Twitter Easter Basket Winner + May Madness!!!

Helloooo Everyone! Happy May to all of you:) Spring is in full effect and it looks like it will be a beautiful week here in San Diego! Perfect time to order some yummy cupcakes:)

Last month, we hosted a mini cupcake Easter basket giveaway on Twitter and our winner received the most adorable cupcake Easter basket with the flavor of her choice! Our winner chose the White Chocolate Pear (perfect choice;) and we customized each cupcake with a special fondant easter egg. The basket was gift wrapped and tied with a special purple bow.

 I love the little bunny:) This basket was so fun to create and I made sure each and every cupcake was unique and special:)

 This bright, purple bow really popped and made the entire gift basket shine!:) My Twitter winner was not home on time for the delivery, so I left the basket on the front porch. Thankfully, the cupcakes were kept safe & fresh:)

These delicious treats were ordered for a birthday. The flavor on the left, is Chocolate Pretzel. This one is soo delicious! The perfect combination of salty & sweet! I went on a heavy quest to find the perfect type of salt to add to these cupcakes. I found Hawaiian Red Sea Salt (from Jimbos) to provide the most delectable flavor and really adds to the overall taste & texture of the cupcakes. The chocolate cupcakes are sprinkled with Hawaiian Red Sea Salt and then rolled in crushed Pretzel slims!

The flavor to the right, is Root Beer Float! It took me awhile to find the perfect brew for this flavor. I decided to use an all-natural root beer soda that was blended with a variety of wonderful spices such as vanilla and nutmeg! The cupcakes are topped with a creamy root beer glaze when taken out of the oven, and then topped with a scoop of whipped vanilla frosting! These are just as amazing as the classic soda pop!

 This next order was such a blast! The party was for two, birthday sisters who turned 7 and 1. The theme was a candy shop theme and the colors matched the girls' adorable birthday outfits! I especially loved making all the little candies from fondant! I spent looong hours on these delectable cakes and cupcakes but I must say, it was most certainly worth it;)

 Shirley Temple cupcakes...ready to be frosted! These cupcakes have real maraschino cherries baked inside!

 And here are the adorable cakes & cupcakes! Shirley Temple & Vanilla Bean were the cupcake flavors. Strawberries N Cream and Vanilla were the cake flavors.

 Check out this awesome, sweet treat table the family made! I was really impressed:)

 Cake Pops! I've gotta learn to make these someday...

 These candy dish displays are ADORABLE!!!

This next order, was for Carrot Top cupcakes and Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes, topped with hand-poured chocolate peanut butter hearts. I especially love the Carrot Top cupcakes...made with juicy cranberries that are soaked in freshly squeezed orange juice! They are topped with a brown sugar, mascarpone & cream cheese frosting that is to DIE for!

 

 You can't go wrong with TARAmisu & Cookies N Cream cupcakes!

OR...these scrumptious Nutterbutter cupcakes below, which happen to be one of my all-time favorites!

 Okay everyone...here is our May flavor of the month! French Toast! It really does taste (and smell) like the popular breakfast dish! Made with pure, dark amber grade A maple syrup, along with a wonderful blend of vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg! Dusted with powedered sugar, these cupcakes really can't get any better!

 These mini cupcakes below, were ordered for a birthday of a little girl, who took them to school to share with her class. She chose chocolate & Lively Lime. The lime is made with freshly zested lime and fresh squeezed lime juice.

 Key Lime Pie! This cupcake is similar to the Lively Lime flavor, except made with Key Limes and baked with a homemade, graham cracker crust. These cupcakes are garnished with graham cracker crumbs and a twist of lime:)

 A yummy array of mini cupcakes, which were sampled during a wedding consultation. The happy bride & groom could not choose between the flavors and came to the conclusion that ALL four flavors must be at their wedding! The flavors consisted of: TARAmisu, White Chocolate Pear, Root Beer Float, and Morning Glory (our January flavor of the month).

These yummy, snickerdoodle cupcakes were certainly loved<3 

Topped with a cinnamon buttercream and dusted with a delicious blend of premium Korintje cinnamon and sugar!

 The next two flavors below, Chocolate and TARAmisu, were ordered for the company, Active-X, located in Sorrento Valley. I customized them with their name & company logo.

 Cappuccino cupcakes! It's certainly been awhile since I've made this flavor. An oldy, but a goody for sure! Made with freshly brewed coffee & topped with a mini biscotti!

 These adorable Orange Cream cupcakes were ordered for mother's day, along with the cappuccino ones above. The little train was for a special little boy:)

 The strawbery cake below is truly fit for a princess! Girly and sweet in every possible way!

 These cupcakes and polka dot cake below were ordered for the 1st birthday of a little boy. It may not look like it, but there are nine dozen mini cupcakes on those glass tiers!

