Cupcakes Across America! The Cupcake Tree Santa Clarita, CA

And let's go back to California shall we?  Am I ever in the same time zone for more than a week at a time?  Well no - apparently not.  This trip back to CA was all over the place.  An hour before I had to go to my client's site, I found myself in Santa Clarita.  A quick google search on the iPhone found me The Cupcake Tree, and unassuming small cupcakery in a strip mall.  So often, I find myself in fancy schmancy places that if there's not a doorman saying hello, I'm prone to raising an eyebrown.  I'm judgemental - it's part of my charm.  And it assists in my snarkiness.   So when I see a tiny little shop with a nothing-fancy sign, I get a little worried.

Since I was there sortof near Easter, I was greeted by this cute little Peep cake:

And then I noticed their adorable cakepop selection:

And then finally, I notice their good selection of cupcakes:

They looked pretty good and there was a decent selection for what looked like a very small shop.  They had the standards:  Vanilla with vanilla buttercream which they cutely call "the blond" and red velvet with cream cheese frosting which they call "the southerner".  So cute names - I get it.  And a few other interesting flavors:  Vanilla Root Beer - vanilla cake with root beer buttercream,  Sweetart - a lemon cake with a lime frosting.  Then I noticed one called "Samoa".  Wait - like the girl scout cookies?  Turns out - YEAH!  This cupcake was amazing.  A coconut "infused" cake with caramel in the middle, topped with chocolate buttercream, caramel drizzle and a few coconut flakes.  This tasted JUST LIKE the famous and somewhat dangerous cookie.  And the cake was sooo moist and delicious.  And the balance between cupcake and frosting was perfect. 

So the lesson here is don't let a strip mall small shop turn you off.  This was one of the best cupcakes I've had.  Not an original flavor combination but done so well that you don't even mind. 

One other note about this shop - their website has a link they call "SVC Supporter".  A click on this link brings you to a page where they explain that they support the business of the Valley of Santa Clarita, using local businesses to help support the community.  And even playing music from local musicians.  What this shop lacks in size, they make up for in quality and class.  Get thee to Santa Clarita for the Cupcake Tree.

Where have I been? Cupcakes Across America!

These last few weeks have been insane-balls at my real life job.  I'm not even sure what time zone I'm in right now.  (exaggeration for dramatic effect)  But with bi-coastal travel comes responsibility to my blog-readers for finding and sampling the cupcakes of the world, or in this case:  Santa Monica.  


SaMo is one of my favorite places.  Everything there is pretty - it's 70 degrees all the time, everyone is a health nut so yoga is found on every corner, and farmers markets abound all year long.  Plus, it sits right on the Pacific Ocean - one minute you're in a hustling little downtown with cute shops and the next minute you're frolicking barefoot on a beach.  Not bad.  Not bad a'tall.  


And with all the working out comes need for small rewards.  Enter:  Yummy Cupcakes, Santa Monica.  Yummy Cupcakes actually has two other locations in Southern California, one in Burbank and a new one in Brentwood - which may not be open quite yet.  And one international location in Istanbul (??reallly??)  Their website promises more locations opening soon around the country including NYC, to which I will bare the $15 train ride during my time of the month.  Don't judge.  


So what's so special about Yummy that they won Best Cupcakes in Los Angeles, 2011?  I can't say for sure but if I were voting, I'd say the "whippy buttercream" - oh and staggering over 400 flavors of cupcakes!  On this trip I had the Chocolate Chocolate.  Not fancy or pretentious - ok - not as pretentious as me, but ridiculously good. And I got to taste my friend's chocolate with vanilla frosting, and mango lime chili & salt.  Hand to God, I will master the art of the whippy frosting.  I'm particular about frosting - otherwise it's just a little piece of cake - the frosting makes it!  And this is the best texture of frosting that has ever graced my tongue.  Yummy Cupcakes takes frosting to a new level.  And the moist and flavorful cake part?  - it's like a bonus that the cake part is even good!  Finally, way to go on the size of the cupcakes - they are big - bigger than standard but not quite jumbo, although jumbos and minis are also available.  Other fun note:  they have a gluten free menu, make cupcakes in a jar, and have other treats like cupcake piesTM (think whoopie-like), and frosting bon bons.  And IMHO, no cupcake shop is complete without some type of merch - so the aprons, plates, kitchen towels, etc, all have a place to call a temporary home.  


