CONGRATULATIONS TO  TANIA FROM LOVE BIG, BAKE OFTEN! According to random.org, she won the Wildberry Pie apron from Shabby Apple! Okay, now Tania is a blog-friend of mine, but her number actually came up, no kidding. Just so you know that the winner was picked fair & square and that there’s no shenanigans, here’s the proof (in the form of screenshots).

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I always play fair and square, and the winner is the winner. But really, that’s a perfect example of why you enter more than once, people! Tania won because she used all five of her possible entries! This is the lovely prize she’ll be getting in the mail shortly:

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Huge thanks to Shabby Apple for hosting this giveaway, big thanks to everyone who entered, and congrats again to Tania. Seriously, my readers are the effin’ BEST blog readers/fans ever. EVER. You make me so happy, I love you all & I wish I could give every one of you a hug, a cupcake & an apron. But for everyone who didn’t win, don’t forget- there’s a coupon code so you can buy your own apron (or dress, or whatever) for 10% off. The code is “cupcakerehab10off” and it expires in a little less than a month (July 24th). Treat yourself!

I’m planning on doing a lot more giveaways in the future, and I usually do one for Cupcake Rehab’s blogiversary in September, so I expect you all to come back & enter again. To all my fellow Americans, have a great holiday weekend! See you guys back here next week.

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Shabby Apple, in case you aren’t familiar with it, sells the most beautiful clothing & vintage-y retro inspired clothing, (and aprons, which I’ll get to in a minute); dresses & maternity dresses, little girl’s clothes, swimwear, fitness wear and gorgeous jewelry & accessories. I was just talking a few days ago about how “old fashioned” I am, and then bam! I find out about this site. Talk about kismet. My personal favorites: this adorable retro navy blue sailor dress, this super cute striped jersey dress, and of course, this black one (with a great name, Mary Jane Watson!). Lucky for you, this awesome site found me, liked my blog and wanted to share some of the delightful-ness of their merchandise with my readers!

So, I chose, just for you, my lovely readers/fans/followers/stalkers/etc… my favorite of the aprons, the Wildberry Pie empire waist apron, which was featured in USA Today. Yes, the winner of this giveaway will receive this gorgeous apron, retail value: $38.00 US.

Super adorable, right? And oh, oh, what’s that on the wall? Oh yeah. That’s right- a cupcake!

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A bright patch of colorfully printed poplin provides the perfect backdrop for your wildest culinary creations. Detailed with contrasting pattern at the tie-back waist and halter straps, and pleating at the empire waist, this full bib apron will keep your sundresses spotless while you conjure up another kitchen miracle.

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That’s us, right readers? Whipping up kitchen miracles. And the apron. I know. Totally & completely cute. Even cuter? The little story that’s included with the apron on the website:

Clutching the copy of The Joy of Cooking I had pilfered from my great aunt’s bookshelf as if it would somehow protect me, I walked up to the door of the guest house with all the grace and courage I could muster, and opened the door. A fresh breeze blew in off Lake Michigan, filling the airy entryway with the bouquet of scents that make up Door Country limestone beaches, smoking fish, pitch pines and midwest tradition. I breathed it in. This was not a vacation; this was a test.

I had prepped for weeks for this, the first encounter with the future in-laws and their extended family a whole gaggle of gracious ladies and hungry gentlemen from scattered points around flyover country as they descended on Sturgeon Bay for the Fourth of July. It was a longstanding family tradition of lounging, fishing, and eating obscene amounts of the women’s blue ribbon prize-winning home cooking, culminating in the family’s giant Independence Day feast, where the best of the best was on display for everyone’s viewing, and eating, pleasure.

I was assigned the pie. The test to see if the girl from the big city could be a proper wife and keep their loving son fed. (Apparently my vast knowledge of the best and cheapest places to eat out in New York didn’t count) The only small problem was I had never actually made a pie. So for weeks I practiced, watching YouTube videos of Julia Child or Martha Stewart whipping up extraordinary pastries and following along in my tiny galley kitchen, only to turn out crusts that could chip your teeth or filings so sticky you could barley swallow them. None of this was helped by my fiancee’s constant whistling of “Can she bake a cherry pie?”

I made my way down the hallway of my bungalow and into the kitchen, the sense of fear and dread welling up inside of me. But there on the counter was a little bundle tied up with string, my name handwritten on the outside of an envelope. I opened it.

Someone wise once said, “Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.” I think the trick is to look good doing both, thought these would help. Good Luck! Aunt Sue

I undid the bundle. Inside was a sweet, handmade vintage apron, and two index cards stapled together, with “TOP SECRET: 4th of July Boysenberry Pie” written at the top. I put on the apron, tying its rick-rack apron strings behind my back in a big bow, pulled the butter from the fridge, and took a deep breath.

Did that story draw you in? Make you want to know more? Make you want to make a wildberry pie of your own? Especially while wearing this apron?

Thought so.

Me too. But what I bet is that right about now you really want to know how you can win this Shabby Apple apron, dontcha? I bet you’re dying to get your hands on it. I don’t blame you. Here’s one more view, from the back, for you to revel in the cuteness. Polka dot trim!

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Yeah, you want it. Okay, so here’s the deal. This giveaway is open to U.S. residents ONLY (sorry international peeps, I’ll get ya next time). What you eligible U.S. residents are going to do is the following:

1. Leave a comment here stating (briefly) why you relate to the apron’s story above. Short & sweet is good, no novels please! Also, make sure you leave me a valid e-mail address, I’ll need it to contact you if you win!
2. Optional ways of getting additional entries: Follow me on Twitter, follow Shabby Apple on Twitter and become a fan of both Cupcake Rehab & Shabby Apple on Facebook, then come back here & comment again.
3. You have exactly one week from today to do so. Comments will be closed as of midnight EST, July 2nd, 2011.
4. Then, thanks to random.org, I’ll choose a winner. Ta-da!
5. For those of you who do not win, since there will only be one winner… there’s a coupon code for you, so you can buy your own apron, 10% off. The code is “cupcakerehab10off” and it expires in one month.

That’s all. Easy peasy. So go on, get to entering!

Look at her, all ready to beat someone with her whisk! Or make cupcakes, whatever!

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If you want cuteness like that, and by cuteness I mean the bib not the baby- I don’t think John is willing to share her… then you can go to my Cupcake Rehab webstore and buy stuff. I have an assload of things for sale from hoodies to bibs (duh) to coffee mugs to dog bowls! Seriously. Buy some stuff, take pictures, and send me the pics. I’ll add ‘em to the C.R.my page & you’ll be (quasi-) famous. But I can’t promise it’ll make you as cute as Angelina.

Back to the eats. What’s fair is fair, and while it’s Easter time for Christians, it’s Passover for the Jewish people. Each holiday & religion hold to their own traditional foods & desserts, as do the specific ethnicities and races within each religion, just as they hold to the traditions of the religions themselves. I myself am neither Christian nor Jew, but I certainly don’t discriminate against delicious food items. I embrace them all!

Hamentashen is more traditional around this time of year, but honestly, since when have I been traditional? Actually that’s not true, I’m very old-fashioned. At any rate, I don’t happen to like hamentashen at all, so rugelach it is!

