A Gingery-Molasses Letdown

I'm the first to admit that this particular cupcake attempt did not yield the most excellent results. There are a few reasons for this. For one thing, I over-filled the liners and I went without a cupcake tin. I mean, that's just leaving way too much in Fate's hands. I acknowledge that.

Thus, there was much spillage and the cupcakes came out all wide and wonky-looking. Like so:

Also, while the outer sides of the cupcakes were chewy and tasted exactly like the best gingerbread cookie you can possibly imagine (I think the use of fresh ginger is an awesome idea), the middles were so moist they were borderline soggy. I love me some butter, but I don't like to think about how much butter I'm chewing on. So while the taste was really good, there was a greasiness factor that I can't quite chase from my memory.

Finally, there was the whipped cream topping which was, literally, just whipped cream and a dash of ground ginger. I'm not a huge fan of whipped cream topping on cupcakes in general (unless it's like a version of strawberry shortcake or some such thing), and in this case I was so not digging it. It's just so bland and icky.

(This is the best-looking one, so at least there was one that looked okay.)

It's okay. This is how we learn. And the nice, spicy ginger-molasses flavor was festive and seasonal a few weeks ago when I made these little guys. So. Happy holidays! (?)

Applesauce Spice Cupcakes, Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting

Whenever the season shifts from autumn to winter, so many of the delightful flavors of fall (apple, pumpkin, etc.) seem to vanish, replaced by holiday flavors (gingerbread, peppermint). Now, I loooove the holiday stuff, and I'm excited to get going on Christmas treats, but I wanted to squeeze in one more autumnal recipe before the holiday insanity sets in. Hence: Applesauce Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting.

I got this recipe from Martha Stewart's hefty tome (which I am loving, btw). The cupcakes came out light and airy, with a subtle apple flavor and a bit of spice. On their own, they'd make for good breakfast cake. But here they're made even better by cream cheese frosting that includes brown sugar in place of confectioner's sugar. I was worried at first because the texture seemed to be grittier than "normal" cream cheese frosting, but the taste is awesome. The brown sugar lends a sort of maple-y caramel-y flavor to the rich cream cheese. Stupendous!

My friends enjoyed them. Here's Alana on the verge of a taste-test, which ultimately got a thumbs-up:

Salivation Snapshot: Mission Minis

It's been a long time since I've posted, I know, I know. And now that I'm back I'm just posting one measly photo? Yes. It's true. But there's more to come. And this picture is so cute! A friend sent me this photo from the San Francisco bakery Mission Minis. Adorable.

A CupKate's Birthday — The Big 2-9

The penultimate birthday before Things Get Serious in the 30s is not necessarily a cause for insane debauchery. (Though I would like to point out that for just another month and a half I'll be able to remove the "00"s from the year — say, 2009 — to produce my age. That was so cool! :( Sad. But now it's kind of cool because for the next several decades (... um, probably until I die), you can split the year in half, and add those two halves to create my age — 2010 is 20+10 = 30! and so on. Yes, I know that that only works for 1.5 months per year, but whatevs! Math magic!)

Anywho, my 29th birthday (today) has been a relaxing, quiet affair during which I've enjoyed many a call/email/text/facebook messages, I've written a bit, I sat in the sun for a while trying to withstand the cold in an effort to get a tan, and, of course, had a few cupcakes.

Let's start in the morning, shall we?

My birthday breakfast included coffee (note the mug, follow its advice) and cookies-and-creme cupcakes courtesy of the highly talented Malerie (the flowers are also her doing — thanks, Malerie!). On the bottom of each cupcake is half an Oreo — it's seriously fun.

For part of my lunch I enjoyed a cupcake from Rocco's Italian pastry shop near my folks' place in Hamden. Delicious chocolate cupcake with what appears to be a chocolate ganache topping and a chocolate mousse filling. Ridiculous....ly amazing.

And finally, with evening came a chilled bottle of Riesling from this winery that I recently wrote about! What's more, I got to drink it in my brand-new cupcake wine glass. So awesome. :)

This was a very happy, cupcakey birthday.

Vegans — They're Just Like Us!

Haha, no, they're not.

Kidding! I'm not prejudiced against vegans. Some of my closest friends are vegans! It's just that, to an omnivore, veganism can be a little baffling. No cheese? Those two words next to one another do not compute. And to the voracious dessert consumer, the idea of baking vegan treats is downright preposterous. But over recent years, my omnivore friends have been dropping like flies (er, is there a more cruelty-free phrase? Dropping like acorns?) and I've adjusted my baking ways in order to properly celebrate birthdays and holidays so it doesn't look like I prepared 24 cupcakes that only I can eat ("It really wasn't on purpose! I thought you could eat eggs as long as they disappeared into something!").

This photo is just to show that it was perfect cupcake-baking weather.

When I first baked vegan cupcakes, I did look with disgust upon the apple cider vinegar (vinegar! Gah!) in the recipe, but to my surprise, I literally cannot tell the difference between these cupcakes and those that feature animal products. What's more, Pillsbury-brand frosting is totally vegan. That's reason alone to celebrate — a brand of sweet stuff that I already know and love can be accepted by vegans and omnivores alike.

In this recipe, there's an option to use all vanilla extract or to use some vanilla and some almond extract. I'd never tried the almond for these cupcakes, so I did this time and I kinda regret it. The cupcakes are supposed to be chocolate, and they look like they're chocolate, but they taste almost entirely like sweet almond. Bleh. I wasn't psyched about that. But otherwise they were vegan cupcakes fit for an omnivore! (Sorry, sorry.)

Best. Vineyard Name. EVAR!

I've never tried any wine from this vineyard and I'm already in love with it. It's called Cupcake Vineyard! Seriously, the best name ever.

I want to try all their wines and then put the bottles all over my house.

Cupcakes. Wine. Bliss!

Cupcake Camp San Francisco 2009

I'm not totally sure what I was expecting, but from the name "Cupcake Camp" my thoughts vaguely had to do with Kumbaya Cupcakes or "Capture the Cupcake" games. In reality, from what I could tell, Cupcake Camp was more like a mildly organized cupcake free-for-all bonanza in which cupcake-loving San Franciscans could bring their cupcakes for people to eat. For free. You didn't even have to bake them yourself! You could just bring store-bought cupcakes and set them up at a table and give them to people. That's it!

Now, I love cupcakes. So this was a cool, interesting thing to experience. Several people brought multitudes of miniature cupcakes in several different flavors — so I tried a spicy gingerbread-y mini-cupcake and a peanut butter chocolate chip mini-cupcake from the same baker (or group of bakers at this one table). And it was neat to see the variety and the creativity put into making them all.

I also tried a filled Hostess-style cupcake which was good, though extremely sweet.

Thing is, if you tell a whole city of people that there will be free cupcakes if you just show up at this place on a Sunday afternoon, there will be cupcake chaos.

It was insanely crowded! There was a kind of system: there was a set schedule posted of which cupcakes would be at which tables inside the venue, with each table changing bakers every 15 minutes. And every person was allowed to eat five cupcakes, so the bakers would mark on our tickets when we'd go up to get a cupcake. But there were so many people there, there was never not a line in front of each table, and if you wanted to wait in another line, you had to squeeeeze through the throng of patiently waiting cupcake lovers (and general fans of free treats) and hope you there would be enough cupcakes for everyone in line.

I'm glad I went, though next year I'm showing up with a team of people so we can divide, conquer and take bites of each others' cupcakes. I might also put on some of those football player shoulder pads.