A very sweet deal for our Bellevue friends!

We're sure excited to add Bellevue to our family of neighborhood cafés. In addition to our delicious scratch-baked cupcakes made with local nad sustainable ingredients, we are the first in Bellevue to brew the legendary Stumptown Coffee.

As a token of our new friendship, we'd like to offer you a sweet deal! Be among the first to try the new Cupcake Royale in Bellevue! Bring this special coupon into our Bellevue café, and when you buy 3 cupcakes, we'll give you 3 cupcakes for free! But wait! There's more! For every three you purchase with this coupon, we'll donate three to the Bellevue High School PTSA...and they're planning a big bake sale any day now to raise money for the school. 

It's what we like to call a RANDOM ACT OF CUPCAKES. And we encourage you to spread the love, too! Witness somebody doing some good? Hand them a surprise box of cupcakes and leave them smiling and dazed with pleasant curiosity about the goodness of life. 

Go forth and be random, we say. Share your Random Acts of Cupcakes stories, and read others HERE. 

Have your dessert, and drink it too.

Mmm. Port. Image from the Quady Winery website.

Oh geez. Delicious, freshly baked cupcakes paired with Andrew Quady dessert wines! Sounds like one sweet shindig to us. We're super excited to be part of 12th and Olive Wine Shop's Sunday tasting this weekend! Come on by and sip on some fine dessert wines from Andrew Quady, then continue to fine tune that sweet tooth with a cupcake from Cupcake Royale. 12th and Olive is all about the tastings. Andrew Quady is all about the dessert wines. And you KNOW we're all about the cupcakes. This iron triad of goodness comes together to form one delicious dessert-themed event. Be there!

12th and Olive Wine Shop
Sunday, December 20th
3:00-7:00 pm


Seattle, the other port.

Rock Out With Your FREE BABYCAKE Out...tomorrow in Ballard.

That's right party people! ReverbFest, Seattle Weekly's local music extravaganza is taking over Ye Olde Ballard as it does every October, and we can't wait! This year's line-up includes Erik Blood, Final Spins, KHV, The Maldives, Fatal Lucciauno, Visqueen, and many more. These local rockers will be taking the stage at all the Ballard hot spots, like the Sunset, the Tractor, and Conor Byrne, for a neighborhood-wide day of musical awesomeness.

Click HERE for all the details, including show times and locations. Click HERE to download a song from all 64 performers.

KILL-ER.

But wait! The neighborly funtimes do not stop at the venue doors! Ballard is spreading the love all OVER this weekend. How does a free babycake to wash down your coffee sound? Or how about $2 of a new album at our superfriends' Sonic Boom? Well it can all be yours. A bunch of Ballard businesses are offering free stuff and sweet deals this weekend if you show up wearing your Reverb wristband. Walk in rockin' that wristband at Cupcake Royale, and we'll hook you up with a free babycake with any coffee. Stroll on next door to Asher Anson, and get yourself lookin' good, for %10 off. And then mozy on across the street for $2 of a new album at Sonic Boom.

And the timing could not be more perfect. For you, that is. Why, you ask? Because as of yesterday, WE HAVE HARVEST FEST BABYCAKES! That means you can use your fancy wristband magic to get yourself a tiny taste of Caramel Apple or Pumpkin Maple... on the house.

Contain yourselves.

See you tomorrow.

Bridge Talks Back. Join the Convo.

Hold onto one of these, and it can be yours forever. (Image lifted from the Bridge Report.)

Yeah. We said convo. Because sometimes there just isn't time to write out an entire word. And then sometimes, there's time to write out all kinds of words. On signs. And then parade them around the Fremont Bridge. Who wants in?!

In case you haven't heard, Bridge Talks Back is the result of artist Kristen Ramirez's summer long residency at the Fremont Bridge. Thanks to the City of Seattle's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, along with SDOT's 1% for the Arts Fund, Ramirez has spent the summer in the Northeast Tower collecting sounds, ideas, memories, thoughts, and associations that will all come together as a 6 month sound installation piece, and will launch with a public art happening on Saturday, September 26th.

That's where you come in.

Ramirez is looking for volunteers to hold hand-painted signs, colored with the collected phrases and ideas that define the bridge, as part of the celebration from 1-4 on September 26th. Show up at noon to check in, and then spend the next few hours of your life as part of a super awesome piece of public art. You. A piece of art. And if that weren't enough, (Seriously? How could that not be enough?) you get to keep your one-of-a-kind, hand-painted, Fremont Bridge-inspired sign, PLUS you get a really rad tee shirt that will probably make people insanely jealous of you and your accomplishments for years to come.

