You've Just Been Spotted: 2010 Orange County Blog Awards

Voting has begun for the "You've Just Been Spotted: 2010 Orange County Blog Awards." Just click on the button below to get to the Just Spotted website. Click on the link in the post to get to the voting website.

This is so exciting! The Cupcake Activist blog has been nominated under TWO categories this year! Thank you for the nominations in the "Food and Restaurant Blog" category AND the "Cooking & Baking Blog" category! Make sure to vote for both. Check out the other nominations and categories. You may find a few that you like too!

And while you're at it, you can also vote for Team Sparkle in the "Homemade" category and my good friend Carrie (This Mama Makes Stuff) in the "Creative Blog" category. Thanks!

Voting ends Sunday night (September 12th) at midnight. Make sure you get your votes in!

Dessert Burgers at Mandalay Bay

I don't even remember where I first heard about the Burger Bar, but I certainly didn't plan on getting to do a review. The Burger Bar is a restaurant inside Mandalay Bar in Las Vegas. When I heard about their dessert burgers, I planned on writing a short post about them. But last weekend fate brought me to Las Vegas and I knew I had to visit the Burger Bar.

Sometimes I forget how big Las Vegas hotels are. The Mandalay Bay has an entire mall in it. Tons of restaurants and stores. The Burger Bar looks like a typical restaurant, but it definitely was not. The burgers were fantastic!

But the items that caught my attention were the dessert burgers. What exactly is a dessert burger? Well, it looks like a hamburger, but tastes like a dessert. There are actually two types of dessert burgers at the Burger Bar: Nutella Dessert Burger and Cheesecake Dessert Burger. Since there were six of us, we had to try both.




The Nutella Dessert Burger is made with Nutella mousse (hamburger patty), kiwi (pickles), strawberries (tomatoes), mint (lettuce), passion fruit gelatin (mustard), and a donut for the buns.

The Cheesecake Dessert Burger has cheesecake as the patty, strawberries (tomatoes), pineapple slices (mustard), and a donut for buns.




Two burgers were not enough for the six of us. We scraped the plates clean. We were split on which dessert burger was better. It doesn't really matter because you'll have to try both anyway. Well worth the $5.95 for each.

Time for Apples!

I am a HUGE apple lover. I seriously eat an apple every day at lunch. My favorite kind are Pink Ladies.

Apples are synonymous with the month of September. So it seems appropriate that the flavor of the month at SusieCakes is apple. Their offerings include:

Apple Spice Cupcake with cream cheese frosting
Double Crust Apple Pie
Sourcream Apple Cheesecake

September also means the start of the school year. SusieCakes is offering a School "Snack Pack": two mini chocolate chip cookies bagged & ready for the lunchbox.

Kids K-8 can get a free cookie or cupcake by bringing in an assignment with an "A." Available for the whole month of September.

Cupcake Costume

Photo: Pottery Barn Kids

It seems like I was just in Hawaii setting off fireworks, yet there are signs everywhere of back-to-school, Halloween, and dare I say Christmas! Ahhhh! It really is true that sign flies the older you get.

Pottery Barn Kids has their Halloween costumes up on their website already and the Cupcake Costume is so adorable. Having a super adorable girl wearing the costume doesn't hurt the image either. The Cupcake Costume is $59 and available in sizes 2T-3T, 4-6, and 7-8. Don't forget the matching Cupcake Treat Bag!

Coming Up

My husband and I spent a long weekend at Lake Mead with family and friends. Summer is officially over for me! But there's still so much fun left in the year: three triathlons, a Muddy Buddy, and lots of snowboarding. Can't wait!

I have some catching up to do from the long weekend, but I have some fun posts coming up. Here's what to look forward to:

• Find out what a dessert burger is!
• Tastes of Coca-Cola from around the world
• More cupcake goodness from Morsels Baking Co.