Oh My Goodness! Cupcakes!

So, today was both our weekly booth at the Vista Farmers Market, AND Halloween. International Talk Like a Pirate Day was a pretty big hit last month (go see where we got blogged about!), so we knew we had to step things up a bit. We took an informal poll of our friends about their favorite trick or treat candy flavors, and then turned them into cupcakes!

We made Lime Skittles, Orange Starburst, Berry Nerds, Hershey Bar, Reese’s Pieces, Junior Mints, and Kettle Corn Balls. On top of those, we got a set of Halloween cupcake stencils from some friends in the mail just in time to use them! So we made some extra triple chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, and then went to town.

The first stencil we used was a spiderweb, so we decided to put a black widow spider on it. Black frosting, and a red M&M for the spot on the thorax.  

The other stencils we used were: a bat symbol (HOLY BAT-CUPCAKES!), a jack-o-lantern, and a witch (we did not, however, check to see if the witch cupcake floated).




Next up, we also decided to make candy monster faces. We picked up a lot of different things that wound up turning out really well. We made several different monster faces. These two were our favorites!

One sort of looks like Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.






One could almost be a beholder, except he doesn’t have the giant eyeball in the middle (did we mention we’re big nerds?)










We also made a jack-o-lantern and some mummies, but the definite piece de resistance had to be the werewolf cupcakes.

The shaggy effect was done with a knife and cocktail toothpick, the eyes and nose are M&Ms, the teeth are cut-up marshmallows, and the tongue is strawberry Fruit By The Foot. We’re really proud of the way he turned out, so much so that we made three of them. And then, because we had three werewolves, and because we’re great big nerds, we just had to incorporate an Internet meme. And so, we give you…

All of the cupcakes were a big hit, but especially the decorated ones, which sold incredibly fast. Normally, the mini sizes sell much better than the mediums, but today people all wanted the monster cupcakes. We normally don’t go in as much on decorations, preferring to focus on flavors, but today is Halloween, how could we not? And maybe this is a sign that we need to start decorating even more!

In addition to our cupcakes, we found the perfect shirt to wear today on shirt.woot.com!

The booth was a lot of fun today. We sold a bunch of cupcakes, saw a few trick or treaters (and rewarded them with delicious cupcakes, of course), and got asked a lot of questions and handed out a ton of business cards. Things seem to be going really well, and we’re excited to see what November and December bring us!