Rugelach is one of my absolute favorite “cookies.” I like the chocolate ones, and I like the filling to have a touch of cinnamon. I also like the cinnamon sugar. I’m not into the fruit filled version. I used to love the ones from the 2nd Avenue Deli… Jay used to work right near it, but that was before the two of us got together (unfortunately). And back when my dad was still working, he’d randomly pick up a bunch in a 2nd Avenue Deli tin and I’d eat all the chocolate. Once he got them as a gift for someone, and I finagled it open, ate two chocolate ones and resealed it. Shh, don’t tell.

Rugelach aren’t difficult to make. It’s similar to rolling a croissant, or a chocolate croissant. This particular dough is made with cream cheese, although there are many different varieties.

Rugelach (Yiddish: רוגעלך) (other spellings: rugelakh, rugulach, rugalach, ruggalach, rogelach (all plural), rugalah, rugala (singular)) is a Jewish pastry of Ashkenazic origin.

Traditional rugelach are made in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling.^[1][2] Some sources state that the rugelach and the French croissant share a common Viennese ancestor, crescent-shaped pastries commemorating the lifting of the Turkish siege in 1793^[3] (this could be a reference to the Battle of Vienna in 1683). This appears to be an urban legend however, as both the rugelach and its supposed ancestor (the Kipfel or Kipferl) pre-date the Early Modern era, and the croissant in its modern form did not originate earlier than the 19th century (see viennoiserie).

An alternative form is constructed much like a strudel or nut roll, but unlike those, the rolled dough and filling is cut into slices before baking.^[4]

The name is Yiddish, the Jewish language of eastern Europe. The ach ending (ך) indicates plural, while the el (ל) can be a diminutive, as, for example, shtetlekh (שטעטלעך, villages) is the plural of shtetl (שטעטל, village), the diminutive of shtot (שטאָט, town). In this case, the root means something like “twist” so the translation would be “little twists,” a reference to the shape of this cookie.^[3] In this context, note that rog (ראָג) means corner in Yiddish,^[5] so it is possible that a more accurate translation would be “little corners.”

Alternatively, some assert that the root is rugel, meaning royal, possibly a reference to the taste.^[6] This explanation is in conflict with Yiddish usage, where the word keniglich (קעניגליךּ) is the dominant word meaning royal.^[7]

Finally, in modern Hebrew, they are known as roglìt (רוֹגְלִית), a postbiblical Hebrew word meaning “trailing vines”.^[8] The Yiddish word ruglach probably came first. The modern Hebrew is probably a neologism, chosen for its similarity to the Yiddish and its descriptive meaning.

Rugelach can be made with sour cream or cream cheese^[1][2][3] doughs, but there are also pareve variants with no dairy ingredients,^[9] so that it can be eaten with or after a meat meal and still be kosher. Cream cheese doughs are the most recent, probably American innovations, while yeast leavened^[9][10] and sour cream doughs^[11][12] are much older.

The different fillings can include raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, chocolate, marzipan, poppy seed, or fruit preserves which are rolled up inside.

I’ve been wanting to make rugelach for a long time. I sort of combined 4 or 5 recipes I found to make one of my own. I think it turned out fantastic! Except one word of advice: if you don’t have a stand mixer, this dough is not going to happen for you. It’s so thick that it slowed Lola down and she made all kinds of “Rrrrrr” noises. But she can handle it. And there’s no way you can mix it by hand, you need to cream the butter and cream cheese together and even using a hand mixer isn’t gonna work out well for that. You know how cream cheese is… many a mixer has broken under it’s wrath.

Chocolate rugelach

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CHOCOLATE RUGELACH

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 sticks (½ pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ½ vanilla extract
• ¼ cup and 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• ½ cup melted bittersweet chocolate, cooled but still “liquidy”
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions:

1. Beat softened butter and cream cheese in large bowl on medium speed of mixer until blended and smooth. Gradually add flour and ¼ cup sugar and vanilla, beating on low speed until well blended. Divide dough into 3 equal parts; wrap individually in plastic wrap. Refrigerate anywhere from 1 to 4 hours or until firm enough to roll.
2. Heat oven to 375°F. On lightly floured surface, roll one piece of dough into 9-inch circle (keep remaining dough in refrigerator). Cut circle into 12 wedges. Place about 1 teaspoon melted chocolate at wide end of each wedge; spread about three-fourths of the way up wedge. Stir together 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon and cocoa powder; sprinkle over melted chocolate, sprinkle over melted chocolate. Starting at wide end, roll toward the point. Place cookies, point sides down, about 1 inch apart on a sheet of parchment paper covering an ungreased cookie sheet. Brush with beaten egg.
3. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Repeat procedure with remaining dough and filling.

Cinnamon sugar rugelach

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The dough I made is a sweet dough, if you’d like a not-sweet version just remove the sugar and vanilla. If you’d like to add a little something extra, sprinkle with some sugar after brushing the dough with the beaten egg. Other options for fillings are apricot (1 cup apricot preserves plus ¾ cup chopped walnuts), cinnamon sugar (4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, ½ cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon) or raspberry-raisin (1 cup of raspberry jam and ½ cup raisins).  Or you can be totally rebellious and come up with your own filling!

(Psst… wanna know a sweet shortcut to the chocolate filling? Bosco chocolate syrup plus a sprinkling of cinnamon. Trust me, it works and it’s delicious. Just don’t use too much syrup, you’ll end up with a gooey mess.)

To me, they’re perfectly sweet, not too sweet, plus the cream cheese adds a little something special. I devoured way more  in one sitting than I should’ve. A little basket of these is a perfect hostess gift.

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Today marks the third year of my officially having this blog! I can’t believe it- time flies. I’m really happy that three years ago I started doing this, because through this I’ve met some wonderful, beautiful people, and found some awesome stores on the web (who’ve sent me some amazing things to try!); i.e. Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Bakery & Cupcakery Supplies, Sutton Gourmet Paper, sweet estelle’s baking supply, Cupcake Crafts 4 U, and Sourpuss Clothing. Not to mention the amazing stores that I’ve found just by clicking links on other blogs: Two Lumps of Sugar, Fancy Flours, Bake It Pretty, and Pop Deluxe! I love all my readers and fans and Twitter followers, and I hope the next three years are just as fun as the last three were.

It’s funny because when I started this blog, I had no idea what it’d become. I had no idea I’d end up with over 600+ views a day and almost 400 fans on Facebook. To me, someone who started this on a lark, that’s a big deal. I remember when I had my old wordpress.com blog, I remember my first post there (it transferred to the dot com when I imported my entries, you can see it here), and then I remember when Jay surprised me with the dot com- it was so exciting! And here we are now.

Last year I had a big giveaway in honor of my blog baby’s birthday, and this year it’s no different. Well, it is sorta different, because the rules are different this year. But first, lets talk about the prizes, shall we?

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THE PRIZES!

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First off, Yoyo from Topstitch.org is donating a cupcake print half-apron as well as a cupcake print tote, headband, pouch and key fob! You can view her webstore here and check out her awesome merchandise (and maybe buy something?). Please note: these items pictured are not the items you will recieve- Yoyo is CUSTOM MAKING the items for the giveaway, these are just examples!

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And then, Lyns from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Bakery & Cupcakery Supplies is donating cupcake liners & some cupcakery supplies to the lucky winner as well. Isn’t that cool? Who doesn’t love cupcakes? And cupcake liners? Lunatics, that’s who. From Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Bakery & Cupcakery Supplies the winner will get:

100 pack of rainbow cupcake liners (regular size)!

