Posts Tagged ‘cupcakes’

On Twitter I saw a tweet about a Toronto cupcake meetup at The Drake Hotel that Cupcakes Take The Cake was throwing. I immediately sent an e-mail to rsvp. Then I remembered how shy I am. Was this a good idea?

I overcame my shyness (maybe all that sugar helped?) and had an absolute blast! Everyone there was super nice and friendly and I got to meet Juanita from Sweet Things, someone whose blog and twitter I follow. Juanita brought the cutest cupcakes

We We got to sample 4 different flavours: vanilla with a homemade marshmallow, coconut, pistachio cupcake with lavender frosting, and a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and edible gold leaf sprinkled on top.

It was interesting to hear everyone’s opinions on the cupcakes. A majority of people liked the vanilla cupcake, but I thought it was too sweet for my tastes. My favourite of the bunch was the coconut cupcake. This was surprising for me as it was the one I least wanted to try. I’m not a big fan of coconut at all, other than coconut cream pie. This cupcake tasted like coconut cream pie! It had a huge pile of coconut frosting bathed with shredded coconut and hidden in the cupcake was a custard filling. Delicious! The chocolate cupcake would be good for a lover of dark bitter chocolate. It was incredibly rich and the frosting looked like a sour cream chocolate ganache. The pistachio and lavender one was my second favourite out of the bunch.

Before I didn’t know what the appeal was with cupcakes, but I get it now. For me it’s like a mini cake where you can try different flavours in bite sized amounts. If you’re ordering a cupcake, you don’t have to commit to ordering an entire cake.

Big thanks to Cupcakes Take the Cake for setting this up. It was awesome meeting Rachel and everyone who was there!

The last time I made buttercream that wasn’t just butter and icing sugar turned out to be a huge failure. It would just melt into a grainy puddle. I had wanted to make cupcakes with bourbon buttercream for a “meet the neighbours” event and I ended up having to leave the tops bare with just caramel drizzle. I was so distressed about my buttercream results that I e-mailed the author wondering what I did wrong. To my surprise I got a quick e-mail back and once I get the courage I will try making the recipe again. Flipping through the Cake Bible it looks like the recipe may have been a mousseline buttercream as Rose states the butter must be at the proper temperature otherwise it becomes a puddly mess.

It was a friend’s birthday and his favourite treat are chocolate cupcakes. What better way to test out a Cake Bible recipe? I made the All American chocolate butter cake and used the chocolate neoclassic buttercream. I overbaked the first batch by about a minute or 2 and they were a bit dry. If you leave them for a few hours or overnight, they become fudgier. I had almost wrote this recipe off because it wasn’t mind blowing, but I think I’ll give it another chance making sure not to overbake it. The chocolate neoclassic buttercream is to die for! I’m not a huge fan of frostings, but this is definitely worth making and piling on a cupcake. I also had no problems with the buttercream, it was a breeze to pipe with and held up quite well.

Recipe for cake here
Recipe for buttercream here

I spotted a cupcake shop taking my dog to the vet and knew I had to pop in for a visit afterwards. I wish I had taken a picture of the store front because it’s such a cute little place. I looked around a bit before placing an order for a mango-lime and an earl grey with orange cupcake. Being in the store was so inspiring and I hoped one day I would have a little store of my own. I ended up talking to the owner, Clair Sutton, who was nice enough to listen to my rambling about my dream of selling cookies. She gave some good tips and said if I had any more questions to call her! How nice is that?!

Anyway, back to the cupcakes. They fulfilled my cupcake craving nicely and I loved the frosting! It wasn’t too sweet and the mango-lime cupcake made me want a margarita. The earl grey cupcake was also delicious. If you’re in the area, they’re definitely worth checking out.

Life is Sweet – A Cupcake House
2328 Queen St. E. (at Kingswood)
Hours: Tuesday – Friday 7:30-6, Saturday 9:30-5, Sunday 10-4
Flavours: vanilla bean, chocolate, mint chocolate, lemon drop, earl grey with orange, butterscotch, chocolate chip, coconut, white chocolate, and seasonal specials