Good Morning Cupcake Cottage!

Good Morning little shops!

When I arrive at the shop to bake it is always dark. This time of the year it's a real treat to drive in and see all the wonderful Christmas lights and decorations in shop windows.

I love our twinkle lights, and I especially love the pink Christmas tree in Weddings on the Boulevard window. Waking up is a little easier with such festive December greetings! =)

Hey Cupcake, Thanks!

Fort Worth Weekly Holiday Guide 2009 & Fort Worth Child December 2009

We are always incredibly surprised and grateful when unexpected 'shout-outs' come our way. Last week, while waiting for a burger at a neighboring hamburger spot, I saw the Fort Worth Weekly Holiday Guide 2009 and took a peek. Page 10 featured Holiday Hosting and there we were...pink topped Cupcake Cottage cupcakes and all! Very cool.

Last month, before the Thanksgiving rush, I received an email from Fort Worth Child letting me know that we had been selected as Best place for Cupcakes! We were asked to keep mum until the December issue was released. That is never an easy promise to keep, but we did.

We certainly appreciate such Sweet Mentions and we know that it's all due to YOU! We appreciate our amazing customers for embracing our sweet treats and letting others know about us. =)

December Magic!

December is here again! This month can mean so many things to different people. Considering the economic valley that our country is experiencing, it is likely to be month sprinkled with worry and stress for many. Let's face it, even when we are experiencing economic peaks December can still be a bit overwhelming.

Whatever your tradition...whatever your joy...whatever your stress... December is a great time to simply step back and remember the precious gift of life!

When I taught second grade I began each morning with clear objectives for myself and my students. I verbally expressed those objectives as well as post them on the chalkboard so we could reference our goals during the day. I always ended that daily opening with "Let's make it a great day!" Does that mean all went well each and every day? Absolutely not! However, I am a firm believer that there is one thing we can truly control in this life and that is how we react to everything around us.

If your world is falling apart, I recommend prayer and tears. If your world is going splendidly I recommend the same.

No matter the matter "Let's make it a great December!" =)

Hey Cupcake!

We appreciate it when customers share their Cupcake Cottage experience with us!

One such email message sent to us reads:

"I just love your sweet, delectable cottage! I have attached a pic of my bday experience there. You put a smile on my face!"

Thanks,
Heather

(such sweet messages put a smile on our face too!)

A Cupcake Cottage Birthday!

It's hard to believe that we have been open for 3 years! September 26th marked that 3rd birthday.

This endeavor has been everything we could have hoped for and more. It is proof that hard work, dedication and attention to detail can pay off. The pay off? Earning our way in this increasingly costly world by paying our bills both at home and at our shop, keeping a roof over our heads, food on the table and a chance to squirrel away for our future. Hard work keeps the mind active, and is an amazing, natural remedy for a great night of sleep!

The greater pay off? Meeting YOU! Each and every day we have been blessed to meet some absolutely wonderful people and appreciate your support and encouragement. The Cupcake Cottage will continue to bake our sweet little cupcake treats from scratch for dear Fort Worth!

Halloween + Cupcakes = YUM!

Just after dark, but just before dawn

buttercream ghosts come creeping along...

Yummy Mummies on our delightful double chocolate!

The Cupcake Cottage is gearing up for Halloween!

This marks our 4th year to get a little creative with

our cuppies. If your planning a spook-tacular

Halloween gathering then you may want to include

some festive cupcakes!

Call The Cupcake Cottage for details: 817-732-5670

Transformer Cupcakes!

We've been incredibly busy!!
(and it's not even holiday busy-ness yet)

Here are some cupcakes we baked and frosted to go along with a Transformer themed birthday party. The birthday boy celebrated his birthday last year with Batman themed cupcakes from our shop and mom was back for more this year!

See the black topped cuppies? That's black sugar that will make your mouth an instant black mess when you bite into it. I would never recommend it for a 'grown up' gathering, but they are bound to bring about a "WOW" - "WHOA" and "COOL" factor among little lads!

Zebra Bug!

Cupcakes + Zebra Bugs = Smiles!

