Valentine Showdown - Cast your vote!

Four stores. One mission: Boggle the minds of Seattleites with a Valentine display to end all Valentine displays.

THE RULES
Use found objects and recycled materials.
Use your brain.
Make us laugh.
Make us cry.
Make us jump for Valentine joy.
Infuse every fiber of our beings with the holy spirit of cupcake love.

THE RESULTS
MADRONA It seems only fitting that the original Cupcake Royale played up a Valentine classic with Cupid Redux. Will their rad new take on that winged baby in the buff be enough to take down what the other three stores have cooking? You decide...


Click the pic to see Cupid Redux in its full-sized glory. Better yet...come on into our Madrona café.

CAPITOL HILL Newcomer to the Cupcake Royale scene, Capitol Hill had a lot to prove. They pulled out all the stops with a pair of lovers, with only one thing that could come between them...a cupcake. But, is it enough to take their place at the head of the Royale pack? You decide...

Click the pic to see Only One Thing in its full-sized glory. Better yet...come on into our Capitol Hill café.

BALLARD If you've ever been to our Ballard café, you know three things about the staff. 1. They are quite the clever crew. 2. They take their coffee very seriously. 3. They freaking love bunnies. Ballard really showed their true colors with Cup of Love. Will their witty messages of Valentine love combined with their mad bunny drawing skillZ be enough to pull off the win? You decide...


Click the pic to see Cup of Love in its full-sized glory. Better yet...come on into our Ballard café.

WEST SEATTLE Cupcakes? Yeah, we got your cupcakes. Right here. All shapes. All sizes. In all your favorite flavors. Now come on in and have yourself a Valentine's Day Royale.
XOXO
West Seattle
P.S. Did we mention we're amazing artists? Oh, we didn't? Well, we are.

If West Seattle's display came with a note, we're pretty sure that's what it would say. Is their Valentine Royale enough? The Royale-iest, so to speak? You decide...

Click the pic to see Valentine Royale in its full-sized glory. Better yet...come on into our West Seattle café.

Ok people. You've seen 'em all, now pick ONE. Head on over to our Facebook page and cast your vote on our wall! There's a lot at stake here. Hearts will be broken. Do not take this task lightly. We REALLY recommend you visit each and every store in person. We can't stress this enough. And while you're there, you might as well have yourself a cupcake, eh? Maybe even a Deathcake...

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.

Amber waves of LOCAL grain

You know we love to keep it local here at Cupcake Royale, and we're always tryin' to find ways to make our business even more local-er. We're members of our neighborhood chambers and local business owners groups, we donate to all sorts of local organizations and schools, and we always support our fellow neighborhood business owners whenever they are in need of a little sugar and caffeine. We've been baking our cupcakes with local dairy and eggs for some time now, and we feature seasonal, local produce in our delicious Cupcake of the Month. Sugar, cocoa, and vanilla are a wee bit tough to come by north of the equator, but we knew we could still do better.

So, we got in touch with the good folks of Shepherd's Grain.


There's grain in them there silos.

We've known about Shepherd's Grain forever, but they just didn't have the right type of flour to make our cupcakes truly Royale. Turns out, when you bake as many cupcakes as we do each morning, the kind of flour you use is a pretty, pretty big deal. Fred & Co over at Shepherd's Grain were excited to work with us, and totally up for the challenge of milling a cake flour that was truly Royale. We handed them our flour spec sheet, and voila! The perfect cake flour, milled just for us, from the grains they grow on their no-till farm in Eastern Washington. That's right. They are milling a local flour made specifically for us.


Jody learns a thing or two from our man Fred.


What's so great about that? A LOT.

First of all, we are just wholeheartedly thrilled to be working with such a fine bunch of people. They care about their community, their product, and the earth. A no-till farm is just what it sounds like - they do not till the earth after a crop has been harvested. The field is left as-is, and the remaining plant matter is left to decompose, resulting in a type of soil called humus. This nutrient rich, highly absorbent soil holds water even in the desert climate of Eastern Washington. Plus the non-invasive processing of the fields results in less erosion and overall topsoil loss. It's a sustainable farming practice that preserves the field for future generations, and makes us feel REAL good about using their flour.


The Royale inspection.

Second, we all pretty much know by now the benefits of participating in the locavore movement. Support local agriculture, an integral part of the local economy. Cut down on fuel usage and transportation needs. Encourage sustainable farming practices. And of course, you get the absolute freshest, premium ingredients.


100 years of local, sustainable farming! We HEART Shepherd's Grain.

So now that we have an amazing local grain producer making flour just for us, our cupcakes are all at least 66% local. For a sweet little product that relies so heavily on so many equatorial crops (vanilla, cocoa, sugar,) we think we're doing pretty darn good!

And now, more fun photos from Melanie & Jody's trip to the farm! Melanie is behind the camera, so you will see her only in spirit. The two ended their trip with a harvest meal at an outdoor table with the whole farming family. Seriously. These people are just that good. For more info on Shepherd's Grain, click HERE. To read the recent Seattle Times article about all this goodness, click HERE.


Bosslady loves to take the wheel.


The deed to the farm. Yup. That says Grover Cleveland, President of the United States of America.


That Fred is just a wealth of wheaty knowledge!


Machines of the trade.


Bosslady loves a goody bag!