cupcakes from buzz (arlington, va)

www.buzzonslaters.com

allow me to wax poetic about the cupcakes at Buzz... AMAZING! I am a convert! Nancy hand delivered six (plus the above guinness in its own special chinese takeout box, no photo available). Every single one was delicious, an outstanding medley of flavors.

My first victim was the vanilla "Buzz Bumblebee" -- a lot of vanilla with a chocolate ganache center (a reverse Hostess chocolate, if you will). Yum... did not share...

next came its opposite, the chocolate with vanilla center... again, all mine, no sharing

then I took a break from the cupcake gluttony for a few days and transported the rest to my friend Annie's, where I DID share with her husband David. (Annie doesn't like cake -- can you imagine?). I didn't get to some of them until even more days later (Annie and I got distracted by my chocolate bar collection and then we made apple pie), but they still tasted great!

red velvet

chocolate and espresso buttercream -- OMGpumpkin and spice? (can't remember)

apple with vanilla and caramel bits -- mmmm

Oh, and the guinness? I was skeptical (I despise beer) but happily delighted. A rich moist chocolaty treat with no beer flavor at all. (thank you Sully @ Buzz!) (and thank you Nancy!!!)

lemon meringue from quack's bakery (austin, tx)

the sketch:
the model:

the link

a cupcake meetup in burbank

I picked up Ruth and we went to eat some cupcakes @ yummy cupcakes

that's tara, the meetup organizer, in the cap

free samples!

Tiffini Soforenko, Co-Owner/Executive Chef
(holding a tray of bags of bites -- unfrosted baby cupcakes)
tells us about her bakery and products

It was a fun trip, though we both went into sugar comas after all the sampling.

I got some additional cupcakes to take home: the Happy Day (a vanilla/vanilla with sprinkles baked into cake, very festive), the Root Beer Float (root beer icing! odd yet compelling), the Black Out (extremely chocolate) and a vegan coconut (yet to be tasted)

mmmmmm
count me in on the next meetup!
meetup group link

sprinkles truck @ bergamot

this was the instigator from facebook:

Cupcake alarm rang in my head -- Sprinkles Truck @ SMMoA reception! Emailed Severo (who had never partaken of Sprinkles).

I didn't get home until 8:15 so we rushed over to Bergamot before the 9pm endtime. There was a HUGE mob outside the Museum (it felt like a giant cocktail party) that we wove our way through... NO LINE at the truck!

here are the guys in the truck

We got vanilla/vanilla and chai latte $4 ea. ($3.25 @ bakery)

At first, we were going to devour our prey on site... we went over to Track 16 and sat on their bench... opened the vanilla/vanilla and began dissection... then reason prevailed. Me: "This would be easier at home." Severo: "We should really eat our dinner before the cupcakes." (He had picked up pizza @ Joe Peep's in the valley)

here is a closeup of transport container

chai latte still in box (not for long)

Both cupcakes were delicious. The Sprinkles guys said we'd like these better than Magnolia's -- TRUE! Chai Latte is a "Friday only" flavor -- a wonderful take on spice cake. Severo didn't like the sprinkles on the vanilla, not an issue for me.

Sprinkles link
Mobile truck link

Much to my surprise, the cupcake scout/enabler DROVE from Chicago to his gig in Oshkosh. So "of course" he had to stop in at

Bleeding Heart Bakery before catching his plane home. Out of his "magic bag" appeared 4 veruca salts, 2 ...Holy Moles, 2 Ginger Rogers, and 2 mystery beige ones topped with walnuts yet to be tasted (hoping they're the Butter Poached Caramel Apple). Relieved he didn't get the The Back To School Special : "starring the Half Acre Beer Company (heavily soak devils food cupcakes with bits of pretzels inside, half acre ganache topped with a pretzel stick)." That sounds gross to me (I hate beer). Sometimes the taste experiments @ Bleeding Heart fail (the blueberry with thyme frosting comes to mind... blech, too medicinal).

butter lane (nyc) vanillas

butter lane (nyc) vanillas
Originally uploaded by anne m bray
the cupcake scout found another great bakery.
he brought home a sampling of their two types of vanilla/vanilla cupcakes for a mini taste testing. the "french vanilla" has a 7-minute frosting with flecks of vanilla bean, the "american vanilla" is frosted with buttercream less sugary than magnolia's. since most cupcakes sport buttercream, the french icing was a nice change of pace.
www.butterlane.com/

magnolia cupcakes

magnolia cupcakes
Originally uploaded by anne m bray

sugar coma: the enabler brought home a dozen from nyc

DSCN7063

DSCN7063
Originally uploaded by anne m bray

the most obscure cupcake topper ever -- can YOU tell what it is? eggplant? sock? smurf?

DSCN7062

DSCN7062
Originally uploaded by anne m bray

the pink ones

7-09

7-09
Originally uploaded by anne m bray

mockup of calendar page that I'll be hand printing...

cupcake will be laser cut in wood, then printed
calendar part will be silkscreened

plus recipes on backs

this will be a 2010 calendar
hand printed edition of ? @ $120
will do digital version too @ $12

first print project

silkscreen (cupcake) and letterpress

following crumbs to a new beginning

oh dear...
blog #4
(seems easier for me to divide up the subjects/projects)

This cupcake notion gets bigger and bigger...

The last Otis class I took (2004), I started gathering materials to make a "Dessert Safari" calendar. (One of the projects was making a calendar). It was going to feature my favorite desserts to be found in the greater LA area, including maps, recipes and ephemera. That got too complicated for the amount of time that I had so I set it aside.
I'm now taking another class, involving letterpress and silkscreen. We are supposed to make a multiple edition in book format for the class project. For my first typesetting practice, I set Dessert Safari. Then, during the week, I thought... how about "Cupcake Safari"? My first class silkscreen, to be added to the text, is a cupcake. One of my classmates very kindly shared her screen (I found my old screens, but they all have old stencils on them which are not water soluble... need acetone or something equally lethal to remove... or maybe even stretch new silk... no time to deal with it yet) and let me add my cupcake image. Tonight we print!

I'm back on the calendar idea for my "book". I'll do an edition of twelve (twelve months) hand pulled and also make a digital $12 version. I'm going to have some sort of cupcake event (probably @ TAG, my gallery) to promote this... maybe the cupcake tasting party I've been contemplating?