Articles about cupcakes

Trailercakes Opening Near Knox/Henderson

An eagle-iPhoned Disher sends this photo with a note: “Next to Pei Wei at Knox and 75.” And then, he was gone.

Be Scared: Cupcakes ATMs are Coming to Dallas

Yes way.

It’s 1 a.m. and you have a massive cupcake craving that’s ruining your entire night. What do you do? Suck it up? Brave the night, albeit cupcakeless, as man was designed to do since the very beginning of time?

No, because starting as early as fall, word has it that you can go to a cupcake ATM at Sprinkles‘ Plaza at Preston Center location for a late-night snack. The machine is supposed to hold 600 cupcakes at one time, and, according to Bradford Pearson on Park Cities People, “the cupcakes are cycled out to maintain freshness. All uneaten cakes go to a local charity.”

Pray, tell me which local charity would want stale Sprinkles cupcakes? The fresh ones are honestly scary enough. It’s a simple mathematical formula for those of you who understand equations. 1 Sprinkles cupcake consumed = 1 new cavity created.

Convenience has reached a whole new level of ridiculosity. I fear for future generations.

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Special Report: Cupcake Camp Dallas 2012

The prize-winning team at Sugar Ray's Bake Shop

Last Saturday, cupcake lovers flooded the halls of St. Mark’s School to partake in Dallas’ 2nd annual Cupcake Camp Dallas. After attending the camp last year, there was no way I was about to miss this year’s event. Not only did is showcase some of the most talented, creative bakers in the Dallas area, but all proceeds go to the LEAP foundation, a group of volunteer physicians and support staff who provide free surgical care to needy countries around the world.

This year’s event was, as expected, bigger and better than ever. More than 7,500 cupcakes were donated by the professional and amateur bakers participating in the camp.  I kid you not when I say, I probably brought home close to four dozen cupcakes, because, you know, it was for charity, and I was just doing my part. The ingenious use of cake and frosting in all its glorious varieties was again a pleasure to partake of and I look forward to Cupcake Camp Dallas’ return next year.

As decided by an esteemed panel of judges, a number of awards were handed out. My beloved, Trailercakes, brought home first place in “best of show,” “best frosting,” and “best tasting cake” for their Oreo cookie and salted caramel cupcakes. And let me just say, they deserved it. Other top winners included Sugar Ray’s Bake Shop, runner-up in “best of show” with their lemon ricotta cupcake, Sweet Pea Bakery,” winner of “best of show, best frosting, best cake-amateur division” with their raspberry lemonade cake, and Dallas Cake Club in ‘best appearance.”

For information on next year’s Cupcake Camp visit their website here.

Jump for more photos…

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Eat Cupcakes for Charity at Cupcake Camp Dallas 2012

Attention all sugar junkies, prepare yourselves for Dallas’ biggest bake sale of the year, Cupcake Camp Dallas is back and bigger than ever. This year’s event will see over 25 professional bakeries and 19 amateurs all donating more than 7,500 cupcakes for charity. The event benefits the LEAP foundation, a non-profit organization composed of volunteer physicians and support staff who provide free surgical care to children and adults with deformities.

This year’s event is being held on June 2nd at St. Mark’s School of Texas (10600 Preston Rd, Dallas) from 1-4 PM.  Tickets can be purchased online or at the door.

Many well-known Dallas bakeries, including Society Bakery, Dimples, Trailercakes, and Tart Bakery will be in attendance, but this is also a wonderful opportunity to taste of the talents of many excellent bakers from all around the Dallas area that you may be less familiar with. A full list of bakers can be seen here.

Last year’s event was such a huge success, the camp is expecting to double its attendance this year.  We’ll have a full report of the camp for you here at SideDish after the event, but trust me, this is one eat-a-thon you will not want to simply admire through the glowing pixels of your computer monitor.

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Vegan Fresh: Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting

Mexican chocolate cupcakes with cinnamon frosting (photos by Michelle Saunders)

D Magazine intern Michelle Saunders usually brings you healthy food recipes (like this quinoa salad), but she wants you to know that these cupcakes are an exception. She writes: “I believe that an occasional cupcake can do as much good for the body as a salad and certainly more good for the soul.”

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo this past weekend, I thought it only proper to make a Mexican-inspired dessert. I’ve seen various recipes for Mexican chocolate cakes and I’ve tried a few, but I was never quite satisfied with the result. I played around with spices and came up with a cupcake that is surprisingly complex – the cinnamon & cayenne are the perfect blend of sweet and spicy while the chili and espresso powders add another dimension of flavor to the cocoa. Although these spices are not typically included in dessert, they are the perfect compliment to the chocolate, resulting in rich, moist cupcakes with a kick. Not only were these super easy to make, but they were a hit with the non-vegans I tested them on as well.  Give them a try – you may be pleasantly surprised!

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Two New Restaurants: Torchy’s Taco and Southern Breeze Market Café

Allen is about to welcome two new restaurants: Torchy’s Taco and Southern Breeze Market Café. Torchy’s will open at 1008 W. McDermott Drive, Suite 600, next Wednesday (April 11). They will announce other Dallas-area locations they plan to open soon.

