Win tickets to Breaking Dawn Part 1

actual picture of a line for folks trying to see the Breaking Dawn Part 1

Calling all Twihards! Breaking Dawn Part 1 opens nationwide on November 18 but you already know this since you've been counting down the minutes for the past several months. What if we said that we had a few tickets for a special premiere on Wednesday, November 16--a full 2 days ahead of when everyone will get their first chance to see it.

Well, it's true and your pals at Cupcake Royale want to hook you up with one of the 25 pairs of tickets we will be giving away. For the next five days leading up to the preview, everyone who purchases a cupcake at one of our five cafes will be eligible to enter to win a Twilight Prize Pack, which includes 2 hats, 2 t-shirts plus a pair of tickets for the Wednesday, November 16 screening at 6pm. We will randomly pick one name every day for each cafe (five daily winners)! And all you have to do is purchase a cupcake. If you're counting calories, surprise a friend with a cupcake--they don't need to know that you're tying to win a contest.

Also, we'll be selling special Twilight-themed cupcakes for the next five days! Oh snap, we caught Twilight Fever!

D.I.Y. (Decorate it Yourself) Frosting Parties!

Calling all party people, parental units, nannies, mannies, grannies, guncles and cool kids of all ages! We need you!

DIY (Decorate It Yourself) Cupcake Frosting Parties are coming to your local Cupcake Royale every Monday from 3-5pm. We provide the cupcakes and frosting, you provide the creativity. Together, we're making some afternoon delight!

Starting this Monday, October 17 (and running through the end of the year), swing by and flex your mad frosting skills.Impress your friends, meet your neighbors!

$3.50 gets you a fresh-baked cupcake, an assortment of our tasty frostings and sprinkles, plus expert tips from our Pro frosters along with a box to take home your creations to share with the ones you love! Keep it simple with our signature swirl or get intricate and try your hand at one of our seasonal designs like a spooky spider web.

See you tonight!

Hello September!

September has arrived and that means that summer is winding down, just as school is just starting up. This month, Cupcake Royale is bringing back an old friend, Huckleberry Cupcake, and introducing you to the new kid in class, Peanut Butter and Jam Cupcake. We think it's a pretty sweet way to end summer.

Our Huckleberry Cupcake (The Huck)

Huckleberry Cupcake

Say goodbye to summer and hello to huckleberries. It's a fair trade-off in our book and we always celebrate September with our Huckleberry Cupcake (aka “the Huck”). We fold in fresh, local huckleberries (fresh, as in they were picked for us this past weekend) into our vanilla cupcake and top it with a huckleberry buttercream frosting. This cupcake brings all the bears to the yard. We have partnered with local farm Foraged & Found Edibles to provide us with our huckleberry crop this year. In case you don’t know what a huckleberry is, think of it as the little brother to a blueberry but with even more flavor.

Peanut Butter and Jam

Peanut Butter and Jam Cupcake

Peanut Butter and Jam, sitting in a tree. This classic combo has our vanilla cupcake, filled with fresh local strawberry jam (fresh, as in they made it last week) topped with a super fluffy, salty peanut butter buttercream. Sprinkled with chopped peanuts and a coarse sugar and sea salt.

Now through September 30th at all five of our cafes.

August flavors!

August Berry Trio (l to r):

Double Chocolate Raspberry, Blackberry Buckle, Strawberry Shortcake

August ranks as one of the region's sweetest months so it only makes sense that our seasonal flavors would reflect that.

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake

There's no way around it, Strawberry Shortcake was this year's favorite Strawberry Festival flavor! We heard from you on Twitter (follow us!) and Facebook (like us!) and in the cafes. We totally get it especially since we've had more than our fair share of them ourselves. The light, strawberry-flavored whipped cream frosting ringed in graham cracker crumbs goes perfectly with the sweet strawberry-infused vanilla cake. Not carrying it over would have been cruel.

