Pull-Away Cupcakes

A couple weeks ago I was a proud guest at a very special wedding shower.

One of my roommates from college is getting married Sept. 25 and we all gathered to celebrate. And of course for dessert...

CUPCAKES!

But not just any old cupcakes! Pull-away cupcakes. Apparently this is a trend I so embarrassingly am not aware of. Rather than baking a cake in a certain shape, cupcakes are arranged (in this case as an umbrella) and then frosted over. So no knives necessary! Simply "pull away."

Genious.

Love you, Jessie girl...

~AnnMarie

Long Over Due at Billy's Bakery

This title has a number of hidden meanings.

First and foremost it refers to the fact that this post should have gone up a very long time ago. You'll see what I mean by the rainy dreary day captured in the pictures, as well as the winter caps and coats that also make appearances.

Another would be the fact that Billy's and I (and Nicole) were supposed to meet quite a long time ago. Almost a year to be exact.

And finally, I was accompanied on my visit by fellow blogger and all around great gal (and new MOMMY to be!) Miss Sofia Zimmerman. She chronicles her life as a savvy foody in Brooklyn, here, on Brooklyn Baba.

Billy's is adorable with a kitchy old-school feel and atmosphere that's reminiscent of both Magnolia and Babycakes Bakeries. Two former Cuppie Tour stops. The taste -- we both opted for vanilla on vanilla cuppies -- very similar to Magnolia and Buttercup Bakeshop. I believe I'd heard that Billy's is also owned by one of the founders of Magnolia (as is Buttercup). Does anyone know if that's true?

Anyway, here are a couple shots of the shop:

And one of my fellow cupcake lover:

Sofia says another good choice, although a bit on the sweeter side, is the banana cupcake. I brought home the red velvet and carrot cake to try as well and both were D-LISH!!!!!!!!!!

~AnnMarie

Happy Easter!!

How adorable are these little Easter basket cuppies, made by our little cousins Marissa, Francesca and Adrianna! The brown strips you see on top were tootsie rolls that were serving as handles. Unfortunately...they melted.

Hope everyone had a wonderful day:)

~AnnMarie

DinaCakes Giveaway Winner!

Vineyard cupcakes from DinaCakes

Drumroll please...

Patrick McCarthy you are the winner of two dozen cupcakes from DinaCakes!

Congrats! I'm very jealous...

Please contact me at theroadtosweetness@gmail.com so we can get your address.

Thanks for playing kids:)

~AnnMarie

Odd Cupcake News

This is pretty stupid. And not funny. But yet cupcake-related.

I'm in a bad mood this dreary Sunday, in case you can't tell.

Do you have any other odd-ball cupcake lore related stories to share?

Don't forget to enter our DinaCakes giveaway. Last day...

~AnnMarie

Please SPONSOR US!

My fiance and I (and hopefully a few others that I can guilt into it) will be walking an SPCA walkathon.

Our goal is to raise $500. If you can contribute, please do, any little bit helps.

You can sponsor us at THIS LINK.

Thanks!

~AnnMarie

DinaCakes Giveaway!

A week or so ago, we featured this awesome cake, made by a local NYC metro self-made baker, Dina, of DinaCakes!

We were so impressed that we decided we absolutely had to offer up a giveaway of her amazing goods. Unfortunately, we can only offer it to those living in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut).

If you are a resident, just leave a comment below this post...and of course MAKE SURE that you're a follower of The Road to Sweetness AND "Like" DinaCakes on Facebook (we WILL be checking!!) and you'll be in the running to win two dozen cuppies from Dina. We'll keep it open for one week. 

The option to become a follower of the Road to Sweetness is on the left hand side of this page.

The giveaway will be closed on Sunday at midnight. On April 11, we'll pick a winner at random and announce it at noon. Wouldn't you like to have a few of THESE show up at your door?

Good luck!


~AnnMarie

Ammie's Breakfast Cuppie

Often my breakfast of choice ends up being a banana and a cup of coffee, usually due to time constraints.

Right now my mother is frowning and shaking her head in disgust.

