Posts Tagged "cupcakes"
Eating…Seattle: Second Helpings
Before I left for Seattle I made a list of new restaurants to try while I was in town. I am nothing, if not prepared. Especially when it comes to eating. That is no joke.
I didn’t get a chance to try too many new things, since we were kind of pressed for time with all the wedding events that had to be done [including an amusing family get together at the house – oh the copious amount of beer that had been consumed that day] but I did try a few good places and revisited some familiar sites.
After getting picked up at the airport, we stopped by the Jewel Box Café for boba milk tea and a Seattle Dog for me. If you don’t remember from last time, a Seattle dog is a hot dog on a slightly toasted bun with cream cheese. Don’t knock it until you try it. The one at the café was passable, though the street vendors make a much better dog. I think the bun was a bit too toasty to wield to the dog and there definitely was not enough cream cheese.
On Thursday, the family got together at Red Hook Brewery for a few [hundred] pitchers and food. I’m not a real fan of beer but somehow I had a glass pored for me and I slowly, and I mean, S-L-O-W-L-Y, sucked that thing down over the course of the lunch. And we were there for at least a few hours. The food was your typical pub food: burgers, sandwiches, other stuff, and nothing really to write about. The shenanigans that happened while we were there..well, we had fun.
Things turned towards fun on Friday. J and I went to pick up some cupcakes from Trophy with a Groupon he bought and I had the pleasure of picking the flavors. Oh, I was in heaven. We ended up with the following: two pineapple upside down, two hummingbirds, snickerdoodle, red velvet, lemon, salted caramel, snowball, triple chocolate, something else and the monthly special: the Elvis. As soon as I saw the sign, my eyes lit up. Not because I was a fan of Elvis, but because it was a banana cake with peanut butter frosting drizzled with honey. Can you say delicious?
I tore into that cupcake as soon as physically possible. The frosting was perfect: just the right amount of peanut butter, not too sweet and delightfully light and fluffy. I’m not a big frosting person but I wanted to lick it all off right then and there. Trophy, my goodness. I puffy heart you.
Then I took a bite out of the cake. It was moist [much better texture over the red velvet one I had previously] and banana-ey and…FILLED WITH COCONUT. I was appalled. And disgusted. And utterly crushed. Oh Trophy! Why do you hate me so?! I was miffed but because the frosting was so delicious, I suffered through the rest of the cake. I sat there with a very noticeable frown on my face. I was NOT happy. Who puts coconut in a banana cake? I was mad that the clerk at the shop failed to mention they baked their cake with coconut. What if I was allergic to coconut? Who thinks to ask if there’s coconut in a banana cake?! Oh. You? You think to ask if there’s coconut in a banana cake? You disgust me. I later tried the snicker doodle and was disappointed with that one as well. The frosting was too sweet and the cake was dry and flavorless. It reminded me of a corn muffin. Not very appetizing to say the least.
At least lunch didn’t disappoint. After picking up the cupcakes, J and I headed to Paseo since we were near the neighborhood and it was only a few minutes before it opened, which was key since a line quickly formed soon after we arrived [with another 10 minutes to go before opening!]. They serve Caribbean sandwiches and other stuff and the smell from the bbq was intoxicating. I ended up getting the #1: Grilled Pork sandwich and could not wait to sink my teeth into that baby.
Not the best picture, but still delicious. Wish I could reach in and grab it
By the time we got to the house, the baguette had soaked up just enough of the sauce to make it a bit more pliable but seriously, this was the best pork sandwich I have ever eaten. I could have done with less lettuce as it kind of just got in the way, but the grilled onions, the meat, and the aioli sauce…simply delicioso. One of the groomsmen was more than excited to talk to me about the joys of eating at Paseo and was shocked that I didn’t have to wait in line for 45 minutes like he did. Timing is everything. I will definitely be adding this to my “must eat” list for any and all future trips to Seattle. We had the rehearsal dinner at O’Asian Kitchen but I wasn’t really feeling the food so I didn’t have much to eat.
On Sunday I made revisited a past favorite, Piroshky Piroshky, for breakfast. I was kind of shocked to find a line at 9 in the morning but hey, at least it’s quick moving. I picked up a potato, onion and cheese piroshky as well as a cinnamon cardamon braid to munch on. The piroshky was just as delicious as I remembered and I happily tore into it as I walked around the market. I was going to save the braid for later but later came a lot sooner than I anticipated and sat on a bench to enjoy the view before hiking it to the Space Needle.
