When I first saw what were called "meatloaf cupcakes," I thought, "How cute - tiny rounds of meatloaf with a dollop of mashed potatoes on top." They were only called cupcakes, though, because they were small and topped with something.
However, Fine Furious Life has made meatloaf cupcakes that really, well, take the cake. The meatloaves really do look like cupcakes (they'd only be slightly better if they were in paper wrappers), and the most impressive part is the mashed potato frosting that really does look like frosting because 1) it's piped into swirls, and 2) there are two colors!
One of the best things about living half a mile from Trader Joe's is access to cheap Greek yogurt. Thick and tart, Greek yogurt gets its rich texture from straining, not from stabilizers, and lacks that sometimes slimy feel of many commercial American brands. Full-fat Greek yogurt mixed with honey and nuts makes for the most hearty, luxurious breakfast; it's also terrific doctored up with lemon juice, salt and paprika and used as sauce for cold chicken or lamb.
Gena, over at Big City, Little Kitchen, has found another great use for Greek yogurt: cupcakes. She simply used full-fat Fage (pronounced fah-yeh) as a substitute for sour cream in a Gourmet golden cake recipe. Though the yogurt is dense, the cupcakes came out as light and fluffy as if she'd beaten in egg whites. Mixed with sugar, butter, and lemon juice, it made a tart, cream cheese-like frosting. As a lover of sweet-sour yogurt gelato, I say mmmmm!
Most of us have had ice cream cakes, but have you have had ice cream cupcakes? If you haven't had one yet, you probably will soon. Maggie Moos now sells them, as does Philly Swirl. However, they are really easy to make at home using any of your favorite cake and ice cream combinations.
Last Fall, a Slashfood reader (thanks Kate!) introduced me to the book Small-Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos in the comment of a post about Flight of the Conchords and Lasagna for One (go read the post if that sentence sounds like Greek to you). I ordered the book sometime soon after she mentioned it, but I didn't get around to using any of the recipes until last week.
Friday night, Scott expressed a longing for cupcakes. Normally I would have just smiled and said "that's unfortunate," but I was feeling sort of generous and so decided to pull out the book and see what I could come up with. There was a recipe in the book for "Just Plain Good Cupcakes" that made exactly four little cakes. I had all the necessary ingredients and so I gave it a try. And they were perfect cupcakes - light, fluffy and moist. I was actually grateful that there weren't more, as it was hard to stop eating them (the recipe is after the jump).
The cupcakes were easy, because I could bake them up in traditional muffin tins. There are also recipes in the book for tiny cakes that get baked in well-cleaned tin cans and mini-loaf pans. I'm already looking forward to trying some of the other recipes in the book, as it's a great way to satisfy a dessert craving without having to make something that serves 12.
I am such a sucker for this kind of thing. As I was browsing my favorite baking blogs, I came across a cool new cupcake transport on Baking Bites. It's called the Cupcake Courier, made by Jennifer Gunn Designs.
The carrier is really sleek. It's three stackable tiers that hold a dozen cupcakes each. The tiers then fit neatly into a carrying case. There are four colors you can choose from: sky blue, pink, yellow, and peach. One of the things I think is great about the Cupcake Courier is that it can double as a cake carrier by taking out the cupcake-holding inserts.
I don't make nearly enough cupcakes, or cakes for that matter, to justify having one of these things, but I can still drool over it. If you do have to transport a good number of baked goods, this might be a good investment for you.
You're baking cupcakes for a special event, but lacking in the "fancy baking tools" department. Never fear -- you can frost stellar-looking cupcakes with nothing more than a knife.
Whatever dessert you end up having for Passover, please avoid those macaroons in the can. At the Passover Seder, we traditionally ask 4 questions. I propose adding a 5th question: Why on all other nights do we eat baked goods that come in bags, boxes, or direct from the oven and on this night we eat baked goods from a can?
Even moving past canned macaroons, I'm not typically a big fan of Passover desserts. These kosher for Passover chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting, however, are so tasty that I could eat them year round. One of my friends even told me it was the best cupcake she had ever had!
They are extremely rich - almost like fudge - so if you have mini cupcake wrappers, you might consider using those instead of normal-sized ones. You could also make the cupcake recipe in cake format.
The next time your puppy is pleading beneath the table as you devour chocolate and other dog-unfriendly treats, just toss him/her a doggy toy cupcake -- it's sure to distract for at least 3-5 minutes. Pampered Puppy offers an entire line of foodie-friendly dog toys, ranging from cupcakes to birthday cakes to beautiful plush bars of chocolate.
But maybe your dog doesn't have such a sweet tooth, and instead prefers, say, raw fish. In that case, check out these sushi dog toys from Sugar Charms. And for those with a romantic side, how about his chocolate-covered strawberry from Wiggle-n-Waggle? All are perfect for making your dog feel like the foodie he/she wishes he/she could be.