Anyway, it got me thinking that if Nicole and I ever do realize our dream of opening up our own cupcake shop, I'd insist on offering "Ammie's Breakfast Cuppie." This would of course be a banana coffee cupcake.

But the question is which part would be the banana? Would it be a banana cupcake? Or banana frosting? I think I'd prefer a banana cake with a creamy espresso frosting. MMMmmmmmm......

What would your perfect breakfast cuppie be??

Skinnygirl Cake

Just because I love Bethenny Frankel. How freakin' ADORABLE is this, made by DinaCakes!

Check our their facebook page which I link to above for more images, especially of their cuppies:)

~AnnMarie

Happy Blogoversary

I know, I know, we've (more like I'VE) been seriously slacking on the blogging lately. But I couldn't let today pass without letting everyone know that not only is it St. Patrick's Day, but also our one year blogoversary.

 I guess I should get Nicole a set of paper towels.

It's been a very busy couple of months between wedding planning and finding a new job, so my blogging duties have gotten neglected. But at least it wasn't all for naught as I did indeed start a new editorial position just last Monday. Please hold your applause.

Since I'm finally speaking up I thought I'd give you all an update on our wedding cuppies. At first, we'd thought a cake was included in our contract. So I had to swallow my pride and let go of having cupcakes for dessert rather than the traditional cake as we couldn't turn down a free cake given how ridiculously expensive it is to throw a wedding.

But we found out recently that it is NOT included so after feigning extreme anger and disappointment I realized it meant we (and by we I mean Nicole and I) would get to see our dream of having wedding cuppies come true.

So we immediately contacted our fave cupcakery: Kumquat. I've written about them numerous times on The Road to Sweetness. They do not delivery outside of the city but thought it couldn't hurt to ask. Unfortunately all I got was radio silence on the other end:(

So here's just one of the places we're considering: Lulu's Cake Boutique. I thought I'd share with you all their amazing menu. I've got my eye on "the glazey river."

Happy drooling.

~AnnMarie

New Year, New Cupcakes

I'll admit it…we play favorites.

Can you blame us? When you find a good stand-by and someone who never lets you down it gets hard to step out of your comfort zone and trust someone new.

Especially when it comes to cuppie shops.

So I know we've sort of missed the boat on the whole resolutions thing as it's the 18th at this point but hey…at least it's still January. But we've decided to expand our horizons this year.

And we plan to do that with the help of Red Velvet Diaries.

Brave soul Kara has decided to chronicle her journey to find the perfect red velvet cupcake. And she's really made the rounds!

Kara rates from 1-5 and let me tell you she knows her stuff and is a tough critic. She's visited many NYC bakeries, Jersey bakeries and beyond!

And do I need to mention the adorable art work that accompanies her posts, along with the "Sweet Moment of the Day." She also holds a special place in my heart as she is currently planning her wedding as well, which she also writes about on Red Velvet Diaries. I think I can speak for myself and the world when I beg this question: will she be having red velvet cuppies at her wedding!?

She's featured a few bakeries that have been on our radar, particularly Two Little Red Hens. We'll make it our business in 2011 to sample them ourselves. And of course keep them in the running for Cuppie Tour 2011!

Butter Lane Cupcake Class TONIGHT

Butter Lane Cupcakes at 123 East Seventh St., New York, NY is hosting a cupcake class tonight and there are two spots left!

Running from 4-6 p.m., email Joe@butterlane.com if you’d like to reserve: first-come, first-serve.

For more information on Butter Lane's classes, Like them on Facebook or click here.

~AnnMarie

It's National Cupcake Day

Happy National Cupcake Day everyone!






















How did YOU celebrate. Tell us here or on our Facebook page.

~AnnMarie

Extra Extra, Read All About IT!!!

BIG CUPPIE NEWS:

The Magnolia virus is spreading and we couldn't be more excited.

My all-time favorite cupcake shop is opening even more branches, according to Eater National:

"In the docket locally is a Magnolia planned for the uptown Bloomingdales (where they'll kill it no doubt), one for Long Island, and one for the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey."

Mmm hhmmm on the "no doubt." What she said.


We reported on this tragedy at Magnolia Bakery earlier this year.

