What's New, Cupcake?: Ingeniously Simple Designs for Every Occasion [Paperback]

Karen Tack (Author), Alan Richardson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2010

The endlessly imaginative duo who turned cupcaking into a national pastime is back, with utterly new, eye-popping creations anyone can make. Create a race-car cupcake, a robot cupcake, or ravishing jewelry cupcakes for a birthday party. Surprise the family with Chinese takeout dinner cupcakes on April Fool's or serve up a goofy chocolate moose. Captivate Mom with a bouquet of long-stemmed rose cupcakes and build sand castle cupcakes with the kids. All you need are candies from the corner store and cake mix and canned frosting.

So what is new, Cupcake? Dozens of "EZ" projects that use just a few ingredients--perfect for kids and parties.

• More pictures, brighter colors, bolder designs.
• More faux-food creations--so real you won't believe they're cupcakes!
• More comical critters and the cutest pets ever!
• More irresistible party centerpieces to celebrate hobbies, from golf to knitting.
• More spectacular holiday cupcakes: Valentine's, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

You'll end up with cupcakes so striking that you won't want to eat them--but so delicious you'll have no choice!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Product Description
The endlessly imaginative duo who turned cupcaking into a national pastime is back, with utterly new, eye-popping creations anyone can make. Create a race-car cupcake, a robot cupcake, or ravishing jewelry cupcakes for a birthday party. Surprise the family with Chinese takeout dinner cupcakes on April Fool's or serve up a goofy chocolate moose. Captivate Mom with a bouquet of long-stemmed rose cupcakes and build sand castle cupcakes with the kids. All you need are candies from the corner store and cake mix and canned frosting.

So what is new, Cupcake?

Dozens of "EZ" projects that use just a few ingredients--perfect for kids and parties.
• More pictures, brighter colors, bolder designs.
• More faux-food creations--so real you won't believe they're cupcakes!
• More comical critters and the cutest pets ever!
• More irresistible party centerpieces to celebrate hobbies, from golf to knitting.
• More spectacular holiday cupcakes: Valentine's, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

You'll end up with cupcakes so striking that you won't want to eat them--but so delicious you'll have no choice!

---

Recipe Excerpts from What's New, Cupcake?

An Apple for the Teacher Cupcakes

Playing Koi Cupcakes

---

From Publishers Weekly

The authors of Hello, Cupcake are back, this time with the promise of simpler recipes. Relying on doctored, store-bought cake mixes and the option of canned frostings, recipe time is used primarily for assembling and decorating cupcakes that take the form of animals, food items, and holiday-inspired scenes. The TOC may leave readers guessing recipe selections with chapter names such as I Thought You Ordered Chocolate Moose and The House that Boo Built, but the unconventional names embody the playful spirit of this title. Basic techniques, including filling cupcake liners and frosting cupcakes, are explained, and recipes are formatted into clear, easy-to-understand numbered steps accompanied by full-color photos. Kids and adults alike will find joy in the many artful creations, including a pizza supported by cupcakes and topped with fruit pepperoni; a banana split with cupcakes in the form of ice cream scoops, and Chinese takeout complete with Tootsie Roll broccoli florets. This is an innovative title that doesn't hold back. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; None edition (April 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 054724181X
• ISBN-13: 978-0547241814
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 0.8 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (166 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Occasions > Holidays
  • #19 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Cakes
  • #31 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Entertaining

More About the Author

Alan Richardson is the coauthor of the New York Times best-selling Hello, Cupcake! and What's New, Cupcake? He is also the coauthor of The Breath of a Wok, which won two prestigious awards from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). His photographs appear in dozens of best-selling cookbooks and leading food magazines.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 97 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Cupcake, it's not just a noun anymore... April 15, 2010

By Susan Tunis TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

"Cupcaking," it seems, has joined the ranks of verbs like "scrapbooking." Where once a cupcake was a tasty treat, it is now an arts and crafts project. I must admit that I came to this book with a misconception. I thought the point was to create something good to eat. It is not. What's New, Cupcake is a triumph of style over substance. To eat the creations in this book is not only beside the point, it's bordering on sacrilege.

