The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection

Author Archives: MLea

• Baking is bad

  Posted at 6:49 pm by MLea

  Apr 7th

  Since I’ve been baking regularly, I seem to have a lot of supplies around all the time.  It’s really bad to have a couple of pounds of chocolate in varying degrees of sweetness just lying around the house.  It’s tempting.

  My kitchen is especially enticing since I have extra Cupcake Camp groceries.  Every time I walk through the kitchen, I have to divert my eyes from the loaf of Franz Bainbridge Island Cinnamon Swirl bread waiting to be made into French Toast cupcakes.

  

  Franz Cinnamon Swirl Bread

  I just ate a couple of handfuls of bittersweet chocolate chips that I used to make the fudge for the center of Drumsticks.

  The Uncle Woody’s Caramel Popcorn is whispering to me.  I’m glad I haven’t broken the seal on that yet.  After this weekend, the rest of that bag is going to have to go to work with me so someone else will eat it up.

  There are always mini marshmallows around (usually a bit stale, fortunately) waiting to be packed around cupcakes for transport.

  I need to lose about 40 pounds, but I think I’d have an easier time if the Alphabet of Cupcakes wasn’t going on… and I stopped trying inventive cupcake flavors that my favorite bakeries have produced… and Bakery Nouveau would just stop opening their doors!

  Did I mention that we stopped there yesterday for Chocolate Cake and Praline Dream? Mr Shuck was driving, so I blame him… And he made the Hazelnut Cream decaf coffee to go with them once we got home… I only ordered, carried to the car, and consumed half of each one.  (Chocolate Cake: super moist chocolate cake layered with 64% chocolate mousse and finished with chocolate glaze and chocolate shards.  Praline Dream: 64% chocolate mousse with a delicate and flakey milk chocolate and praline paste layered on a chocolate biscuit finished with Gianduja – fancy word for Nutella.)  If you are a Seattle reader and you haven’t ventured to Bakery Nouveau, VENTURE soon! Or maybe you shouldn’t, then they will have to close and lock their doors permanently and I will no longer be drawn through them.

  Posted in Cupcake Stuff!

• Pancakes and Bacon from Yellow Leaf

  Posted at 5:27 pm by MLea

  Apr 6th

  Have I mentioned that I like bacon?

  Please forgive the photo.  This was taken with a coworkers IPhone.

  

  Pancakes and bacon from Yellow Leaf

  So this was a very tasty cupcake.  Have I mentioned that I like bacon?  The vanilla cake was studded with bacon bits and topped with a maple Italian meringue butter cream.  The bacon bits on top added some texture.  I would definitely go out of my way for this cupcake!  ♥♥♥♥

  Posted in The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company | Tagged bacon, maple, pancakes

• More of the top 11….

  Posted at 6:43 pm by MLea

  Apr 5th

  So to continue with the Top 11 cupakes and my thoughts about them…..

  Fluffernutter from Cake Fetish in Albuquerque, NM.  I pondered doing fluffernutter for “F”, but French Toast won out.  (Thanks for Mr Shuck for suggesting.)  If you haven’t had a fluffernutter sandwich (PNB and marshmallow fluff), you should try it at least once.  It’s more of a dessert sandwich than a meal sandwich, but not as tasty as a Nutella and marshmallow fluff sandwich.  Cake Fetish has some imaginative flavors and extremely cute decorated cupcakes.   Albuquerque is on my list of places I’d like to visit (or at least airports I need to fly into to get to the other places), so maybe I’ll get to have a Cake Fetish in the future.

  

  Cake Fetish animal cupcakes: Stolen from their website.

  Orange Ginger at Lilly Jane’s Cupcakes in Eagle, Idaho.  I supposed it’s imaginable to end up in Idaho one day.  I have driven through Idaho once.  They seem to have some imaginative flavors.  The caramel macchiato/mocha sounds good: A choice of our moist vanilla cake, or rich chocolate cake soaked in home-made caramel & topped with an espresso buttercream and (again) swirled in our homemade caramel.  There was no mention of the Orange Ginger or the Caramel Apple flavors mentioned in the article on the bakery’s website, so maybe they were limited time specials.    I don’t know how I feel about an orange cupcake, but citrus and ginger are typically good together. 

