I remember my very first tweet to college friend Xander:

And I remember having dinner with my good friend Amy, who said to me, “You know what? It might be a good idea to see what this whole social media thing is about.”

Well, Xander and Amy, we owe you. Because without you, we never would have found such a fantastic, vibrant community like the Chicago social media one.

And now we’re celebrating a YEAR (!) of interacting with you all at one of the coolest new lounge spots in all of Chicago, and we’d love to throw a big party with lots of free cupcakes and foil and have you all come.

So will you please come celebrate with us? We promise we’ll bring the cupcakes if you bring your pretty faces. And guess what? Be one of the first 100 to register, and we’ll even have a little gift waiting just for you.

Details and registration here.

See you next Wednesday, lovelies!

-Mari

Your man could be our first ever mancake.

The Details:

Here’s what you win:

• A cupcake named after your man to appear on our permanent menu

• A feature on our home page and our blog

• 2 dozen of our favorite cupcakes

How to enter:

Tweet us @FoiledCupcakes using the #mancake hashtag. Tell us in 140 characters or less why the man in your life deserves to be this year’s mancake. Done.

We’ll pick our favorite and announce a winner by Tuesday, June 22nd. Which means you’ll need to have your tweets in by Father’s Day (Sunday, June 20th).

Okay! Happy Mancake-ing!

The legal stuff resides here.

We’re doing a fun assortment of cupcakes for the Stanley Cup, and a few of our lovely Twitter friends asked us how we come up with our Quippies.

Enter: Josh.

Josh is a professional copywriter, Chicago native, die-hard Bulls/Bears/Cubs/Blackhawks fan, and also can clap louder than anyone we’ve ever met. (Don’t believe us? Try out-clapping him at a Gavin Rossdale concert. You will lose.)

He’s also super clever, smart, and the guy who said to Mari one day, “Hey, you should call your business Foiled Cupcakes.”

And he writes all of our Quippies.

So next time you’re enjoying some cupcakes and are reading our Quippies, we dare you to clap as loud as you can in honor of Josh.

Hello. My name is Jenn, and I’m a cupcakeaholic. I was raised by a mother who loved to savor the sweet side of life and did not have a problem handing me a brownie for breakfast. I’ve always loved to bake and create delicious desserts that bring a smile to the face and satisfaction to the stomach. When I found out Foiled Cupcakes was looking for a Cupcakeologist, I jumped at the opportunity. I wasn’t really sure if Cupcakeology was even a real field of study, (I’m still not sure to be honest, but I’m not questioning a line a of work that lets me spend my time swirling fluffy buttercream on top of freshly baked cupcakes) but I knew it was definitely a science I wanted to know more about. Now that I’ve joined the Foiled family, maybe you’d like to know a little more about me, the newest Cupcakeologist responsible for bringing to life those perfectly portioned pieces of heaven Foiled delivers.

I’m on the left with my best friend of 15 years (aka the Easy Bake Oven owner).

My earliest baking memory goes back to the first grade, the year my best friend unwrapped an Easy Bake Oven on Christmas morning. This was definitely an experimental time in my baking career. I’m not sure if the inventors of the Easy Bake Oven intended the users to combine all of the baking mixes to create a hybrid cookie/cake/muffin (coakeffin?), but they should really consider including some kind of disclaimer warning against the hazards that this combination will produce, not only for your taste buds, but for the oven itself and the electricity in the rest of the house…

But those days are long gone. After moving to Chicago 10 months ago from Slidell, Louisiana, I now attend the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts and am a few short months away from receiving my Associates in Baking and Pastry. When I’m not at school learning the French techniques and secrets (spoiler alert: butter, butter, butter), I can usually be found trying new recipes taste tested by my roommates or stationed somewhere in the stacks of the Chicago Public Library. I love to read, go to movies, jump on my mini trampoline, and will find any excuse to shed my flour and powdered sugar covered jeans for a pair of pumps. I’ve worked as a file clerk, construction assistant, and even a preschool teacher, but there’s no place I’d rather be than dancing around the kitchen, singing along to Jay-Z and whipping up something to satisfy a sweet tooth. I can’t wait to get to work this week and get started on the cupcakes I’m sure you are ordering at this very moment

‘Bye Y’all!

Jenn

The Great American Bake Sale in Chicago will be held this Saturday, April 17th. Our friend Maris is putting it all together, and it sounds super yummy!

Check out In Good Taste and the Great American Bake Sale to learn more. And go eat carbs to help out a great cause!

Hey, you. Designer. We want YOU.