I oddly don't have a picture of my cupcake - it didn't last long.  But here are a few I snapped in the store.  

I likes my men young and my cakes tall.

Apparently the star of this blog aside from me is my buddy Trevor.  You may remember him from such posts as my trip to Ireland, the Trevor Cupcake, and the beer caramel sauce recipe post that featured his beer company:  Evil Genius.  So when his birthday rolls around, I know it's time to show my appreciation for him listening to all my daily crap.  He's a chocolate lover so I roll with my standard chocolate cake recipe.  I make three layers of the cake and filled them with chocolate ganache and white chocolate fudge frosting.  Then I topped the whole thing with a milk chocolate fudge frosting.  (hmmm - no buttercream this time - that's weird).  Anywho, the combination of all the chocolates was awesome and everyone loved it.  But my favorite part was the decoration this time.  I used a simple but new (to me) technique to make the topper.  I wanted to do his company logo but instead of the
"Evil Genius" in the circle, I wanted "Happy Birthday".  So I tried my first buttercream transfer - brilliant!  

Here is the logo  (just the circle part - not the black square):

And here is my cake:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's not QUITE as perfect as I would have liked but really really not bad.  The logo is actually buttercream.  I used the Wilton premade black because it's too hard to make black frosting.  The lettering I freehanded and but you have to do it backwards!  All you have to do is print out a mirror image of your picture and then put a piece of parchment over the picture and trace the picture with frosting.  Once your have all the front facing things on the picture colored-in, you just pipe on a thick layer of buttercream over the whole picture and put the whole thing in the freezer.  Freeze at least overnight until solid and when you're ready to use it take it out and carefully peel off the parchment - it comes off pretty easily.  Finally just cover up your edges with a border- see my ropey type design around the circle and voila!  Done!  

The buttercream thaws nicely and doesn't run at all.  You can cut right through it after a few hours out of the freezer.  

YAY!  Happy Birthday Trev!  <3

Cupcakery Review: Classy Girl Cupcakes - Milwaukee

This week my adventures took me to the beautiful, sunny Milwaukee!  Yes - despite being March, it was really beautiful and really sunny.  I got the best weather while I was there - not a drop of rain or even a cloud in the sky which made it easy to find Classy Girl Cupcakes.  Located on Cathedral Square in downtown Milwaukee, CGC is an adorable shop that seems to specialize in cheesecake cupcakes although they do have quite a selection of gourmet cupcake flavors as well. 

So - cheesecake or regular cupcake?  Obviously both!  I mean- who knows when I'll get to Milwaukee again.  My eye was immediately drawn to a plain looking cupcake whose name was "Caramel Stout".  Hmmmm - stout - it must be related to my Irish Stout cupcake!  Since clearly it's a cupcake that's party of the beer family, I had to try it.  Then onto the cheesecake cupcakes -  there were so many.  The lovely gal at the counter pointed out a few of their best sellers but my eye was drawn to the Malted Milkshake Cheesecake.  They wrapped both of my selections together and gave me a little spoon for the cheesecake treat.

