How To Eat a Cupcake - Review of a Page Turner

I’m always looking for a good read. Strangely enough, my dad recommended this novel to me. At first, I thought it was strange that he even knew about a cupcake novel, let alone recommend it to me. Don’t get me wrong – cupcakes are clearly my THING. My dad explained that his coworkers’ best friend had written the book, and he thought of me and my obsessive love of all things baking related. I went on Amazon, and pre-ordered two copies – one for me and one for my mother (because I am the best daughter ever). OK, here we go…

I half expected How to Eat a Cupcake to be a fluffy baking book with adorable recipes, pictures, pink stuff and possibly even kittens. Which I would have been fine with, I am a girl afterall. However, this book is nothing of the sort. It has this menacing undertone that something is always brewing, which made for a great page turner. On my commute into Manhattan for work, on my couch, in my car (when my fiancé was driving, of course) I had my nose in this novel. Page after page I read about two frenemies who couldn’t be from more different worlds, and somehow went into business together to open a cupcake shop. Everyone’s dream, right? Book over? Hardly. The trials and tribulations of the shop, cleverly titled Treat, is anything but sweet. Without giving too much of the book away (because you should get yourself a copy!) this book is filled with everything - lies, vandalism, family, long lost friends, growing pains, ex boyfriends, class conflict and of course – cupcakes. Glorious, tasty, wonderful, unique cupcakes. The book gave me a few ideas on new recipes I wanted to create myself. My apron goes off to Meg Donohue, who wrote a book I never wanted to put down!

How to Core a Cupcake...and Fill it with Fun Stuff!

Hi all! This little cupcake plunger is going to change your cupcake life! Coring a cupcake and filing it with something delicious gives it an extra kick! It's very easy to use, and kinda fun too. One of my best friends gave it to me as a gift and I use it all the time. See below for step by step and some cupcake fun!

Here it is! I made chocolate cupcakes, and put them in the refrigerator overnight. You want to make sure the cupcakes are completely cooled before you remove the core, or else they will fall apart.

And off we go! For a normal sized cupcake, I would suggest going to the second line of the cupcake plunger as seen above. You don't want to take too much cake from the middle, or else your filing might come out the bottom or your cake could collapse =)

Using a twisting motion (think turning a door nob back and forth) remove the plunger from the cake. You don't need to use the top springy part of the plunger just yet. Let the extra cake sit tight in there, we are going to use it again later. And there you have it! You're ready to start filing..


Yum!!! I filled my cupcakes with Nutella - I think the chocolate cake combined with the chocolatey/nutty Nutella taste is a killer combo. I added the Nutella with a spoon, but you could also use the bag filing method (i'm sure it's a lot less messy!) There are so many other filings you could use as well - whipped cream, fruit, fudge, even ice cream if served quickly. These cupcakes are a favorite of my coworkers, so I made them again!


Remember the excess cake that the plunger removed? We're going to put it back in on top of the filing. Using the springy part of the plunger, simply hold it over your cupcake and push the spring all the way down. This will cause the extra cake to be pushed out and added back to the top of your cupcake. After all, we want to salvage every last bit of cake we can get right?


Almost done! All cupcakes have been cored, filled, and topped off with the excess cake. Too bad they look a bit ugly, no? We can fix that...

With icing! Simply frost over the cracks left by the cupcake plunger, and you will have a gorgeous, magnificent cupcake! I applied mine with a knife, but it's of course your preference. I got this buttercream frosting recipe from the side of the sugar box, and I'm really happy with the way it came out! See below for recipe.


The frosting is very creamy and light, exactly what I was going for. I wanted the Nutella to be the star of this cupcake, and didn't want the frosting to be too overpowering. This buttercream was a nice balance.

Off to work we go! I commute into Manhattan for work every day, and this cupcake carrier has been a life saver! It holds 24 cupcakes, and is very sturdy. I bought this one at Target.

That's all for now, hope you guys enjoyed my post! Comment with any questions or cupcake love! xoxo

A Few Baking Adventures Thus Far...

Hi dolls! My very first baking post, so exciting! This post is just a kick-off to my new blog. I thought it would be fun to show a few things i've baked in the past.

There are so many new things i'd like to try making, and of course many things I could possibly improve on. For me, baking is about relaxing, enjoying your craft and making others happy. I'm in no way a professional, and have a long way to go! I have many excellent bakers in my family, I can only hope that some of it rubbed off on me. See below for some fun baking, much more to come!

Mini vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting

When I found the mini cupcake papers, I couldn't wait to get home and bake these little guys!

One batch of batter goes a long way with these...

Chocolate Raspberry "Rockstar" Vodka Cupcakes

I made these for a holiday cocktail party I had at my apartment, they were a big hit!

They're dark chocolate cake with a little vodka, and a raspberry-chocolate icing

I got the recipe online, and kept it because I'd like to make them again

This was my first experience baking with alcohol, let's just say I will be doing it again =)

Mom's famous birthday cake!

Since my brother and I were little, my mother always baked the same cake for our birthdays

Whether it's 3 or 4 layers, this light and fluffy chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting is simple, but just SO good. Definitely a crowd favorite in our family!

Lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting

I'm a huge chocolate fan, my boyfriend isn't.

I've been trying to make alternatives, like these lemon cakes.

He liked them so much that i've made them a few times.

I thought the frosting came out especially well in this batch!

Lemon cake pops with a vanilla glaze

So this was my first go with cake pops.

As you can probably tell, my "decorating" needs a little help ha!

The cake itself wasn't bad, I just think I made my glaze too thick,

making it difficult to coat the whole pop.

Determined to master cake pops soon!

Pink - Red velvet with cream cheese frosting

Purple - Dark chocolate with vanilla frosting

One of my besties and I created these pretty cupcakes for my company's

bakesale to support the BCRF. We were really happy with the flavor,

as well as the decorating! Despite staying up until 1am on a work night

and being pratically delirious towards the end, we successfully made

3 dozen cupcakes for the bakesale. And they were all sold by the end of the day!

PIGGYS! Red velvet with cream cheese frosting

Probably one of my favs! This was the 3rd batch that my friend and I made for the bakesale

1 hour into the bakesale they were sold out complete. I mean come on, LOOK at them! =)

We had to improvise with our ingredients a bit:

Marshmellow for the nose

Whoopers for the nostrils

Black licorice for the eyes

Swedish fish (just the nose!) for the ears

Pink, white and blue cupcakes - chocolate with vanilla buttercream frosting

One of my good friends was returning home from being overseas in the army.

We had a little get together for his homecoming, and I tried making red, white and blue frosting

Well, we see this did not happen friends. Although a pretty pink, I was clearly going for red!

OK so I didn't "bake" these, but I bought these cute little lipglosses home

with me from a trip to Brazil. I keep them on my desk at work and smile when I see them =)

That's all for now! Just wanted to give you all a little taste of my life. I'll be back with another post soon - most likely cake pops! If you also have a baking site, please post it in a comment and I will be happy to check it out!

xoxo Majesty Bakes Cakes