Delicious Cinnamon Cardamon braidy goodness
My love, in food form
After saying by to the newlyweds, I headed out on my own to do a little foodie adventuring. Thankfully the two places I planned to visit were in the same area as the hotel, my biggest issue was just finding parking. What a hassle. I stopped by The Yellow Leaf Cupcakes to pick up, well what else, a cupcake. There were a lot of flavors vying for my attention but the blood orange cupcake caught my eye. I had never seen that flavor anywhere before and had to snap it up. I saved it though for later so I could indulge at my last stop of the day: Serious Pie.
Look at all the pretty cupcakes!
Time for lunch!
I had heard of Serious Pie thanks to Food Networks’ “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” series when Tyler Florence was expounding on the deliciousness of the chanterelle mushroom and truffle cheese pizza and my desire to check it out only heightened when A and J both heartily endorsed it. The restaurant itself is tiny and filled with long benches for communal dining. I was a little nervous about my time since I only had a couple hours before I had to return the rental car but thankfully being a single diner was an advantage and I was seated within minutes. I gave the menu a cursory glance since I knew exactly what I wanted, much to the apparent disappointed from my server, who seemed put off that I refused to hear the specials [but in my defense: why would you wait until AFTER I placed my order to ask if I want to hear the specials? Why don't you lead off with that?].
Caught him working the meat. Heh.
The pizza itself was really good. It was a thin crust/flatbread-esque pizza that was crispy and chewy and slightly salty, though it was a little too salty in some areas. I really enjoyed the mushrooms and the floral fragrance from the truffle cheese [I think]. I had to consciously tell myself to slow down or else run the risk of scarfing the whole thing down in minutes.
I want this. RIGHT. NOW.
After lunch, I had enough time to hit up Kerry Point to enjoy my cupcake and take in one last view of the Seattle skyline before heading home. I was excited about trying the cupcake and even purposefully stopped eating just so I had room to eat the cupcake. It was a beautiful looking layered cupcake, I’m not sure what they were but from the looks of it, possibly a yellow and red velvet, with orange buttercream frosting and a dollop of what I assumed to be blood orange puree.
I tasted the frosting but couldn’t discern any flavor. It just tasted like whipped cream or something. I was confused but forged ahead, taking a bite out of the cupcake itself. It was dry and also flavorless [which was why I couldn't figure out what flavors the cake was - if they were flavored or maybe they were just colored batter. And as far as I know, you can't taste colors while sober]. The only thing that had any kind of flavor was the orange filling, which was appropriately sweet and orangey. Cupcake: FAIL.
I was utterly disappointed and ended up not finishing the cupcake. I just couldn’t get over how flavorless that thing was. Would I be open to trying another flavor? Probably, but I definitely wouldn’t go out of my way to try it either.
All in all, while this wasn’t my best attempt at stuffing my face, I still enjoyed my meals, especially the heavenly pork sandwich and pizza. I know where I”m going next time I’m in Seattle!
Read MoreNovember showers…
About a month ago [yeah, yeah, I know I'm waaaay behind] I hosted a baby shower for my bestie, Jacki. It was a little bit stressful but a whole lot of fun. The moment I found out she was pregnant, I volunteered to host her shower, if her mom didn’t want to do the honors. Of course, I’m at a point where I’m incapable, or more accurately, unwilling, to do things simply so you know her shower quickly morphed into quite the production.
I quickly came up with the “Baby Circus” theme after seeing a fancy, schmancy circus themed shower on Hostess with the Mostess and the insanely adorable “Animal Parade” on Meri Meri. Seriously, how adorable are those little animals? And the carousel? EEEEEEEE! [Too bad we forgot to bring it!] The food was loosely inspired by carnival fair. We served mini steak and cheese sammies, florentine and swiss cheese and smoked applewood bacon quiche, mini chicken tacos, mini corn dogs and vegetable crudites. Tammy took care of the dessert table and served brownies, lemon tarts, red velvet and funfetti cupcakes, and caramel and pink popcorn.
Of course I wouldn’t bring this up without sharing pictures with the class!
