Inside The Cupcake LAB

Happy Holidays from the Cupcake LAB

thecupcakelab — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 21:40:50 +0000

I had two orders for Christmas-themed cupcakes this year.

Clockwise from top left: German chocolate, red velvet and lemon cupcakes

Kathy ordered a dozen each of German chocolate, red velvet with cream cheese frosting and lemon. They were very pretty.

Peppy peppermint

Then my Realtor, Judy, ordered a dozen chocolate with peppermint frosting. I thought these were very festive, adorned with Starlite mints.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

C is for Cupcake

thecupcakelab — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 21:34:40 +0000

I made Sesame Street cupcakes! They were a lot of fun. I still need to perfect the “grass” (or in this case, “fur”) pastry tip, but overall, I thought they turned out really cute.

Pretty!

thecupcakelab — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:30:14 +0000

Not a whole lot to update right now, but here are two pretty pictures of cupcakes! (The pumpkins were for my Realtor; the sunflowers were for my friend Sarah)

Autumnal cupcakes

Sunny sunflowers

Wedding No. 3

thecupcakelab — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:36:33 +0000

And wedding No. 3 is in the books!

I made 15 dozen mini cupcakes for my friend Lauren’s Aug. 14 wedding. They turned out beautiful. I made 5 dozen lemon with goat cheese frosting (goat cheese frosting is AMAZING, btw); 5 dozen chocolate-chili; 5 dozen banana with peanut butter frosting.

There were a few minor bumps along the way, but for the most part, everything went well. The absolute best part, though, was the first appearance of the new Cupcake LAB identity system, something that’s been in the works for quite a while. I absolutely adore my new logo and “brand.” Thanks to Audra, graphic designer extraordinaire, for her beautiful design.

And now for the photos!

Lemon cupcake nestled in its box

My rigged-up piping bag

Three little cupcakes

Labels designed by Audra

All boxed up and ready to go to the venue

Congrats to Lauren and Brent!

Fun with fondant

thecupcakelab — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:19:17 +0000

I don’t work with fondant very often. What can I say, I’m a sprinkles girl. But sometimes it is pretty fun to roll, cut and form fondant into shapes and other fun little doo-dads. It’s like Play-Doh for cupcakes!

Co-worker Brendan asked if it was possible to do Burberry cupcakes for his fiancee’s birthday. I was pretty sure I could do it, so I accepted. I found the perfect shade of brown for the big rounds and cut strips of black and red to form the famous Burberry plaid.

Cupcakes with a British accent

I think they look amazing! I was so happy with how they turned out. It was really fun and I improved on my fondant skillz. Hooray!

Another angle

Kids love cupcakes!

thecupcakelab — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:11:22 +0000

I recently made cupcakes for my uncle’s 50th birthday, and his grandkids (my cousin’s kids) scarfed those cupcakes like nobody’s business!

Nom.

Too cute!

Almost famous

thecupcakelab — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:18:21 +0000

The Pineapple Upside Down Cupcake Cone got a lot of attention in the blogosphere, most recently on Party Cupcake Ideas. Here’s a roundup of where my ice cream creation was noted.

Cupcakes Take the Cake

Party Cupcake Ideas

The Cupcake Blog

Really Easy Cupcakes

Thanks to everyone who thought my idea was cool.

Catching up

thecupcakelab — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:49:36 +0000

Hey y’all,

It’s been a while since my last post, nearly a month. The sad news is that I didn’t make the top three in the ice cream cupcake roundup. Booooo. But, I’m still a cupcakin’ fool. I made strawberry cupcakes with strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream for a co-worker’s farewell party and cherry Coke float cupcakes for another co-worker’s retirement party.

I actually don’t have pictures of those two jobs, but I have some from past jobs that I just hadn’t got around to posting.

Cowboy cupcakes for my BFF

These are chocolate-chili cupcakes. I made them for my best friend Sarah’s 30th birthday party.

Manly, yes?

Co-worker Lois hired me to make cupcakes for her son’s 21st birthday. He wanted yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I added some rum to the frosting because frankly, you can’t have a 21st birthday without booze.

It's a girl!

And finally, here are some chocolate cupcakes I made for a baby shower. Simple and elegant.

My next job is another wedding. A good friend of mine from college, with whom I share the same first name, is getting hitched in August. She wants mini cupcakes to go along with the traditional wedding cake her mom’s friends are making. Because the cake is going to be so traditional, Lauren has encouraged me to get wild with the mini cupcakes. I’m still tinkering with what I want to make but I’m thinking of doing the chocolate-chili (same ones I made for Sarah’s birthday), the maple-bacon and perhaps a lemon-goat cheese. I’ll let you know how that turns out!

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcake Cone

thecupcakelab — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:19:34 +0000

Hello faithful readers!

This is my entry in the 2010 Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup, sponsored by Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious. I’m vying to win an awesome Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet, and Ice Cream Maker and an incredible prize pack from OXO including OXO Good Grips Solid Stainless Steel Ice Cream Scoop, Oxo Good Grips 2-Cup Angled Measuring Cup, OXO Good Grips 1169600 3-Piece Mixing Bowl Set, Blue/Green/Yellow, Oxo Good Grips Bent Icing Knife, and Oxo Good Grips PRO Grater.

Wish me luck! (I’ll let you know when the public voting begins.)

My inspiration was my ice cream cone-shaped cupcake pan that I got at Crate and Barrel. I wanted to bake some “cone” cupcakes and fill them with ice cream. But if you know me, you know that I have to be a little more flashy than that. So then I decided to turn the cone upside down and call my creation a Pineapple Upside Down Cupcake Cone!

The cupcake is a basic yellow cake, buttery and moist, dressed up with a little rum to complement the pineapple sorbet. YUMMY!

So, what do you think? Can I win this contest?

PS — Thanks to Audra for photography assistance.

Cupcake Porn

thecupcakelab — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:02:35 +0000

And now, for your viewing pleasure, results of the famed cupcake photo shoot. Enjoy!

Click to view slideshow.

Beautiful, ain’t they? I couldn’t be happier with the finished photos. BIG UPS to master photographer Chuck France. His work is amazing, and I’m astounded every time he clicks the shutter. For more, visit Chuck’s site: http://chuckfrancephoto.com/