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.

Faux cupcakes look good enough to eat

I don't like frosting and could actually live my life quite happily without tasting another cherry, but looking at these amazing Faux Very Cherry Cupcakes ($8 each) makes me want to eat them. And there isn't even an oxymoronic real faux cupcake underneath that silver liner! It's just potentially "harmful if ingested" artificial frosting topped with a glossy red fake cherry. I'd say it was deceiving, but I suppose that would be the most obvious statement to make about faux food.

The cupcakes are purely decorative and (as you may have guessed from the ingestion warning) should not be added to your child's plastic play food collection. They'd make cute party favors, though.

Cinnamon-scented cupcake candles

I'd expect a light vanilla fragrance from these delicate cupcake candles, but DailingForDollars.com identifies the 3" (diameter) wax candles as serving up a "yummy cinnamon scent."

I'm not much of a cinnamon fan myself, as my mind immediately goes to either Big Red chewing gum or Red Hots candies (blech!), but I think I read something about it being relaxing. I always associate relaxation with sleeping, though, and it hardly seems safe to be coaxed into sleep by the aroma of an open flame!

In any case, the candles cost $9.98 and have an individual burn time of about two hours.

Wooden picture frame with pink cupcake accent

Here's a unique centerpiece idea for a first birthday party that could easily make the transition to a mantle or bookshelf at home once the festivities are over.

As long as you don't glue the 4" x 6" photograph of the birthday girl into the 10" x 8" wooden frame or seal it shut so that guests can't slip in a picture of their pet or favorite vacation spot when they get home, the pink cupcake frame ($38) from KooKoo Bear Kids is a centerpiece party-goers wouldn't feel they got stuck with by being the "lucky" winners.

Frosted cupcake candle

Hmm. This frosted cupcake candle ($9.95) looks more like a chocolate peanut butter cup topped with a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkled with candy beads, but if Mellow Candles says it's a chocolate cupcake, then it's a chocolate cupcake.

The company scents most of its candles with "true to name" fragrances, but I don't think the 3.5" tall cupcake smells like anything. That's okay, though, because with a burn time between 30 and 60 hours (quite the range, eh?), the smell of warm chocolate would probably get old anyway.

Pink and white cupcake pillows

They may not be suitable for a living room couch, but these light pink and white cupcake cushions from UK retailer Our Favourite Things would look great in a little girl's bedroom. Cupcakes may not be as appealing to a child as a Disney Princess, Hello Kitty, or Hannah Montana, but their cuteness is still undeniable.

If I hadn't kicked my addiction to pillows a few years ago, I probably wouldn't grimace too much at the £15 (about $30) price per 15.7" x 15.7" piece. But since the "pillow fort" I used to build before going to sleep each night was dismantled in favor of keeping to my side of the bed, I'll keep my credit card where it is.

Cupcake pillow sprinkled with pom poms

If someone gave me a bag of pom poms, the only thing I would know how to do is glue some together, stick a pair of googly eyes on one of them, and call it a colorful snowman. Given some time, I may be able to come up with a multi-colored bear whose ears are the same size as its head and limbs, but that's about the extent of my pom-pom creativity.

Despite my affection for all things cupcake, it would probably never dawn on me to use the soft balls as sprinkles the way feltlikeit does on her cupcake pillows.

Chocolate (brown velveteen) and vanilla (white fleece) pillows are made to order for $25 each.

Cupcakes heat up knitting art form

The white-haired granny character in Tweety Bird cartoons really gave knitting a bad name. As evidenced by these artfully knitted cupcakes, the popular pastime is hardly just for umbrella-wielding senior citizens who punish cats for giving into their primal instincts (sufferin' succotash, indeed).

Quite the contrary, artist Ms. Darcy knits each fanciful inedible, which she gives fantastic names like Cozy Cocoa Caramel or Angel Food with a Fuzzy Strawberry Swirl, as a "sculptural object that embodies" her investigation of the "nature of crafting and knitting as a higher art form."

Have a look at some of these embodiments below and see the rest at Darcy's Crossing.

Cupcake pincushions made of sweaters

These felted wool cupcake pincushions make me want to take up sewing!

Each colorful delicacy is made by hand from recycled wool sweaters by Betz White, a talented felting artist who has been a guest on the Martha Stewart Show and whose work has been showcased in various realms in the craft world.

The cupcakes are sold through Etsy, an online marketplace for crafts and other handmade items, for $36 apiece plus $6 shipping to U.S. addresses. A discounted shipping rate ($3) applies to orders of two or more pincushions (Cup O Joe also available).

Ceramic cupcake cookie jars

Who said cupcakes can only be filled with custards and creams? Stuff them with chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and peanut butter cookies instead!

These 9.8" x 7.9" ceramic cookie jars by Living Art would make a sweet addition to a counter top or old-fashioned diner display. The pink-frosted cupcake features the requisite cherry topper and looks very much like the quintessential cupcake. The one iced in blue, on the other hand, looks more like a milkshake with a striped straw peeking out at the top than a delicious little cake topped with what is either a wickless candle or a piece of peppermint candy.

Available for $23 each from Home Couture.