   

  

  Orange Ginger cupcake, stolen from MSN.

   Lemon Coconut from Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, GA.  I’m originally from Georgia.  It’s possible I could end up in Savannah.  I really like their logo, which I stole from their website.  It’s very shabby chic. 

  

  Back in the day masthead: Stolen from their website. Go visit them.

  This bakery also has banana pudding daily.  Actually it’s on their menu as ” Nana Puddin’ “, which leads me to believe it’s got to be good.   I do love a good lemon cake, so I’d try the Lemon Coconut cupcake too.  They should have descriptions on their website though of their dessert items.  Reading a good description will get me out and running for cake.  (See “Cupcake Snobery Again“).

   

  Posted in Cupcakes in the Press

• Marshmallow Bliss from Yellow Leaf

  Posted at 5:55 pm by MLea

  Apr 5th

  So I thought these cupcakes were very cute for Easter.

  

  Marshmallow Bliss by Yellow Leaf: click to enlarge

  This is a chocolate cake filled with a tunnel of marshmallow.  It looked better than it tasted.  The cake was okay.  It was a bit dry for Yellow Leaf.  Usually they make an incredibly moist cake.  The marshmallow egg on top was cute, but the icing didn’t have much flavor.  The marshmallow interior was very firm and chewy.

  

  Marshmallow Bliss interior: click to enlarge

  Rating: ♥♥.  It’d eat this again, if passed at a party, but I wouldn’t pay for the privilege.

  Posted in The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company | Tagged marshmallow

• Lavender cupcake from Cupcake Royale

  Posted at 7:38 pm by MLea

  Apr 4th

  It was on the Top Cupcakes in the Country list. We ate lunch right across the street at Easy Street. I had to at least try it….

  

  Lavender Cupcake from Cupcake Royale

  I can’t believe I’m about to type this: The cake was good. It was more like a pound cake. Very dense. Not dry. I liked it.
  On the other hand….the icing was way too sweet. I also don’t think I like eating flowers. Maybe I’m not sophisticated enough for a floral food.

  Cake: ♥♥♥.  I’d buy it again, if it came without icing.  Icing: ♥.  ICK!  Overall: ♥♥.

  Posted in Cupcake Royale | Tagged lavender

• Giant Cupcake from Lea

  Posted at 8:40 pm by MLea

  Apr 1st

  One of my subscribers, Lea, received a giant cupcake mold as a gift.   She made a “ginormous” carrot walnut cake.  Good Job!

  I’ve personally never been able to get anything out of a silicone pan in one piece.  More power to you, Lea!

  

  Lea's giant cupcake mold

  I just realized that she’s got a regular size cupcake paper next to the mold.  It really was huge!

  

  Finished "ginormous" carrot cupcake.

  Posted in Cupcake Stuff!

• H= Half Baked

  Posted at 10:11 pm by MLea

  Mar 31st

  Inspired yesterday by Main Street Cupcakes and educated by the Cake Mix Doctor cookbook that I thumbed through at Costco, I decided that “H” was going to be for “Half Baked” instead of “Hostess”.  Converting a cupcake to another cupcake isn’t that imaginative, right?  Half Baked is a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor that consists of a swirl of chocolate and vanilla ice cream laced with chunks of brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough.  In a word, it’s “YUM!”

  

  Ben and Jerry's Half Baked: Stolen from somewhere....

  For the chocolate and vanilla ice cream, I used Cooks Illustrated recipes for Dark Chocolate Cupcakes and Yellow Cupcakes.  For speed, I used 2 eggs instead of 1 egg and 2 egg yolks.  I didn’t think the yellow color was really necessary and figured there was enough going on in the cupcake that no one would notice the small bit of fat missing.  I scooped vanilla batter in half the cup and chocolate batter in the other half.