First the Caramel Stout:  

The chocolate cupcake is made with Hinterland Luna Stout beer which the CGC website says "has notes of caramel, chocolate and espresso".  The Hinterland website says that the Luna Stout is infused with nitrogen which sounds like another famous stout from Ireland (that rhymes with Minnus).  If you've read my previous post about my stout cupcake, the Trevor Cupcake Cake, then you know I love beer based cupcakes.  The Class Girl version was really really good - the cake part was light but super flavorful which I imagine comes from the beer.  I've never had the Hinterland beer but maybe I'll try it in my recipe if I can find it in my area.  My only minor complaint was with the frosting - the caramel buttercream was just way too sweet for my taste and it was quite thick and a bit gritty - like the sugar hadn't quite dissolved all the way.  I tend to like a fluffier buttercream but overall the combination was good. I wiped off a lot of the frosting though as it overwhelmed the cupcake.

The Malted Milkshake Cheesecake: 

The Classy Girl website describes this treat as a milk chocolate cheesecake blended with malt powder.  On top is a chocolate buttercream with a malted milk ball.  I LOVE me some malt.  When I was a kid, I used to drive 6 miles to the ice cream shop that had powdered malt that they would put on top of your ice cream instead of the lame liquid malt that other shops used.  (Note....liquid malt=lame)  The bottom or crust of the cheesecake was brownie - yum!  So I was super psyched to dig into this concoction in hopes of getting a little piece of buttercream, cheesecake and brownie on my mini spoon.  Unfortunately, the spoon pushed the buttecream off in one lump.  Ok - no harm done except that the buttercream couldn't really be cut with the spoon.  So I just took a bite out of that - it was more fudge-like than buttercream but OK.  So then onto the cheesecake part - it was good - definitely chocolatey.  I didn't love it - it was a ricotta based cheesecake and I'm partial to more of a New York style cheesecake where it's mostly cream cheese- or at least you can't notice the grains of the ricotta like you could in this little cheesecake.  But if you like your cheesecake like that, then Classy Girl is the place for you.  Well done on the flavor of this cheesecake though - I'm sorry I wasn't partial to the textures.  

The shop:  

Very cute!  And they had cupcake merch - always a good sign of a devoted cupcake fan.  The cupcake prices are reasonable and the staff was friendly.  Definitely worth a stop if you're in downtown Milwaukee - let me know what other flavors you try!

Sweet St. Patty's Day Shamrock Shake Cake

If you’re single and made it through Saint Valentine’s Day without slitting your wrists, I’m sure you’re looking forward to a more social holiday – Saint Patrick’s DAY!  Wahoo!  This month for me started out in Ireland and to continue celebrating my Irish heritage, I thought I’d devote this post to one of my favorite treats from this time of year:  The Shamrock Shake.  Since I don’t ever eat anything from the likes of a McDonald’s, it’s hard for me to look forward to something so delicious at a place that serves filler and chemicals and calls it food.  Since a SMALL Shamrock Shake is well over 500 calories (EEEK!!!), this is a treat that I get once a year at best – but really only once every two years since I  will only drink half.  YUM.  

The thing about the shamrock shake is that it has a sweet yet minty flavor combined with the fat in ice cream that makes everything better.  So if fat+mint+sugar=everything better, then what would we need to add to make everything better=everything awesome.  There is one clear answer – chocolate cake.  So I whipped up my standard chocolate cake in two 9in round pans. (recipe below)   I like this recipe because it turns out really moist with a deep flavor.  I used to omit the coffee and just use water but I think the coffee really does add an interesting note to the flavor – you can also use a flavored coffee for a slight change.  Anywho, while the cake’s a-bakin it’s time to make a minty green frosting. 

I used a standard buttercream frosting with about 2 tsp of peppermint extract and a smidge of green food color.  Then I chopped up some bittersweet chocolate for the chips in the frosting.  The only issue with this frosting is that the chips make it almost impossible to pipe.  The only way to really do it is to put it in a piping bag without a tip.  When in doubt, you can always pipe a dot border.  Mmmmm…minty green frosting dots. 

The cake turned out looking good and the frosting went way beyond my love of shamrock shakes – there are no bittersweet chips in the shake – take that McD’s!  Nor are there jimmies - I added the jimmies for dramatic effect - I think I got it.

CHOCOLATE CAKE!

