So I had a somewhat better day yesterday. And I'm having a somewhat better day today. Not in the sense that writing is suddenly flowing, but that I'm less tetchy about it. And I hadn't planned on a blog today. But I need a little writing break right now to clear my brain-clutter a bit, and so I figured I'd go ahead and post some of the details of the NY Cupcake Tour mentioned a couple of blogs ago.
So anyway, my friends Sasha and Laura and I have this thing we do every couple of years that is titled after a blend of our names/nicknames. It's called Salaelmofest. I won't break it down, because that would involve a lengthy explanation that I don't want to give right now. But Salaelmofest involves all of us getting together in one of our current abodes--though it has always been in either Sasha's current abode of NYC, or Laura's current abode of Boston, which significantly, used to be my abode as well as Sasha's. We don't hold Salaelmofest at my abode, because my abode, as cities go, just has nothing on NY or Boston. It's a dream of mine to eventually find a new abode that has a hip, urban vibe that is at least comparable to NY's or Boston's, but that's not happening for a while. Anyway, for this most recent Salaelmofest, our third, we obviously went to NY, and we obviously decided that cupcake-hunting was our mission. Now, we had grand expectations. Sasha, who originally proposed the idea of the Cupcake Tour, drew up a route that took us all over Manhattan, and that took us past 7 centers of cupcake genesis for our cupcake exodus, for it was to be a journey of biblical scope, to be documented for the ages. But Manhattan is big, and full of other distractions. And 7 cupcakes, well, that's a LOT of cupcakes to be had in a single day. So we ended up hitting three, and perhaps we will continue the journey at Salaelmofest 4 or 5, and then perhaps we'll make a Cupcake Tour Brochure, which will somehow become a resource for NY tourists everywhere, and will make us all scads and scads of money. Well, it'd be fun, anyway. In any case, this blog will highlight those 3 cupcake sites we visited, offer viewings of the cupcakes we sampled as well as my own personal cupcake evaluations. So here goes:
Site I: Magnolia
Now, as you may already know, Magnolia has a lot of hype associated with it. It's been featured on
Sex and the City--the single girl's homage to NY--as well as on
Veronica Mars, and is known exclusively for its cupcakes, though it's possible there are other confections to be had there. For some reason, however, I don't actually have a picture of the cupcakes...which I now take as a fairly ominous sign, and you should too. I'll have to consult with Sasha and Laura to see if they have photos of Magnolia's cupcakes, but in the end, I take my forgetting as prophetic, since the cupcakes were quite disappointing. They were pretty--a selection of pastel, almost sherbert-colored icings that were formed in a swirly spiral. And having once made the vanilla-vanilla cupcakes from Magnolia's recipes, I opted for a cake that had some chocolate in it, and made a quick grab. This is actually an important point--there's apparently always a line outside Magnolia, and because the bakery has a relatively small space, only a few customers are let in at a time so as not to exceed capacity. This also means that cupcakes are snatched up almost as quickly as they're set out, so you don't always have much choice. At any rate, I managed to grab a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. And after Sasha, Laura and I had all gathered and paid for our cupcakes, we stepped outside to let other people in, and proceeded to eat. Now, unlike some people, I really appreciated the crowdedness, the fact that there was an established Magnolia dynamic, a system; I took it as a sign that this was the Magnolia way and that Magnolia would live up to all its hype. And it all started off quite well--the chocolate icing was quite good--a bit too sweet, but not nearly as sweet as the vanilla, which is almost entirely confectioner's sugar--although, when balanced with cake that is quite buttery and not too sweet, this isn't necessarily a problem. But the cupcake I bought from Magnolia was unfortunately quite dry--something that took quite a bit away from the taste and texture of the cake. And after all the hype, I couldn't help but be disappointed. (Sigh).