Well, really, we want to give you two Dozen of our Favorites cupcakes and a pair of Cubs tickets. Yeah. We wanna GIVE THEM to you.

Wanna know why? Check out our post here.

And please submit a design. Because honestly, we really don’t want to run this race topless.

- Mari

So I’m running my first official 5K in honor of Foiled Cupcakes’ 5K Twitter followers. And because this’ll be much more fun with lots and lots of people (and the best way to bring groups together is FREE STUFF), we at Foiled Cupcakes present “FREE STUFF for Race to Wrigley-ers.”

FREE STUFF – OPTION 1: Run the Race to Wrigley with the Foiled Cupcakes team.

FREE: FOILED CUPCAKES 5K T-SHIRT. Not a shameless branding logo shirt either. One you’ll look cool wearing long after race day. And it’s gonna be one of those soft ones that aren’t all awkward and bulky, too. (Yeah!)

HOW TO CLAIM FREE T-SHIRT: (Please follow instructions; we know you’re able!)
- Register for the Race to Wrigley by Saturday, 4/17.
- Email your race confirmation # to info@foiledcupcakes.com (subject: “RUN CUPCAKE RUN!”) along with your name, Twitter ID, shirt size preference.
- We’ll get back to you with details on where to meet before the race to get your t-shirt. And yeah, it’d be nice if you wore it. Just saying.

FREE STUFF – OPTION 2: Design our Foiled Cupcakes 5K t-shirt.

FREE: TWO “DOZEN OF OUR FAVORITES” CUPCAKES *AND* A PAIR OF CUBS TICKETS. (Too bad if you’re a Sox fan. This is the Race to Wrigley, after all.)

HOW TO WIN: If you’re a designer (or even if you’re not), submit a cool t-shirt design to info@foiledcupcakes.com by Friday, 4/16 at 12:00 p.m. The only real rules (other than the legal stuff):
-Incorporate Foiled Cupcakes’ 5K Twitter followers
-Put our logo on it (as obvious or innocuous as you like)
-Dimensions: 8.5 x 11.
How we’ll pick a winner: by voting, of course. We’re a cupcakeocracy.

FREE STUFF – OPTION 3: Come hang out after the race.

FREE: POST-RUN CUPCAKES. We’ve organized a brunch Tweetup at Rockit. We’ll provide cupcakes. Buy your own food and drinks.

HOW TO ATTEND: Sign up here and tell us you’re going. Show up and eat. Easy peasy.

Pick your favorite and join us! (And wish me luck that I don’t die during this little 3.1 mile race.)

Love to all,
Mari

A few weeks ago, the lovely Archana at Edelman sent an email to us asking us to think of ways we could use Chevy’s vehicles to do social good in our community.

Here’s our video proposal, which was shown at their kickoff event last night. Let us know what your thoughts are or what we could do to improve our proposal and make this really KICK BUTT!

Learn more here.

Thanks to all who watched and didn’t totally fall out of their chairs laughing. Yes, this means you Erin, MJ, Paige, Jill, Dwana, Kelly, Jenn, Keidra, Scott, Jeff, Lori, and Barb.

We’re hiring! Again!

You:
Are 18+ and are legally able to work in the United States.
Have a clean driving record, a reliable car with current insurance and air conditioning.
Are okay being on-call in the mornings for 1-3 hour shifts between 8-12 noon, Monday through Saturday.
Can pick up cupcakes from our kitchen location in Chicago and deliver them to the north suburbs.
Believe that customer service is absolutely ESSENTIAL and aren’t afraid to be overly servicey.
Know the City of Chicago and the north suburbs or can use a handy dandy GPS.
Have a cell phone and aren’t afraid to use it to communicate with our customers and office staff. (Hands-free, of COURSE. Duh.)
Think that an average wage range of $10-25/hour+ is A-OK.

We:
Are learning every single day. We’re brand new, growing faster that we anticipated, and we love it.
Love people who are fun and can have fun, and don’t take life too seriously, but really, REALLY put the customer FIRST.
Expect that everyone will follow through on their own responsibilities.
Let you know the night before of any deliveries that need to be made.
Have a lot of exciting partnerships, deals, press, and media exposure coming up.
Are expanding to Chicago’s North Shore (Evanston, Wilmette, Winnetka, Skokie) and need a delivery person to join our team ASAP.

Interested in working with us? Send your cover letter AND resume by Wednesday (that’s TOMORROW!) to Mari:

Email: info@foiledcupcakes.com
Subject: I won’t eat the cupcakes while I’m driving them around. I SWEAR.