2 c. sugar

1 3/4 c. flour

3/4 c. cocoa – dark cocoa is better if you can find it

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 c. black coffee

1 c. buttermilk

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine first 6 ingredients and set aside.

 In large bowl combine all other ingredients, mix. Add flour mixture a bit at a time until just combined, batter will be thin.

Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 9 x 13 inch cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

Why are there so many cakes about rainbows?

This weekend I had the profound pleasure of celebrating a friend’s 40^th birthday.  He threw a huge bash with fun party treats like glow-necklaces, birthday cake martinis (shut up!), blinking ice cubes and a playlist that had me strap my groove on by 8pm.  No one throws a party like a gay dude.  I’ve had homosexuality on my mind recently for a few reasons – 1.  The awesome party that I knew was coming.  2.  A friend recently came out to our group of pals and 3.  The ridiculousness of how people’s personal lives are intertwined with our political system.  This isn’t a political blog so I won’t get too far into my opinions but when did a candidate’s religious based opinion become how we judge what is right for the country – in my book, if someone isn’t hurting other people and doesn’t break the foundation of our country’s values of everyone’s right to pursue happiness, then it shouldn’t be anyone’s business and certainly not part of a campaign platform.    Anywho, how can you celebrate the fabulousness of diversity without cake?  I made the cake below based on Whisk Kid’s idea for a rainbow layer cake.  I used a completely different vanilla cake recipe and used plain buttercream instead of the Swiss meringue version.  Her delightful recipe and pictures can be found here:  Whisk Kid RainbowCake.  Thanks for the brilliance Whisk Kid!

Here is what I learned –

Whisk Kid used 6 layers instead of 7 – but there are 7 colors in the rainbow.  But 6 is probably easier to stack.  Maybe that’s why she was on Martha Stewart and not me.

Even out your cake layers or your layers will break   and your cake will be round on top.  Whoops!

When you make this as a birthday cake for a straight dude, you’ll get funny looks and questions.

I apparently have no idea what color indigo is.  Blue?  Purple?  Purplish blue?  Wtf?!

Use more food coloring than you think you need – in rainbows there is no such thing as too much color.

Nonetheless - this one was a hit - really yummy and HUGE!

Not quite finished but already tall!                 

1 Amazing Kid and 1 Wimpy Kid

My nephew Braden is amazing.  When he was a toddler, he was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder which is on the Autism Spectrum.  He’s now eight, and my sister has remained unrelenting in finding the tools that will help him function better among typical kids – be it a therapy, a sport, a playgroup, or working with his school counselor and teachers to make sure he gets the help he needs.   She’s awesome and  Braden is brilliant – he just made the honor roll but as with many autistic children, his social skills are not the same of a typical child.  Lots of autistic kids will play by themselves and some are non-communicative at all.  We’re lucky with Braden   - he talks pretty normally but wouldn’t necessarily go play with other kids.  His teacher this year has set up a book club once a week where kids can stay in from recess and talk about a book they are reading to help Braden with his social skills.  Right now they are reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  My lovely sister has been making treats for this event each week.  And when I suggested that the Wimpy Kid would make a totally cute and easy cakepop she said that she thought the kids would love it if I made cakepops.  So much for suggesting that she do it.  So I set to thinking about what I would need.  I figured I could use half a jelly bean for his nose and just pipe on his eyes and smile with black frosting but  I didn’t think the frosting would work as his hair and indeed – it didn’t. 

I finally settled on some black string licorice cut into quarter inch pieces.

I like this one the best:

 I showed the best one to Braden only for him to proclaim that he wanted cupcakes.  Oy.  But by this point I had already baked and crumbled a cake for cakepops.  So not to waste the opportunity to cover crumbs with white chocolate I made the cake pops without sticks.  I used a toothpick to dunk the balls into the melted chocolate and then another to push it off the first toothpick and onto a parchment lined pan.  Before it hardened I stuck half a white jelly bean on the front and three slivers of precut string licorice on the top as hair.  When I hardened I used black frosting to pipe on eyes, ears and a smile J  Since Braden wanted cupcakes, I decided to use these adorable little Wimpy Kids as toppers.  I whipped up a batch of chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and piped on a generous pile of frosting – I find giving third graders a lot of sugar mid-day is always a good idea when you don’t have any kids.  Then I popped the little Wimpy Kid heads right into the center and went from cute cupcakes to adorable overload!