The Cupcake Cottage customer may find his or her way to our shop when out walking or biking, but most likely they make their way to pick up cupcakes in a vehicle. This summer when a customer came to pick up her order of babycakes we suggested that she park up front so we could help load the pink boxes in her car.

When she pulled up I couldn't help but grab my camera and ask if I could get some pics of her zebra-bug. Is this not the coolest paint job? It was a gift from her husband. =) I told her that I was surprised I had not seen her 'zippin' around Fort Worth, but she explained that she lived about 45 minutes south of the city. Yes, cupcake fans come from all over for our cuppies and we're glad for that!

Next time your heading south on I-35 keep your eyes peeled for this festive little car. It's bound to make you smile!

Faux Cupcakes!

They look good enough to eat, don't they?

Well they're not!

These are fake cakes and I was so impressed with how they look I

thought some of our cupcake connoisseurs might like to try their hand at making them.

Click here for faux cupcake recipe.

I learned about it from Bella Couture, a wonderful little on-line shop that offers all sorts of cupcake companion accessories.

We Break From Baking

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen."

~ Leonardo da Vinci

Sometimes the greatest thing you can earn is time! One of the goals in having our little business is to work to live and not the other way around. We don't have a mad stash of cash that allows us to randomly close our doors. Rather, we plan so that we can afford to take time for family matters, household chores and rest!

This Labor Day we will be spending time with our daughter in Colorado. It's Parents Weekend at the Air Force Academy and that's where she attends school. Our youngest son will join us, as will Shadow the Wonder Dog (our busy 10 year old border collie)! Maybe next year our oldest son will be able to join too. He started a job shortly after graduating UT in Austin and is learning all about earning that extra time. =)

The Cupcake Cottage will be closed:

Thursday 3 September thru Wednesday 9 September

and will reopen Thursday 10 September at 10:00 a.m.

We look forward to serving you on the many days we are open!

"Charming" Cupcakes!

When customers are planning for a special event and have a specific cupcake vision in mind, we are happy to consider any and all ideas. We may not always be able to create what a customer wants, but 99.9 % of the time we are able to meet the need.

Such was the case last week. We were asked to have our cupcakes used instead of a layered cake for a sweet tradition. I was somewhat familiar with the tradition of charms being placed between layers of wedding cake, but I needed to do a little research for specifics and here's what I learned:
The "cake pull" practice dates back to the Victorian era and has remained popular in the South. Basically, a satin ribbon is tied to each sterling silver charm which is placed, never baked, in between layers of a cake. In our case, we simply placed the charms on the cupcake and carefully piped buttercream over it. The result was absolute bliss!

In case your interested, the charms were from JMcKinley: http://www.jmckinley.com/

Unexpected Gifts!

Don't you just love getting something you had no idea was coming your way?

My first teaching job was at Lakenheath Elementary School in England where I taught second grade. This was a school for children of U.S. military families serving overseas. Many students living on the base were able to walk to school which made our community look like a snapshot of what I imagine growing American neighborhoods may have looked in the 50's & 60's. It was great, and I was often the recipient of 'gifts' collected by my students on their way in.

It was a pretty predictable experience of pinecones, seeds and sprigs of mistletoe in the fall and winter months. What I didn't expect in June were bunches of gorgeous, fragrant roses that were clearly snatched from prized vines. Thorny stems didn't stand a chance against the tugs of determined 8 year olds. After a quick reminder that "growing things should be left untouched" I turned and privately smiled as I placed battered stems in cool water. Unexpected gifts are such a treat!

A few weeks ago I received a package that I did not expect and did not order. I immediately knew that it was from Johnny Cupcakes because it was sealed with an over sized sticker bearing his logo: cross bones under a cupcake. I tore into the box quickly, carefully unfolded the designer Johnny Cupcake tissue paper and found the following:

~ 1/2 Dozen stud Johnny Cupcake logo earrings

~ 3 plastic zipped pouches with 1 Johnny Cupcake business card, 1 circa 1991 Teenage Ninja Turtle trading, 1 lapel button and 1 wrapped candy mint
~ (and) 1 sweet note from Johnny

I wrote about Johnny Cupcakes and his amazing entrepreneurial ways on this blog a while back.

