Mexican cocoa, cadillac & pineapple banana cupcakes

For a Spanish themed wedding last weekend we made Mexican Cocoa & Margarita flavored cupcakes.  I realized those 2 flavors haven't been on our weekly menu in quite some time, despite their popularity...so come in this week for some Spanish flavor.

Salted Cadillac...chardonnay cake, filled with lemon / lime curd, topped with Grand Marnier frosting, sugared citrus zest & salt

Mexcian Cocoa...chocolate cake, filled with Mexican chocolate pudding, topped with chocolate frosting & cinnamon sugar

I'm still in love with tiny cakes, so any time we have a stitch of down time in the kitchen, I can't help myself, and I make at least one.  You never know when you might see one at the shop.

I've been craving fall flavors, but the intense heat this week reminds me that summer is still here and I need to take advantage of the summer produce!  Vanilla Pineapple Banana...banana cake, with a vanilla pineapple filling, topped with vanilla frosting & banana chip "crumbs".

vanilla almond chai & cookies and cream

Kara recently told me about a new product at Lazy Acres in Santa Barbara...yogurt covered chai almonds.  She told me how yummy and addicting they are and I instantly starting thinking about how to make a yogurt covered chai almond cupcake flavor. 

Vanilla Yogurt Almond Chai...vanilla cake, filled with fluffy (barely sweet) almond mascarpone mousse, topped with chai frosting and some of those chopped up yummy yogurt covered chai almonds.

We also have a new cookies & cream flavor in the shop this week.  We often strive to combine different unique flavors & textures in our flavors, but not with this one...it's just straight up cookies & cream!

Cookies & Cream...chocolate cake, filled with oreo marshmallow mousse, topped with oreo frosting, a chocolate chip & chocolate sauce

vintage pink & green

flavor board #29 ~ inspired by the colors of rosetta apples

room, pink & green flowers, vintage green bench, vintage green & pink glass stands (ours!), pink & green flower, buttons, apple, fabric journal

We have a cute little apple tree in our yard.  I'll never forget first bitting into an apple from the tree 2 years ago...it was pink inside ~ I thought it was a miracle!  Turns out they are called Rosetta Apples.  The pink insides are like a pretty suprise!  They taste amazing - very tart, but with just the right amount of sweetness.  I'm completely inspired by the colors, which lead to putting together the above flavor board.  And, since the apples are ripe, I had to turn them into a cupcake flavor this week.  I wish the cupcakes naturally came out pink & green, but since it didn't, I rested them on some pink & green vintage glass stands :)

Apple Butter Chardonnay...chardonnay cake, filled with house-made apple butter, topped with vanilla frosting & dusted with cinnamon and sugar.

Making apple butter is truly a labor of love.  It takes several hours (all of which require attention).  I hope you can taste the love inside these cupcakes.

vanilla champagne grape honey mint & chocolate butterscotch cheesecake

Even though champagne grapes are tiny, they are packed with flavor.  I love how dainty and sweet looking they are and I have been itching to incorporate them into a cupcake flavor.  I've never made a grape cupcake flavor so I did what I always do when I'm stumped...I started "researching" (which is really just a good excuse to spend a lot of time scouring food blogs, food gawker, tastespotting, etc.).  I stumbled upon the below photo from Lemon Fire Brigade (I'm pretty much obsessed with this blog now) and was completely inspired by the champagne grapes with honey spoons and arugula.

For me, the above pic translated into a vanilla champagne grape honey mint cupcake ~

Vanilla cake, filled with honey mousse & champagne grapes, topped with honey sweet cream cheese frosting, mint honey glaze and more tiny grapes.

Our second new flavor this week came from Kevin's head.  I've written this before and now you'll know it's comfirmed - Kevin loves whipped cheesecake and is always thinking of new ways to work it into the cupcakes!

Chocoalte cake, stuffed with butterscotch cheesecake, topped with sweet cream cheese frosting & butterscotch.

I made this especially for Kevin :)

fruit flavored wedding cupcakes

I loved the flavors Julie and Cort selected for their wedding at the Dana Powers House in Nipomo...Pineapple Chardonnay, Raspberry Lemon, Strawberry Champagne & Chocolate Blackberry Syrah.  The outcome was a colorful display of cupcakes set-up on a super awesome piece of furniture!  We're going to have the Raspberry Lemon flavor on our menu this week, so I thought I'd tempt you with these beautiful pics from Beth Armsheimer. 

new cupcake flight

all flavors are new, minus one this week.

Chocolate Mango...chocolate cake, filled with mango curd, topped with chocolate frosting & mango

Vanilla Mocha Mousse Churro...vanilla cake, filled with mocha mousse, topped with cinnamon frosting & churro "puffs"

Chocolate Peanut Butter Malt...chocolate cake, filled with malt pudding, topped with peanut butter frosting, ground malt balls and chocolate malt sauce

Vanilla Rice Pudding with Caramel & Fresh Blackberries...vanilla cake, filled with vanilla rice pudding, topped with vanilla frosting, caramel & fresh blackberries

Candied Pecan Peach Chardonnay...chardonnay cake, filled with peaches & cream, topped with vanlla frosting & candied pecans.

and then our signature flavor or "big mac", as Kevin calls it...Chocolate Blackberry Syrah

cake toppers

I really, really, really love cake toppers!  Over the past couple years we've worked with some really creative couples, who've had us put a variety of fun toppers on the cakes we've made for them.  So here comes a long post all about cake toppers with lots of pics and links!

The ones on the left were handmade by the bride, with items purchased from Michael's craft store (photo by Sherri Johnson).  The second set of adorable little wood people were from lollipop workshop (photo by Jose Villa)

The paper mache bird cake toppers are so sweet.  I don't know the exact source of the little cuties pictured above, since the bride purchased them directly, but here's a similar source.  I purcahsed the other 2 "toppers" from home decor shops.   The sweet little nest cake was photograhed by Meg Fish.

The porcelain bride & groom toppers come in a variety of "themes" (photo by onelove photography).  The custom heart tokens are made by Lisa Leonard (photo by Cameron Ingalls).   The bride & groom bicycle cake topper is custom made in France (Photo by David Crane)

Instead of using the rainbow bunting on top of the above cake, we circled it around the cake and loaded the top of the cake with fresh fruit.  My baking assistant made the bunting custom for this cake, but check out her other items here.  The colorful custom wood topper is from here (Photo by O'Moonie Photography).

You can find the burlap bunting here and probably the most special option is asking your grandparents if they still have their topper!

Or you can make own fun little toppers.  I made the above with toothpicks, ribbons, beads and pattered paper.

Here are some additional sources ~

Wood birds (they come in multiple colors!), colorful wood heart, fabric birds

rustic fabric birds, rustic wood couple, rustic heart

custom names & heart topper, fabric hearts

 Do you want to share any other sources?  We'd love it!

flavor execution

as a follow up to last week's post about flavor inspiration, i wanted to share the outcome of two of our new flavors. 

Piel del Sapo Lime Chardonnay cupcake...& I even had some left over melon to eat on a hot summer afternoon.

We also had a chocolate zucchini spice flavor.  I picked up some fresh zucchini from the Solvang farmer's market

and used it in the cupcakes ~