It's a Cupcake Unleashing Lox Cupcakes on Unsuspecting Merchantville

Get set for cupcakes topped with octopus, lox, buffalo chicken dip, and spicy lime shrimp with the impending debut of It's a Cupcake (styled elsewhere as "It's a CupCake!"), just across the bridge in Merchantville, NJ.

If octopus cupcakes sound more familiar than they logically should, that might be because owner Mona Wilson has previously operated out of Northern Liberties and later Kensington. (Wilson also appeared on a 2012 episode of Food Network's Cupcake Wars.) The new Jersey shop will celebrate its grand opening beginning at noon on Saturday, April 25, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and 100 free cupcake samples for those that get there early enough. No word yet on whether those samples will feature seafood or play it safe with sugar.

The shop makes a wide variety of more traditional sweet cupcakes and a slew of other desserts (hand pies, pudding, homemade Pop Tarts, and more), but it's understandable if you have a hard time looking past the long list of cupcakes riddled with fish and meat. Styled after canapes, the savory choices include combos like Mexican chocolate-orange-shortrib, octopus and kimchi, and this lox cupcake, which pairs smoked salmon with a scallion cupcake, chive cream cheese, and a slice of tomato:

[Photo courtesy of It's a Cupcake]

It's a Cupcake, 19 West Park Avenue, Merchantville, NJ, (267) 443-0213, opening April 25.

Moombahpus the octopus cupcake light herb cupcake topped with spicy kimchi and marinated grilled octopus #savory #appetizer #instafood #cupcake #yum #amazing #fresh #partyfood

A photo posted by It's a CupCake! (@itsa_cupcake) on Jan 25, 2015 at 5:23pm PST