Sunday, March 29, 2009
love birdies.
Holy Cow Cupcakes
Btw, we saw whoopie pies in New York and Manny had said he wanted to try one but we just never got round to it as we were constantly full or trying to keep room for a cupcake!
Thanks to Erin for the pic of the Erin cupcake from Holy Cow!
Cupcakes must be stopped
Utter piffle from the Telegraph (nothing new there!)
The cupcake, a mound of greasy sponge sagging under a grossly overweight hat of buttercream frosting, is an abomination. I fell for it once, or at least I was briefly seduced by the idea of it. I had watched the girls on Sex and the City tucking into cupcakes at New York's Magnolia bakery, and when I was in New York with my husband some years ago we went straight there and ordered the specialty. But even I couldn't manage to make it through the topping: it was so glutinously thick and sweet it made my teeth ache.
The cupcake is the culinary equivalent of the chunky, aggressive grey squirrel, pushing out its frailer rival: if we don't act now, fairy cakes will soon only be found in obscure, out-of-the-way tea-shops in the Outer Hebrides or the Isle of Wight. The cupcake is over-iced, overpriced and over here. It must be stopped.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Eat dessert first!
Punks love the pink cupcakes!
They look quite similar to the last lot and tasted just as good - although I think my frosting was even nicer this time - I whipped it for 8mins rather than 5 so it was even fluffier! Nothing better after a bad week at work than licking the frosting bowl!
Currently winging their way down to Plymouth with Terminal Decline and Dirty Love in a pink transit van!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Eating cupcakes in Hell's Kitchen
After many hours of wandering around looking at planes, helicopters, space shuttles, boats, Concorde's etc we took a wander around Hell's Kitchen to look for Amy's Bread as I knew they had a branch in HK.
Thankfully for our aching feet it didn't take long to find it (I was a whiz with the block system by then if I did say so myself!) - a really busy little store with lots of yummy goodies, both sweet and savoury, inside. Unfortunately it was too busy to get a seat, so we took away a couple of cupcakes to have with a coffee back at the B&C*. I got a yellow cake with pink frosting and Manny got a devils food cupcake with decadent chocolate silk frosting..you're in Hell so you may as well be decadent!
My cupcake was one of the best I tried in NY, very soft flavoursome base with lots of really tasty, vanilla frosting. Manny's cake barely touched the sides so I know he enjoyed it ;)
Amy's Bread, Hells Kitchen, 672 Ninth Avenue, (Between 46th & 47th Streets)
*I keep mentioning our B&C in posts - this is because where we stayed was called the East Village Bed and Coffee - you can visit their website here, and read all about Mango the dog who I wanted to adopt - I've included a pic of him in this post as he was desperately trying to snaffle a lick of my Amy's cupcake! If you're ever visiting NY I cannot recommend this place highly enough - when we go back, hopefully for Halloween 2010 I know this is where I'll be staying!
Mango was a rescue dog and you can read all about his journey to NY from Culebra, Puerto Rico here. I hearted Mango and Miss Blanquita his little friend :)
Ciao for Now..and Barbie's giant cupcake
On the Monday we went to Times Square and visited Sephora, Sanrio and some other stores and , best of all, rode on the Toys R Us ferris wheel, in the My Little Pony carriage (There is pictorial evidence of this on my myspace page). We also saw the huge T-Rex there and it was Barbie's birthday so the entrance to her house had a giant cupcake outside :)
After all that shopping I needed a coffee, and a cupcake so on the way back to the B&C we popped into Ciao For Now, another cupcake cafe totally near where we were staying! It was a really quaint little cafe, with lots of quirky furniture, including a fish tank made from an ancient tv set.
We ordered the usual, a vanilla and a chocolate and a couple of coffees (again good coffee - do you get bad coffee in NY?). The cupcakes were ok if a little tasteless - the frosting tasted nice, but the base was a bit tasteless with the merest hint of vanilla. Manny's chocolate cupcake was very soft with lots of frosting and very chocolaty - just how he likes it.Ciao for Now, 523 East 12th St, between Ave A and B
Monday, March 23, 2009
Batch...finally we try the bacon cupcake
Just a thought - this should perhaps be renamed BLURGH ..finally we try the bacon cupcake!