Site II: Cupcake Cafe
The Cupcake Cafe was a decided improvement over Magnolia. First of all, it's a much bigger space that also houses a children's bookstore. And I'm a big fan of that sort of thing. Trident Cafe on Boston's Newberry Street is a similar sort of deal, though it's not specifically a children's bookstore. At any rate, there were plenty of tables and chairs at Cupcake Cafe, and a friendly staff, and the cupcakes were decorated beautifully, as were the other full-sized cakes that you could see in the refrigerators behind the counters. They also had some more unusual flavors, like maple, which is the cupcake I sampled, and which was quite good. Another plus was the decor particular to the cafe. I have only 3 words that sum up its prime feature: mechanized dancing cupcakes. It was kind of awesome. There were these three cupcakes with legs that were positioned like Rockettes' legs, and that had these eyelashes coming out of their frosting. I don't think they had eyes though. Check it out:
Pretty fabulous, right? Also, the staff was very nice about letting me take lots of pictures. Though of course, it DOES mean free publicity for them, doesn't it? I guess it does. Anyway, as I said, I had a maple cupcake--featured below. I can't remember what kind of cupcakes Sasha and Laura had, but they seemed to enjoy them. And they were all very pretty, and unlike Magnolia, very moist, though surprisingly dense. Density is not by itself a bad thing in a cupcake, but perhaps something you might not expect if you have as much cupcake experience as I like to think I have. But have a look-see:
The maple one that I tried is the one with the blue flower. Sasha's cupcake is the one with the pink rose on the right, and I think I remember now that it was mocha, and actually, I think Laura may have had a maple cupcake as well, and hers is obviously the one with the purple flower cake in the back. But they're quite pretty, aren't they? And there were other cupcakes that were much more elaborately and impressively decorated, and in quite a staggering array of colors. I would give Cupcake Cafe a firm thumbs up. You can also check out their website, which shows some of their fancier creations:
http://www.cupcakecafe.com/.
Site III: Crumbs
Last, but definitely not least. Crumbs also had a respectable amount of seating--not quite as much as Cupcake Cafe, and without the same charm or ambiance--but quite adequate to our needs. They also had other confections and beverages available. (Cupcake Cafe had beverages also, I believe, but they weren't as obviously displayed. ) What made Crumbs such a rewarding experience, however, was the variety of cupcakes that were available. They advertise 30 flavors on their website, though sadly, they do not sell all 30 at a given time--which was actually kind of upsetting, because I didn't get the opportunity to try the key lime cupcake, which is the 2nd cupcake from the top on the left-hand side of the window pictured above. However, the variety was still impressive, both in flavorings and in size. There was a "mini" cupcake--though this was actually a normal/average-sized cupcake, and there was a supposedly more "standard" or regular-sized cupcake, which was about 3-4 times the size of the minis, if not more. It was gigantic and glorious. Here is a partial view of the display of these beauties:
As you can see, the "minis" on the top row are quite a bit smaller in size than the "standard" size on the row below. And I think you get an idea of the range of flavors--on the top row, we have rasberry buttercream and lemon buttercream, on the second row, I think we have some sort of chocolate fudge, then black forest, and then the last I think is snickerdoodle or possibly s'more? I really can't remember. At any rate, we tried a standard (i.e. gigantic) devil dog cupcake and a standard lemon buttercream. The devil dog was good, a sort of higher-end approximation of the original Drake Cake that inspired it. A quibble though--in my personal experience, Devil Dogs were something you ate when you wanted low-end, generic ingredients--and I kind of would have liked to see that aesthetic reproduced more accurately in this cupcake version. Conceptually, I thought it was a brilliant idea, and the cupcake was ultimately tasty, but it wasn't truly the Devil Dog in cupcake form. Not a bad approximation, but the cake didn't taste quite right, and the frosting, which was supposed to reproduce the really thick, almost paste-like cream that fills out the center of a Devil Dog, was not quite thick enough and didn't quite have the thick, delightfully cheap (and synthetic) taste either. I'm sorry; sometimes we just want crap food, even if we know it's low-quality. How else can we explain the success of the Big Mac? The lemon buttercream cupcake, however, was sublime. Moreover, the texture and moistness of Crumbs cupcakes were just what they should have been--light, and fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth yumminess. And here are the cupcakes we sampled prior to decimation:
You can see how aesthetically pleasing they are, and I can assure you that they were delicious also. A great balance. All in all, I hope the Cupcake Tour really does become a 7-site sort of affair, but for this post, 3 seems quite enough. At any rate, I think we all agreed Crumbs offered the best cupcakes of the 3 sites we visited, and I would go back without any griping, if only to track down that elusive key lime.
And the rest of the weekend wasn't bad either; lots of wandering in beautiful weather, eating ethnically diverse food, and a pitcher of sangria to boot. Laura and I did have to guard our veins from Sasha, however. Sasha is in medical school. She's very smart. She's also similarly obsessed with all things medical in the way that I and my grad school friends are obsessed with all things literary. And she and her med school friends have their caveats and quirks that I suppose only med students have. And she can do things like draw blood or insert IV's, and well, she happened to notice that Laura and I apparently both have good (i.e. visible, prominent, and hence, easy-to-find-and-stick) veins. And Sasha kept pointing this out to us. And eyeing our respective veins. To the point that we felt there was something sexual going on. To wit, we actually came up with a come-hither gesture that was vein-specific and basically translates as: "Look at my sexy veins. You want them. You know you do. And I want you want them too."
Happy Friday, everyone. I'm so relieved I made it. Now I get to spend the next 3 days on this chapter without any interruptions, save my own. Until next time.
Now, as you may already know, Magnolia has a lot of hype associated with it. It's been featured on Sex and the City--the single girl's homage to NY--as well as on Veronica Mars, and is known exclusively for its cupcakes, though it's possible there are other confections to be had there. For some reason, however, I don't actually have a picture of the cupcakes...which I now take as a fairly ominous sign, and you should too. I'll have to consult with Sasha and Laura to see if they have photos of Magnolia's cupcakes, but in the end, I take my forgetting as prophetic, since the cupcakes were quite disappointing. They were pretty--a selection of pastel, almost sherbert-colored icings that were formed in a swirly spiral. And having once made the vanilla-vanilla cupcakes from Magnolia's recipes, I opted for a cake that had some chocolate in it, and made a quick grab. This is actually an important point--there's apparently always a line outside Magnolia, and because the bakery has a relatively small space, only a few customers are let in at a time so as not to exceed capacity. This also means that cupcakes are snatched up almost as quickly as they're set out, so you don't always have much choice. At any rate, I managed to grab a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. And after Sasha, Laura and I had all gathered and paid for our cupcakes, we stepped outside to let other people in, and proceeded to eat. Now, unlike some people, I really appreciated the crowdedness, the fact that there was an established Magnolia dynamic, a system; I took it as a sign that this was the Magnolia way and that Magnolia would live up to all its hype. And it all started off quite well--the chocolate icing was quite good--a bit too sweet, but not nearly as sweet as the vanilla, which is almost entirely confectioner's sugar--although, when balanced with cake that is quite buttery and not too sweet, this isn't necessarily a problem. But the cupcake I bought from Magnolia was unfortunately quite dry--something that took quite a bit away from the taste and texture of the cake. And after all the hype, I couldn't help but be disappointed. (Sigh).
The Cupcake Cafe was a decided improvement over Magnolia. First of all, it's a much bigger space that also houses a children's bookstore. And I'm a big fan of that sort of thing. Trident Cafe on Boston's Newberry Street is a similar sort of deal, though it's not specifically a children's bookstore. At any rate, there were plenty of tables and chairs at Cupcake Cafe, and a friendly staff, and the cupcakes were decorated beautifully, as were the other full-sized cakes that you could see in the refrigerators behind the counters. They also had some more unusual flavors, like maple, which is the cupcake I sampled, and which was quite good. Another plus was the decor particular to the cafe. I have only 3 words that sum up its prime feature: mechanized dancing cupcakes. It was kind of awesome. There were these three cupcakes with legs that were positioned like Rockettes' legs, and that had these eyelashes coming out of their frosting. I don't think they had eyes though. Check it out:
The maple one that I tried is the one with the blue flower. Sasha's cupcake is the one with the pink rose on the right, and I think I remember now that it was mocha, and actually, I think Laura may have had a maple cupcake as well, and hers is obviously the one with the purple flower cake in the back. But they're quite pretty, aren't they? And there were other cupcakes that were much more elaborately and impressively decorated, and in quite a staggering array of colors. I would give Cupcake Cafe a firm thumbs up. You can also check out their website, which shows some of their fancier creations: http://www.cupcakecafe.com/.