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…and Sparkling confetti-colored sugar!

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And wait- I’m not done! The winner will also get a cookbook with 150 home recipes from Brianne at Iron Chef Mommy. Her daughter’s playgroup every year sells the cookbooks to raise money, and this year she’s kindly offered to donate one to the winner of my giveaway!  The cookbooks won’t be available until October 3rd or around there, so Brianne will send it out as soon as it comes in!

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HOW TO WIN!

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So the winner will be getting something like 8 prizes, maybe more, of well over $50.00 in value. Probably closer to $100.00! Lucky bastard. So I know, you’re all wondering, “How do I win all this neato swag, daddy-o?”

Well this year the giveaway is way easier than last year. All you have to do this year is:

• Leave a comment telling me what your favorite CUPCAKE recipe is that I have posted on this blog. It could be from way back in 2007, from last week, or it could be the Neapolitan cupcakes I made for Cupcake Rehab’s first birthday, or the cupcakes I list here tomorrow- whatever! Just tell me which one, if you can, please link to it, and tell me why it’s your favorite. It’s that simple.
• If you want to up your chances of winning, you can follow me on Twitter & become a fan on Facebook as well (just make sure you send me a tweet/leave a comment on the Cupcake Rehab Facebook wall telling me you entered and your name!). Each time you do one of those things, you can comment again, so you get counted another time, so you have up to three chances of winning. Again, it would be nice if you linked to the recipe.
• But wait… there’s one more way! If you have a blog, and you blog about the giveaway, or mention it (with a link to this post) in your blog, you’ll be entered a fourth time. Just come on back here and comment again with a link to your blog post! Remember, you don’t have to do all four things, if you don’t have a blog, or a Twitter, or a Facebook page, that’s totally fine. You can still enter by commenting & telling me what your favorite recipe on the blog is & why. But if you do have those things, then by all means, come & get your extra chances of winning!

It will be chosen by a randomizer, so it will be totally and completely objective and unbiased, anyone can enter, anyone can win. Totally easy, right? Yep. But the thing is… you only have two weeks to do it. On September 26th, the giveaway ends. So get to searching the archives, everyone! In between now and the 26th, the blog will continue. I’ll be posting other recipes, etc. On the 26th I’ll close the comments here, pick the winner, and edit this post to announce who won. I’ll then send the winner an e-mail asking for their full name, address, etc.

What are my favorite recipes I’ve made? Oh lord.

Hmm… what’s my favorite cupcake recipe?! (apron from Two Lumps of Sugar)

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Well, if I’m being honest (and boring), vanilla cupcakes (frosted with almost anything) is always a favorite of mine. I always say my favorite cupcake recipe is the Magnolia Bakery vanilla. And that’s true. But I do have others, and to be frank, any vanilla recipe is good to me. I love a good white cupcake, either Martha’s or not. I also like Billy’s Bakery’s vanilla cupcake recipe & Amy Sedaris’ recipe ain’t bad. However…

I love love LOVE this recipe for mocha chocolate cupcakes made with coffee. My favorite chocolate cupcake recipe is here. My favorite fruity cupcakes are these lemon yogurt ones (which were really lemony & delicious) and these coconut & lime cupcakes. Speaking of coconut- Ina Garten’s coconut cupcakes are beyond amazeballs and  have to be one of my favorites, especially with a coconut buttercream. My favorite alcohol based cupcakes? I’d have to say the chocolate stout cupcakes, with the Bailey’s Irish Cream cupcakes a very close second. As far as the most delectable & decadent? S’mores cupcakes, by far. The marshmallow fluff frosting is teeth-achingly good. The most sophisticated cupcake- tea cakes with Earl Grey icing. The cupcake that most surprised me, flavor-wise, was the recipe I made for Mardi-Gras, based on King’s Cake. The lemony-nutmeg combination was so good.  My favorite cupcakes, decorating-wise are definitely the pointsettia cupcakes I made for Christmas.

I could go on, and on, and on… but I won’t. I’ll stop there and let you all take it from here. So what is YOUR favorite cupcake recipe that I’d made/posted, and why? Tell me * & you might win some awesome prizes.

*Note: picking the same favorite as one that I picked will NOT get you any brownie points. Like I said, the winner will be chosen via a randomizer on the web, so no favorites!

Image courtesy of Fairly Fairy Cakes

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Stay tuned at the end of the month for more on April’s charity, Let’s Bring ‘Em Home!

I’ve got some new news for you all before I start talking about frosting & such. For one, my darling friend Cece (I call her Chichi- but you cannot) has opened her blog, and whaddaya know? The artwork at the top was done by yours truly. Yes, the cute little “bakeasaurus” at the top was drawn by moi. Second of all, I insist everyone bookmark bakeasaurus.com and make it part of your blogroll. Thirdly, my friend Brianne from Iron Chef Mommy just bought her very own domain and will be entering the world of independent blogging very shortly. So congratulations to her on becoming a .com owner! I did some logo work for her as well so I’m excited to see it in action. My fourth item of business is that you all keep track of that blog as well, because you’re in for some delicious recipes plus pictures of the adorable Maddie, Brianne’s 2-year-old daughter. The fifth thing (I know, bear with me…) is that my other friend Jeanine is going back to being a vegan, and she’s starting her own vegan blog: vegannourishment.com. So I want everyone to keep an eye on that blog too, ’cause Jeanine is becoming quite the awesome cook/baker lately, and I can’t wait to see what she has up her sleeve for it. And the last thing is that I designed & drew a new logo for Cupcake Rehab that very well may become a part of this layout eventually… but seeing has how I just changed it a few weeks ago, it wouldn’t be for a while. It debuted itself on the Cupcake Rehab Facebook page a few days ago. If you’re interested in me doing some graphic design/illustration work for you, e·mail me & we’ll talk.

click to view full size

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I’m going to post this a day early so anyone who’s lacking inspiration can maybe get an idea for a sweet Valentine’s dessert. Valentine’s Day rocks. I dig it. I always have, even when I was in my super-punk, “I hate everything” phase, I still loved Valentine’s Day. I love antique-y and vintage-y postcards and ephemera so I suppose that’s part of it, since Valentine’s Day is all about the lacy valentine cards and old-fashioned images. And I love lingerie too, I have a slight problem with it, really. I have two overflowing drawers filled with lingerie of every style and shape in color order. And Valentine’s Day is all about that stuff. And  it’s all about the the color pink. I love the color pink- my KitchenAid mixer (Lola!) is pink, my camera is pink, and my laptop (a.k.a. June Carter) is pink, this website is pink… you get the point. So when thinking about what kind of cupcakes to make for Valentine’s Day this year, I opted for some pink frosted confections, courtesy of a strawberry swiss meringue buttercream I got from How To Eat A Cupcake. I haven’t made any pink desserts in quite some time, and my favorite Valentine’s day cupcakes were the ones I made 2 years ago, and they were pink. Also, because I haven’t baked much lately, I decided to make something chocolate as well. I’m not going to give you the recipes for the vanilla buttercream, because it’s already on the site here somewhere (and the chocolate cupcake recipe can be found on my other cooking website,  Cooking the Books). But because I am a nice person.. I will link to a bunch of related recipes at the end of the post for you lazy people, including every other vanilla cupcake recipe I have so you have an assortment to choose from. Lazies! IDLE HANDS ARE THE DEVIL’S TOOLS, PEOPLE.

