Thursday, March 22, 2012

spreading some love

my little cupcake is proud to be a part of the chittenden county community with locations in both essex junction and burlington. since we’ve opened in january of 2011, we have been able to donate to so many terrific charities and local events and continue to do so into 2012. each month, several donation requests come in to our email inbox, each appealing for donations of cupcakes or gift certificates.  so far, we’ve been able to donate thousands of dollars worth of cupcakes to help our community and its organizations thrive to achieve their missions and give back to the community we all love.
many of our customers ask what we do with the leftover cupcakes at the end of the day if they don’t sell. we know that you’d love to buy discounted cupcakes but we’re giving those cupcakes to people in need! in 2011 alone, my little cupcake was able to donate over $3,000 worth of cupcakes to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. we continue to donate to the food shelf when we have leftover cupcakes at the end of the day.

Image courtesy of my little cupcake

last fall we were also proud to give back to those who were hurt by the irene catastrophe. 10% of our sales for the first weekend in september were donated to the Vermont Irene Flood Relief Fund.  since opening our new store in downtown burlington, we’ve also been able to donate cupcakes to the Burlington Housing Authority and the families of the Vermont National Guard. gift certificates have also been donated for silent auctions to support C.U.F.F Cancer (partnering with Camp Ta-Kum-Ta) and the Stella Thomas Fund, a fund created to help a local family whose newborn was diagnosed with neuroblastoma cancer.
we take pride in our community and while we cannot fulfill every request that comes in for donations, we do what we can to help!
to learn more about the organizations my little cupcake has donated to, please click on the links above and feel free to help!  if you’d like my little cupcake to donate to your organization, please visit our website to find our donation request form and send it on over!

stay sweet,
my little cupcake

Friday, March 16, 2012

Luck be a cupcake.

This Saturday, March 17, is the greenest day of the year. That's right, it's St. Patrick's Day. And like every year, people will be celebrating with Irish themes and explosions of green. Burlington will be celebrating all weekend with Irish music, dance, and other heritage events. S.D. Ireland Concrete will be showing off their spirit with a cement truck parade down Main Street! Here at my little cupcake, we are getting in the spirit too! Just check out Edward. He is definitely enjoying being a leprechaun this week:

Image courtesy of my little cupcake

The holiday spirit doesn't stop there. It is so contagious that our display case has little shamrocks all over it. Even our glitter deer are starting to turn into spirited leprechauns...

Image courtesy of my little cupcake

Everyone is getting excited. The Irish tunes have been picked out, and the cupcake flavors have been chosen. Those lucky flavors include chocolate mint, lucky charm, Bailey's irish cream, and green velvet. Of course, what would St. Patrick's Day be without a stout cupcake made with Guinness beer? And if that doesn't make your day complete, the manager of our Burlington store, Meghan, might just do a jig for you (she's a folk dancer on her days off). Imagine cupcakes, music, and spirited employees to get your St. Patty's Day fun started!  If you are having trouble picturing it, maybe an image of our stout cupcakes from last year will help:

Image courtesy of our Facebook

Stop by on Saturday for the full my little cupcake St. Patrick's Day experience. Maybe you will get lucky and see Meghan doing a jig. Hope to see you there showing off your green!

Stay sweet,

my little cupcake

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Purple and green and gold, oh my!

Every year, for the past 17 years, Burlington hosts its annual Magic Hat Mardi Gras parade, which is taking place this Saturday, March 3rd. It is a day of music, comedy, costumes, and fun. It is a spectacle to top all spectacles. The parade brings people from all walks of life together to celebrate this colorful day. Purple, green, and gold are spread across the streets of Burlington in the forms of beads, masks, and spirit. The story goes, that "Rex, the King of Carnival, assigned meaning to the colors in 1892. Purple stands for justice, green for faith, and gold for power," as told by the official New Orleans Mardi Gras page. Purple, green, and gold are still the theme in modern Mardi Gras celebrations. Across all of Burlington, everything is smattered with those colors. Local shops have already started getting in the spirit. We at my little cupcake have even caught the Mardi Gras bug.

Image courtesy of a my little cupcake employee

Pictured above is just one of the Mardi Gras themed treats that we will be offering this weekend. The tie-dye cakepop picture above is a gold, purple, and green vanilla cake dipped in white chocolate! We will also have mini cupcakes (with the same color theme), and a mini beignet donut on top of some others.  To round out the Mardi Gras traditions, we will have king cake cupcakes. King cake is a traditional Mardi Gras dessert. The tradition goes that a plastic trinket, usually a baby, is stuffed inside the cake, which is then covered in icing. We will be making our cupcakes minus the plastic trinket, but with plenty of festive spirit. And these days, everyone is getting in the spirit, including our loyal employee Edward Cullen:

Image courtesy of our twitter

So if you are around this Saturday, come check out the Mardi Gras festivities. Snow or shine, we will be here with cupcakes and smiles.

Stay sweet,

my little cupcake