Triple the salt, sugar and fun!

 A few weeks ago one of my best friends, koko butter, was back in town! To celebrate this momentous occasion, I made a cupcake in his honour. As he is sickly sweet and has a sickly sweet tooth, I knew I had to make something involving caramel. So I made something that is currently a massive craze in the USA (and I think has been for quite some time), salted caramel cupcakes. But not just any salted caramel cupcakes, but TRIPLE salted caramel cupcakes.

I followed a recipe published by a follow online baker blogger, Sprinkle Bakes. Here is the link to the recipe.  The triple salted caramel cupcakes were somewhat difficult to make as there was so many components to the cupcakes! The salted caramel cupcake base, the caramel cupcake filling and the salted caramel cupcake frosting. And it was particularly difficult due to the fact that I burnt the caramel cupcake filling twice. After having burnt the filling the second time, I was beyond caring and decided to use the filling anyway as is, in its burnt state and all!

So was it a HIT or a MISS? In my opinion, it was just too sickly sweet. I could barely eat one. However, koko butter did love it and I guess that is the most important thing (other than me of course)! Other people who had one also found the experience some what enjoyable. Because I am selfish, I doubt I would make this cupcake again, as I didn’t like all the components together. Having said that, I will definitely make the caramel cupcake filling again! It tasted like sticky date pudding sauce and we all know my love for sticky date pudding.

The below photo was taken the day after I had made the cupcakes. Yes, I served a day old cupcake – fo’ shame! Special thanks to my sexy hand model, Sarah. 

George Town Cupcakes, I heart you long time!

 I do not need another reason to love George Town Cupcakes any more than I already do! But after this weekend, my love and respect for the ladies of George Town Cupcakes have grown exponentially. Not only do their cupcakes look amazingly tasty, but they are also so creative with what they do with the cupcakes. For instance, their cupcake bouquet of flowers. As you would remember from my previous post, I love presents that you can consume! So a bouquet of cupcake flowers is a win-win in my opinion. Flowers that you can eat – genius!

I attempted my first cupcake bouquet of flowers and my goodness it was diabolical! The cupcakes that sat on the top of the bouquet manage to keep shape and stick to the cupcake base. But the cupcakes that were on a slight angle were impossible to ice! After much effort, I managed to ice all the cupcakes (even the cupcakes on a slight angle). It was not my best icing work, but it was what it was. However, only to discover minutes later that the icing started to drip off the cupcakes and onto the table. After three attempts of trying to ice the cupcakes again, I just gave up and let the forces of gravity get the better of me! By the end of the party, three cupcakes loss their rose icing. FML (for the record, I do not mean fluffy, moist and light)!

The original plan of action was to make two bouquets of cupcake flowers for the cupcake picnic, but after realising how difficult it was to actually make, I decided to only make one. Thereby leaving one of two ceramic pots cupcakeless and looking somewhat sad.

Ah well, you win some, you lose some. In this scenario, three of my cupcakes lost their rose icing! I take my cupcake hat off to the ladies of George Town Cupcakes – you are amazing!

Georgetown cupcakes - I want to go to there!

I was recently introduced to the wonderful show that is DC Cupcakes from my hockey playing sister-in-law, Ash, who was introduced to the show from our  sister-in-law, Tenielle. The show is about two sisters who leave their corporate jobs in pursuit of their dreams to open a cupcake bakery. Each episode follows the sisters as they execute baking projects for various customers, ranging from wedding cupcakes to slot machines dispensing cupcakes! Some of their cupcake work, sorry I stand corrected, ALL of their work is amazing. 

Not only is show good value, the sisters' cupcake bakery Georgetown Cupcake is absolutely beautiful. Very slick and simple, yet extremely elegant. The way they display their cupcakes is simply breathtaking. When I saw the photo below, I just sighed in disbelief at the cupcake beauty that was before me.

I usually don't like to disclose to people what I will be baking, in the event that my baking adventure becomes a baking disaster. But after watching an episode of DC Cupcakes where the audience is shown how to do the Georgetown Cupcake 'signature swirl', I just have to give it ago! I will report back to you and let you know how I go over the weekend. If you are interested in viewing the 'signature swirl' in action, please watch the below video:

Oh my goodness, Georgetown cupcakes - I want to go to there! I guess in the interim, I have DC Cupcakes to keep me occupied. 

WARNING: Controversial blog post

In email correspondence this morning with my best friend (and part time life coach) Koko Butter, we discussed my blog (this blog actually!) and my search for the perfect cupcake. In his email, Kosta suggested I not lose focus of my blog’s purpose, and that every post should reveal, in some way, what I think makes the best cupcake.

He had plenty of suggestions. Is it the taste? Is it the toppers or the concept? Is it the joy it brings people? What combination of these is it?

This leads me to my next post (this post actually!):

In 2008, I visited the United States of America to attend an international conference called Global Village (GV). During my stay in the big US to the A, I spent about a week in New York City. Like many people in the world, I am a big fan of Sex in the City and visiting NYC was a must for that reason alone. Oh my goodness, can I be any more of a cliché?! I like cupcakes, I like pink, I like Audrey Hepburn, I like Sex in the City ... OMG I am totally like, you know, like, not like a stereotypical girl or anything.

Anyway, while in NYC I signed up for a Sex in the City tour. We visited a number of the famous sites from the show, including Pleasure Chest, Meat Packing District, Scout and the famous Magnolia Bakery. I was so excited by the prospect of tasting a cupcake from Magnolia Bakery. If it was good enough for Carrie Bradshaw, it was sure as heck good enough for a small town girl from Perth!  Here is a photo of me and some exquisite GV ladies about to sink our teeth into our delicious cupcake.

I had a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. It was a nice cupcake. It didn’t exactly float my boat. But, don’t get me wrong, the cupcake didn’t violently offend me either. Like I said, it was a nice cupcake. Would I say it was my perfect cupcake? Probably not. Now, I know this is quite the controversial statement to make, but in my opinion, it wasn’t perfection in a cupcake (please note statements of opinion are not legally actionable). But why trust my opinion; I openly admitted to cheating with Ms Crocker, what would I know?!

So Koko Butter, in answer to your question about what makes the best cupcake – everything you suggested and so much more! Am I asking too much? Am I being too demanding? Probably, but hey, I am a clichéd, high maintenance girl, living in my own cliché world!