The World's Most Expensive Cupcake

They call it The Golden Phoenix and it hails from a bakery in Dubai. It's made from the world's finest chocolate and real, edible gold flakes and goes for the shocking price of $1,050! Can you imagine?

You can see how it's made here.

Celebrating Spring

Since today is the first day of spring (goodbye, winter!), I'm feeling inspired to celebrate with something sweet.  Of course it's always a good time for sweets, right?

1. Frosted sugar cookies - Mrs. Fields
2. Robin's nest brownies - photo courtesy of The Naptime Chef
3. Bunny cupcakes -  Mom Logic
4. Terra cotta cupcake pots - Frog Prince Paperie

Owl Pops

Happy Monday, everyone!  I hope ya'll had a good weekend.  I spent mine playing golf and soaking up the weather outside.  A few things I noticed as a result: the sun is starting to set earlier in the day and the leaves on the trees are losing their green. This got me thinking about fall and all the things I love about it, especially the food!  Few fall pairings are sweeter than a good cup of coffee and a warm slice of apple pie.  Pie seems to be a thing around here so I'm looking forward to trying the various bakeries and pie joints scattered around our neighborhood when the time comes for it.

In the meantime, my obsession with cupcakes remains constant.  Let's face it, it's ALWAYS a good time for a cupcake, particularly if the cupcake looks as cute as this:

The most perfect owl cupcake pops I've ever seen.

They remind me of the owl from the Tootsie Pop commercial.

This fun find comes from Blah, Blah Blog (hat tip: Poppies at Play).  Aren't these little guys great?  If I was hosting a fall gathering of some sort or maybe even a Halloween party, I'd definitely make 'em.

Top Ten Dessert Trends

See what's cookin' for cupcakes this year courtesy of The Food Channel.  They've just released this short video covering all the latest tasty treat trends and oh boy, does it look good!  Enjoy photo after photo of some of the most delicious-looking things you'll ever see.  Considering not a day goes by that I don't indulge in something sweet, I'm actually amazed that I haven't tried all of these things!

Chandelier Redo

Dreaming-N-Color has this beautiful idea for taking an old chandelier and giving it new life in the form of a dessert tray!   After stripping an ordinary chandelier, painting it a pretty color and adding on some tea plates and pearls, the finished product looks pretty impressive.   You can view the complete tutorial here.

Minion Cupcakes!

Brandy over at Brandy's Crafts shares this cute idea for making minion cupcakes.  I love the movie Despicable Me and these little beauties fit the characters perfectly!  Who doesn't love a good Twinkie once and a while?  An added incentive to making these tasty treats is that they are kid-friendly.  I can imagine how nice it must be as a mom to sit back and relax while the kids busy themselves for hours, perfecting their creations. Brilliant!

Without hair!

With hair! (hat tip: emiliehandmade.com)

Mother's Day Ring Cupcakes

Cupcakes Take The Cake has this cute idea for making Mother's Day extra special this year.  Instead of celebrating the day with cake, cookies, chocolates or any other standard kind of sweet treat, why not make these cupcake rings instead?  They're fashionable and they look oh so yummy!

Marvelous, darling!

A Perfect Cupcake Pairing

What better way to show off hours of concentrated cupcake work in the kitchen than with a miniature stand?

This cupcake stand by Modern Moments Designs is super easy to make and won't break the bank!  It's a brilliant idea and works perfectly for birthdays, baby showers and/or any event where little sweet treats are worthy of extra attention.

Since this stand pretty much assembles as a blank slate, you can customize it to fit your preferred design palette.  How cute!

April Fool's Cupcakes

FamilyFun.go.com has this recipe for April Fool's Day cupcakes.  You see, they're not your average cupcakes.  These sugarless little beauties are actually made from.... wait for it.... MASHED POTATOES AND MEATLOAF!  Oh, the hilarity!

You will need:

• 1 lb. lean, ground beef
• 1/2 cup of seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
• 3 tbsp. ketchup
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

For the frosting:

• 3 cups of mashed potatoes
• Food coloring

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Line 12 muffin tin cups with foil bake cups.

2.  In a large bowl, mix together all of the meatloaf ingredients until well combined.

3. Divide the mixture evenly among the lined cups (liners should be about 3/4 full).  Place the filled muffin tins on cookie sheets and bake the cupcakes for 15 min.

4. Divide the mashed potatoes among three small bowls.  Stir in a few drops of food coloring into each bowl to create yellow, blue and pink pastel "frostings."  Spread a generous dollop on each cupcake and smooth out.

Patrick Stewart Would Be Proud

This couple's fondness for Star Trek: The Next Generation is truly inspiring.  They worship the show so much, they found a brilliant way to incorporate it into their wedding day!  Behold, their Captain Jean-Luc Picard love cake!

The man, the legend. 

Cupcake Shapes That Break The Mold

I spent some time this weekend browsing the internet in search of something fun to bake.  The weather here in Los Angeles has been crappy at best so Saturday called for indoor activities.  (By the way, crappy weather here means temperatures in the low to mid-50's with no chance of sunshine.  Doesn't sound half-bad compared to places with "real" weather, still it's enough to get you down in the dumps if you let it.)

So I thought I'd have some fun with baking, as I tend to do whenever boredom sets in.  I started searching for cupcake recipes and came across all of these interesting cupcake molds.  Of course I became so enthralled by all the neat things I was finding that I never actually got around to making anything.  Sigh.

Hello Kitty!  (Or Herro Kitty, if you watch the show Modern Family.)  

Botcakes!

I wonder if this one comes in Minnie Mouse shapes too?

I scream, you scream.  We all scream for ice cream cupcakes!

*Granny's driving gloves not included.

For the party animal in all of us...

When Cupcakes & Science Meet

This makes me so very happy!  I haven't been creative in the kitchen in quite a while.... I think it may be time to dust off the ol' apron and get back to baking!

Baked Goods For Nerds

The geek inside of me nearly shed a tear when I found this list.  They all look so good!

Cheers to Cupcakes!

So I have a thing for cupcakes, but really, who doesn't?

This summer we went to a few weddings where cupcakes were used as an alternative to a wedding cake and over the last few months, cupcake shops have been popping up left and right all around our house.  This is both exciting and dangerous.  Very dangerous.  Still, it's great to see cupcakes growing in popularity.

How fitting then, that I stumbled upon this wonderfully creative way to make cupcakes more of an every day thing without all the indulgence.