As you can see by his note in the photo, he clearly knows how to channel his energy and creative spirit...and promote his business! Be sure to check out his blog, it rocks!

Be sure to check out his 'baked goods' (aka: custom Johnny Cupcakes Tees and other sweet items)
The unexpected can be so much fun!

"Thanks Johnny Cupcakes, wherever you are!" =)

Cake Personality

Like fine wine, a cake that is baked from scratch will be very different from flavor to flavor. Some cake recipes will bring elements together that result in a moist, springy texture, while other recipes will merge ingredients resulting in a denser, slightly heavy cake. Surprisingly, some taste buds out there are quick to declare that a cake is only good if it is moist. That may be the call of many, but it is not the declaration of all.

I suspect that with 40 plus years of improved box mixes that include added chemicals designed to lengthen shelf life and keep food items from going rock-hard, much of our society has experienced ultra moist cakes so often that the experience of varied texture may seem foreign. A cake less than 'uber' moist may be unexpected and immediately rejected. Sound familiar?

So how does one ‘break on through to the other side’ and give all forms of cake density a chance?
The next time you are about to take a bite of an unfamiliar, but made from scratch, cake consider the ingredients that make up the cake. Remember, we're talking FROM SCRATCH here...no box or pre-packaged mixes. Box mixes will be moist because the market has the majority of our population pegged and is sticking with a formula that sells.

Consider our Red Velvet cupcake. This is, by far, one of our hottest selling and most requested flavors. There are many recipes for Red Velvet. The recipe I grew up with was my mother's and can be dated back at least 50 years. As much as I love baking a full size cake with her recipe, it is not the recipe I use for my Red Velvet cupcakes in our shop. I use a recipe that I found in Southern Living Magazine many years back. Red Velvet is traditionally a dense cake that contains cocoa and is topped with a cream cheese frosting. Unless requested in a preorder, we top our Red Velvet with our buttercream frosting. I won't go into its history here, but when made from scratch, this cake is a solid slice of yummmm!

If you have only experienced red velvet as a moist cake, then it is likely to have been a box mix cake or made from a batter that has been tweaked to satisfy a moist-cake-only palette. I would encourage you to step back about 80 years, before added chemicals were used to 'keep cake moist' and try a variety of different cakes. You can visit our shop, bake something up yourself, or talk Grams into baking a few cakes this holiday season.

Whether you prefer white cake to chocolate or cream cheese frosting to buttercream, I would encourage you to keep an open mind as you open your mouth for a bite of cake! =)

We ♥ America!

Have a safe, restful and reflective 4th of July weekend!

Papas - Blueberries and Peaches!

Earlier this week Elias's mom gave us this picture

with this sweet message:

"We love your cupcakes! Thanks for making them." ~Papa & Elias

That was our 'icing on the cake'! =)

It is always a treat when customers put The Cupcake Cottage on their list of 'places to take visitors' here in Fort Worth. Such was the case with 'Papa' when his darling grandson, Elias, brought him in for cupcakes. It seems this little guy speaks very highly of The Cupcake Cottage in his phone calls to Papa, who lives in Connecticut. I think Elias was thrilled to show the grands one of his favorite places! We are always thrilled to meet friends and family. =)


With summer comes many out-of-town visitors, and the season for Parker County Peaches and Fresh Blueberries! We introduced these flavors last summer and they are back for a couple of months. Keep an eye out for them on the Flavors page on our website. They are both refreshing and yummy!

Fabulous Evening!

Our daughter, Jana (left) with her friend Grace hosted our table

We were striving to bake 500 babycakes for the Best of 2009 Party, but I pushed it a bit and baked 630 for last Friday nights celebration. Hats off to Neda and Courtney for coming in to frost. (and) Thanks to Jana and Grace for hosting The Cupcake Cottage table of cuppies.

Fort Worth Magazine transformed Casa Manana into quite the impressive celebration, and we were certainly happy to be a part of the scene!

Fort Worth Magazine's Best of 2009 Party!

