can be reached at stephanie at stephaniesparkles.com or 424-259-3036; visit stephaniesparkle.com for more information. Here are some of their gorgeous cupcakes. They've also got a cookbook and you can follow them @s_sparkles on Twitter.














cupcakes at Burning Man

Here are just a few of their cupcake flavors:

Long-Life Goji Berry
From ancient Chinese medicine comes the Goji Berry, revered for longevity enhancing nutrients and its chewy citrus berry flavor. This tasty chocolate cake is filled with a heart of real Goji Berry kreme, and capped with fresh coconut frosting.

Acai Jungleberry Bliss
A purple-powered tropical kiss: luscious lemon cake frosted with exotic acai, real blueberries, and fresh fruit. Acai, a wild berry from the rainforests of Brazil, is packed with powerful antioxidants, nourishing amino acids, and essential fatty acids.

Tangerine Poppyseed Dream
Unforgettably sweet and citrus-ey! Moist poppy seed cake, sparkling with real tangerine zest, and capped with a juicy tangerine frosting!

Wild Jungle Peanut-Butter Choco Delight
A new twist on a classic flavor: decadent dark chocolate cake, with a gooey heart of real Balinese RAW chocolate, topped off with a frosting of creamy Wild Jungle Peanut-Butter. Wild Jungle Peanuts are pure, heirloom peanuts, loaded with antioxidants, complete protein, and beautifying oleic acid. Because they're grown wild in the Amazon, they help to protect our rainforests!

Tropical Avocado Mango Twist
A fruity, creamy, spicy little mouthful. Mango cake filled with coconut kreme and frosted with buttery avocados, mangos, and a dash of chili for some tropical heat.

Ginger Chai Spice
Like a creamy mug of zesty chai tea: warm and comforting. Fresh ginger cake awakened by a creamy frosting with a dash of Indian chai spice.

Sweet Picnic Chevre
Fluffy vanilla cake, enlivened with a luscious fig preserve, swirled with a creamy goat cheese frosting, and crowned with fresh-sliced pear. Rich and refreshing: perfect for a picnic!

Cupcake Wars: Vegan Bake Off

Did you happen to catch last night's new episode of Cupcake Wars? Well just in case, let me recap for you!

Last night's episode of Cupcake Wars was the first all vegan episode! The bakeries were competing for the opportunity to serve their delicious and animal friendly treats at the Inaugural L.A. Green Festival.

The competitor's for this episode were:

New Cascadia Traditional from Portland, OR

Michy's Foods from Los Angeles, CA

Bliss Cakes by Stephanie Sparkles from Venice, CA

Two Birds Baking Co. from Huntington Beach, CA

ROUND ONE:
This round challenged the bakers with locally grown fruits and vegetables, including but not limited to: clementines, sage, lemongrass, fennel, red peppers, coconut, avocados, etc.

NCT: Chocolate cake with sweet pepper lemongrass filling, avocado icing, vegan ganache and edible sprinkles. Also, this cupcake was gluten free. The judges were unanimously underwhelmed.

MF: Fennel cake, clementine buttercream with a candied sage leaf on top. All the judges loved the bright and fresh clementine flavor of the buttercream and creative nature of the fennel cake but were not too thrilled with the sage merely being a piece of decor.

BC: Corn cake, speckled with sweet red pepper, topped with creamy sage frosting, topped with parsley to lighten up the flavor and sweet red peppers. Judges loved the surprise of the cupcake being sweet over savory but again cautioned the use of the required third ingredient as a garnish.

TBBC: Clementine fennel cupcake, vegan vanilla buttercream frosting, with balsamic glazed figs on top. The balsamic reduction overpowered all the other flavors in the cupcake.

Eliminated: Two Birds Baking Co.

ROUND TWO:
This round challenged the bakers on showcasing "living green" through their cupcakes. As we all know in this round judging is based on 50% taste and 50% presentation.

NCT: Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Orange Frosting and topped with chopped hazelnuts
Molasses Spice Cupcake filled with Apple Butter topped with Cinnamon Molasses Icing
Zucchini Raisin Cupcake with Ginger Nutmeg Cream Cheese Icing.
Judges: Delicate decorations but not WOW for the second round. Overall taste was delicious.