Blackberry Crumble

Blackberry Buckle

Rumor has it that upon tasting this new flavor, one of our employees actually teared up. A blackberry cake topped with a blackberry whipped cream frosting is finished with a cinnamon streusel crunch. We can't guarantee that it'll make you cry with delicious happiness, but let's just say that we wouldn't judge you if it did.

Double Chocolate Raspberry

Double Chocolate Raspberry

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. First, your tart raspberries and semi-sweet chocolate chips, gently folded into a tasty vanilla cake. Second, how you are topped with a fluffy, white chocolate buttercream frosting and garnished with a fresh raspberry and chocolate curls. It all adds up to a double dose of sweetness with just a hint of tart. Delicious with a latte!

But this is a love that can't last forever; these flavors are only around through August 31. Have a sweet summer from Cupcake Royale!

Guess our August flavors!

Who doesn't love a good mystery? Especially when the reward is a beverage and a delicious 2 pack of our cupcakes!

For the month of August, we decided to keep our exciting summer going by having 3 flavors of the month again.

Right now on Facebook, our fans our are using their sleuthing powers to figure out which 3 flavors we'll be featuring next month. Yesterday, they correctly guessed which strawberry cupcake we're holding over. And today, they just guessed the second flavor. Check out recent posts to get caught up. Tomorrow, we'll be giving the clue(s) for the final flavor. The first five people to correctly guess all three flavors exactly will each win a beverage of their choosing and a 2 pack of cupcakes. Head over to our Facebook page to play.

Previous clues:

Day 1 - "one of our Strawberry Festival flavors"; "we want 'berry nice weather'."

Day 2 - "Back in black."; "You'll find it on some shoes..."

Decisions!

Strawberry 66 - now through the end of July!

Oh man! I hate decisions! For the birthday party tomorrow, do I bring a dozen Strawberry 66 cupcakes since they're only here through the end of the July? Or do I bring a dozen Whiskey Maple Bacon cupcakes since they're only here through Sunday for Capitol Hill Block Party (Cap Hill store only)? And what about our other Strawberry Festival flavors, also only here through the end of the month? The only thing to do is get an assortment!

Maple Whiskey Bacon - now through this Sunday!

It Gets Better donation

video by Alex Berry / Psychonautic Studios

Last Thursday, Cupcake Royale founder Jody Hall presented a check in the amount of $10,000 to It Gets Better founders, Dan Savage and Terry Miller. Our Capitol Hill cafe was full of fans, friends and family--all gathered to hear Jody, Dan and Pride Foundation scholar, Andrew, discuss the personal importance of this project. Dan stressed the impact of this contribution and said that it was the largest, single donation yet in the history of the project.

We're already brainstorming our next fundraising project for later this year. So if you know of a great local organization that could use some help, we'd love to hear your suggestions!

Summer Fest and Seafoodfest!

We're betting you might like a street fair as much as we do! If that's the case, you're in luck because 2 of Seattle's most fun street fairs are happening this weekend. And no matter what Seattle's weather decides to do, we'll have both hot and cold beverages to go along with our four featured strawberry cupcakes.

West Seattle Summer Fest 2011 is already in full swing. Today, tomorrow and Sunday you can cruise up parts of both California Ave SW and SW Alaska Street to enjoy shopping, artists, and food from over 160 vendors. There's also music all weekend long with concerts by Caspar Babypants and The Fastbacks this evening. Fun, fun, fun!

2011 marks the 37th year for Ballard's Annual Seafoodfest. Saturday (11-9) and Sunday (11-7), Ballard will be transformed into a street fair with performers, vendors, clowns, comedians and food. Music performances include a set by DJ Riz and a concert by The Moondoggies. Weekend highlights include a lutefisk eating contest, a 25 foot salmon, and a sidewalk sale. Don't miss it because how many times a year are you encouraged to "Eat Play and Plunder"?

Vote for us!

Seattle Weekly just opened up their 2011 Best of Seattle Poll. We'd love to win "Best Cupcakes" this year and we're not above a little shameless campaigning.