 Strawberries & Cream, TARAmisu, Nutterbutter, and lemon were the flavors chosen.

 Perfect, little Vanilla smash cake!

 Burgundy Velvet (my fav) and Chocolate Pretzel cupcakes! I finally figured out the perfect combination of dyes to make the true burgundy coloring that I absolutely love & adore! These hearts really popped!

 Made this scrumptious cake below, for my grandmother on Mother's day. Half Strawberries N Cream, half Vanilla cake, filled with strawberry cream cheese filling and topped with chocolate fudge frosting. Garnished with freshly glazed strawberries!

 I cannot believe how large these strawberries were! Lol:)

 This 8'' French Toast cake below was ordered for Mother's Day. I still think my cake writing needs a little work but the cake looks pretty fab and i'm sure tasted just as amazing;)

 Another Mother's Day order! Customized TARAmisu cupcakes! I am just loving the color scheme...red, white, and gold! Kind of brings me back to my high school days (1999-2003)...Gooo Sun Devils!

 These customized LA Kings cupcakes were ordered for the LA Kings office! It was an honor to make them, as my family grew up watching ice hockey. My brother, a huge King's fan, certainly enjoyed checking these cupcakes out!

 I decided to design the old logo (left center) AND one of their new logos (right center).

 Ahhh, and LASTLY, this amazing Burgundy Velvet cake that was ordered as a late Mother's day gift. I sculpted the elegant, red heart in the center of the cake, along with the dainty flower petals from fondant.  

WOW!!!! I applaud all of you that took the time to actually sit and read this entire entry! It was certainly a long one. I hope you all enjoyed ALL of my many projects that I've been working on! Can't wait to get started on the next order this week for Aloha cupcakes!:)

XO

Tara

Cupcake Catch-up!

Hey Everyone! I know it's been a couple of weeks since I've last blogged but I finally found the chance to sit down and update you all with some of the orders we've had over the past couple of weeks. We have been getting busier as the weeks go by...a good thing!:)

My good friend, Amy, celebrated her 26th birthday and I wanted to do something special for her so of COURSE I customized some scrumptious Nutterbutter & Cafe Au Coconut cupcakes for her. Amy had her wedding in Costa Rica last month and the Cafe Au Coconut was inspired by our trip to Costa Rica. I thought by making this flavor for her birthday, it would remind her of the many fabulous memories from our trip. There was no specific theme for the customization...just wanted to make each cupcake unique and girly. They turned out amazing and they were so fun to design!

I recently had a sampling for Burgundy Velvet, Strawberries N Cream, TARAmisu, Mexican Vanilla Bean, and Cookies N Cream! Please contact us for sampling fees and consultation inquiries.

Take a look at some of the other orders we had for the past couple of weeks...

These Nutterbutters definitely tasted like Nutterbutter cookies and really hit the spot! Topped with chopped peanuts and are also available with hand-poured peanut butter candy hearts for an extra $3/dozen.

These Florida themed cupcakes were ordered for a going away party. The woman ordered them for her best friend who is moving to St. Augustine. Making these cupcakes were a little bittersweet for me as my bestfriend moved to Florida after our senior year of high school back in 2003. I absolutely LOVE the little flip flops on the bottom right corner;)

The red fondant hearts with the "R" initial is the first initial for my client's best friend. I am also loving the cute little fondant suns:)

This little bikini was one of my favs for sure! I love the teal and sparkly pink combo...they really pop!

Of COURSE I had to make some sea shells when making Florida themed cupcakes! Anything beachy reminds me of seashells. I leaped at the opportunity to make these!

First time making palm trees from fondant and I think they turned out pretty great:)

Ahhh yes, of COURSE I threw some fondant Florida oranges in the mix!

These special customized cupcakes below, were for the 8th wedding anniversary of a wonderful couple close to me! I especially love the single fondant rose and gold glitter hearts around it. Made them extra special!;)

Don't these Burgundy Velvet cupcakes look perfect?! Fresh out of the oven with the perfect amount of Burgundy coloring! In case many of you are wondering why I name my red velvet cupcakes Burgundy Velvet, well...burgundy just so happens to be my absolute favorite color, so I HAD to make a cupcake burgundy in color!

TARAmisu at it's best...JUMBO sized! I am obsessed with this dessert and although it does not contain cinnamon, I wanted to give it a special touch, so I added some cinnamon to my recipe! And not just any cinnamon...specially ordered, PREMIUM Korintje cinnamon! It gives the cupcake a nice kick and is so full of flavor:)

All of our Burgundy Velvet cupcakes are topped with a fondant heart for a special touch:)

These Super Mario Cupcakes were probably one of the most fun orders I've had yet! I used to play this Nintendo game back when I was a little kid and LOVED it. The order was for three dozen customized Super Mario cupcakes and two dozen Strawberries N Cream with Vanilla buttercream frosting and were devoured!:)

Jumbo Chocolicious cupcake customized with a fondant fire truck for the 3rd birthday of a little boy....