Textbook fucking cupcake there, people. Take note.

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So I put this on a plain vanilla cupcake (my favorite) and topped them with a sliced strawberry that resembles a heart. Aww. For the chocolate, I went with the traditional buttercream frosting and topped them with some heart-shaped chocolates & Red Hot candies. I’m normally not much into strawberry, but this was really good.  I used all natural Seriously Strawberry jam by Peanut Butter & Co. I recommend them- they make delicious stuff, and 100% of their packaging is recyclable and they start with recycled materials whenever possible. You can also fill the cupcakes with some jam too, just carve out a hole, fill it, cover it and then frost.. or fill a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip with jam, poke it into the cupcake and squeeze a bit. If you wanna make this and don’t have access to strawberries or strawberry jam, try my Kool-Aid buttercream recipe, just use strawberry flavored Kool-Aid. I actually made the frosting a bit more pink using food coloring. Is it obvious? *wink*

I finally used the Amy Sedaris vanilla cupcake recipe again. This time my results were much better than the last time, when it was quite cornbread-y and dry. Of course, that was quite a few years ago (before I even had a blog) and although I can’t rule out doing something wrong, I did make it three times with the same result. Who knows what I did this time to make it come out different. But it was. So I no longer will talk shit about this recipe. It has redeemed itself! Which is cool, because I love Amy Sedaris.

AMY SEDARIS’ VANILLA CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter
• 1 ¾ cups of sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 2 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 ½ cups of flour
• 1 ¼ cups of milk

Directions:

1. Beat butter and sugar well, then add the rest of the ingredients.
2. Fill cups, and bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. You should get 24. I get 18, ’cause I’m doing something wrong.

STRAWBERRY SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM

Ingredients:

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, (2 sticks), softened, cut into tablespoons
• 1/3 cup strawberry jam

Directions:

1. Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees).
2. Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes.
3. Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; add strawberry jam and continue beating 2 minutes to eliminate air bubbles.

Do you love my sparkly pink heart plate? Yes, you do.

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For the people who want to see the chocolates, here they are (& the recipe is here):

Psst.. the cupcakes in the background? They’re made of cloth, handmade and hand-painted, and were a gift from my mother. If you’d like to know where to buy similar creations, shoot me an e·mail or ask me on Twitter!

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And for those of you who hate this holiday, have no fear. I have a recipe for you too. Click here and you will be taken into the depths of the world of Anti-Valentine’s Day cupcakes… where everyone wears black, cuts the buds off roses, and hates life. No, wait, that’s just my idea of a fun Saturday night. Nevermind. Anyway, just keep in mind that my piping technique has considerably improved since then. What a difference two years makes, eh?

Okay lazies here you go, here are ALL the vanilla cupcake recipes I have on here:  Magnolia Bakery vanilla cupcake recipe, Billy’s Bakery vanilla cupcake recipe, Martha Stewart’s white cupcake recipe. And here’s a vegan cupcake recipe for those of you who refuse to be like me and ingest things like eggs, milk and butter. And here is a recipe for red velvet cupcake & cream cheese frosting, just in case you want to make something red.

Now go forth and make cupcakes! And have a great Valentine’s Day!

On that note, I’d like to wish all of my readers a very, very, very Happy New Year!

]]> http://cupcakerehab.com/2010/01/first-post-of-2010/feed/ 3 http://cupcakerehab.com/2009/10/the-envelope-please/ http://cupcakerehab.com/2009/10/the-envelope-please/#comments Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:10:48 +0000 Marilla @ Cupcake Rehab http://cupcakerehab.com/?p=2320

Well, here we are. The Cupcake Rehab 2nd Birthday Giveaway officially ended on October 12th, but things have been a bit looney here what with Breast Cancer Awareness month, Halloween coming up and all the baking and stuff I’ve had to do, so it’s taken us a while to choose a winner. It was decided that to avoid any bias or favoritism, I would select a panel of judges to help me choose the winners of the giveaway. My panel of esteemed judges are:

Myself; owner & founder of the esteemed (ha!) Cupcake Rehab, therefore a pretty good judge since I know what I like Admittedly, I may be biased, but I pride myself on being honest & fair.

Jay; my boyfriend, a police officer by day and wanna-be Food Network star by night who loves stuff like this and happens to be a totally un-biased judge since he knows none of you. He also bought me Cupcake Rehab (the dot com) so he has to have a say in  the winner of this giveaway!

Samantha; my very, very good friend, fellow F.I.T. alum, a soon-to-be-bride, cupcake lover and interior designer by trade. Also, another totally un-biased judge. And mom to Zoey, one of the cutest puppies ever… next to Indy, of course! (Proof? Why certainly, click here)

Terrilyn; my mother. Cupcake expert and longtime baker and cook. A somewhat un-biased source, seeing as how she reads a few blogs that I favor, she’s not completely un-biased. But like Fox News, she’s fair and balanced, not to mention trustworthy in her decision making. *wink*

But my vote was only ¼ of the vote as you can see. We looked at each entry and voted based on the following: creativity, unique-ness, relevance and presentation. None of us knew what any of the other 3 had planned on voting for or voted for, I only knew once they finished and told me and I compiled the results. And they still don’t know who won, they’ll be finding out right now the same as you all. As you know, there’s a Grand Prize and a First Prize, but there’s also a new twist that was decided on last minute (more on that later). For a refresher on what each of those consists of, please view the original giveaway post. The prizes were pretty freakin’ cool so I suggest if you haven’t seen them, you check ‘em out.

Every single one of you who entered should know I love what you came up with, and the fact that you took time out of your lives to do this is awesome to me. If I had enough prizes to give you all one, I would. Thank you for entering, really. And a HUUUUGE thank you to my prize contributors: Yoyo, Lyns, Chrisie and Anna. You guys are the best ever.

Now on to the winners!

The winner of the GRAND PRIZE is…

AMANDA!

of

http://testone2three.blogspot.com/

Amanda created an absolutely amazing cupcake that’s an almost exact replica of the one in my Halloween logo (click here to view it)!  And more importantly, it was a turtle cupcake- and if you know me, you know if there’s one thing I love more than vanilla cupcakes… it’s caramel. Particularly turtles, I mean caramel + chocolate + nuts? Heavenly. And skulls combined with “rotting corpse bones”? Forget it.  Jay said that part totally won him over, and I have to agree. She nailed this 100%! The frosting color is practically identical to the color of the frosting in my drawing. Every aspect of it was just perfect for my site. And, every one of the judges was equally impressed by her efforts, so trust me, this isn’t favoritism just because she’s my blog daughter. She definitely earned this. Congratulations Amanda!

The winner of the FIRST PRIZE is…

SUSAN!

of

http://doughmesstic.com

Susan made an absolutely adorable cupcake that was inspired by my blog header up top- complete with chocolate chips, flowers, sprinkles and skulls. Susan also totally nailed it, she made a devil’s food cupcake (because of the skulls it’s true, a devil’s food cake was appropriate, aside from the fact that I myself have been referred to as devilish more than once in my life) with vanilla buttercream (my favorite) and to top it all off, a pink cupcake liner!! Pink is my favorite color. And that skull looks a bit like Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas to me, so that adds points right there!! It’s just a beautifully done cupcake all-around, it’s so cute I wanna just look at it, but yet that frosting makes me want to dive into it headfirst and inhale the entire cupcake. Excellent job, Susan, everyone thought it was fantastic, congrats on winning!