Back in 2003, when Jody Hall opened Cupcake Royale, she envisioned a neighborhood cafe where folks could gather for cupcakes, coffee and community. And that's exactly what has happened at all five of her neighborhood locations in Madrona, Ballard, West Seattle, Capitol Hill and most recently in Old Bellevue's Main Street neighborhood in the old IHOP.

Through the years, Cupcake Royale has hosted numerous concerts, art events, community discussions, dinners, sprinkle parties, celebrations, talks, forums and conversations. Jody has campaigned for important causes like reproductive rights, health care reform, and city legislation that takes care of small business. She has been recognized by the Nellie Cashman Society (2010 Woman of the Year finalist), The Mayor's Office, President Obama, and Patty Murray for her efforts.

Jody believes that the smartest investment she can make is an investment in her employees and community. Cupcake Royale donates over 40,000 cupcakes a year, helping to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for various non-profits. They've given $500 art grants to produce original art for their cafes. Most recently, through your generous patronage, Cupcake Royale was able to make a $10,000 donation to the It Gets Better Project.

Over the past 7.5 years, it's been our pleasure as customers have turned into friends. We feel so lucky to be in so many great neighborhoods throughout the Seattle area.

The polls are open through Tuesday, July 19th.

Strawberry Cupcake Festival starts July 1st!

Strawberry Festival 4 Pack

The 4^th of July is just around the corner which means that summer can officially begin in Seattle. To celebrate, we're having a Strawberry Festival during the month of July! Our neighbors to the north, Skagit Sun, have supplied us with locally-sourced, organic strawberries that we incorporated into each of this month's four cupcake flavors. Our bakers have been busily consulting with grandmothers and country fair winners alike to come up with the most delicious flavor combinations and we think you'll love them as much as we do!

Strawberry 66

Strawberry 66 is our classic vanilla buttercake topped with Strawberry buttercream. The ingredients for this delicious cupcake are over 66% local, which we think makes it the most local cupcake around. Frank Bruni would be proud.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry starts with our moist chocolate cake, then we add our strawberry buttercream and dip it into fine chocolate vermicelli.

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake has a sweet strawberry puree baked into a vanilla cake with a whipped cream strawberry frosting and topped with graham cracker crumbs.

Strawberry Velvet

Strawberry Velvet updates our classic red velvet cake with a whipped cream strawberry frosting.

Nothing says summer like strawberries so pick some up for your next picnic or party! We make it easy to try them all with our Strawberry Festival 4-pak! $3.50 each or the 4-pak for $13.50.

Call 206-883-7656 or visit www.cupcakeroyale.com to pre-order your Strawberry Festival four pack for pick-up tomorrow! Happy summer, y'all!

It Gets Better...

The Gay cupcake

When selecting a charity to support with their The Gay cupcake, choosing the It Gets Better Project was a no-brainer for Cupcake Royale owner Jody Hall. Founded by Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller, the It Gets Better Project seeks to give hope to LGBT youth by letting them know that life gets better. Their video went viral and soon everyday folks (and celebrities and politicians, too) were making videos of support.

Cupcake Royale donated 50% of all proceeds from sales of The Gay (and Baby Gay). They set a lofty goal to raise $5,000 during June but after a week or so, it became clear that they were going to quickly reach that goal and they upped the ante to $10,000! Dan Savage said, “Cupcake Royale's support for the It Gets Better Project is personally gratifying—I'm a regular customer, an addict, and a fan—and it will make a huge difference to LGBT youth throughout the country. We can't thank Jody and her team enough for their generosity."

Sold only during the month of June, The Gay Cupcake featured Cupcake Royale’s classic vanilla buttercake and vanilla buttercream, along with a healthy infusion of rainbow confetti in the cake, rainbow sprinkles and a proud rainbow sugar topper.

Jody Hall adds, “It’s amazing that we were able to do this, and use our “super powers” for good! By selling this cupcake and asking the community to join us in our efforts, we are able to make a great impact to IGBP. I’m so proud to be able to galvanize our community and customers around making a difference, and send a huge “thanks” out to our customers for jumping in!”