Cupcake Bites

Pink cupcake receiving blanket

The best way to ensure that your baby girl grows up to be a fellow cupcake fanatic is to surround her with the little frosted cake as soon as possible. And since sugary desserts haven't been approved by pediatricians as a suitable substitute for milk and no one has come out with a line of in-womb accessories for the fetching fetus, the best we can do to expose our babies to cupcakes as early as possible is to bundle them up in this super soft cupcake receiving blanket from Luvable Friends.

The 100% cotton 2-ply blanket normally retails for $19.99 but can be purchased for as little as $7.99.

Birthday cupcake chair cover

I had no idea that cupcakes were such a popular theme for children's first birthday parties. There's the cupcake pull-ribbon pinata, the Pin the Candle on the Cupcake party game, edible cupcakes themselves of course, and now the birthday cupcake chair cover ($12).

I don't know why the designer of the 26" x 25" polyester cover didn't open his/her eyes when choosing and arranging the cupcake's awful decorations, but I suppose "star," "ribbon," and "ugly" are all words that a one-year-old should know. Fortunately for the person sitting across the child of honor, the atrociously adorned cupcake is only printed on one side of the chair cover. The other side is plain white felt.

Cupcake canvas ready for hanging

Sherri Blum Designs offers a variety of canvas reproductions of original artwork designed for nurseries and children's rooms. My favorite, of course, is this 12" x 12" x 1.5" cupcake canvas ($70). Individually created on top-quality canvas to ensure "saturated color and excellent detail," the cupcake art is signed by Sherri Blum herself and equipped with a sawtooth hanger for instant out-of-the-box positioning on the wall.

Something like this would look best in a group, if you ask me, and since a portion of each sale goes to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, there's simply no reason to buy just one.

Jumbo jelly bean cupcake candle

I don't know what it is about cupcakes and candles, but here's another one to choose from. It's a half-pound Easter-inspired cupcake candle scented with "an entire rainbow of jelly bean fragrances" and topped with pastel jelly beans and a dash of iridescent glitter.

Handmade by Candle Confections, the maker of the cookies 'n cream cupcake candle I fawned over last month, this jelly bean candle is on sale for a very specific $7.39.

Pillsbury Doughboy cupcake candle set

Something about the Pillsbury Doughboy really creeps me out. The pasty skin, vacant eyes, chef's hat, unnecessary giggling: they're all bad. I guess that's why I don't mind seeing him try to balance these cupcake candles for all eternity. Well, until the 5-hour burn time is up, anyway.

I'm sure he'll enjoy the "aroma of chocolate fudge and rich cocoa . . . enhanced by hints of creamy butter and warmed brown sugar" for a while, but those doughy arms will give out eventually. And nothin' says lovin' like a mascot in tears.

If you'd like to save him from my ill intentions, the Pillsbury Cupcake Candle Gift Set is available from Candle Bay for $25.

Scented mini cupcake candles

Despite its resemblance to supermarket cupcakes packed in disposable plastic containers, the Mini Iced Cupcake 4-Pc Candle Set from Candle Bay do look quite scrumptious with their oversized sprinkles and "liners" that look like they're made of colored chocolate.

Each 2" x 2" cupcake in the $12.50 quartet has a 5-hour burn time and is uniquely scented with a flavorful fragrance that complements its coloring: strawberry (pink), butter pecan (white), lemon (yellow), and german chocolate (brown).

Beaded cupcake pattern for handstitched treats

Since being handed a recipe is the only way I'd be able to figure out what's in a cake, you can imagine my delight when I came across a cupcake magician more than willing to reveal her secrets. I have a laughable amount of knowledge about crafts and anything involving thread, you see, so even if I bought a handstitched felt cupcake like the one you see here and studied it for days, I still wouldn't be able to make a new one from scratch.

That's why I love that JustDessertsSweets is selling her beaded cupcake pattern ($8.50), which includes three pages of instructions, a color photo, and all the necessary pattern pieces. Hmm. Where can I find someone to make the cupcakes for me instead?

Cookies 'n cream cupcake candle

If it wasn't already sold out, this cookies 'n cream cupcake candle would probably be sitting on a pedestal in my living room. Because even though the hand-whipped white frosting looks a bit like mashed potatoes, the five mini Oreo toppers make the half-pound (!) cupcake impossible to resist.

Scented with none other than cookies 'n cream fragrance (i.e., vanilla and chocolate), the candle has been known to reappear on Candle Confections' virtual shelves. It normally sells for about $10, so my living room hasn't given up hope. It will smell like calorie-free cookies 'n cream during the next blackout.

Hostess cupcake soap and candle mold

If you've just found out the truth about the Easter Bunny today, you may want to bookmark this page and come back tomorrow when your faith in humanity has been restored.

Because if you're still feeling a bit shaken, then you won't like this two-piece Hostess cupcake silicone mold. You know that child-like awe you felt when seeing a 2.2-ounce piece of glycerin soap, soy candle, or fragrance melt that looked exactly like this Hostess cupcake (complete with cream filling and frosting squiggles)? All the work of a $17.50 silicone mold.

Don't ask anyone about Santa or the Tooth Fairy. At least not today.

Ceramic cupcakes filled with soy candles

They may not be as lovely as rich custard in real cupcakes, but scented soy candles with lead-free wicks are equally welcomed inside 4" ceramic ones. Nestled inside the birthday cupcake shown here is a candle infused with a buttercream vanilla fragrance that can fill a room for up to 18 hours.

Bundled with cello bags with raffia ties, the descriptively though unimaginatively named "Set of 4 Ceramic Cupcakes with Candles by Valerie" is currently on sale for $27.12 from QVC. The full assortment, which includes a caramel apple candle inside an apple cupcake, a mint chocolate chip candle tucked inside a chocolate chip cupcake, and a blueberries and cream candle poured into a blueberry cupcake, can be seen below.