Blow Pop cupcakes with bubble gum marshmallow buttercream and a strawberry marshmallow inside, plus recipe link

Yes, Blow Pops, the lollipop with bubble gum in the middle, can be paired with cupcakes, and marhsmallows! Get the recipe for bubble gum marshmallow buttercream (!!) and instructions at Cookies and Cups.



and the inside:

Cool Mint Oreos and Birthday Cake Oreos inside cupcakes!

Lots of cupcake creativity going on! The Mint Oreo baked inside cupcakes are by Bahama, North Carolina home-based bakery Cakes by Becky via Flickr and the Birthday Cake Oreo (didn't know that was a kind of Oreo!) birthday surprise cupcakes are by An American Cupcake in London via Flickr.





From the blog post, where you can get the recipe:

The cupcake recipe is a nice time-saver as it uses a chocolate boxed mix for the base with a few additions (still comes out super tasty!) and I paired it with my basic buttercream recipe with finely crumbed cool mint oreos and peppermint flavoring added in.

From An American Cupcake in London:

I used a funfetti cupcake mix, which made 6 cupcakes. I put one spoon of batter into the liner and placed the Oreo in and then placed another spoon of batter on top. I made half of this frosting recipe with some vanilla paste and no food coloring.

Shamrock baked inside a cupcake for St. Patrick's Day

Shamrocks are definitely the hot cupcake item of the week, with St. Patrick's Day coming up tomorrow, whether it's shamrock sprinkles, shamrock cupcake toppers or shamrocks baked inside cupcakes!

Here's another fun way to show your St. Patrick's Day cupcake love with a surprise in the middle for the lucky cupcake eater. Find out from blogger Kelli's Cakes/Come Join Me In how to go from this:



to this:


via Flickr

Gold coins and rainbow St. Patrick's Day cupcakes

Beautiful shiny and pretty and colorful cupcakes by Bits of Splendor, where you can get the cake mix recipe! Hint: lots of food coloring is involved.

Hidden gold inside St. Patrick's Day rainbow cupcakes, a must see

You won't have to search far for the gold in these St. Patrick's Day rainbow cupcakes, just bite in! They're by blogger Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, who has instructions on making your own.

How to bake a LEGO® inside your cupcake for Double LEGO® Cupcakes!

Blogger S'tasty was inspired by toys and found a way to create these awesome Double LEGO® cupcakes that are so full of coolness I don't even know what to say. There's detailed instructions there on how to do your own. Oh, and the LEGO® pieces on top are made of chocolate and totally edible! S'tasty also has the recipe. We've seen hearts inside cupcakes, shamrocks inside cupcakes, what's next? I am always going to be enamored of anyone who can pull this off. Via Craftzine.


chocolate LEGO®s on top!


LEGO® shapes inside!

From the S'tasty post:

It all started with a brown piece of LEGO®. To me it looked like a shiny cube of delicious milk chocolate. Wouldn’t it be great if it actually was chocolate? The cream coloured pieces could be sweet white chocolate and the glossy black pieces a rich dark chocolate. If only that were possible, I thought. Well, with the help of some magic blue stuff, I made my chocolate LEGO® dream come true. It was pretty simple to make them too.

However, once I had made my sweet chocolate specimens, they seemed a little small and insignificant. What I really needed was a vehicle to carry my chocolate LEGO® and lift them up for the world to see. So, I decided on a simple vanilla cupcake and some creamy vanilla icing as a platform for my glorious chocolate LEGO®. The problem was though, the vanilla cupcake idea seemed a little lame and boring. LEGO® is so fun and colourful, so I figured the cupcakes should be bright and vivid too. I saw this great idea, on a blog on Valentine’s Day, where the blogger made a cupcake with a red cake heart concealed inside. So I borrowed this idea, but modified it a bit. I placed a colourful LEGO® cake piece inside my cupcakes. Now, I really had a cupcake worthy of my chocolate LEGO® and all my LEGO® dreams were complete. I really have to stop imagining everything can be made into food….what next!

Cake mix win: Cadbury creme egg in the middle cupcakes, plus Oreo cookies and cream, Andes Mint and chocolate potato chip cupcakes

Below are four outrageous, awesome cupcakes, all from one blog post by Love From the Oven and one mix, Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix. There's also mayonnaise involved. I hate mayonnaise but even I am willing to try it in my cupcakes if it will yield these! Visit Love From the Oven for more photos, recipes and instructions on making all four of these cupcakes: Cadbury Creme Egg, Oreo cookies, and cream Andes Mint chocolate, and chocolate potato chip! Kudos to Love From the Oven for making all these fun cupcakes (cue the words "frozen Cadbury creme egg") from such a basic set of ingredients.