Now here’s where things veer off from my original concept. Originally there were only 2 prizes. But the response was sorta overwhelming that there be an honorable mention. So I decided since Lyns was so super generous with what she contributed, and there was more than enough to go around, that I’d send the honorable mention winner a little something as well. So here we go…

And the winner of the HONORABLE MENTION is…

DOREEN!

of

http://littlesweetiescupcake.blogspot.com/

Doreen made french toast cupcakes and let me just say how adorable this little scene above is. A sprinkles line on a mirror? Handmade pills? A little syringe? Incredible. Totally cool and appropriate, awesome job Doreen!

….

CONGRATULATIONS LADIES! I’ll be in contact with you via e·mail later on tonight or tomorrow to get your addresses and other information. And again – to everyone else who entered, thank you! This was really exciting. And I’ll be teaming up with Lyns to do another (much simpler) giveaway for the holidays, so keep an eye out like a pirate for that.

Also, all the photos above belong to those ladies and their respective blogs, please don’t use without their permission, ’cause that’s rotten. Thanks.

*****EDIT***** October 13th, 12:14 a.m.: THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED, AND I’M SORRY TO THOSE WHO DIDN’T GET A CHANCE TO.. BUT THE CONTEST IS OFFICALLY OVER. COMMENTS ARE CLOSED. WE’LL BE PICKING A WINNER SOON, SO CHECK BACK OFTEN

“THEY SAY IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY… “

…

Today is the 2nd birthday of my baby, or my little blog here. Two years ago today I opened up the “official” blog at wordpress.com.  Of course, I’ve long since moved my blog to a dot com. But that groundbreaking post still exists on this server, and you can read it here. Of course, I no longer dye my hair black (I’ve been through a number of shades and cuts as well since back then)… but the rest holds true. I’ve had such a good time these past 2 years sharing recipes and anecdotes with you, and so I wanted to celebrate in a bigger way. Last year I baked some cupcakes for this occasion, but this year, there are gifts to be given.

So it’s Cupcake Rehab’s 2nd birthday, and you’re gonna get all the gifts!

That’s right. I am hereby announcing the mother of all giveaways… so get a cup of coffee, a glass of water, or a jug ‘o wine and get comfy, because I’m gonna run through the list of prizes and the rules. Here we go!

GRAND PRIZE:

• Cupcake pouch, handmade by Yoyo at Topstitch.org (view her Artfire store here) – valued at $10.00

• Cupcake Rehab inspired one-of-a-kind painting by artist Christine Comis – valued at $85.00

(Click to painting to view larger image, actual painting won’t be watermarked)

• Various cupcake/baking supplies & materials courtesy of Lyns at Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Bakery & Cupcakery Supplies!!

FIRST PRIZE:

• Set of 4 cupcake coasters handmade by Yoyo at Topstitch.org (view her Artfire store here) – valued at $5.00

• A custom painting by Anna at Very Small Anna (you win, you get to choose the subject of the painting! A cupcake? A dog? A cat? A dog and a cat with cupcakes? Or no cupcakes at all- maybe a T-Bone steak or an elephant drinking a beer? You got it!) – valued at $30.00

• Various cupcake/baking supplies & materials courtesy of Lyns at Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Bakery & Cupcakery Supplies!!

The prizes are completely and totally awesome, aren’t they? I’m kinda jealous of you all. That’s like $200 in prizes right there! Lyns alone is donating $100 dollars worth of items to be given away!

But before I get to the rules I just want to thank all of the above people for donating their time and materials to make this a really special event for Cupcake Rehab. You’re all amazing! And I also want to thank all my readers. You’re all amazing too!

Okay now, any good giveaway needs rules, right? I mean, you have to have a way in which to win these lovely prizes. So here we go:

1. I’m looking for the most creative, unique and humorous Cupcake Rehab-themed cupcake recipe. You can interpret that however you like; whether literal or figurative, with any kind of ingredients you like. Take a hint from Chrisie’s painting above, or maybe look through old posts and use my interests and likes and incorporate them into a fabulous cupcake! It’s up to you. You could also follow me on Twitter & that might give you some insight into my preferences.
2. You don’t have to actually make/bake it, but I’d really like to see the finished product (in pictures, duh).  And isn’t that part of the fun?
3. The recipe MUST BE FROM SCRATCH. You can doctor up a cake mix, but it can’t be a cake mix/canned frosting recipe. That is not inventing a recipe, that’s being lazy and cheating.
4. You don’t have to “invent” the recipe itself. For example, using Billy’s Bakery’s vanilla cupcake recipe or Amy Sedaris’ vanilla cupcake recipe is fine. What you DO with it after you use the recipe (i.e., decorating, color, etc) is the key. But of course, invented recipes are totally awesome and are definitely allowed too.
5. You can post the recipe & pictures in my comments section of this post (using HTML if you’re posting pictures), or post it on your own blog and just leave a link to that post in the comments here. Either way is totally fine with me. All I ask is that if you choose to post it in the comments, you only use ONE picture, and that the picture is no larger than 350 pixels wide and 200 pixels high (but please don’t make it too small either, I have to be able to see what it is). Otherwise the loading time would just be crazy. if you want to get around those rules, post it at your own blog. There you can use as many pictures you like as big as you like! But again, if you’re posting it on your blog, YOU HAVE TO LINK TO THE BLOG ENTRY FROM MY COMMENTS. Otherwise, I won’t see it.
6. You have to briefly explain why the cupcake is Cupcake Rehab-themed. For example, “I used vanilla because it’s your favorite flavor, and blah blah blah because you’re blog is blah blah.” (That vanilla info is a freebie right there- but please, I don’t want every single entry to be vanilla! I do have other favorites!)

Those are pretty much the only rules. The contest is open to anyone and everyone, experienced bakers to amateurs, fondant-experts to those who struggle with buttercream. You have until October 12th 2009 to enter. That’s a whole month- should be plenty of time. After October 12th, the comments will be closed and I’ll pick a winner (er, actually, two winners) within a week or so. You’ll be notified by e·mail if you’ve won, and I’ll need you to send me a mailing address (not a P.O. box). The most impressive two entries will win a prize, and there very well may be an honorable mention or two. The rest of you will not win anything. I’m sorry, it sounds harsh when put that way, but that’s just the way the cookie cupcake crumbles. You’re all winners, really. And by impressive, I mean like I said; unique, funny, creative, and Cupcake Rehab-related. Any questions? E·mail me and I’ll answer them best I can.

I CANNOT wait to see what you all are gonna come up with. So go forth and create! I’ll meet you back here on October 12th

GET TO MAKIN’ THOSE CUPCAKES!

So if you’re in the area and want to bring your doggie(s) down, please do! It should be a really fun time.  I’ll post more about it as I get info.

Also, if you want to donate something dog-related for the raffle, e·mail me! The more the merrier!

So in celebration of that, I created a new logo image to use during the most magical time of year, and this is it … *drumroll*

Click the image to see it full size!

….