  

  Half and Half Batter: click to enlarge

  For the cookie dough filling, I cheated.  Maybe I should have made my own cookie dough, but I didn’t want a huge batch of cookie dough around the house in addition to a couple of pans of cupcakes, so I used frozen Nestle Toll House dough.  (Ok, so I still have half a pack of frozen dough in the freezer…but that’s beside the point.)

  

  Cheater Cookie Dough Filling

  I broke the frozen dough apart (as suggested by the Cake Doctor) and mushed it down into the batter.  It should be used completely frozen so it won’t cook all the way.  Otherwise, you’d end up with a cookie in a cupcake, not dough in a cupcake.

  

  Half and half batter with dough mushed in: Click to enlarge.

  I baked at 350 for 20 minutes and ended up with this:

  

  Hot cupcakes, fresh from the oven: click to enlarge

  After they cooled down a bit, the centers fell and I ended up with this:

  

  Half Baked after cooling: Click to enlarge

  While the cupcakes cooled completely, I made a Chocolate Italian Meringue Butter cream using Warren Brown’s recipe that I found here. My butter might have been closer to melted than room temperature, so I had to let the icing chill for a bit before I could scoop it out.

  Ben and Jerry’s also contains brownie bits.  I cheated again…since I didn’t need a whole pan of brownies… and used frozen brownie dough.

  

  Nestle Toll House Mini Brownie Bites

  I baked a few of the brownie bites, then cut them into little chunks to use as garnish.  If I make these again…and I will… I’ll try to make a brownie crust on the bottom. 

  

  Finished Half Baked Cupcake: Click to enlarge

  Mr Shuck and I both liked these a lot.  He liked the 2 different flavors of cake and thought the icing was silky and creamy and not too sweet.  I think the icing tastes like room temperature chocolate ice cream, if that could exist in a non-liquid form.  I would have liked to have gotten more brownie incorporated, but I think I’d need a baking assistant for that.   “H” is definitely an improvement over “G”.

  Posted in Mrs Shuck's Creations | Tagged brownies, chocolate, cookie dough, half baked, vanilla

• Top 11 Cupcakes

  Posted at 9:21 pm by MLea

  Mar 30th

  My friend Millie sent me this link from MSN City Guides of the Best Cupcakes in the US (According to Rachel Bussel of Cupcakes Take the Cake).

  Forgive me if you just clicked on that and read the article.  The Cliff Notes version is below.

  The Fat Elvis from Saint Cupcake in Portland, OR.  I’ll be going here for my birthday in May.  Described on their website as follows: “banana chocolate chip pound cake cupcake topped with a swirl of our salty-sweet peanut butter fudge. we finish the cupcake with a banana chip. it’s our take on elvis’ favorite peanut butter & banana sandwich!”.  It’s only available Wednesday and Friday. I hope I make it there in time on Friday.  My other options for Saturday or Sunday: Toasted Coconut Cream, Malt Ball, and Carrot Cake.  I may try a Vanilla/Vanilla just to compare apples to apples, but I doubt it…vanilla is so boring.

  Sweet and Salty Cupcake from Baked in Brooklyn, NY.  From their website: “This cake has won many awards and many hearts. Dark chocolate cake infused with a salty caramel, caramel chocolate ganache and topped with fleur de sel.”  I’d eat it.  If I’m ever headed towards the Big Apple, I might have to check them out.  I’d also want to try their Hazelnut Kiss cupcake.  I’m a sucker for Nutella.

  Half Baked from Main Street Cupcakes in Hudson, Ohio.  This dark chocolate cupcake is stuffed with chocolate chips and chocolate chip cookie dough, then finished with chocolate butter cream.   I thought about using this Ben and Jerry’s flavor for my “H”, but I couldn’t figure out how to safely fill a cupcake with chocolate chip cookie dough.  I seriously doubt I’ll ever be in Hudson, Ohio, but if I am, I’d like to try their Big Breakfast cupcake which is their French toast cupcake with bacon added.  Yum!