MF: Apple Cinnamon Cupcake filled with caramel, topped with Cinnamon Buttercream, Caramel Drizzle and crushed peanuts.
Gingerbread Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting topped with crushed gingerbread cookies
S'mores Cupcake filled with a marshmallow with Chocolate Ganache, toasted marshmallow and crushed graham crackers.
Judges: Mixed review on the decor. Mixed reviews on the technical aspects of cupcakes (cook times).

BC: Matcha Vanilla Raspberry Cupcake with Matcha Green Tea Frosting topped with a raspberry and mint leaf
Mayan Spice Chocolate Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing
Tangerine Poppyseed with Lavender Frosting, Coconut Cream filling and fresh tangerines and lavender flowers on top.
Judges: Decorations = LOVED. Cupcakes were a bit over baked, too much going on in the Lavender cupcake, suggested removal of the coconut cream.

Eliminated: Michy's Foods

ROUND THREE:
Create a 1000 cupcake display for the event.

NCT: Display was tree-like cupcake tiers made up of reclaimed wood done in an upwards manner making the display 360 degrees
accessible.

BC: Display was imagined off of a vertical cupcake garden. Made up of recycled wood, bamboo, fresh herb garden below, the piece can be reused after the event as a real vertical garden.

WINNER: Bliss Cakes by Stephanie Sparkles


This was a more interesting episode of Cupcake Wars. As bakers and foodies, we're always learning new methods of cooking and new things to try. This episode definitely showcased the intricacies of vegan baking and really opened me up to trying out some vegan recipes for myself!

The Descendants-inspired mango pineapple aloha cupcakes, maple bacon and Oscars cupcakes by BlakeyCakes

3 kinds of amazing, extraordinary and gorgeously unique cupcakes by always creative and fun Los Angeles custom cupcake company BlakeyCakes! I love the star and flower designs on the mango pineapple aloha cupcakes, which feature a unique flavor and look, and are inspired by the Hawaii-set movie The Descendants. I'm pretty sure the maple bacon ones are topped with chocolate-covered bacon...whoa. Via their Facebook page. Contact owner Blake Anthony at 818-577-8302 or b.arias101 at hotmail.com and visit blakeycakes.blogspot.com for more information.

Homer Simpson donut cupcake to celebrate The Simpsons' 500th episode

"To celebrate the Simpsons' 500th episode, we made special Homer cupcakes and his favorite D'oh-nuts!" by B Sweet Catering in Los Angeles, via Flickr. Contact them at bsweetorders at gmail.com or 310-963-7213, and find out more at mybsweet.com and their Facebook page.

Cupcakes for the broken-hearted

To show that not everything is lovey dovey in cupcake world for Valentine's Day, some broken heart cupcakes by Los Angeles custom cupcake company Little Sweeties, via Flickr. See their Facebook page for ordering information.

Pink leopard print and pretty butterfly cupcakes by BlakeyCakes

The latest from Los Angeles custom cupcake and cake pop maker BlakeyCakes via Facebook. Email b.arias101 at hotmail.com or call 818-577-8302 to order. Visit http://blakeycakes.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Sneak Peek: Cupcake Challenge LA

Here's some pictures from the amazing event that was Cupcake Challenge LA! I'm still in the process of uploading pics and revising my notes so I'll have a full report complete with tons of pictures for you all later this week!

Cupcake Challenge LA TODAY!

Cupcake Challenge LA 2011 via Drink Eat Play

Today is the day! Cupcake Challenge LA 2012 is taking place today in Hollywood and I will be there taking tons of pictures, meeting with bakeries and tasting cupcakes until my sweet tooth explodes! Keep an eye out on the CTTC twitter as I'll be live tweeting photos and videos from the event!

This year's competitor's include (but aren't limited to):

Wonderland Custom Cakes
Sugar Babies Cupcakery
Jus Minis Cupcakes
Friandise Pastries
Sugar Jones Sweet Creations
The Cake Mamas
My Delight Cupcakery
Sweet Red Peach
Polkatots Cupcakes
Frosted Heaven Cupcakery
Bake You Happy
Double "D" Cupcakes
...and MANY MORE!

I'll have my full report for you guys next week on the event and the cupcakes!

Kids + Cupcakes: Growin' Owen

Here's my buddy Owen from Los Angeles-area, California, making cupcakes all by his lonesome.  Well...maybe momma Shannon helped?

Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix with Pillsbury Valentine's pink vanilla frosting, and getting ready for Owen's favorite special touch:  extra sprinkles!  Way to go, Owen.  Cell-phone snapshot courtesy Owen's momma Shannon and his poppa Mike, via Facebook.