I don’t know quite yet if I’ll use it as a layout on the blog, but the good news is: I’ve already put it on some t-shirts (women’s and men’s as well, and plus size too!), sweatshirts (unisex black/navy zip up hoodie or women’s raglan zip up hoodie) and stickers at the Cupcake Rehab store. So all you fellow Halloween/undead/Munsters/cupcake/zombie fans might want to check it out. I don’t think they’ll be around long after October 31st, so you basically have until then to get ‘em. But I wouldn’t wait if I were you

And all you non-undead fans can still buy stuff too, the store still has the traditional Cupcake Rehab logo merchandise as well.

Mothereffin’ delicious…

First thing I noticed was how easy the dough was to work with. Much more elasticity and much easier to stretch. It was softer (and also stickier, so I added more flour) and came together much quicker; less “resting time.” The next thing I noticed was that it cooked much quicker too, I usually have an issue with my other recipe cooking evenly in the time given. Sometimes it’s perfect, other times not so much, but it tastes so good I forgive it.  But this recipe is so much better! It’s thicker, yet less dense than my other recipe, and it’s absolutely fantastic. I am not exaggerating, it really is the perfect pizza. I topped it with sauce, mozzarella and broccoli along with some Italian seasoning, but again, it goes without saying you can use any topping you want. Even if you’re one of those freaks who likes pineapple on it *cringes*

I adapted it a bit to fit my needs and likes, so that’ll be the recipe I’ll give you, along with a picture of the pizza before it was baked. Mangia!

PERFECT PIZZA

• 5 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 teaspoons dry yeast
• 2 tbsps plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 cups lukewarm water

1. Preheat oven to 400° F. Lightly grease a 12″ x 9″ baking sheet. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the yeast, then make a well in the center.
2. Add the olive oil and the 2 cups lukewarm water.
3. Mix until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for 5 minutes.
4. Roll out dough and press into prepared baking sheet, making a “crust” area that slightly overlaps the edge of the pan. Brush lightly with olive oil just on the center (not on the “crust” part).
5. Cover and allow to rest for 10 minutes at room temperature, poke with a fork in random areas in the center to allow for the air to circulate and not create bubbles, then bake for 5-7 minutes.
6. Remove the crust from the oven and spread sauce and cheese and toppings on top, leaving a border. Bake until golden, 20-30 minutes. It may even be longer/shorter, depending on your oven.
7. Cut using a pizza cutter, and serve!

I think this has replaced my old recipe. I’m sorry, old recipe… we had good times while they lasted.

In other news, the 2nd birthday of Cupcake Rehab, my little bloggette here, is rapidly coming up on the horizon (September 12th to be exact). In celebration of such, I’m planning a HUMONGOUS giveaway- with a grand prize and a first prize, possibly a second prize as well. Which means two or three very, very, very lucky people will walk away with amazing goodies from TOPSTITCH.ORG (here’s her Artfire store where you can buy her beautiful stuffs), Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Bakery & Cupcakery Supplies, and Very Small Anna. And that’s just as of now.  I’m hoping the list grows so I can make this the biggest giveaway EVER. My last giveaway was a success, so I thought why not go bigger this time?

So on that note, if there are any Etsy sellers, or crafty people who don’t sell on Etsy,  or people who have things to contribute who have no idea what Etsy is  reading this, and they would like to contribute something (or a few somethings) for this giveaway, I would love to talk to you. I’m talking about button makers, hair clip makers, apron makers, cupcake topper makers/sellers, etc. All of you. If you’d like to help out and also get some publicity and advertising at the same time, please e·mail me!

And everyone else: I’ll be posting more information on it as I figure things out… so check back!

The Cupcake Rehab International posts, in case you are unfamiliar, started with my fascination involving who came to visit my site and where they’re from, not to mention how they got here. I was so shocked at how many countries were represented and at times how strange the search terms where that got people here that I made a blog post. The first post was such a big hit that I did 6 more after that, making this post here my 8th Cupcake Rehab International post. If you’d like to catch up on those entries, here they are: parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Whew. That was a lot of linkage.

Muchos gracias to sitemeter.com & Woopra from whom I get my stats.

Best new visitor’s town name: Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico. I love it, and I love the history behind the name. Also a big ‘Ahoj’ to my new visitor from the Czech Republic and ‘Salaam’ to my new visitor from Pakistan. Last time I kicked it off with the UK so I think this time I’ll start with the Good Ol’ U. S. of A.  And please keep in mind I try to add every single town but it’s so hard to keep up, so if you don’t see yours and you know you’ve been here, tell me & I will most certainly add it. From the U.S., I’ll do it in alphabetical order (by country, not town- that’d take me 6 years!). If I missed anything or misspelled anything, feel free to correct me. And please, feel free to say hi and tell me where you’re from!