Last, but definitely not least. Crumbs also had a respectable amount of seating--not quite as much as Cupcake Cafe, and without the same charm or ambiance--but quite adequate to our needs. They also had other confections and beverages available. (Cupcake Cafe had beverages also, I believe, but they weren't as obviously displayed. ) What made Crumbs such a rewarding experience, however, was the variety of cupcakes that were available. They advertise 30 flavors on their website, though sadly, they do not sell all 30 at a given time--which was actually kind of upsetting, because I didn't get the opportunity to try the key lime cupcake, which is the 2nd cupcake from the top on the left-hand side of the window pictured above. However, the variety was still impressive, both in flavorings and in size. There was a "mini" cupcake--though this was actually a normal/average-sized cupcake, and there was a supposedly more "standard" or regular-sized cupcake, which was about 3-4 times the size of the minis, if not more. It was gigantic and glorious. Here is a partial view of the display of these beauties:
As you can see, the "minis" on the top row are quite a bit smaller in size than the "standard" size on the row below. And I think you get an idea of the range of flavors--on the top row, we have rasberry buttercream and lemon buttercream, on the second row, I think we have some sort of chocolate fudge, then black forest, and then the last I think is snickerdoodle or possibly s'more? I really can't remember. At any rate, we tried a standard (i.e. gigantic) devil dog cupcake and a standard lemon buttercream. The devil dog was good, a sort of higher-end approximation of the original Drake Cake that inspired it. A quibble though--in my personal experience, Devil Dogs were something you ate when you wanted low-end, generic ingredients--and I kind of would have liked to see that aesthetic reproduced more accurately in this cupcake version. Conceptually, I thought it was a brilliant idea, and the cupcake was ultimately tasty, but it wasn't truly the Devil Dog in cupcake form. Not a bad approximation, but the cake didn't taste quite right, and the frosting, which was supposed to reproduce the really thick, almost paste-like cream that fills out the center of a Devil Dog, was not quite thick enough and didn't quite have the thick, delightfully cheap (and synthetic) taste either. I'm sorry; sometimes we just want crap food, even if we know it's low-quality. How else can we explain the success of the Big Mac? The lemon buttercream cupcake, however, was sublime. Moreover, the texture and moistness of Crumbs cupcakes were just what they should have been--light, and fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth yumminess. And here are the cupcakes we sampled prior to decimation:
You can see how aesthetically pleasing they are, and I can assure you that they were delicious also. A great balance. All in all, I hope the Cupcake Tour really does become a 7-site sort of affair, but for this post, 3 seems quite enough. At any rate, I think we all agreed Crumbs offered the best cupcakes of the 3 sites we visited, and I would go back without any griping, if only to track down that elusive key lime.
I would add that there was some initial worry on the bride's part that the groom wouldn't actually dance. But he danced. With quite a bit more enthusiasm than I think any of us could have anticipated. He grooved. He shimmied. He bopped. Granted, there appeared to be a lot of self-mockery in his dancing attempts, but still, he danced. And all was well. And I took a lot of other pictures that were really quite funny--like the series of Joe and friend and groomsman Chris, each with an arm around the other, and looking quite tipsy in that way that you can only get tipsy at weddings. Indeed, each picture seemed to perfectly capture a stage of the sort of drunken conversation that frequently happens between good friends at one of their weddings--happiness, nostalgia, "deep" seriousness, and a sort of equally "deep" pseudo-pragmatism, a gesture that sums up the conversation and the state of things, a "that's life"--in Joe's case, a tipping back of his beer into his mouth. It was positively magnificent as pictorial series go.
Here, check out the upcakes. This is a picture taken from the Dixie Picnic website, if you don't actually hit the link to check it out. Although, come to think of it, don't these look more like the BOTTOM halves of cupcakes, rather than the tops? What if that's what they did? What if, in an act of malice, they CUT OFF the tops of the cupcakes, and are using the bottoms to pose as enlarged tops? The thought is simply chilling. For the time being, though, I will keep faith in Dixie Picnic, and not succumb to the plague of doubt.
