Cupcake Fever

So in the matter of a few months we'll go from 0 to 2 cupcake shops in downtown State College.

Amazing! I love cupcakes.

Do you remember my cupcake surprise from my friend Melissa Stitzer?

It's a handmade candle, scented vanilla (my favorite!) Her business is called Pollywog Pond. 

She started making these with a friend last spring when she decided that it might be a fun hobby. After trying it out and seeing that their experimenting actually worked they took them in to work where they were a huge hit! The icing on the candles is actually hand whipped wax piped on with a pastry bag! That is the part she loves to do! They are so popular that she does craft shows, mail orders, and more!

She can do orders for bridal showers, birthday parties, fundraisers, baby showers...anything! Here is a little order detail - 

Jumbo Cupcake Candles are $10 (shipping available) These yummy creations weigh in at 11oz and come with sprinkles and a cherry on top! Special requests can be made for the color of the base (the “cake”) and color of icing. 

Here are the scents:
Spiced Apple w/ Spiced Apple Vanilla frosting 
Blueberry Muffin w/ Vanilla frosting 
Carmelized Pralines w/ Vanilla frosting 
Orange Creamsicle 
Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey 
Coconut Lime 
Caribbean Dreams 
Strawberry w/ Vanilla frosting (Strawberry Shortcake) 
Vanilla 

**Scents are always being added, especially at the change of seasons. Special scent orders can be placed at a small additional cost. Please feel free to contact Melissa with any questions or just to see what new scents have been added! You can contact Melissa Stitzer at pollywogpond@hotmail.com for more information or to order. She also offers jar candles!! They are just as wonderful - Toph and I got one for my mom for Christmas last year.

So I couldn't just let Melissa give me this adorable cupcake and not do something nice in return. I had been dying to use my new cupcake cookie cutter, and this was the perfect occasion.

I had so much fun making these for Melissa. I wanted them to be colorful and I wanted them to have a variety of 'toppings'.

I used nonpareils.

SUGAR crystals!

And some new little edible shimmery pink hearts I found...

The cookie cutter was a little smaller than I normally use. But, Melissa said it was just perfect for her. She liked having a small treat.

I found a set of three different sized cupcake cookie cutters on the Bake it Pretty site. I think I might order those and start offering a variety of cupcake cookies. They are too cute not to put on my website shop!

These pictures actually make my mouth water. No joke.

So, to top off my 'cupcake fever' post I have to tell you about the date I planned for Topher involving cupcakes.

The week *ndulge opened in State College, I took Topher on a date I called 'Venetian Redux'. (this date was my secret plan to get us to the new cupcake shop) It was inspired by one of the best nights of our honeymoon in Italy. As a wedding gift, one of our friends gave us 20 Euro and asked us to get a pizza on him. He told us to take a picture of our pizza date for his fridge.

So while we were staying on the island of Lido in Venice, we took our 20 Euro to town and put together the most romantic date of our lives. For only 20 Euro we got 2 personal sized pizzas, 2 canolli, 1 gerber daisy, and a bottle of champange. Here's the picture of our romanitc pizza dinner on our private balcony at our hotel.

If you're ever going to Venice, email me and I'll give you the name of the hotel and the room number. Our balcony/room was right on the water and it was amazing!

So two weeks ago I decided to recreate this style date for Topher. I looked up the exchange rate and found that 20 Euro is $25.40. I took Topher to State College and gave him the exact change and instructions. I had packed a picnic blanket, champagne glasses, Mad Libs, playing cards, and our hangman book. I even remembered to charge my phone so that we could listen to a special Pandora station I had created just for the picnic...a Snow Patrol station.

So we set off with our cash and our camera. We got grape leaves from Bell's Greek Pizza. Sparkling water and ginger ale from McLanahans, Caprese salad and artichoke pizza from Rotelli, and a cream soda cupcake from *ndulge...all this for $25.40. It was so fun walking all over town trying to put together the pieces of our dinner. We took a ton of pictures.

I took Topher to the little pond at the Hintz Alumni Center   (on Penn States campus) for our picnic. There we saw fish, turtles, bunnies, squirrels, and a ton of baby ducks. We saw a duck family with a mom, dad, and 16 babies!! It was so great.

We set up our picnic blanket and our fabulous feast. I got the music going. I had even remembered to bring those special pink metallic hearts to sprinkle in our sparkling water champagne glasses. (the same ones I used on the cupcake cookies - they looked GREAT in the glass!)

But, I'm sad to say that my new phone erased all the amazing pictures we took that night. I was a little bummed...actually I was a lot bummed. But the memories are great. I guess we'll just have to do it again!

Any excuse to get another cupcake from *ndulge is a good plan in my eyes! 

I'll let you know when I add my cupcake cookies to the site. I think they would be great cookie favors for birthdays, baby showers, bridal events - everything! The possibilities are endless.

Have a sweet day,

Anne