Did you know March 14th is National Potato Chip Day? It is! We'll be blogging lots more potato chip cupcakes. And yes, i spend a lot of time studying the list of American food holidays! Speaking of which, why isn't there a Cadbury Creme Egg day??

Happy 100th birthday, Oreo cookie, good for topping, baking inside and making penguins in cupcake form

Oreo cookies are delicious, if you ask me. I'm partial to the pry the cookie open and scrape out the sweet gooey part inside, then eat the cupcake method of eating them myself. Today is the 100th birthday of the Oreo cookie, which also makes a fabulous cupcake topper, or cupcake filler, as you can see below.




Oreo cupcakes by blogger Bakergirl, who has the recipe


Oreo baked inside a cupcake and a mini one on top, by melonqueen on Flickr


Oreo penguin cupcake by blogger my feelings taste like cupcakes, where you can get the recipe and decorating instructions, via Flickr: "Oreo crust, vanilla cake, cookies and cream Oreo filling, marshmallow frosting with an Oreo penguin face on top!"

Oreo inside a cupcake, owls, Starry Night cupcake cake and flavors like energy drink poppyseed at Starry Night Cafe

Fun! An Oreo cookie inside a cupcake, available at Cupcake Wars competitors (August 2011) Starry Night Bakery in Westminster, Maryland, via their Facebook page. Visit starrynightbakery.com for more information. Other cupcake flavors include sugar free luscious lemon, salted caramel apple, VooDoo and more. These were their special Cupcake Wars flavors that were available in the bakery last year: Kona Coffee, Canned Ham Taro Root Slider, Energy Drink Ginger Poppy Seed and Pineapple Coconut. Vegan, gluten free and other custom cupcakes are also available; contact them at 410-871-9131. You can also follow them @starrynightcafe on Twitter. They're debuting new cupcake flavors today so keep up with their social media to find out what they are!

A special alert for those in their area looking for wedding cakes (or cupcakes): this Sunday, March 4th from 11-4 they are hosting a wedding cake tasting. Via their blog.





Here are a few more of their cupcakes:


owls!


custom cupcakes that say "Family is Always First" for Carroll Hospital Center


wedding cake and cupcakes


last but not least, Van Gogh's Starry Night as a pull-apart cupcake cake

St. Patrick's Day beer mug cupcakes!

How cool are these St. Patrick's Day beer mug cupcakes by blogger I Am Baker? They involve chocolate stout cake and fondant, and she tells you how to make them, step by step, and she used this Sweetapolita recipe for chocolate stout cake with whipped vanilla bean frosting, but put it in a cupcake pan!

Guinness Stout cupcakes with whiskey ganache and Bailey's Irish Cream frosting for St. Patrick's Day with recipe link

Blogger Erin over at Lemon Sugar has made some extra boozed up St. Patrick's Day filled cupcakes (the shamrock toppers add an extra special touch), and she has the recipe along with some encouragement for you:

I know that some of these filled cupcake recipes seem intimidating when you read the recipe. There are quite a few steps involved, but it's definitely worth it. They payoff for your time is extraordinary. You can spend an hour making and frosting cupcakes from a box mix, or you can spend 90 minutes making these. And once you make your first successful filled cupcake, you'll be hooked. Using a pastry bag to frost cupcakes seems "fancy" but it's actually quite a time saver. I can frost 24 cupcakes in about a minute. You can buy a 16 inch pastry bag for about $4.00, and a tip for about $2.00.

Green Lucky Charms St. Patrick's Day cupcakes

In honor of St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) and all things green, blogger My Own Ideas baked these Lucky Charms cereal cupcakes that are green inside with "Lucky You" toppers, and tells you how to make your own! Via Edible Crafts.