This past weekend, I worked on a couple different cakes. One was for a 4'' round Chocolicious cake with Strawberries N Cream frosting. The one below, is an 8'' round Lemon Cream cake. The center is filled with a lemon cream cheese filling and topped with a lemon buttercream! Soo light and moist:)

Check back soon to see the adorable mini cupcake Easter basket that was created for our Easter cupcake basket Twitter winner.  Also, we will be announcing our May flavor of the month!

Happy Cupcaking!

Tara

Surprise Birthday Cupcakes & Mini Cupcake Easter Basket

We recently had a fun little order for surprise birthday cupcakes. The client ordered them for his girlfriend's birthday & had specific requests for customization. His girlfriend loves the brand Chanel & is really into Hello Kitty as well, so I made sure to include those per his request! The cupcakes looked ADORABLE and the birthday celebrant LOVED them and was soo surprised!:)

For the month of April, we are hosting a mini cupcake Easter basket giveaway on twitter! Follow us on twitter and retweet at least one of our daily Easter basket giveaway tweets to be entered in the drawing! Entrants must be located within San Diego County and the winner will be announced on April 20th!

Birthdays, Showers, and a Grand Opening for Beauty By Dolly!

What a fun & eventful past couple of weeks it has been for The Cupcake Corner! In addition to the orders that were filled, I worked on the April flavor of the month: CAFE AU COCONUT. This was inspired by the coffee that my assistant, Melissa and I drank in Costa Rica at the Anamya Resort. Every morning, we woke up to freshly brewed Costa Rican coffee that was served with whole coconut milk. I was a little skeptical at first but boy oh boy was it delicious! I have been drinking my coffee with coconut milk everyday since! Simply put....Heaven in a cup!

When we returned from Costa Rica, Melissa suggested that I create a cupcake inspired by this creamy & delicious drink and call it, Cafe Au Coconut....and that is exactly what I decided to do. I went right to work in the kitchen and concocted the most delectable, light, and creamy cupcakes! I decided to make this flavor my April flavor of the month!

For the entire month of April, receive 15% off any first order of Cafe Au Coconut! You must mention the blog offer in order to receive the discount!

One of the orders I worked on over the past couple of weeks was for the 6th birthday of a little girl, who celebrated her birthday at Pump it Up in Poway. She wanted a simple, whimsical theme with hearts & flowers in pink and purple. The order was for four dozen minis and a personal, customized 4" round cake. The cupcakes & cake were thoroughly enjoyed by all with NONE leftover!:)

The next order was for the birthday of another little girl. The family ordered Nutterbutter (one of my favs!), Burgundy Velvet, and White Chocolate Pear. The cupcakes were well-loved by everyone and completely devoured!

Last Saturday I had an order for customized baby shower cupcakes. The flavor requested was our luscious Chocolicious with Mexican Vanilla Bean frosting. The colors of the baby shower were neon green & a bright blue. I designed a few bibs, milk bottles, rattles, and baby boy fondant decorations. They turned out suuuuper cute and everyone was very pleased with the order:)

I also customized some TARAmisu & Mexican Vanilla Bean cupcakes for a bridal shower order  that was held on Sunday. The bridal shower was held in Orange County and the cupcakes made it there safely! They were loved by all the ladies and some even went back for seconds. TARAmisu seemed to be the hit of the party!

Another order I had for Sunday, was for 12 dozen minis! The cupcakes were for a salon opening event in Hillcrest for Beauty By Dolly. The event had a great turn-out and the cupcakes were thoroughly enjoyed! 50% of the salon proceeds went towards Japan tsunami & earthquake relief.

Well, that's a wrap! Off to work on another customized order:) Look out for our customized mini cupcake Easter basket!:)

XO
Tara

Lakers & Knicks cupcakes

Hey everyone! It's been a busy couple of weeks. Just got back from Costa Rica last week and took some time to recuperate and get back into the swing of things! I have also been working on the April flavor of the month:)

Just before leaving for vacation, I had the opportunity to customize some Lakers & Knicks cupcakes! They were loved & quickly devoured:)

The first order was for TARAmisu cupcakes, decorated with a Laker's theme, plus our popular Burgundy Velvet cupcakes!

The second order, was for the classic yellow cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting and decorated with a New York Knick's theme. My favorites were the ones with the little hats:)

When I got back from Vacation, I had another order for Laker's themed cupcakes and these were our Chocolicious cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache frosting...my favorite chocolate frosting:)

As for our April flavor of the month, I will be announcing that on Friday, April 1st so be sure to check back!:)

Happy Cupcaking!:)

Tara