Every year for his entire lifetime, I have made Bishop Danger Remis’ birthday cupcakes. Being Teno’s best friend, he has a free pass for the weirdest and wildest little kid birthday cakes until they are too old for birthday parties. Last year his theme was municipal vehicles, for which I made piles of candy garbage [...]

This past week end my mom and I set out to prove something to the world: baby showers do not have to suck. Now, my baby shower was attended by members of Sweet Cobra and one of my gifts was a breast pump wrapped in a Budweiser box,  but that’s not really the kind of gal [...]

This Thursday, May 6th, I’m making my second appearance on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight along side Dana Joy Altman of Real Food Rehab and Angie Montroy of Angie’s Pantry. If you watched our last appearance you may remember the Great Macaron Misunderstanding. Well rest assured that we will be clearing up the difference between a French [...]

A few weeks ago I received an email from the peeps Threadless that literally made me squeal with joy on the El. To paraphrase, it said, “Hey Natalie, I see that you are awesome. We at Threadless are also awesome. Perhaps you’d like to be a Threadcakes judge this year?” After I got done making all [...]

It’s time to party, let’s party Hang out with yourself and have a crazy party Hey you, let’s party Have a killer party and party! To know me is to love me – and to love me is to fully accept my Andrew W.K. obsession without question. There is nothing in this world that can [...]

Psssss! If you’re a Bake and Destroy Facebook fan you have access to my “holy shit, that really tastes like eggnog” Eggnog Cupcake recipe! And don’t miss my moving sale – shirts starting at $15, hoodies starting at $30.

Most of the time, I get an idea in my head and spend the next several days scrambling around trying to find all the ingredients needed to make the idea a reality. And by “reality,” I mean “cupcake.” This time, Teno and I were pillaging Trader Joe’s for all their Peppermint Joe Joes when I [...]

These cupcakes went through a lot of stages. From a curry-spiced dark chocolate cake with cranberry chutney filling and ganache on top to this more Thai-influenced spicy coconut cake with ginger cream cheese frosting and (not Thai at all) cranberry chutney on top. No, it’s not another attempt at a weirdo cupcake, it’s my way of [...]

Wondering why I didn’t start this recipe post with a photo of the finished product? Um, because I made these with a three-year-old and seven-year-old and they decorated them with Scooby Doo fruit snacks so… gross. Yeah. Anyway, it’s not a big deal – I was home with Teno and Milo on Wednesday because the [...]

In theory, baklava cupcakes are a good idea, and I’m sure with some trying, they will come out better than they did on this attempt. We’re lucky to live around the corner from Nazareth Sweets, which aside from having a name that makes me think of church, is surely in my top-5 list for best [...]