  Lavender cupcake from Cupcake Royale, here in Seattle.  Millie tried this one and thinks it’s good.  She said the cake was very dense, like pound cake.  Maybe I’ll give it a shot, but I’ll go to a Cupcake Royale not near me…maybe it’s just the cake in West Seattle that’s dry…

  East End Chocolate Stout at Dozen Cupcakes in Pittsburgh.  This one doesn’t really appeal to me, although…it is similar to my idea for “I”.   This is a dark chocolate stout cake, topped with dark chocolate ganache and Irish Cream butter cream.  I’d like to try their Pancakes and Syrup cupcake.  Yes, it is topped with bacon.  What can I say?  I’m a sucker for bacon and Nutella (but probably not together.)

  Ginger Babycake at Love at First Bite in Berkeley, CA.  This cake could be delicious.  It’s described as gingerbread with limoncello buttercream.  If it’s more like a ginger cake, I’d love it.  If it tastes like gingerbread men….not so much.  I love the bakery name, though.   They should have a George Hamilton flavor as an homage to the movie.  Maybe you have to be older to get the reference…

  Pistachio cupcake at Sugar Sweet Sunshine in New York City.   I love this bakery name.  Thoughts of this cupcake doesn’t get my mouth watering, but they do have Banana Pudding every day.  My favorite!  I’d go out of my way for that any day.

  to be continued…..

  Posted in Cupcakes in the Press

• The Phoenix Cake at Bakery Nouveau

  Posted at 7:28 pm by MLea

  Mar 28th

  From Bakery Nouveau’s website:

  Phoenix
  This cake scored the highest points in the National Pastry Championship, 2005. It is a triple layer mousse cake with a delicate balance of pear mousse, 70% chocolate mousse, caramel mousse, pecan dacquoise and chocolate sponge cake. All covered with a caramel glaze

  I’ll be honest.  I had to go to Wikipedia to get the definition of dacquoise, which is apparently a nut meringue.

  This was wonderful.  This would have been wonderful after a nice meal at a nice restaurant.  It’s even more wonderful to be able to dash out (see previous post) to your neighborhood bakery (if you happen to live near the Junction in West Seattle) and just pick one up on the spur of the moment.  It was creamy and delicate.  There was nice crunch at the bottom from the dacquoise.  And just to clarify that it was Cupcake Addict appropriate….it was about the size of a jumbo cupcake AND there was a tiny approximately 1/4 inch thick layer of sponge cake in there just under the pecan layer.   (Cup shaped and cake containing = cupcake, no matter how posh it may be.)  I honestly didn’t notice the pear mousse.  Perhaps that was all part of the “delicate balance”…leaving the pear mousse as a subtle accent flavor not a central one.  This was a bit rich, perhaps from the caramel glaze, but not overly sweet.   (You should all know how I feel about caramel by now.)   Mr Shuck had about 2 bite portion (which he thought was “good stuff”).  I had the rest.  It was worth the $5.50 that I paid for it.  It would have been worth the $5.50 AND the 2 mile round trip walk that would have gotten me there and back if it hadn’t been raining.  (Raining in Seattle?  Who’d have thunk it?!)

  

  Phoenix Cake image stolen from Bakery Nouveau

  

  Phoenix Cake Interior: click to enlarge

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged caramel, pear, pecan. chocolate, Phoenix cake

• Cupcake Snobery again

  Posted at 6:14 pm by MLea

  Mar 28th

  I had sub-par cupcakes today.  Once again, I think I’ve become too picky.   Mr Shuck and I were originally going downtown to try the new flavors at Dahlia Bakery (Pistachio with Brown Sugar or Chocolate with Dulce De Leche), but it’s Sunday.  It was brunch time, so any street parking would be taken by those brunching across the street at Lola.  Yada Yada Yada.  We made an attempt at Bakery Nouveau, but there were no “little cakes”.  There were lots of yummy looking cake SLICES, but I felt I had a duty to report on a new or fabulous cupcake.  I pondered getting the Phoenix ….crap.  I just read the description.  I’m going for the Phoenix cake!  I’ll be back…..

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries

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