The food and dessert tables
The food was one of my favorite parts. We were a bit late getting everything ready [seriously, people showed up at 1 on the dot! I was not prepared for that. Obviously my social circle tends to roll in fashionably late] so we were still cooking up a storm and decorating cakes when people started showing up. That was a bit stressful for me and I really wish I could have been done before then but oh well, can’t do much about it. I was pretty much excited to eat everything we made for this shower, especially those steak sammies. Oh so good. And don’t get me started on those mini chicken tacos. I was excited that we didn’t use the fourth box I bought so now I get to snack on them myself. And the swiss cheese and applewood smoked bacon quiche? Just lovely. I honestly believe bacon is a magical ingredient. Seriously, when was the last time you had something bad that had bacon in it?
The dessert table was other wordly. Tammy did a great job of making all the desserts [my hand was only in the pink popcorn - she did the rest!] and everyone raved over them, though the funny thing was that because the table looked so display worthy, people were afraid of taking anything from it! People would wander through the kitchen and help themselves to the desserts that were waiting to replace the ones on the table so we had to make a general announcement that it was, in fact, okay to raid the dessert table, and boy did they.
Let’s just say there were no survivors.
Two of my pet projects were the personalized water bottles [yeah, I went there] and the favors. I made my trusty vanilla bean sugar cookies in the shape of little animals to mimic the Mothers Circus Animal cookies [I subbed blue frosting for the signature pink] and made my own label that was based off the Barnum Animal Crackers boxes. The water bottle labels were super easy thanks to Mrs. Lemon’s handy dandy template she shared on Weddingbee. It was super easy to do and made a big difference. Yet another reason to love the Internet.
Yummy, yummy in my tummy…
All in all, the shower was a success. Everyone who attended had a great time [my other partner-in-crime, one of Jacki's coworkers did a fantastic job at hosting the games]. Jacki was floored by the amount of effort we put into her shower and I’m glad I was able to gift her such a wonderful time.
Los Angeles, the finale
After trekking home early, early Sunday morning with our heads still buzzing from experiencing the awesomeness of GhostRider, Lindsey and I finally made it home. She was lucky enough to be able to sleep while I was stuck hanging out with Thomas Dolby and whatever entertainment I was able to find on the radio.
So here’s when that day’s fun starts. It’s Lindsey’s birthday and I had ordered her a birthday cake as a surprise. Of course, that meant that I had to devise a way to get out of the house without arousing too much suspicion. Pretty easy right? I thought so. In fact, I prepped her for it by telling her that I was meeting a friend for breakfast to cover for my disappearance. All went well until she started complaining about me going out to eat without her on her birthday.
Yup, that was pretty inconsiderate of me isn’t? You know what else is wrong? How that little white lie SNOWBALLED into how inconsiderate I was. For real. Lindsey was understandably hurt that I was abandoning her on her birthday to gallivant around with some friend while she was stuck at home with nothing to eat. So she told Tammy what an inconsiderate thing I was and somehow that got back to our parents! So while I’m down in Santa Monica picking up her cake, the rest of the family is clucking around wondering what the heck did I have to do to leave my baby sister on her birthday.
So while the maelstrom was growing, I was happily sitting at Vanilla Bake Shop waiting for the cake to be decorated and munching on a fresh set of cupcake babies.
Oh yeah, you knew I was gonna eat cupcakes for breakfast. Actually, it was the second time I did that day. Remember those cupcakes I bought the day before? Well I didn’t get a chance to eat them so I ate them that morning before I left. And I figured I should give Vanilla a better shot of getting a decent review and when I saw the strawberries and cream cupcake I was already picking out the other two I wanted to sample:
And really, how can you say no to these little cuties? Exactly. This trip I picked up a Strawberry and Cream, Mom’s Birthday Cake, and Blackberry Passionfruit. And they were so delicious! I am officially a fan of Vanilla Bake Shop. They’re a close second to Cupcake Royale and completely blew Sprinkles out of the water.
Anywho, Lindsey’s cake. I retrieved it and strapped it into the car [seriously. I seatbelted that sucker in!] and made the quick trip back to the apartment to surprise the heck out of her. And my thanks? Being called a jerk.
You’re welcome Lindsey. I love you too.
A cupcake for your thoughts?
Three day weekends are such teases. But man was it a glorious three-day weekend.
Let’s see, so my cupcake trial. I had high expectations for it actually. In fact, I was so gung-ho that I had planned to make two different kinds of cake: a vanilla cupcake and a banana cupcake. All was well until I got home after work. After going hard all day [a few of us are shuffling offices so I had to help my boss pack up his office. Let’s just say there was a lot of stuff crammed into a fairly small space], I was surprised to find myself exhausted by the time I got home. So much so, I was only able to muster up the energy to make vanilla cupcakes. Good thing too because I ran out of cupcake liners as well!