I swear I will never get tired of people saying "Wow!" when they see something I made.  Especially kids!  

When the cakes began

I think so many home bakers start out by just making treats for the family.  I don't have kids - thank @#$! but there are plenty of kids in my family.  I think my passion started when people actually started asking me to make stuff instead of me just forcing my treats upon everyone.  When my twin niece and nephew turned one, I was honored that my sister-in-law called me to see if I'd make the cake.  It was a simple design - she had found a shaped pan from Wilton and even ordered it.  It's the Wilton Monkey Pan and was a decent enough product to work with.  I think now I'd prefer to attempt a monkey without the help of a shaped pan now but at the time I didn't care.   I used the directions that came with the pan as a guide for decorating but I put this cake on top of a double layer sheet - or half sheet I guess.  I filled it with a buttercream - yum.  One other added feature - my SIL also bought some little royal icing jungle creatures which I stuck on the sides of the cake just to work them in. They are hard to see in the picture but if you look under the monkey's foot you can kindof see one.  It's not my best work but it was brilliant at the time!  The little flowers are just a basic buttercream.  I clearly need to practice my writing.  Happy birthday Spencer and Scarlett!  I can't believe you'll be TWO soon!

Learning Fondant

A few years ago I didn't even know what fondant was.  I'm still not entirely sure I know what it is except that it's awesome.  If you're a caking kinda gal - or dude - you probably already know and love fondant for its flexible options as far as making smooth surfaces that can be airbrushed, painted or piped upon.  It also can be shaped, molded and cut into anything.  I think the best part of fondant is that it's fun!  It's like playdough for grown-ups.  My first forray into fondant was for my nephew's 6th birthday.  As a huge fan of the Flyers and future NHL star, he wanted a hockey cake.  He wanted it to be in the team colors with their logo.  Then every day or so, he'd call me to ask me how his cake was coming and then he would request more features.  First he wanted an ice rink, then a hockey stick, then a hockey "guy".  I wasn't sure about using fondant but how hard could it be?  All the descriptions online and on tv made it sound easy peasy.  And for the most part it was pretty easy to figure out.  I picked up some of the typical tools from Wilton, a few tubs of their precolored fondant, a roller and some of those edible ink markers.  Looking back, it's not bad for a first attempt but anyone who would see it would definitey think "hmph! amateur!". It certainly wouldn't win me any prizes on Cake Wars.  (Which I totally think about winning when I'm making a cake.)   I think this cake was a good lesson in knowing your audience.  When I brought the cake to my sister's house in preparation for the ice skating party my nephew was so excited!  Seeing his eyes light up and proclamations of "WOW!" was such an awesome feeling.  And one of the best moment of my life was when asked if he liked it he said "I LOVE IT!"    Here is my first fondant cake - it's a standard vanilla cake - I'll post my recipe another time - with pastry cream filling.  It's mostly buttercream frosting with the ice rink, hockey stick and "guy" made from fondant.  In hindsight, I'd probably have used gum paste.

A note on store-bought fondant.  Lots of folks don't seem to like the premade stuff. It's ok.  I don't find it as delicious as buttercream but I don't think anything is as good as buttercream - I'd have buttercream oatmeal with buttercream coffee and a buttercream banana for breakfast everyday if I could.  The store-bought stuff works - there's always a consistency and the pre-colored stuff does save a lot of time.  I've made fondant myself and there's a time and place for that too.  More on the store-bought fondant vs. homemade another time...

Awesome amateur hockey cake: