Topsy Turvy Cake

I've recently been on a holiday back home to Australia for 5 weeks. While I was there I learnt so many new cake skills. I learnt how to wire flowers and create flower sprays by taking a Moth Orchid course and in turn learnt the basics of Gum paste and how to work with it and make it myself from scratch.

 

I took a class on how to make Zoo Animals, moulding a giraffe, panda and monkey from fondant. As a result I can now make any basic animal sitting up - can't wait to get a jungle themed cake to make!

Finally I took one last class on how to cover a chocolate cake in ganache to then cover in fondant and create a fondant ribbon.

I took so many things away from all of these classes to then come home to an order from a friends husband for a small surprise birthday cake. After I enquired what theme etc. I was given two stipulations. 1. It MUST be chocolate and 2. It has to have "Happy Birthday" on the cake. Other then those two requirments, I was free to do what I wished. So I charged mates rates for a small cake and decided to make my first ever topsy turvy cake.

 I did a bit of research on what designs to do and finally decided to use some of the skills I learnt in Australia and came up with a 2 tiered cake. I decided to start with a cake board covered in Fondant with Happy Birthday on that. Then the first tier I made a simple pink with some flowers scattered across it.

The top tier I wanted to finish with a loop ribbon to represent a gift box, so thought I would do the strips up the side too.

The one twist to this whole order, was that I was going to be one of the guests at the dinner. This is the first time I've made a cake for a customer to then be present for the tasting. It was really quiet scary!!

At the end of the day though, the cake came out beautifully and tasted better then I expected. I guess you can judge how it turned out for yourself by checking out the pictures!! ;)

New York & DC Cupcake/Bakery tour part 3...

Our final day of cupcake tours in New York took us to a couple of unexpected stops. First thing in the morning we planned to go to Cupcake Cafe, however met a couple of friends out front of Baked by Melissa. I didn't even see the store there, until my friend asked if it was on our tour.

 I noted in Baked by Melissa that all of the cakes were mini bite sized cakes, which was a welcomed change from a lot of the other stores we had been to in previous days. We found that we had started to struggle through the cupcake stores and bakeries as we couldn't finish our cakes. To have bite sized as an option was wonderful news for our hips and taste buds.

Inside Baked by Melissa

 We were only going to have one each, and Steve sent me in with the stipulation of "mint chocolate" which is not one of my favourite flavour combinations. However, when I went in I noticed that the best way to buy these bite sized beauties was in a box of 3. So that's what I did. I went with the Choc-mint, Cookies & Cream and Chocolate fudge cupcakes. They were all so delicious! The cakes were moist and full of flavour with just the right amount of frosting. They were decorated in a very cute and sweet manner. Our only criticism is that after devouring them, we wished we had more.

Chocolate fudge, cookies & cream and Choc-mint cupcakes from Baked by Melissa

Our next stop for the day was Cupcake Cafe. I had read (on another blog) that it was one of the must do's in any New York cupcake tour. Upon entering Cupcake Cafe we almost had to search for the cupcakes. We finally found them towards the back of the store, and the flavour combinations were nothing exciting at all - simple chocolates & vanilla.

Inside Cupcake Cafe

Our next stop for the day was Cupcake Cafe. I had read (on another blog) that it was one of the must do's in any New York cupcake tour. Upon entering Cupcake Cafe we almost had to search for the cupcakes. We finally found them towards the back of the store, and the flavour combinations were nothing exciting at all - simple chocolates & vanilla.

Chocolate cupcake with Chocolate frosting from Cupcake Cafe

They were all decorated beautifully, but they all looked identical. I have a feeling this is their trademark, their decorating technique. They had piped butter cream flowers on top of each cake which was really beautiful. However anyone that knows me, knows that as important as it is for a cake to look pretty, it needs to taste fantastic as well. Unfortunately the cake tasted days old, was very dry and heavy and was easily the worst cake on our whole tour. It was so disappointing.

 After a week in New York, we moved on to Washington DC. On our first day of arrival we made it our mission to go to Georgetown cupcakes. Now I've watched quite a few episodes of 'DC Cupcakes' and really like the show - but I've always been funny about the owners. When watching the show I watch how they do some things and think "There is an easier way to do that! Why are they doing it like that?!" I love TV shows about cakes and cupcakes, so watch it simply for that reason, but couldn't really stand watching the presenters... I'm certain its just me! So with an already established negative feeling towards the shop, I didn't have high expectations. However staying in DC for the week, I would've been crazy not to go and check it out.
 

When we got there, the line was all the way up the street but that didn't deter us from getting into "DC Cupcakes". They had a 'bouncer' on the door, and as people left he let more people in. It was a great way to do it - you didn't feel rushed whilst in the store and it gave us plenty of time to look around and take photos. Whilst in the line outside, one of the staff came out and handed us all menus for what was available. That way you could be prepared to place your order when you walked in. I have to say the selection was impressive. Some selections are always available, and some available on a roster system - changing by the day of the week. We decided on one each - Steve went with a simple vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, and I went with the lava fudge cupcake. Once we got inside though, we noticed there were a couple of added flavours that weren't listed on their menu. One looked too irresistible to leave behind, so we ordered an extra flavour - German Chocolate.

Inside Georgetown cupcakes

 

The beautiful display of cupcakes at Georgetown

They had a good concept for an ordering system: you placed your order, paid the money and waited for your order number to be called to receive your cakes. It worked a treat, and was very fast! We walked around the corner of the store and could see through the glass panels and into the kitchen. This allowed us to take photos and watch the bakers hard at work. They had an amazing production line, and definitely gave me a lot of ideas for how I would do it, if and when I open my own cupcake shop. It was so clean in the kitchen, considering how many cakes they were pumping out. And they were pumping them out! 

Behind the scenes at Georgetown cupcakes
 check out all those trays of cakes!!!

Behind the scenes, cupcake production line!
Georgetown cupcakes

The production line in action!
Georgetown cupcakes

 After Georgetown cupcakes, we went for a wonder through Georgetown and stumbled across another 'Sprinkles'. Yes we had already tried out the Sprinkles in NYC, but what harm would there be in trying the DC branch? Plus it's a good way to see if its just the individual stores that are producing amazing cakes, or if its the whole of Sprinkles.

Display cabinet in Sprinkles - the same as NYC!

We ordered a Red Velvet and a Chocolate Marshmallow cupcake. There were the same cakes we had seen the previous week in New York and I was so tempted to get the Salted Caramel again, but wanted to try a new flavour.

Inside Sprinkles - cupcake cabinet!!!

When we got back to our room, we opened up our goodies boxes, and first compared the German Chocolate from Georgetown cupcakes, to the Chocolate Marshmallow from Sprinkles. The cakes were both amazing - they were light and fluffy, yet moist and flavourful. The frosting on the German Chocolate was so fresh that it had already started to slide off the cake - it was fluffy and rich and not too much coconut, which I really loved. The Chocolate Marshmallow had a lovely surprise of a gooey vanilla marshmallow centre and a light coating of ganache frosting. They were delectable and I had started to realise that Georgetown cupcakes was more then I had originally given it credit for. Next we compared the Lava fudge cake with the Red Velvet cupcake, which pretty much sealed the deal for me. It was a close call, however I had made my final decision on which cupcake shop was my ultimate favourite in the whole trip.
 

Chocolate Marshmallow cupcake from Sprinkles

German Chocolate cupcake from Georgetown cupcakes

Red Velvet cupcake from Sprinkles

Lava Fudge cupcake from Georgetown cupcakes

Sprinkles cupcakes were amazing, and they were equally as good in DC as they were in NYC. They were full of flavour and soft and moist. Their cakes were just as good as their frosting's and were finished simply. Sprinkles became Steve's favourite. I however favoured Georgetown cupcakes far more! Their flavours were real, you could tell just from one bite that they used quality ingredients, and they advertised the fact they do too. I love this, I am all about good quality ingredients. Their frostings were fluffy and luscious and each cake was so fresh, it was just amazing. They finished each cake beautifully and they almost invited you to dive in and devour them. I am so looking forward to my visit to DC again next year, just to go to Georgetown cupcakes again!