Cough it up to poor planning [especially since I was just at Target staring at cupcake liners!] but it is what it is. I ended up with 17 edible cupcakes [the remaining seven fell victim to the no-liner zone. Poor cupcakes.
I ended up making the frosting the next day to unmiraculous. The consistency was fine on the sides of the bowl but not so in the middle. I was disappointed but thankfully I still had a tub of store bought frosting hanging out in the cabinet after the first failed attempt at banana cupcakes earlier in the year. I whipped that out, added some almond extract and called it a day. My failure at buttercream [yet again] was a minor set back but hey, not everyone makes everything perfectly. Not even Martha Stewart.
I did get some tips from Tam though. Apparently I’m supposed to sift the powdered sugar? She said this as if it were common knowledge. Ahem, but it was not written into the recipe I was following! Bakers.
I’ll try the frosting again because I really want to figure this out. It’d be nice to be able to whip up my own frosting instead of having to remember to buy a tub at the store.
There will be more cupcaking [mis]adventures to come. I’m really amped on nailing this recipe. So much so that I’m even contemplating buying a banana crème flavoring oil to add to my frosting. Ooooh, or maybe the cake! See, the possibilities are endless.
I could go for a cupcake right about now. A vanilla one would be awesome.
Read MorePlease, sir, may I have another Seattle?
When we last left our intrepid travelers, we had just finished adding to the eclectic gum gallery in Post Alley. From there we hopped in the car to head to see where we’d end up next. Capitol Hill was an option, as was the Chinatown/International district. However, we found ourselves ending up at Safeco Field to check out the Mariners.
I know; how awesome was that random decision? Amalia and I used to be pretty good fans of the Mariners back in the 90s when we were in junior high/high school [we will admit it was for Alex Rodriguez but we knew the ENTIRE team – as Amalia is just as nutty, if not more, about sports as I am]. In fact, we had spent the night before chatting about the team at dinner [with enough references to Jay Buhner and “little” Joey Cora to make JoAl to roll his eyes at us]. I got to check out the new stadium, saw some 90s era Mariners baseball [yay Junior Griff for hitting that game-winning double in the bottom of the eighth! Just like old times!], got to see former Giants Joe Nathan [who has filled out remarkably well!] and David Aardsma, and eat shish-ka-berries.
What’s are shish-ka-berries? Think chocolate-dipped strawberry kabobs. So delicious. The chocolate added just enough sweet to the berry. I think they should start selling these puppies down here! Plus points.
I enjoyed the new stadium but was put off by the old-school jumbotron. What is up with the two-tone binary stuff, people? You’ve got a fancy new stadium and it looks like you just dug up the centerfield jumbotron from the Kingdome and brought it here. Minus points.
After the game we headed to Ballard to stop by Cupcake Royale to finish the “Trophy Cupcake vs. Cupcake Royale throw down extravaganza.” Here I picked up the monthly special, Rainier Cherry [from the website: chunks of Rainier cherries from Olmsted Orchards, and a splash of Clear Creek Distillery Cherry Liqueur in a sweet pink buttercream topped with a sprinkling of uniquely crunchy organic, roasted cocoa nibs from Theo Chocolate]. Amalia picked up a Royale w Cheese for herself and a Peppermint Party for JoAl.
So what’s the final verdict? Cupcake Royale all the way. The frosting was also just sweet enough but the cake. Oh the cake was moist and spongy and definitely had the best flavor.
After polishing off the cupcakes, we headed out for some dinner at Ivar’s where I was introduced to a fabulous view of Lake Union [yup, the same lake they filmed the boat house scenes in Sleepless in Seattle] and of an awesomely unexpected landing of those floating planes. Oh, and a gigantic Alaskan King crab leg. Seriously, Amalia and I both ordered half a pound of crab legs and it turned out that just one leg ended up being half a pound. I kind of wish I had taken a picture of it. Anywho, they gave you the tools to tackle it but the shell cracker thing is completely useless when the cooked meat pulls away from the shell so when you press down on it, it just squeezes together instead of cracking open. So I had to be all Neanderthal about it and use my hands. It would have been cool had the legs not been so prickly too.
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