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
Epping, New Hampshire; Rancho Cordova, California; Buda, Texas; Mount Vernon, Illinois; Truth or Consequences, New Mexico; San Diego, California; Orlando, Florida; Spokane, Washington; Napa, California; Mahaffey, Pennsylvania; Upland, California; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Fountain Valley, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; Tampa, Florida; Brooklyn, New York; Miami, Florida; Greensboro, North Carolina; San Francisco, California; Elkhart, Indiana; Houston, Texas; Villa Park, Illinois; Novi, Michigan; Miller Place, New York; Flint, Michigan; Corpus Christi, Texas; Hood River, Oregon; Cleveland, Ohio; California, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Perryville, Missouri; Columbus, Ohio; Las Vegas, Nevada; Jackson, Mississippi; Atlanta, Georgia; Penn Valley, California; Rockledge, Florida; Okmulgee, Oklahoma; Austin, Texas; Redmond, Oregon; Fountain Valley, California; Eugene, Oregon; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Bloomington, Illinois; Raleigh, North Carolina; Woodland Hills, California; Castro Valley, California; Twinsburg, Ohio; Glen Allen, Virginia; Corvallis, Oregon; Tylersport, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; College Station, Texas; Saint Petersburg, Florida; Wind Gap, Pennsylvania; Livonia, Michigan; Rochester, New York; Alexandria, Virginia; San Luis Obispo, California; Arlington, Virginia; Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Hempstead, New York; Eddyville, Kentucky; Las Vegas, Nevada; Hempstead, New York; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Los Angeles, California; Honolulu, Hawaii; Willingboro, New Jersey; Ozark, Alabama; New York, New York; Brooklyn, New York; Londonderry, New Hampshire; San Antonio, Texas; Ponca City, Oklahoma; Bogota, New Jersey; Garden Grove, California; West Grove, Pennsylvania; Glenolden, Pennsylvania; Decatur, Georgia; Seattle, Washington; Ronkonkoma, New York; Fullerton, California; Lincoln, Nebraska; Columbus, Ohio; Warsaw, Indiana; Sherman Oaks, California; Channelview, Texas; Durham, North Carolina; Austin, Texas; Presque Isle, Maine; Atlanta, Georgia; Washington, District of Columbia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Rosedale, Maryland; Lititz, Pennsylvania; Gainesville, Virginia; Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania; Meriden, Connecticut; Chula Vista, California; Altha, Florida; Merrillville, Indiana; Clermont, Florida; Rockledge, Florida; Canton, Michigan; Auburn Hills, Michigan; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; North Brunswick, New Jersey; Wichita, Kansas; Bedford, New Hampshire; Sherman Oaks, California; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; San Diego, California; Metropolis, Illinois; Houston, Texas; Loganville, Georgia; Chesapeake, Virginia; Aurora, Missouri; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Algona, Iowa; Orange, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Levittown, New York; Madison, Wisconsin; Randleman, North Carolina; North Scituate, Rhode Island; Huntington, West Virginia; York, Pennsylvania; Meriden, Connecticut; Plainview, New York; Denver, Colorado; Columbus, Ohio; Beloit, Wisconsin; Bayport, New York; Powell, Ohio; Modesto, California; Bayside, New York; Lake Elmore, Vermont; Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Succasunna, New Jersey; Bellflower, California; El Cerrito, California; Sacramento, California; San Leandro, California; South El Monte, California; Augusta, Georgia; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Grandview, Missouri; Dallas, Texas; Fountain Valley, California; Colleyville, Texas; Kihei, Hawaii; East Aurora, New York; Sewell, New Jersey; San Francisco, California; Columbia, South Carolina; Hayward, California; Mesa, Arizona; Renton, Washington; Glen Allen, Virginia; Fairfield, Connecticut; Pleasant Grove, Utah; Hempstead, New York; Seattle, Washington; Wethersfield, Connecticut; Oakhurst, New Jersey; Candor, New York; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; Bakersfield, California; Monroe, New Hampshire; Atlanta, Georgia; Wanamingo, Minnesota; Atlanta, Georgia; Burlington, Vermont; Portland, Oregon; Weehawken, New Jersey; Montgomery, Alabama; Passaic, New Jersey; San Francisco, California; Dayton, Ohio; Warriors Mark, Pennsylvania; Ambridge, Pennsylvania; Arvada, Colorado; Rockledge, Florida; Riverside, Rhode Island; Foothill Ranch, California; Culver City, California; Durham, North Carolina; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Salem, Massachusetts; Woodbine, Iowa; Holyoke, Massachusetts; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Denville, New Jersey; Houston, Texas; Renton, Washington; Waverly, Virginia; Lewis Center, Ohio; Arlington, Virginia; Tylersport, Pennsylvania; San Jose, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Fort Worth, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Boston, Massachusetts; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Urbana, Illinois; Bakersfield, California; Honolulu, Hawaii; Savannah, Georgia; Othello, Washington; Ronkonkoma, New York; Plainview, New York; Ashland, Louisiana; Matthews, North Carolina; Bakersfield, California; Fresh Meadows, New York; Manhattan, Kansas; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Wausau, Wisconsin; Mount Pleasant, Michigan; Norfolk, Virginia; Sacramento, California; Smithton, Illinois; Lake Forest, Illinois; Red Bluff, California; Little Neck, New York; Lake Charles, Louisiana; Dallas, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Westwood, New Jersey; Borger, Texas; Jensen Beach, Florida; Norfolk, Virginia; Hayward, California; San Clemente, California; Newark, California; Highland Park, New Jersey; Klamath Falls, Oregon; Westbury, New York; Indianapolis, Indiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; Schoolcraft, Michigan; Bronx, New York; Allen, Texas; Sherman Oaks, California; Grosse Pointe, Michigan; Staten Island, New York; Santa Clara, California; Sanford, Maine; Fullerton, California; Hammond, Louisiana; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Malvern, Pennsylvania; Kaneohe, Hawaii; Livonia, Michigan; Chichester, New Hampshire; Williamson, West Virginia; Hamburg, New York; Coram, New York; El Cajon, California; Newtown, Connecticut; Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts; Durham, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Blacksburg, Virginia; Louisville, Kentucky; Shirley, New York; Rockledge, Florida; Waverly, Ohio; De Soto, Kansas; Sacramento, California; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Ballston Spa, New York; Urbandale, Iowa; Mount Laurel, New Jersey; Hyannis, Massachusetts; Houston, Texas; Aliso Viejo, California; York, Pennsylvania; Chandler, Arizona; College Station, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; Winter Garden, Florida; San Antonio, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Kailua Kona, Hawaii; Clearlake, California; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Sherman Oaks, California; Fort Myers, Florida; Simi Valley, California; Union, New Jersey; Green Bay, Wisconsin; San Francisco, California; Tucson, Arizona; Pinehurst, Massachusetts; Aliso Viejo, California; Powder Springs, Georgia; Enterprise, Alabama; Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania; Haiku, Hawaii; Navasota, Texas; Pacifica, California.

ARGENTINA:
Rosario, Santa Fe; Buenos Aires, Distrito Federal.

AUSTRALIA:
Sunbury, Victoria; Pyrmont, New South Wales; Brisbane, Queensland; Perth, Western Australia; Sydney, New South Wales; Melbourne, Victoria; Griffith, New South Wales; Belrose, New South Wales; Canberra, Australian Capital Territory; Geelong, Victoria; Perth, Western Australia; Morrison, Victoria; Box Hill, Victoria; Wollongong, New South Wales; Padstow, New South Wales.

AUSTRIA:
Vienna, Wien.

BAHAMAS:
Nassau, New Providence.

BELGIUM:
Brussels, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest; Villers-le-Bouillet, Liege.

BRAZIL:
Brasilia, Distrito Federal; São Paulo, Sao Paulo.

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM:
Bandar Seri Begawan; Kampon, Junjongan.

CAMEROON:
Yaound, Centre.

CANADA:
Waterloo, Ontario; Winkler, Manitoba; Victoria, British Columbia; Calgary, Alberta; Toronto, Ontario; Victoria, British Columbia; Stonewall, Manitoba; Barrie, Ontario; Winnipeg, Manitoba; New Westminster, British Columbia; Kelowna, British Columbia; Delta, British Columbia; Beamsville, Ontario; Burnaby, British Columbia; Delta, British Columbia; Brampton, Ontario; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Kenora, Ontario; Kamloops, British Columbia; Montreal, Quebec; Brandon, Manitoba; Abbotsford, British Columbia; Lively, Ontario; Prince George, British Columbia; Guelph, Ontario; Port Moody, British Columbia; McMurphy, British Columbia; Coquitlam, British Columbia; Truro, Nova Scotia; Amherst, Nova Scotia; Kitchener, Ontario.

CHILE:
Santiago, Region Metropolitana.

CHINA:
Tianjin; Taichung, T’ai-wan; Shanghai; Hebei.

CZECH REPUBLIC:
Prague, Hlavni Mesto Praha.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:
Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional.

FRANCE:
Bron, Rhone-Alpes; Montpellier, Languedoc-Roussillon; Strasbourg, Alsace.

GERMANY:
Kabel, Nordrhein-Westfalen; Langenhagen, Niedersachsen; Bremen.

GREECE:
Athens, Attiki.

HONG KONG:
Tai Wai.

HUNGARY:
Budapest.

INDIA:
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh; Bangalore, Karnataka.

INDONESIA:
Jakarta, Jawa Barat.

IRELAND:
Galway.

ISRAEL:
Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv; Jerusalem, Yerushalayim; Yavne, HaMerkaz.

ITALY:
Rome, Lazio; Milan, Lombardia; Cornaredo, Lombardia.

JAPAN:
Tokyo; Yokohama, Kanagawa; Isahaya, Nagasaki; Setaka, Fukuoka; Isahaya, Nagasaki; Chofu, Tokyo; Hakui, Ishikawa; Naha, Okinawa.

JORDAN:
Amman.

KUWAIT

MALAYSIA:
Shah Alam, Selangor; Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan; Kuang, Selangor; Kota Kinabalu, Sabah; Klang, Selangor; Alor Star, Kedah; Kuantan, Pahang; Kuching, Sarawak; Ampang, Pahang; Jerantut, Pahang; Johor Bahru, Johor.