If you are lucky enough to live in one of the five boroughs of New York City, then you are within tasting distance for these delicious-looking treats from Baked in Red Hook, Brooklyn. For the rest of us, at least there's a picture at which to gaze. There's also a blog entry that goes along with this image, all about how painfully difficult (because there's just so much to eat and photograph) it is to be a food blogger. Vanessa, I feel your pain!
You know how they say "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb?" Well, leave it to Martha Stewart to turn a proverb into a cupcake. Take a look at these "lions and lambs," ideal for a March baby shower or kids party.
The lambs have chubby mini-marshmallow cheeks and bubblegum noses, while the lions sport resplendent toasted coconut manes. Both are vanilla cupcakes with Swiss Meringue buttercream frosting (I've made Martha's buttercream many times before - it's a solid recipe).
Look forward to "April shower" and "May flower" cupcakes in the months to come. Having just driven through a mid-March snowstorm, I'm looking forward to the "lamb" part myself.
Surely you already know of Etsy, the ebay for the crafty and craft-loving alike. But perhaps you've yet to hear of Vegan Etsy, the blog of a group of Etsy users whose online shops consist solely of vegan items.
The blog primarily features fun interviews with Etsy shop owners, whose products consist of about half baked goods and half vegan accessories (which are just as fun to peruse). There are also plenty of links to the shops, where you can buy vegan goodies to your heart's content. A sampling: blueberry muffins, lemony-glazed raspberry turnovers, pumpkin spice cupcakes...is your mouth watering yet?
In addition to being an awesome place to find new buyers and sellers, you can pick up some great tips from the Vegan Etsy crowd, like new recipes, helpful vegan websites, and gorgeous flickr pages. You can't really go wrong.
Oh, how I wish I could take claim for these works of art. Alas, I cannot, so I'll be sure to thank the real artists: Clever Cupcakes of Montreal.
The company provides three cupcake choices for your indulging pleasure: classic, creative, and wholesome. Choose your classic combo from a multitude of cake, frosting, fillings and sprinkles choices; go creative a la Mario Bros.; or keep it health(ier) with the whole-grained goodness of a wholesome cake. The wholesome cakes are made with agave nectar, which has a lower glycemic index than sugar (a fancy way of saying that it won't make your blood sugar spike, resulting in those crazy sugar highs and lows).
Alas, the fresh ingredients and lack of preservatives that make these cupcakes so good is also what makes them unsuitable for shipping - so you can only enjoy them if you live in the Montreal area (or have a really good friend who's willing to send them to you).
Be like Creative Cupcakes and post your photos on the Slashfood's Flickr Photo Pool. C'mon, you know you want to. Everybody's doin' it...
Being that Valentine's Day is less than a week away, I've got chocolate on the brain. We've got an awesome feature coming up a little later in the day on how to make your own chocolate for Valentine's Day and so I set off in search of a image that featured chocolate for today's Food Porn pic. I didn't have to look far, because as soon as I saw this photo of a homemade chocolate cupcake from Rachel of Coconut & Lime. She made these luscious cakes for her birthday last summer and lucky for us, she posted the recipe on her blog.
If you want to see your images in this space, head over to our Flickr group, join up and start adding your pics to the pool!
Unlike some of the awesome bloggers on Slashfood, I am embarrassed to admit that I am not a baker/pastry chef by any means. In fact, the entire process of baking boggles me - from the frustration of measuring to the aggravation of having to use 82 separate bowls (but why do I have to mix the milk and the egg in a separate bowl, can't I just immediately add them to the butter and sugar?), baking and I typically don't see, well...eye to eye (pun definitely intended).
Not believing me when I told her I couldn't bake, my mother, a baking whiz, got me a super-cool cookbook, Claire Crespo's Hey There, Cupcake, filled with almost too-adorable-to-eat cupcake recipes and decorating techniques. So, with a sudden streak of confidence, I poured through the book until I found a recipe that looked doable: the Eyeball Cupcakes. They're rich vanilla cake with a delectable buttercream icing.
Take a look at my unique step-by-step process in the gallery below (unique essentially because I do not own a mixer and I ran out of vanilla extract halfway through, forcing me to call my mom in a panic). Check it out.
Have you ever stashed a Coke in the freezer, hoping to chill it quickly, then forgotten all about it, only to have it explode all over your frozen peas?
I am such a sucker for this kind of thing. As I was browsing my favorite baking blogs, I came across a cool new cupcake transport on 
A 
The next time your puppy is pleading beneath the table as you devour chocolate and other dog-unfriendly treats, just toss him/her a doggy toy cupcake -- it's sure to distract for at least 3-5 minutes. 
You know how they say "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb?" Well, leave it to 
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
