Cupcake Wars

Cupcake Wars is a new show on the Food Channel. Each week it features four cupcake makers, at various skill levels, and they compete to see who will be the Cupcake Master. The winner is given $10,000, and the opportunity to showcase their cupcakes. There are three challenges, and at the end of each round, one contestant is eliminated. There are three judges, Candace Nelson (owner of Sprinkles Cupcakes), and Florian Bellanger (chef and co-owner of online macaroon company, MadMac), as well as a guest judge.

This show offers great ideas for yummy cupcakes as well as wonderful display. Learn more about Cupcake Wars here.

Wax Paper

Here is one small tip-if you want to make something out of icing that sticks up on a cupcake, use wax paper. Using colored icing, draw whatever shape or design you want on the wax paper. Once the icing hardens, you can peel it off and stick it onto your cupcake. Enjoy!

Little Cakes

Written by Kaye Hansen, Little Cakes is a book with big variety. It's not just about cupcakes, it has recipes for muffins, mini cakes, and other sweets. I like how the book is laid out, it has pages of helpful tips in the front, and each recipe is rated by difficulty which I like very much. The only problem I had with this cookbook was that most of the cupcake recipes did not have any picture.

Cupcakes: Luscious bakeshop...

Cupcakes: Luscious bakeshop favorites from your home kitchen is written by Shelly Kaldunski. It has very elegant and beautiful cupcakes, more about quality then quantity. This book works great for beginners and, as I like to call, "cupcake masters". The frosting and tastes are wonderful, but occasionally the actual cupcake is a bit dry, so recipes might need tweaking. I have found that a lot more moisture is needed, otherwise all you taste is frosting and then a dry cupcake. The pages have great full page photos, and it has a good layout.

500 Cupcakes

500 Cupcakes: The Only Cupcake Compendium You'll Ever Need is written by Fergal Connolly. This is a great cupcake book, if you are OK with some muffin twists! A good amount of this book contains recipes for muffins, what some people might call "The Ugly Cupcake" but I take no sides in the cupcake/muffin war. I guess one possible way around this is to just add icing to some of the muffin recipes, which I have learned can either work wonderfully or turn out absolutely terrible. A rainy day will surely give us enough time to find the answer. This book is great if you want to have a long lasting baking experience, but not necessarily one of my favorites.

Crazy About Cupcakes

Crazy About Cupcakes written by Krystina Castella has around 300 cupcake recipes. These cupcakes range from simple and petite, to holidays or just baking for fun. This book is a great gift for anyone, (most cupcake books are) but some of the designs are not as "advanced" as I would like, they are not always crafted to my taste. But if you want another cupcake cookbook, or want to bake for children, this is the book for you.