If we’d like to meet with you, we’ll call you in the next 36 hours. We’re going to be interviewing on Thursday morning between 9-12 noon in Chicago. (That’s in TWO DAYS). We’ll need you to be ready to start this week. Yeah, that’s soon. But if you want it, well… that’s how it works.

No phone calls, please! We want to make sure we continue to service our phone customers exactly the way they deserve. Thanks, everyone, for your continued support of our growing business. WE APPRECIATE YOU! xo – Mari

This past summer, we hosted a cupcake photo shoot to capture still shots of our cupcakes in all their glory. And while this served a functional purpose (getting pictures of our cupcakes on the website), it also served a social purpose: getting together with 20 of our favorite Twitter friends and sharing the shiny happy goodness.

Thanks to all of our cupcake models for being so flexible and fabulous and fun! F(cubed). And VERY special thanks to Chris Vaughn for photographing our cupcakes and models! He is fabulous to work with, so nice, so genuine, so lovely. THANK YOU, CHRIS!

In no particular order, we present the remainder of our 20 cupcake models (see the first batch here):

Iris Chen

Everybody Loves Chocolate | Student at DePaul University | Chicago, IL

What song does the cupcake you’re modeling with remind you of? Why?
‘Everybody Wants You’ by Josh Kelley because everybody wants a scrumptious cupcake

Why we like Iris:
Because she’s so ridiculously bad at comebacks, it’s endearing.

Meka Asonye

Bananarama | Recruiter for the Cleveland Indians | Cleveland, OH

If you could gift Foiled Cupcakes to any celebrity, who would it be? Why?
President Obama. Foiled Cupcakes brings happiness to all that experience them. In the moment you are eating them, all troubles of the world melt away. Obama could use this stress relief.

Why we like Meka:
He works in baseball. Enough said.

Jessica Braun

Choc Full of Cherries | Chicago, IL

Now that you’re a bona fide cupcake model, what are you going to do with your career?
Hopefully move on to NY Fashion Week or serve as a guest judge on America’s Next Top Model. So Fierce.

Why we like Jessica:
Because she tweets things that are relateable. Like seeing a cute boy on a city bus.

Melissa Karlin

Southern Belle | Special Event Sales expert | Evanston, IL

Now that you’re a bona fide cupcake model, what are you going to do with your career?
Eat cupcakes for world peace. And encourage the world to adopt them as currency – that would be magic!

Why we like Melissa:
She likes to go out and dance. She likes to have fun. And she is cute as a button. Seriously.

Sarah McClain

Plain Jane | Morningstar, Inc. | Chicago, IL

What song does the cupcake you’re modeling with remind you of? Why?
‘Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey. At first, the Plain Jane is a little “plain” on the outside but once you get to know her, all your expectations about what it means to be “plain” and “simple” are out the window. Don’t Stop Believing!

Why we like Sarah:
Sarah’s always on the go and she knows Chicago’s the best city in America.

Kelly Vonebers

Strawberry Short Cupcake| Upshot | Forest Park, IL

Now that you’re a bona fide cupcake model, what are you going to do with your career?
Figure out a way to take my new found cupcake modeling talent and spin it into a full time job. I mean, next step is supermodel stuff, right?! (we say, duh!) Somehow, someway … cupcake modeling will eventually pay my mortgage!

Why we like Kelly:
Because she wants cupcake modeling to pay her mortgage.

Paula Harris

Lime is the New Black | Groove Parlor TV | Chicago, IL

If you could gift Foiled Cupcakes to any celebrity, who would it be? Why?
Jody Watley – 80s pop star. she LOVES red velvet cupcakes and she should try Foiled Cupcakes’ Southern Belle.

Why we like Paula:
Paula has been one of our most ardent supporters since day one. And we absolutely appreciate her for that!

Ryan Zimmerman

Give Me S’Mores | Personal Trainer at Lifetime Fitness in Warrenville | Aurora, IL

Now that you’re a bona fide cupcake model, what are you going to do with your career?
Maybe Sara Lee needs someone to model pies!!

Why we like Ryan:
Ryan barters personal training sessions for cupcakes. It evens out.

Shona Williams

Chai Maintenance  | Event Planner at Kamileon Events | Chicago, IL

What song does the cupcake you’re modeling for remind you of? Why?
It reminds me of ‘Material Girl’ by Madonna, for a Chai Maintenance cupcake!

Why we like Shona:
She’s a detail-oriented gal who loves to have fun. And she plans amazing events!

And a big thanks to Stephanie Perrin for editing these photos.