We'll be closed for two weeks, but there is still one way you may be able to get your Cupcake Cottage fix. We will be baking 500+ babycakes for Fort Worth Magazine's Best of 2009! A fabulous summer party that devotes all proceeds to the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Fort Worth.

Click here for details: Best of 2009 Party!

Messages and Deliveries

Scroll down to read the story behind each picture

visit: thecupcakecottage.com

Photo 1

Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Photo 5
Photo 6
Photo 7

We may not be a cake decorating company, but now and again, if we are able and time allows, we will take your idea and make it a reality!

Photo 1: A customer took last year's Fort Worth Magazine Best of 2008 and created a wedding anniverary destination date. She and her husband visited a Best of lunch spot, Best of walking spot and Best of Cupcake spot! The cupcake message was her sweet idea.

Photo 2: The initials S and N were for a couple's engagement party.

Photo 3: An Enchanted Florist fan wanted to wish them well in their new location on Camp Bowie Blvd.

Photo 4 & 5: A young man called from LA, California wanting to send something special to his mom as she became a United States of America citizen. We delivered this festive box of a dozen babycakes to Arlington. What a thoughtful son!

Photo 6: A call from the Bay Area, California asking us to do something special for a friend's birthday. Another delivery of cuppies!!

Photo 7: Our own son wanted to make that Prom invitation a little extra special and 'sweet'. She said yes! =)

We have made deliveries of cupcakes for customers that call from as far away as Canada, NYC, Pennsylvania, Washington, and California. Delivery rates begin at $20.00 and increase according to the Fort Worth - Dallas destination.

Special frosting costs begin at: $5.00 per standard & $ 2.00 per babycake.

We ♥ Our Customers!

Some of The Cupcake Cottage Customers

Gracie's invitation to a Christmas 'Wrap' party!

Brandy and Brandon are busy with an

amazing photography business, Bellapop!

Jeff snapped this sweet pic of the lovely Jen while at the shop.
Checkout some of what keeps these two busy...you'll be impressed!
Monstrosity Foto Co., High School Caesar, Jen's Myspace

Christmas Greetings!

One of the best parts of owning and operating this little shop of cupcakes is meeting the amazing customers that walk through our door. Whether they appear on a Forbes 500 list, or work two or three jobs in order to provide for their family, there’s one thing all our customers have in common: they crave and appreciate quality!
Our customers recognize the effort that goes into our baked-from-scratch cupcakes, no matter who they are or where they are from.

We have gotten to know so many people over our counter, and they have gotten to know us.
We get updates at Christmas time from some, invitations to gatherings, and even announcements of recent births. We learn of less joyful moments such as the loss of a loved one, or an unexpected diagnosis of a difficult illness. We have customers that keep us informed of marathons they are running, vacations they are taking and businesses they are starting.

We even have a customer that started a Facebook Group, called For the Love of The Cupcake Cottage, after discovering our little shop a few months ago. That was very flattering! If you are on Facebook be sure to look it up. I took a peek at it once while my daughter was logged on to her Facebook and was impressed that there were about 25 members!
I'm afraid time doesn't allow for networking via Facebook, Twitter or Text Message, maybe someday.
For now, we will continue to meet and greet our customers the old fashion way: over the counter!

Straight From the Case

We sell lots and lots of cupcakes every day! Sometimes customers pop in for a quick cupcake fix before, during or after lunch. Often times they will call or come by in need of more than

a few cuppies and are happy to leave with a pink box of delightful treats!

Above is a box of 2 dozen cupcakes we put together from our case for a customer calling from Weatherford. By the time she arrived her box was ready and waiting!

We encourage you to call ahead so we can let you know what's available. We are happy to hold cupcakes for ya!

Mom's Favorite Flavor!

Hey cupcake mommies, what's your favorite flavor? What about the mom in your life, does she have a favorite flavor from The Cupcake Cottage? Mother's Day, Sunday 10 May, is fast approaching and we want to hear from you. The top favorite flavors will be considered and added to the Saturday 9 May menu.

Post those favorite flavors here or email us at thecupcakecottage@sbcglobal.net