Okay, sinus medication, let’s try this post again. Sorry for the confusion but head is heavier than heaven. There are two new restaurants opening: Torchy’s Taco in Allen and Southern Breeze in Keller.

Southern Breeze Market Café, owned by the culinary husband-and-wife team of Melody and Daniel Fitzgerald, will make its debut on April 10 in Old Town Keller. Melody, a former pastry chef at the Mansion, and Daniel, former front-of-the-house-man at Tillmans’ at Tillman’s Roadhouse and Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine in Fort Worth, and Morton’s of Chicago Steakhouse in Dallas, currently own and operate Sugar & Frosting, a cupcakery in Allen. The “Timeless Southern Cuisine” (trending) and “Carolina Chic, comfort food dishes seasoned with a modern-day culinary flair.”

Jump. Hard. And help me get this song out of my head.

The press release: Continue reading "Two New Restaurants: Torchy’s Taco and Southern Breeze Market Café"

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Tu-Lu’s Gluten-Free Bakery Opens in Dallas

Tully Lewis, owner of Tu-Lu's Bakery

“I’ve always wanted to move back to Dallas ever since (going to) SMU,” says Tully Lewis, owner of Tu-Lu’s Gluten-Free Bakery. Today, Lewis opens her first store in Dallas after enjoying success in New York City for the last two years. (For instance, the ladies and gents of Vogue loved her sweets so much, they admitted their latest obsession with gluten-free goods in this February article.)

Jump for eye candy.

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It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Pumpkin Food in Dallas

Let's feast on pumpkin!

Oh, how I love anything made with pumpkin. Yesterday, I bought a dozen pumpkin bagels at Einstein’s. Starting today, I’m searching for anything made with pumpkin–desserts, soup, pancakes, bread, pasta—anything. If you see it or make it, let us know below.

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My Sugar Box Can Beat Up Your Velvet Taco

In what feels like a dessert response to all of the overtly suggestive taco joint names we’ve seen in the last year, Sugar Box officially opens tomorrow night in Uptown at the Mondrian. The grand opening fete runs from 5 to 9 pm and features freebie selections from the new dessert bar’s palate of cupcakes, French macarons, and cake balls with espresso, latte, and cappuccino chasers (for those of you who, unlike me, can drink coffee after 4 pm and still sleep at night). Free tasters, live music, door prizes. Why not?

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What Would Happen if Women Opened Restaurants With Male Body Parts as Themes

‘Scuse me while I saddle up my high horse. Am I the only woman who is concerned about the sudden surge in Breastaurants. I mean really 35 additional Twin Peaks? A bar opening in downtown called The Spread Eagle? Seriously boys? How would you like to take your daughter into one of the restaurant’s the gals in our office just conceptualized. We call them Peteries.

Hunky Town, Twin Pricks, Tooter’s, Pecker’s Hot Italian Sausage, Tube Steak Junction, Cake Balls to the Walls, Nuts and Butts, Quickies, Long Dong Silver, Tally Whacker’s, Love Mussels, Wee Willie’s, Twig and Berries.

Ladies, the floor is open.

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Star-Spangled Deal. Half-off Cupcakes? Yes, Please.

Photo by Desirée Espada.

We named them Best Bakery for Sweets in 2010. Before that, they were featured in People magazine for making Tony Romo’s birthday cake. Today it appears that even Oak Lawn stalwart, A&J Bakery, has gotten on the Groupon bandwagon with a 50% off deal just in time for the holiday weekend.

When it’s this hot, I’m all about making life easier. So if you, like I, need cupcakes for a July 4 picnic but don’t want to heat up your house by baking them yourself…

Eat This Now:PB&J Cupcake from Trailercakes in Richardson

The PB&J cupcake from Trailercakes.

Ladies and gentlemen, a very excited Daniel Walker.

I eat way too many cupcakes.  It’s almost embarrassing.  Luckily, there is no shortage of outstanding cupcakes in Dallas.  But as seriously as I take my cakes, today, I am proud to announce that I am crowning a new king.

Perhaps you have seen them mentioned on Sidedish previously, but any “hype” you have heard about Trailercakes is true. The cupcakes are  heavenly.  Among all of the sultry flavors offered by this little operation, the PB&J cupcake is in a class of its own, and in my opinion, takes the cake as best in Dallas. Chief Frosting Officer, Heather Zidell, and Chief Cake Officer, Leora Azoulay Lesh, join forces to bring together the perfect balance of sugar and flour.  No corners are cut with these desserts.  Quality ingredients make for an exceptional product and we, the eaters, are the beneficiaries of this pair’s dedication to the humble cupcake.

Stay with me.

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Over It: Cute Food Trend Needs to Disappear

Humiliating Presentation: This poor little lamb flew all the way from New Zealand to have a stick shoved in its leg?

I hate rain-delayed baseball games. Especially those with 11:20PM starting times, torrential rain and hail, and tornado warnings. I like my sleep and I like the Rangers to win.

