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!”

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. 

We're Hiring!

We have a really fun job that just opened up! It's an important role as the Cupcake Phone Ambassador (otherwise known as the Inside Sales Customer Service Rep). We're open to full or part time applicants. Please check out the job description and contact Krista@cupcakeroyale.com if you are interested.

Must be able to juggle lots of priorities, organize a complex workload, and most of all...provide top notch customer service.

Key areas of responsibility:
Customer Service Rep: Man the phones from 8am – 5pm (with an hour lunch and breaks as needed!) to create happy Cupcake Royale customers. Primary responsibilities are to take customer orders and answer questions. Act as key point person on processing orders, coordinating special requests internally, and communicating/following up with the team on all key activities.

Donations: Share the cupcake love! Manage donations following the current procedures. Ensure orders are placed, coordinate pickup or delivery, provide signage, brochures and collateral, and manage internal communication. Forward special requests and sponsorship opportunities to marketing and follow up to get back to each party.

Art: Create community. Mange the art calendar for all stores to ensure we have a pipeline of art that meets our company standards. Coordinate postings in local art walk guides. Coordinate hanging and removal of art with both the stores and the artists. Communicate the schedule with marketing to collaborate on promotion (i.e. Facebook, website, etc.).

Weddings: Go above and beyond to make Cupcake Royale the obvious choice for people planning weddings. Act as key point of contact for customers looking for information about booking a cupcake wedding. Provide order and logistics information, assist with customization options, coordinate orders.

Office manager: Bring harmony to the Capitol Hill office/backroom. Be in charge of office supplies and inventory. Be sure the back room is organized, everything has its place, and all inner office materials are distributed as needed.

Misc: Help out with special projects as needed!