Pretty Mardi Gras cupcakes with cinnamon frosting

The Mardi Gras cupcake love continues; these colorful Mardi Gras cupcakes are by blogger Erica at Sweet Tooth, who shares her cake mix recipe, and used the cookbook Hello, Cupcake! as inspiration and adapted the Fake Ginger recipe for her cinnamon frosting. Erica writes:

They were extremely festive -- I love the vibrant colors of mardi gras and I was able to dump a whole lotta food coloring into the batter so that they baked brightly. Everyone was completely stunned how I was able to make the 3 colors so distinct, but all it took was a few spoons and a little finesse. Cupcake batter is not that runny, so when you spoon out a bit into the liner, it'll hold its place as long as you move quick to put in the next color. The result is so fun -- the possibilities of color combination make them perfect for just about any occasion.

Tie dye Mardi Gras cupcakes

Happy Fat Tuesday! These tie dye Mardi Gras cupcakes are by bakery Cupcakes To Go Go in Edmond, Oklahoma, via their Facebook page. They can be reached at orders at cupcakestogogo.com or 405-330-2190 and you can find out more at cupcakestogogo.com/.

Happy Cherry Pie Day one day late or maybe early! Whipped cream filled cherry pie cake mix cupcakes

It's Cherry Pie Day around this time (the Examiner called it for yesterday while the food holiday list has it down at February 22, so whenever it is, here's a gooey cherry pie cupcake by blogger Pink Polka Dot Creations. These cherry pie cupcakes were made using a Betty Crocker filled cupcake cake mix. From the post: "I simply opened a can of cherry pie filling and put that on top of the cupcake and then used the canned whipped cream for the whipped cream."

Malted rocky road brownie cupcakes with almond bark and recipe link

Yes, you read that title correctly: these are malted rocky road brownie cupcakes with almond bark too! Wow. They're by blogger Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, where you can get the recipe.

Mardi Gras colors inside a cupcake

The next big cupcake holidays are Mardi Gras (February 21) and St. Patrick's Day (March 17), so while we wrap up with some Valentine's Day cupcakes, we're also highlighting these holidays. Blogger Sweet Pea's Kitchen has the recipe for these colorful Mardi Gras cupcakes, and writes: "These cupcakes are swirled with the Mardi Gras colors of purple representing justice, gold representing power, and green representing faith."

Valentine's Day funfetti cupcakes with Jello frosting and heart sprinkles plus recipe link

Funfetti fun (I guess that's redundant but I don't care) cupcakes with Jello frosting for Valentine's Day. By blogger My Little Cupcake, who has the recipe, with heart sprinkles for added festivity. She writes: "The jello frosting has some shiny specs in it, making this even more festive for the Valentine theme!"

Li Hing Lemon, Angry Gorilla and Banana Split cupcakes by Brandon Cakes in Honolulu, Hawaii

Brandon Cakes brought what I think were the biggest cupcakes to our Honolulu cupcake meetup. They were majestic looking, as I hope you can tell from below. I'd never had nor heard of Li hing* and it was interesting, a very strong taste that took some getting used to for me, but I liked the lemon cake and frosting (and the Li Hing lemon cupcake got rave reviews from several attendees). I preferred the banana split, which had a light, spongy filling, and a good combination of flavors and textures. I ate so many cupcakes I had to take some home, and those are a bit of a blur in my mind so I can't tell you much about the angry gorilla, but it's part of a whole line of alcohol-based cupcakes Brandon Cakes sells. All of Brandon's cupcakes were gobbled up fast. If I have time during my last 3 days, I will try some more but I have had such an amazing time in Honolulu, I'm already plotting when I can come back!

They're based in Kailua and do custom cupcake and sell their cupcakes at Food Company on Tuesdays and Thursdays (The Enchanted Lake Shopping Center, 1020 Keolu Drive, Kailua, HI). You can find out more at brandoncakes.com and on Facebook and @brandoncakes on Twitter and contact them for fastest service by phone or text to 808-780-3505 or by emailing sales at brandoncakes.com. You can also email kuhpkeyk at gmail.com to get on their email list for flavor updates.












inside the banana split cupcake




me with Brandon

*Once again, some info from Wikipedia, this time on Li Hing:

Li hing mui is salty dried plum. It was made popular in Hawaii by Yee Sheong, who in early 1900, had began importing Li hing mui and various other preserved fruits from China to Hawaii. The Li Hing Mui craze was started by Yee and flourished with the company he founded, Yick Lung. It can be found in Hawaiian and Asian markets. It has a strong, distinctive flavor, and is often said to be an acquired taste, as it has a combination of sweet, sour, and salty taste. It has also been described as tart, and even tangy. Originally from China, the name "li hing mui" means "traveling plum". "Li hing" is "traveling" and "mui" is "plum."