Chocolate and Banana Cupcakes = Choconaners!
Today is the last day to enter Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious’ 2nd Annual Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup!
Chai Cupcakes!
I’ve been on a Chai kick lately and it was only a matter of time before I decided to bake with it! On a side note, my posts have been somewhat verbose lately, so this one will be short and sweet, pinky promise.
Butter Lane! Go There Now!
This pic from their website.
Cherryspoon officially has a favorite cupcakery: Butter Lane
Let’s go! Amazing fluffy cake? Check. Tasty not to sweet Frosting? Check! They stay true to their cupcakes for grown-ups approach! My little piece of heaven was Chocolate with Raspberry frosting, husband had the Banana cake with Coconut frosting, and while I didn’t try the Coconut frosting (Coconut is my nemesis), the banana cake was amazing!
I had brought the Raspberry chocolate cupcake home to take a picture for you guys, an action that sold me out to the cool lady behind the counter who asked me: “Are you a cupcake blogger?” She found me out, peeps! She then told me that all their ingredient are organic and showed me her awesome cupcake tattoo. Anyways, the cupcake took a thrashing on the F train, so the picture would not have done it justice.
So, dear readers, I will suggest you checkout the great pics Cupcakes Take the Cake posted or the one posted by the also awesome Blondie and Brownie, this weeks “go here” was spur of the moment and I apologize for having no camera with me. It did however raise the bar for my cupcake reviews so high, I’m think of revisiting the previous ones.
Kerekes – Baking Supplies Deep in Brooklyn!
This pic from the Kerekes website.
Deep in Brooklyn is Kerekes Bakery & Restaurant Equipment, now mind you, getting there can be a journey, but it’s a well worth one. Kerekes has EVERYTHING (everything!) and the prices are cheaper than in Manhattan. One could easily be overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of products available, but do not fret, dear reader, the staff is very helpful.
I walked in for fondant and left with a 2 oz ice cream scoop (a cupcake!), my food sharpies, fondant flower presses, pastry tips, candy dipper, powedered food coloring AND fondant! So you’ve been warned, lol.
Oh and if you plan to visit, and you should, keep in mind they close early on Friday, are close on Saturday and open late on Sunday.
When life gives you lemons.
Or, when when your frosting fails and your cake doesn’t rise.
How do you, dear reader, deal with baking failure? Of course if it’s inedible we all throw it out, but what if it’s salvageable? Do you salvage? Do you have backup plans? Do you drop a cute little fondant flower on it and sigh “oh, well”?
We all know baking is a very exact science. I spoon and level my dry ingredients, have a an oven thermometer, I make sure all my ingredients are room temperature, measure all of my ingredients and lay them out around me before hand, never over beat anything and yet still sometimes the frosting just curdles on me and your cake has an identity crisis in the oven and finally realizes that it’s actually a door stop and not a cake.
I always have back up plans, it might be because I’ve been working with technology since my teens and computers can be fickle. My projects were always turned in on a burnt cd, while also having an online backup and carrying it in a zipdrive (this was a while back) in my bag just in case.
This approach spilled over to my life, I usually bake things early enough so that there is time to do over whatever fails, and I’ve been pretty good about stocking my pantry. Sometimes however there’s no way out of the flop and while I try to be non chalant about them, I really can’t. I’d love to know what you guys do.
(Oh, and the cupcake above was one of the Lost cupcakes, that ended up flat.)