With a crabby demeanor, I begin today by tossing a rock at what I call “cute food.” I’m talking sliders, $5 cupcakes, cupcakes in a jar, mac and cheese in little iron skillets, cake balls (pops), lamb called lollipops, pickles on top of gourmet burgers, ad nauseum.  These are a few of my least favorite things. Oh, and I’ll add chicken wings because they have no purpose on this earth. Your turn. Go.

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Special Report: Cupcake Camp Dallas Invades Royal Oaks Country Club

Best In Show: Team cupcake from Asian Mint. Ploy Sukhamwang and Nikky Phinyawatana.

Our senior cupcake editor, Allison Hatfield, was on special assignment, so we sent the newest member of the SideDish staff, Daniel Walker, to cover the first Cupcake Camp Dallas. Little did I know he’s a cupcake freak as well. Sugar-rush copy to follow:

Nowadays, it seems like every new sweet food trend is touted as “the new cupcake.”   The truth is, in my heart and stomach, that there is not anything that can ever replace a great cupcake.  Nothing compares to the harmonious marriage of cake and frosting. I resisted jumping on the cupcake bandwagon when the craze for designer cupcakes began several years ago, but now I’m riding shotgun and I’ve got no intentions of giving up my seat. Sure, it’s a bit embarrassing when your wife’s new pet name for you is “Cupcake.” However, it’s an upgrade from  “Sugar Buns.” Maybe cute at home, but a bit disturbing when she shouted it  across a crowded restaurant.

This weekend, the Dallas cupcake scene was out in full force as the first ever Cupcake Camp Dallas descended upon our fair city.  Professional and amateur bakeries from all over the area gathered at the Royal Oaks Country Club on Greenville Ave. and displayed over 4,000 cupcakes.  Participants included Society Bakery, Asian Mint, Nothing Bundt Cakes, and the highly anticipated Trailercakes (sadly their sleek Airstream trailer had to stay home). Other bakeries, all new to me, brought their A-game to this cupcake convention:  The Perfect Slice, Pure Bliss, Haute Mama Dessert Co., Cupcake FabuLous, Cupcakes2You, and Crazy Good Cupcakes.

Jump for a zillion pictures of cupcakes and those who love them. Continue reading "Special Report: Cupcake Camp Dallas Invades Royal Oaks Country Club"

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Dimples Cupcakes Makes a Comeback With New Owner Mark Aguirre

I should have put a question mark on that headline for I don’t know the whole story, I only copy and pasted what I read on Dimples’ Facebook page. It sez:

We are proud to Formally Announce that as of Today, We Have Passed The Ball To
Mark Aguirre, 2 Time NBA Champion and his business partner Keith Fluellen. Many
changes will be made, however One Thing Will Remain The Same..THE CUPCAKES Mark Aguirre will soon announce all the exciting details. We wish Mark and his Team
great success. …Thank You DFW

Well, there’s another American entrepreneurial success story for the books.

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Somebody Help This Poor Dog Lover: Mother’s Day Dining in Dallas

A colleague with a soul for saving dogs and a bod for sin wants advice on where she can take the two loves of her life—mother and dogs—to celebrate Mother’s Day. That would be May 8. Give it up dog-friendly restaurants.

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Trailercakes Cupcakes Take D Magazine by Storm

I am not sure when a trend becomes a tradition, when a flash in the pan becomes an American classic, but I suspect we are at the tipping point with the cupcake.

Before you tell me to put a macaron in it, please allow me to introduce you to the very cupcake that I think might be over the edge: Trailercakes.

Jump for the rest of the glory.

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Family Valentine’s Day Fun at Spoons

I love downtown McKinney. Great restaurants, fun shopping that isn’t a bunch of antique shops and quilting rooms, and a vibrant artsy vibe. It’s also family friendly especially at the popular Spoons Cafe. For Valentine’s Day, they’re hosting their annual cupcake decorating and Valentine buffet family feast. Chow down on meatloaf, chicken fried steak, fried okra, mac n’ cheese, and more. And I did mention that you get to decorate your own cupcake, right? Sounds like more fun than dining by candlelight.

World Piece Cafe is History. Rene Peeters Opens Bistro Watel’s in Dallas

I just got a GTalk telling me Christopher Wynn got a message on Facebook and posted a story with a link to breaking news over at PegNews. Apparently Rene Peeters, owner of World Piece Cafe on Greenville Ave., likes Teresa Gubbins the best. She has the scoop of the day. Peeters is taking over the restaurant space formerly know as York Street and turning it into Watel’s Bistro.

He admits his restaurant, World Piece Café, is a confusing name for a restaurant. Is it the stupidest name in the world? Name another.

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Ding Dong Dimples Cupcakes is Dead

photo by Chris Korbey.

Whilst I was immersed in The King’s Speech at the Angelika Theater, Teresa Gubbins was busily reporting the demise of Dimples Cupcakes.

According to La Gubb’s source for the news, owner Chad Sorrells, the devastation of the Dimples dynasty was due to unsupportive landlords and this article in D Magazine (note to TG: D Magazine is all ital w/ UC m).  Read  both stories and decide what is fair. Lawsuit? Interesting Mr. Sorrells. You never returned our phone calls.214-939-3636. All lines are open.

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