Penny Licks - Williamsburg
We went back into Penny Licks (no website) after a visit to the Brooklyn Brewery and to Mugs Ale House extreme beer fest and bought two HUGE cookies (our dinner that night)! The star were really friendly, asking us about the UK and how much things cost there, and the cookies were much nicer than the cupcakes - I don't have any pics though as I was a bit "merry" by that point!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
I am a master baker
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Baked by Melissa...dissapointment by Anne
After a trip to the Ugg store (It was my birthday I needed insoles for my Uggs as the amount we were walking in NY wore mine out - and I may have treated myself to a new pair of boots at the same time!) we were dragging ourselves to E Houston to jump in a cab back to our B&C when I spotted a teeny tiny hole in the wall with cupcakes on offer. I was totally excited to see they were Baked by Melissa cupcakes as I wanted to try them after blogging about them previously.
We got a box with 6 flavours - cookies and cream, tie dye, red velvet, smores, cookie dough, peanut butter cup - they're mini (about a mouthful each so in reality this amounted to about 2 cupcakes). Unfortunately the cupcakes got smooshed on the way home - there was a breaking Ugg boot bag incident and everything kinda fell...however even the smooshyness of the cakes wasn't going to put me off, I had a cup of tea and wanted a cupcake... I tried the tie dye one and immediately had a sugar rush, and not in a good way. They just tasted of pure sugar, no distinguishable flavour, just sugar and maybe some oil thrown in...pah. Manny tried the red velvet and the cookies and cream (I think..they were v.squished) and even though his tolerance for sugar is greater than mine he couldn't' manage to eat them.
Cute idea but not tasty! kinda like the pig candy which I've included a pic of just so you can see it really exists!
Sweet Sugar Sunshine...NY blogging continues
I have been meaning to continue my NY cupcake update, however the "a" key fell off my laptop and I had to wait to get a new keyboard so I could type properly again!
I had a sunshine - a yellow cake with pink frosting (if there's a choice I generally choose pink) and Manny opted for an ooey gooey - a chocolate cupcake with a chocolate almond frosting. SSS was busy but we managed to bag a table at the window of the cute little cafe and had a coffee to go with our cupcakes. The cupcakes were as good as they looked - mine had a gorgeous soft melt in the mouth base and the frosting was really yummy, nice and thick and gooey! Manny's cake was really nice and tasted of marzipan (that'll be the almond - I think there was a layer of almond jam in the frosting but I'm not sure as I only had a teeny bit!). He said they were his second favourite after Butter Lane.
And I just HAD to include a picture of Manny's pastrami sandwich from Katz's - I know its not a cupcake so please forgive my food porn moment!
Sweet Sugar Sunshine, 126 Rivington Street, NY 10002
Katz Deli, 205 E Houston St, NY 10002
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Guiness cupcakes
These cakes always attract a lot of attention on the countertop – and cries of amazement that they actually have Guinness in them.
CUPCAKES
250ml Guinness
300g cream cheese
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Line 2 X 12 hole muffin tins with large muffin cases.
More cupcake shopping
i did it!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Mmmm Baileys
Sunday, March 15, 2009
snip snip snip.
Could you?
Cute overload!
I heart Butter Lane!
Following Big Booty and a lengthy walk (in all we walked over 100miles in 7 days!), we popped to Butter Lane for some cupcakes to have with a cup of tea in our B&C, (which if you're ever staying in NY I highly recommend -also Butter Lane and Ciao for Now are both less than 5mins walk away!)
Butter Lane's logo is "The better cupcake" and they aint lying! When you enter their cupcakery you are offered tastings of their frostings - in many flavours and in both French and American style - we sampled the coconut (yum) and strawberry (v.nice!). We opted for our usual 2 classics to test them, a vanilla for me, a chocolate for Manny, both with American frosting. And oh.my.god they were GOOD! In fact they would rate as one of my favourite cupcakes ever. The cake was incredibly moist with a really nice flavour and texture and as for the frosting I could've eaten it by the tub! You could see the flecks of vanilla running through it - utterly fantastic!
Butter Lane only made me want to move to the LES even more!!
Butter Lane, 123 E 7th St, NY