Beautiful cherry almond cupcakes plus recipe link

Find out how to make these cherry almond cupcakes over at North Dakota Kitchen. They look fabulous!

Cute vanilla snowman cupcakes with only 143.5 calories each

Blogger Gina Homolka at SkinnyTaste serves up recipes that are fun and healthy - even cupcakes! From her about page:

On Skinnytaste, you'll find healthy dishes that don't sacrifice any of the flavor that can be found in their full-fat origins. Gina knows all the food she prepares for Skinnytaste is tasty and satisfying, because after all, this is the same food she cooks on a daily basis for her friends and family, and they are some of her toughest critics!

She caught my eye with these very cute vanilla snowman cupcakes.



The recipe involves Duncan Hines Cake Mix and Chobani yogurt, whose nutritional stats clock in at:

Servings: 24 • Size: 1 cupcake • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts* (3 pts no frosting)Calories: 143.5 • Fat: 2.7 g • Carbs: 27.3 • Fiber: 0 • Protein: 2.1 g • Sugar: 19.6Sodium: 143.2 mg

And if you just can't get enough, she's got lots more recipes on her site. Here are two of the cupcake ones:


super moist low fat chocolate cupcakes with chocolate glaze


pink lemonade confetti cupcakes

You can also follow SkinnyTaste on Facebook and @SkinnyTaste on Twitter.

Gluten-free Shirley Temple cupcakes plus recipe linke

These gluten-free Shirley Temple cupcakes are by Carol Kicinski of the blog Simply...Gluten Free, author of the cookbook Simply...Gluten-free Desserts, via Best Friends for Frosting.

Thanksgiving turkey dinner on a cookie on a cupcake!

Love love love this turkey Thanksgiving dinner on a cookie on a cupcake by Mrs. Fox's Sweets (via Flickr), who writes:

I decorated the cookie before putting it on the cupcake.First I frosted the the cookie, then added a little white icing for the mashed potatoes. I put a little yellow circle sprinkle in the center for butter, and then a little yellow piping gel since the sprinkle wasn't enough. For cranberry sauce I used red colored sugar. The green beans are made with green jimmies and the turkey was made with coffee flavored fondant (from Fondarific).

I love how fun, adorable and creative this is, and it's vegetarian! Who wouldn't smile when seeing this on the dinner table?

Raw rainbow cupcake and recipe link, plus Turkfruity cuteness

I saw a raw dessert at Bakery on the Hill in Portland, Maine, and immediately said, "Do you know the blog Rawdorable?" They didn't, but are going to check it out, and whether you eat raw food or not, you should check out Rawdorable for the emphasis on the "adorable" part. Seriously, it's always full of such cuteness, and recipes and decorating tips, most recently, this raw rainbow cupcake.





And you will very rarely find me posting something that's not a cupcake or cake pop since this blog is, indeed, called Cupcakes Take the Cake, but I'm going to make a Thanksgiving cuteness exception for this Turkfruity. You're welcome.

Cupcake decorating improvisation: candy necklaces for turkey feathers

One of my favorite things about cupcakes is that you can literally use anything to decorate them, and this post at Hoosier Homemade involves decorating improvisation in the form of candy necklaces! So fun, and a great way to use leftover Halloween candy (if any should exist in your house). True confession: sometimes my favorite part of a post like this is the ingredient list!

Muppets cake pops and Bakerella in a box: cake pops kit and notecards!

The latest ultra cute cake pops by the queen of cake pops herself, Bakerella, are these Muppets cake pops (click through for many more gorgeous images and find out how to make them).

Muppets cake pops by Bakerella, via Flickr

What else is new with Bakerella? Lots! In addition to her New York Times-bestselling cookbook Cake Pops, she's got two new items out for you to share your cake pop love. One is a cake pops kit, to make your cake popping easier, and one is cake pops notecards for, yes, snail mailing, which some of us still do (personally, I love getting cards in the mail, actually, anything in the mail except bills!). More great stocking stuffer ideas.

Sweet potato pie cupcakes with marshmallow frosting plus recipe link

Not only do these sweet potato pie cupcakes with marshmallow frosting by blogger Jessica at How Sweet It Is look amazing, she has never actually eating sweet potato pie! Read all about it and get the recipe at the link above. I'm a sucker for anything involving marshmallow so these sound amazing to me.

Pomegranate cranberry mini cupcakes and recipe link

I just ate some pomegranate seeds during breakfast - I love the sweet/tart combination, so these vegan pomegranate cranberry mini cupcakes by blogger and cookbook author Hannah Kaminsky are right up my alley, and very Thanksgiving appropriate. Visit her blog Bittersweet for the recipe!


image via Flickr

3 kinds of ginger in these ginger cupcakes, plus recipe link

These ginger cupcakes are by blogger Lite Home Bake, where you can get the recipe. From the post:

Verdict? Nice, I love the spice in them. It was soft and moist too. Although it has 3 forms of ginger in it (ground, fresh and crystallized), I would have preferred it to be more intense, will spike up the amount of ginger powder the next time around. The other thing that I I would change is to cut down on the amount of sugar, it was a tad too sweet for me.

Black Forest bacon on Cupcakes Benedict!

Yes, these are Cupcakes Benedict, by Stefani of the always-creative blog Cupcake Project! They're maple cupcakes topped with Black Forest bacon, poached eggs, and maple hollandaise sauce! She's got the recipe and instructions for these sinfully-good-looking cupcakes. She writes:

While cupcakes get some frosting lovin' on a regular basis, sometimes they get jealous of English muffins (or as I call them, stud muffins). Stud muffins are a key player in Eggs Benedict, where they are topped with bacon, eggs, and drippy, buttery hollandaise. Cupcakes are used to playing it safe with perfectly coiffed frosting, but after years of dreaming, they were ready to get a little dirty. They came to me for help and I arranged a cupcake and Eggs Benedict liaison - Cupcakes Benedict.

Check out her post to find out exactly what's in these breakfast (or anytime, really) cupcakes!

Talking turkey mashmallow cake pop cupcake toppers for Thanksgiving

These are adorable, and work as cake pops or as Thanksgiving turkey cupcake toppers! They're by blogger Sugar Swings! Serve Some, who tells you how to turn mini marshmallows into these cute creatures.

Fun bumblebee cupcakes

Cupcake cuteness in bumblebee form! Get the recipe (in German or you can translate it into English) at Ninas kleiner Food-Blog.

Butterfinger Blizzard candy cupcakes and recipe link!

Mother and daughter blog duo Double the Deliciousness has baked up these delicious-looking Butterfinger Blizzard cupcakes, and they've got the recipe! I love this part of the instructions:

Now for he Butterfinger Buttercream!! You need to unwrap the butterfingers and shave the chocolate off the outside of each bar. It's a little tricky, but if you've got some helpers (Kyla!) this is something they seem to think is fun!! Take the orange middles and crush in a bowl or in a plastic bag. Sift as much of the candy as possible. You want to get about 1/2 cup of orange Butterfinger powder.

Candy cane ice cream cone cupcakes

These candy cane ice cream cone cupcakes were made by blogger Christi at Love From the Oven using the Kupcake Konz pans and they're giving a combo pack away!



She writes:

WHERE HAS CANDY CANE BUTTERCREAM BEEN ALL MY LIFE????? Wowza. I used my favorite buttercream frosting recipe from Sweetapolita, and added 3 teaspoons of the crushed and sifted candy canes. It’s life altering deliciousness. I recommend making it ASAP. Even if you aren’t making cake or cupcakes. Just make it and get a spoon. Seriously.

Happy National Vanilla Cupcake Day!

We'll have many more vanilla cupcakes for you today as we celebrate National Vanilla Cupcake Day (have you made some? Email us at cupcakestakethecake at gmail.com with "Vanilla" in the subject line and your URL or photo, though, as always, the best place to submit photos is via our Flickr pool) or send links we can retweet on Twitter (we're @cupcakeblog). Thanks and hope you have a delicious National Vanilla Cupcake Day! The next cupcake holiday is National Cupcake Day on December 15th! See the master list of American food holidays here. And tomorrow is our latest Twitter chat, taking place on Friday, November 11 at 2PM EST. Follow @cupcakeblog on Twitter as well as follow the hashtag #cupcakechat.

This beautiful vanilla cupcake is by blogger The Lone Baker, who always goes all out, and who has the recipe for you! Via Flickr. Officially, it's "Vanilla fairy cake with Fluffy Mock Vanilla Bean Cream and crystallised vanilla pod shred."

Andes mint chocolate cupcakes and recipe link

Audra of the blog The Kurtz Corner made these Andes mint cupcakes and I'm right there with her in my love of Andes mints! Click through to her blog for the recipe! She writes:

Mmmm...Don't you just love those mints from Olive Garden, you know, the chocolate and mint ones? Love Andes Mints! And judging by several of my previous posts you should know I love cupcakes! So I thought to myself, why not combine the two?! Yes! Low and behold others have had the same idea. Lizzy from Your Cup of Cake perfected this cupcake recipe and inspired me to make my own, minus the from scratch part!

More marathon cupcakes

I was in south Jersey today visiting my dad and I tasted some cupcakes (more on those later) and when I got back to Manhattan I saw lots of people who'd just completed the marathon, with those silver capes around them. It feels like the whole cities is/was cheering on the runners. Here are two more examples of marathon cupcakes, and a cupcake virtual congratulations to everyone who ran the marathon today!

This lemon curd marathon cupcake features a medal based on the Fargo Marathon, and is by Just Delightful Cakes, where you can find out how to make your own medal topper.



These marathon (not the NYC one, but still marathon cupcakes) cupcakes are by blogger That Really Frosts Me (love the blog name!).

Ghost, jack-o-lantern and chocolate turkey cupcakes

All of these cupcakes are by blogger Culinary Adventures with Julie, where you can find out more. They're pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes and you can use them for ideas for your own fall and/or Thanksgiving cupcakes.

Candy corn and cookie turkey peanut butter cupcakes

Cuteness! Thanksgiving is coming up soon, and blogger Sweet Simple Stuff walks you through all the steps, with photos and instructions, of making these cute turkey peanut butter cupcakes!