Clearly, I am an old-fashioned baker, or at least one cut from a different cloth. "Recipes" from cake mixes and the use of Twinkies and mini-donuts as additional construction elements are anathema to me. Now that my biases have been disclosed, I will admit this: The photographs of the projects in this book are AMAZING. The finished projects are gorgeous--more akin to sculptures than snacks. For the baker who aspires to such feats, this book should be equal parts instructive and inspirational.

For dinosaurs like myself, who are as interested in the edibility of their cupcakes as the attractiveness, there is certainly useful information. I advise using real recipes as a starting place. But there is much that can be learned about types and manners of icing and frosting, how to achieve textures, creative ways to use candies and other decorative elements, and more. It may encourage you to a more ambitious level of creativity.

This is a book for an extreme cupcaker. There may be more of you out there than I realize. For you, this book may well be the bible of cupcaking. For the more moderate cupcakers like myself, take what you can from the book and then "ooh" and "aah" over the pretty pictures.

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Egg mold helpful hints May 29, 2010

By La Blue Eyes

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I enjoy this book immensely and find the recipes to be very creative. Anyone else who whines that the recipes are cute to look at but inedible should stick to their boring cake recipe and frosting duo. I can tell you right now, they will never garner as much attention at a party as the recipes in this book do.
The first recipe I tried from this book was the Easter eggs which requires molding eggs out of candy melts from plastic Easter eggs. After a frustrating hour of maybe getting one egg out of 8 to not break while unmolding I ended up with barely three and a half candy eggs and a pile of shattered attempts.
The second recipe I tried was the "all cracked up" or the eggs on the back cover of the book. I dreaded doing egg molding again, but this time I came with several ideas and they worked!! So, I'm passing along my ideas so they can maybe help someone else who ran into the same problems I did.
First, I filled the inside of the eggs with the candy melts and then used a brush to cover up the bare spots. A knife or spoon will not work because they scrape the sides.
Don't be stingy with the candy melts. If the candy is spread too thin it will shatter. If I could see the color of the egg clearly through the candy I would add more.
Using a plastic squeezable bottle I would spread an excess layer of candy melts along the inside edge of the plastic egg on one side. After it chills this layer will harden and create an overextended "lip" of candy to grip with your fingers so you have a place to grip and won't create so much pressure on the sides and shatter the candy in the egg
I put the molds in the freezer simply because I was too impatient for the fridge. I'm not sure if that changed anything, but they were very hard when I took them out.
Next came the unmolding which was always a challenge because even with the plastic eggs greased that candy would not come out no matter how much you tapped the top or pull from the inside of the egg. So, I tried a different approach. While still cold from the freezer I took a hair dryer and used it on the outside of the egg. It only takes seconds and you need to evenly distribute the hot air on all sides (not underside obviously) otherwise you'll melt the candy. Exerting careful pressure and gripping the "lip" you created the egg will easily slip out. If it won't, heat it up a little more.
With this technique I had none break which was a certain change from my experience with the previous recipe. The end result was amazing with candy eggs that when served in the egg cartons made many guests assume that they were real eggs. I will certainly do this recipe again and I hope that these hints will help someone not give up on the "egg" recipes

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Too Cute for Words March 19, 2010

By tmtrvlr

Format:Paperback

What I found the most striking about What's New Cupcake is the photography by Alan Richardson. The pictures are so vibrant and colorful that they almost seem to jump off the pages. This is a good-sized book, at about 9" x 10", so they are also nice sized and detailed photos. The cover photo with the "Rubber Duckies" cupcakes is too cute for words.

What's New Cupcake starts out like a craft book with a list of needed materials and tools. Nothing unusual is needed and most are items that would be already on hand, except for the variety of colorful candies. The instructions for decorating the cupcakes are clear and the Karen Tack's designs are fun and very decorative.

The first chapter, April Fools Play, has cupcakes that look like something entirely different. How about cupcakes that look like a sub sandwich or a banana split? There are sections with ideas for all of the major holidays and party ideas for children and grown-ups.

Just a couple of examples of the design titles are:

Busy Bees (a honeycomb of cupcakes)
Mum's the Word (beautiful flower cupcakes)
Fur Balls and String Monsters (You have to see it!)
Shower Heads (baby faces)
Knit One, Frost Two (knitting needles and yarn - my personal favorite)

Along with the decorating instructions there are quick dressed up cake mix recipes for cupcakes, frosting, and sugar cookies.