MEXICO
Guadalajara, Jalisco.

NEW ZEALAND:
Christchurch.

PAKISTAN:
Swabi, North-West Frontier.

PHILIPPINES:
Malaya, Rizal; Kumaliskis, San Carlos; Makati, Rizal; Philippine, Benguet; Manila; Quezon, Nueva Ecija; Putlod, Nueva Ecija; Minoyan, Negros Occidental; Mandaluyong, Rizal.

PORTUGAL:
Bucharest, Vaslui; Lisboa; Braga; Esmoriz, Aveiro.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

ROMANIA:
Bucharest, Vaslui.

SAUDI ARABIA:
Lena, Al Hudud ash Shamaliyah.

SINGAPORE:
Singapore.

SOUTH AFRICA:
Midrand, Gauteng; Pretoria, Gauteng; Parow, Western Cape.

SPAIN:
Badalona, Cataluna.

SWEDEN:
Malm, Skane Lan.

TAIWAN:
Taipei, Tai’-pei.

THAILAND:
Bangkok, Krung Thep.

TURKEY:
Bursa; Instanbul.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:
Dubai, Dubayy.

UNITED KINGDOM:
Hemel Hempstead, Hertford; York; Thatcham, Berkshire; Bury; Manchester; Brighton, East Sussex; Gloucester, Gloucestershire; Yeovil, Somerset; Paisley, Renfrewshire; Keele, Stoke-on-Trent; Northallerton, North Yorkshire; Great Malvern, Worcestershire; Maidenhead, Windsor and Maidenhead; Saint Albans, Hertford; Salisbury, Wiltshire; London, City of London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; Halesowen, Staffordshire; Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh; Nottingham; Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire; East Retford, Surrey; Leeds; Aldershot, Hampshire; Witney, Oxfordshire; Nottingham; Slough.

VENEZUELA:
Caracas, Distrito Federal.

And of course… it wouldn’t be complete without funny search terms! As always, my comments are italicized and I am in no way making fun of my readers, here. I’m laughing at how funny the searches are. Come on, you know you’ve done it too- searched for a barely coherent sentence in a search engine and wound up somewhere totally unrelated. These aren’t all the terms that my stats showed me, but just the funniest/most amusing ones.

• chocolate melted dry easily cupcake coating (no fucking idea)
• how to touch my aunts boobs (Okay seriously? SERIOUSLY?)
• badass cupcake recipe (I got a shitload of those, buddy)
• cats don’t eat cupcakes (they needed to come here to find that out?!)
  
• hello kitty birthday cake fayetteville, nc (I just want to say I’m sorry that I couldn’t help with any of those things, my friend, and I have no idea why they took you here)
• cupcake firmer frosting (… is this a haiku?)
• how to make rebab cake (uhmmmmm… rhubarb? rehab? what do you think they’re asking about?)
• chocolate chip frosting with oil added (I try to avoid using motor oil in my recipes, except for the few times I had to kill those people… but the chocolate color does mask it well… oh wait, you didn’t mean motor oil… nevermind… *cough* what were we talking about?)
• when the moon hits your eye like an old pizza pie thats aids (yeah uh, that’s possibly creepier than the ‘how to touch my aunt’s boobs’ one…)
• i  forgot to put the baking powder in my sugar cookies..what do i do? (here’s an idea: stop baking. forever.)
• thanks for the slumber party (you’re welcome… but when was this party & how did you get into my house?)
• ice cream rehab (hey now… no copyright infringements allowed, ice cream lovers)
• crazy muffins (if only you knew how crazy those muffins can really get)
• why is cupcake crust on top (*blank stare*)
• making of french sandwich (is this a new MTV show? Like, ‘Making The Band’?)
• ozzy osbourne cupcake (sweet! is it made of bats?)
• cupcake pancakes (oh. mah. gah.)
  

And the NUMBER ONE search term this time around: caramel cupcakes. Thank GOD it’s not ‘chocolate mug cake‘ anymore. At least caramel cupcakes consist of valid culinary recipes and don’t involve a microwave!

This batch of search terms is markedly stranger than previous ones. That’s awesome- I love weirdos. My ‘cupcake metal towers shit flowers‘ search term of last year is nothing compared to ‘when the moon hits your eye like an old pizza pie thats aids’ and ‘how to touch my aunts boobs’!!

So that’s that! Thanks for reading, and making these posts worthwhile. Without you all, there’d be no Cupcake Rehab, let alone Cupcake Rehab International. Well.. okay, there’d be a Cupcake Rehab but really what fun would it be? I’d just be typing all this crap to myself in a padded cell. Yeah, it’s more fun this way

(yeah I know… I can’t believe anyone thinks I’m a “mentor” either…)

The idea is the pair up an experienced blogger with a new blogger, and have the experienced blogger “mentor” the “newbie” for three months, and then at the end of the three months we post about what we’ve learned, etc. I thought it was a great opportunity to not only make a new foodie friend but also to help someone, if I could at all.

Now not to toot my own horn but I’ve been around the ‘net for a good 10 years now (yeah, I’m old), my first website was created way back then and my first blog was created 7 years ago. While my food blog here is fairly new (almost 2 years old), I’ve had experience with blogging for ages and have been doing so in a private or public way pretty consistently since then. I have written the HTML for entire websites without the help of Dreamweaver or Front Page and created the graphics myself, in addition to the installation of CGI and PHP programs was totally done by me and me alone. Plus I’ve been around the food blog block once or twice now, and I see the way things go (and have had my share of not onlyfood disasters but also website disasters- like posts that mysteriously disappear or computers that restart in the middle of an unsaved post? Yeah, been there done that). Now while I don’t think that makes me an expert by any means, but I figured if I could help someone  and show them the ropes, so to speak, then why the hell not?

So we’ve both been pretty busy lately ( I’ve been doing graphic design out the butt and well, keep reading and you’ll see why she was busy)… so its a bit late but better late then never! On that note, I’d like to introduce to you all… my “newbie” (I am not saying this in an offensive way, by the way)- Amanda from Is This Thing On?

*waves* Hi, Amanda!

Amanda and I have a lot in common. If we’re any indication, Kristen at Dine and Dish did an excellent job with the pairings. We both love broccoli, baking & dying our hair a lot, and, well, pretty much we’re both awesome. Amanda is a smarty-pants who recently graduated with a Master’s degree and hopes to teach English composition; and I think thats fantastic. Anyone who loves English rocks in my book considering I proof-read  e·mails and correct the grammar of most people I encounter in everyday conversation. Yeah, thats right, my blogger’s smarter than yours!

So look out, blog-world, there’s a new tag team in town!

I recieved a blog award from Jayhawk Girl’s Kitchen this weekend, which is very flattering and kind of her! Thank you

Here are the rules for this award:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great attitude and /or gratitude
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award!

So, here I go, the recipients- IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

1. TOPSTITCH
2. Cilantro & Lime
3. Boring History Girl
4. Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Bakery
5. Karma Cooler
6. textdrivebys.com
7. Five Twenty Seven
8. Fresh Princess
9. Dolce Cakes
10. Cakespy

These are some of my favorite blogs, and some of them are some pretty awesome friends of mine too. And I just want to tell these people that I may not comment much, but I ALWAYS read! I’m just too busy/lazy to comment a lot.