~AnnMarie

Holy Moley

If I weren't on the bride diet (and Nicole on the maid-of-honor diet), I'd get my but over to Flour & Sun Bakery tomorrow and pick me up one of these puppies:

That'd be a chocolate hazelnut nutella cupcake to you.

I'm salivating at the mouth right now.

Then I'd try me out a French Toast cuppie.

Then a Pink Champagne.

A-MAZING flavors goin' on tomorrow! So get over there, send us a pic with a little review. We can live vicariously...

~AnnMarie

Missed Opportunities

So, I've been trying to get my act together and post about this for over a month. Seeing as it's going to be December this week...I figure the time has passed.

But that doesn't mean I can't share a picture or two.

As you guys know, we did a 100 cupcake giveaway a couple months ago on Sumo's Sweet Stuff. After a couple tries, we finally had a winner: Crystal from Crystal's Craft Spot!

Crystal is all the way in Washington State! So you can imagine the challenge this posed to us.

Thanks to this amazing suggestion though, from the equally fab cuppie blog i heart cuppycakes, we were able to get 100 cupcakes all the way across the country to Crystal in great condition. See for yourself!

Crystal requested them for a family Halloween party, so we put together the following for her:

-Vanilla purple monsters (vanilla cuppies with violet-tinted vanilla frosting)
-Red velvet mummies (with cream cheese frosting under white fondant pieces)
-Chocolate spider webs (chocolate cuppies with chocolate icing and a spider web decoration and small plastic spider)
-Ghost stories carrot cakes (with cream cheese frosting and marshmallows) 

So after a very late Wednesday evening in October of blood, sweat and even a few tears, we were able to overnight them on Thursday and have them arrive in Washington on Friday for Crystal's Saturday party.


Looking forward to our next trial...one that's not on the other side of the country:)

Just kidding Crystal! We had a great time!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving...

~AnnMarie

I'm ENGAGED!!!!

You know what that means...

Let the hunt for the wedding cuppies begin!

Do You Like Me?

I mean us?

Become a fan of ours on Facebook (yes, I know "fan pages" don't exist anymore but I refuse to tell people to "like" me.

You'll get updates you won't always get here on our blog!

~AnnMarie

French Fry Cupcakes!

Wow. This chic is super annoying, but I couldn't resist re-posting this. A video on how to make French Fry CUPCAKES!

Enjoy:

Sumo Stops By

Hello everyone!

I'm so excited to be blog swapping over here today! I love reading The Road to Sweetness and hearing all about the cupcake adventures! They recently gave away 100 cupcakes on my blog - I'm still jealous!

I'm Sumo, from Sumo's Sweet Stuff!

My real name is Summer, but my husband nicknamed me Sumo when we were dating. (Should I be offended?) Now he's got all of my family, as well as lots of our friends, calling me Sumo. I think Aunt Sumo sounds pretty great, don't you? I live in Utah with my husband, and our two beautiful daughters - Reece & Remi!

Growing up, I never used to be all that domestic or crafty, so I think no one is more surprised than my mom at how I've ended up where I am today! I started Sumo's Sweet Stuff last May as a place to keep some of my crafting projects so that my personal blog wasn't overrun with them. Somehow, that developed into a place to host giveaways, share tutorials, share recipes, and feature fellow bloggers' ideas and blogs! I also use my blog to promote my etsy shop, so if you're ever in the market for some baby girl accessories, come on over! Every Monday is Market Yourself Monday, where you can link up your latest projects, and visit other blogs to get some inspiration!

Here's a little peek at some of the things you can find on my blog:

Zipper Flower Tutorial

Easy (and tasty!) Bon Bons

Feather Wreath

Chalkboard Block

Seasonal Wood Board

Three Tiered Shirts


T-Shirt Dress

Dipped Nutter Butters

You can find something every day of the week at Sumo's Sweet Stuff:

Market Yourself Monday

Tutorial Tuesday

Mouth-Watering Wednesday

Things to Try Thursday

Feature Friday

Showcase Saturday

Sponsor Sunday

Thanks again for having me! I hope to see you all over at Sumo's Sweet Stuff soon!