So, here's what you do: Email Kristen Ramirez (ktramirez@hotmail.com) with your name and contact info, and let her know you wanna be a part of something big, namely, Bridge Talks Back on September 26th. Then show up for the orientation tomorrow at 6 pm in the meeting room at the Fremont branch of the Seattle Public Library. If you can't make the orientation but still want to be a part of the arty funtimes, email her anyway.

For more info on the project, click HERE.

And stay tuned for Ramirez's October show at superfriend & neighbor Grey Gallery and Lounge over on Ye Olde Capitol Hill.

Love Thy Neighbor

And boy do we ever. That's why it breaks our cupcake hearts to think that our neighbors and superfriends over at the Northwest Film Forum are in some dire straights right now. They need to raise $70,000 by August 15th to offset their budget deficit and avoid cutting staff and programming for the coming year.

In order to do this, they're asking for $10 from 10,000 people. Seems easy enough to us. By donating the price of a movie ticket, we can all feel good about the fact that we can keep on seeing the amazing films they play at the Film Forum. Seattle is immeasurably lucky to have an arts organization like them in our city. From the programming we see on their screens, to the classes they teach, to the local filmmakers they fund and support, to full on film festivals like Local Sightings, to the killer parties they throw, this city is by far better off because of all that they do.

So walk it in, mail it in, or click here to make your donation of just $10 to keep the Northwest Film Forum running at full force. Your money will help truly great films be seen, local and innovative films be made, and countless filmgoers and filmmakers be inspired.

And just in case this little plea wasn't quite sappy enough, can we please just take a moment to acknowledge how hard SubPop rocks?! Not in the way you already knew they did, but in the way that they support their fellow lovers of the arts. Sub Pop has pledged to match all donations up to $10,000. That's right people. So cool. We didn't think we could love Sub Pop anymore than we already did, but, turns out, we could. And now we do.

Get your stamp on for health care!

Oh you KNOW we gettin' ours on. So are Stumptown, Vivace, Fuel, and Molly Moon's. It's a small business stamping revolution.

By the people.
For the people.
Filled with caffeine.

What is this all about, you ask? Well, people, it's about affordable, quality health care for all. We want you to have it, and we want to give YOU the tools to get it. In this case, it's as simple as a phone number. Just call the number on the cup (or pint, if you happen to be at Molly Moon's,) and tell our policymakers why we need real reform for our mismanaged, misguided, and utterly unsustainable health care system. We need it BAD. And we need it NOW. Perhaps go into a little more detail than that when you actually make the call. Just a thought.

Thanks to Washington CAN! for making this happen. Those guys rule it. So hard.

What You're Doing Tomorrow Night

If you think you have a better idea than sitting out on the lawn at Cal Anderson eating strawberry cupcakes and watching Little Darlings as dusk settles in on Capitol Hill tomorrow evening, we'd beg to differ. Our superfriends and Capitol hill neighbors-to-be over at 3 Dollar Bill Cinema have one sweet evening lined up for you via Outdoor Cinema.

Tomorrow night's film is Little Darlings, starring none other than the adorably 80s Tatum O'Neal, Kristy McNichol, Matt Dillon, and Cynthia Nixon.


Sweet AND sassy. Now you KNOW we like it like that.


What, you don't know who Three Dollar Bill Cinema is? Crikey! They're only the queer film cool kids behind the annual Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Cineoke, Translations: The Seattle Transgender Film Festival, and now...Outdoor Cinema at Cal Anderson Park.

We love everything they do, but we are psyched as all get out about Outdoor Cinema: I Want My 1980. Yeah. That's right. In their words:

"This year’s slate of fun and campy films all come from 1980, the premiere year of the decade that made sexual power plays, alien encounters, and shameless success all the rage."

Sounds good to us! The only thing that could make it better...hmm...CUPCAKES! So, we're donating a bunch of cupcakes to each screening. Buy them, eat them, love them, and all the monies go to support the yearlong programming over at Three Dollar Bill Cinema! Win win!

FRIDAY | JULY 17 | Cal Anderson Park | Dusk

The Final Countdown! 6 Days To Go

Just so we're sure that everyone knows we're they're going next Wednesday when we open our new cupcake café on Capitol Hill, here are the geographical deets. The address is 1111 EAST PIKE STREET between 11th and 12th. Next to Boom Noodle. Here's a map. Study it. Memorize it. Maybe ride your bike back and forth between your home and 1111 a couple times before we open next week (7/22), just so you have your route down.




And if you STILL can't find us, just look for this. They' hoisting it up on the outside of the building as we speak!



Final Countdown. 6 days and counting.

Some things we're lovin' on this weekend.

First things first - get your SIFF on! Starting tonight with the Opening Night Gala. Watch the opening night film, In the Loop, and then stick around for the super fancy, always fun party. Schmooze with your fellow film-lovers while sippin' on fine champagne and enjoying your exclusive sneak peek taste of our June Cupcake of the Month: Rainier Cherry with Theo Cocoa Nibs.

Subtly sweet Rainier cherries from Olmstead Orchards in Yakima Valley swirled into a cream cheese and cherry liqueur frosting, topped off with organic roasted cocoa nibs from our superfriends over at Theo Chocolate. It's not available in stores until June 1st...but SIFFers will get the first taste tonight. Be there!

Then get up and at 'em tomorrow and head on down to 5609 Rainier Ave S, the corner of Rainier and Orcas for the Yard/Bake Sale of the Century! The fine peoples over at the Service Board have come up with some creative fund raising fun times to get together the cash for their final trip of the season.

From 8-4 they'll be peddling old boards and boots, baked goods, and donations from the community. And by baked goods, we mean cupcakes. From Cupcake Royale. True fact. It's gonna be a beautiful day in their neighborhood, so get on down there and get in on the neighborly goodness.

RECORD STORE DAY: Buy an album, get a free babycake!

This Saturday, April 18th, is Record Store Day! A two year-old holiday in the name of independently owned record stores, local music, small business, and neighborly goodness. Get on out to your local record shop and buy some stuffs. Lots of labels and artists have issued exclusive releases for this holiest of days, and they're available only in record stores.

Super rare. Super exclusive. Super awesome.

Check out your local record store for the complete list of awesomeness. We highly recommend checking out Sonic Boom in Ballard, and Easy Street in West Seattle. And if you do, we'll give you a free babycake.

That's right. Buy an album, get a babycake! This will happen in one of two ways.

1. When you buy an album at Sonic Boom in Ballard this Saturday, they will give you a special card, good for one free babycake. Walk across the street to our café. Exchange the special card for a delicious babycake.

2. In West Seattle, go to Easy Street and buy an album. Walk across the street to our café, receipt in hand. Show said receipt to your friendly neighborhood barista. He or she will give you a free babycake.

Win win. See you Saturday!

HONK: A tale of two neighborhoods

Tonight, two Cupcake Royale neighborhoods will be joined as one in a celebration of music, dancing, and general good-natured raucousness. Honk Fest West will be taking over venues around Ballard tonight for their second annual Seattle celebration of street music.

Street music? Oh, like when my roommate takes his guitar down to Pike Place Market on Saturdays and plays for tips?

No. Your roommate is a busker. This is totally different. But we understand the confusion.

The story of street bands is rich and rowdy. Representing musical genres ranging from European Klezmer to Brazillian Afro Bloc, Honk Fest brings together Seattle groups who shall band together (zzzing!) in the name of booty shakin' community fun times. Whether honking in the name of an ideal, an event, or just to get the people movin' and motivated, these bands promise, a the very least, a damn good time.

And just in case this didn't already sound like the most best thing ever (wait for it...the title of this post is almost about to make sense...), the Garfield High School Bulldog Drumline is in Ballard tonight as part of the fun. As neighbors to our Madrona café, we Ballard cupcakers could not be more excited to see our two 'hoods become one in the name of musical rabble-rousing.

Honk Fest will be in Georgetown tomorrow night, with a grand finale at the Vera Project (also awesome) on Sunday. For details on participating bands, schedule, etc. click here.

Stranger writer Megan Seling would spend her last dime with us.

In case you haven't picked up this week's Stranger yet, the focus is...the economy! In this handy dandy Economic Survival Guide, the Stranger staff shares which restaurants they are continuing to spend their money at, even though their money is scarce. Megan Seling lists us as one of just three places she is continuing to frequent in these freaky money times. Her other two picks were La Isla and Pho Than Brothers. Go Ballard!

Thanks Megan! Read the whole article HERE.

Then go out and spend a little dough at your favorite neighborhood business!