Vanilla cupcake with Chocolate frosting from Georgetown Cupcakes

New York & DC Cupcake/Bakery tour part 2....

Me out front of Carlo's Bake Shop

Our next cupcake adventure didn't actually involve cupcakes... It started with a very short but expensive drive out to Hoboken New Jersey to visit somewhere I've only dreamed about, Carlo's Bake Shop.

I think if you watch the show as religiously as I do, you will recognise a few of these cakes!

 

I very nearly purchased one of these!

I love a bake shop with an ATM machine in the middle of it! ;)

Cannoli

It was a very surreal feeling, the shop was not as big as I imagined inside and the line up was minimal. When it came time to order - there was a generous assortment of cupcakes on offer, however I thought "I'm at Carlo's Bake Shop. I can have a cupcake anywhere!" So I ordered cannolli, tiramisu, cream puffs and biscotti.  

Biscotti from Carlo's Bake Shop

 

Inside the cream puff

Tiramisu.... can you see why i was disappointed?

 The cannoli was nice, not what I expected but still very nice. The tiramisu disappointed me along with the cream puff and biscotti. Overall it definitely wasn't up to the hype I had put myself through. I still however loved going there and was worth every penny being there! We went for a wonder around the Hoboken streets afterwards doing a spot of shopping and found a lovely place for brunch. We loved Hoboken!!

Beautiful flowers in a Hoboken store. If I lived there, all of those flowers would have come home with me!

From Hoboken we got the subway to Manhattan and then a Ferry to Dumbo. We were over there to visit a few stores - but mainly one in particular, One Girl Cookies. We were referred by a couple of friends to go and visit One Girl Cookies and I'm so glad we did.

Inside the cabinet at One Girl Cookies

The famous "Brooklyn's Original Whoopie Pies" - you can see they are popular!

When we walked into the store it looked like a gutted warehouse with a couple of benches installed around the room and in the centre of the room was the counter. The place had a very rustic feel to it, a little too rustic for some things. Cakes sat on the bench with slices missing and no covers on them. This to me promotes the cakes to dry out and attract unwanted pests like flies. Their cupcakes looked beautiful, but again not in a closed cabinet - just sitting out along side the whoopie pies. I think the worst thing about it all up though, was the service. I knew immediately what I was purchasing, so walked straight in to order. I was ignored by a clerk standing right in front of me for a few minutes until finally she served me. Then I asked her for a business card and was flat out ignored. I had to ask someone else for a business card. I felt like I was an inconvenience in their store.This is definitely something they should work on.

Cupcakes in One Girl Cookies - I loved the finish on them! Cute.

After making these observations however, we had been recommended to try out the pumpkin whoopie pies. As they were labelled "Brooklyn's Original Whoopies" I had high expectations, and oh my were they met plus some more! It was so good that I wanted to go back and buy more! Lucky enough for me, I will be purchasing the book and will bake my own pumpkin whoopie pies! Do not in any means take my criticism as a warning not to visit. If I was in Brooklyn tomorrow, I wouldn't have a second thought about going back to One Girl Cookies. I can only assume they were having a bad day.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie - spicy, soft, moist, luscious, moreish!

Overall we loved both Hoboken & Dumbo equally for their bakeries and the uniqueness of the cities. Dumbo felt like we had gone back in time, to paved roads and carousels. Hoboken felt like the trendy streets of Melbourne, not as busy but a very welcoming and friendly city that made us feel like we were home.

New York & DC cupcake tour part 1...

When I found out we were going on a business trip to Washington DC - I knew that being so close, I had to get to New York and visit some of the world famous cupcake stores I had heard so much about.

There was no doubt that I HAD to get to Magnolia, the thing I didn't realise at the time was that there were at least 3 that I knew of scattered around the city. So when I started to investigate the various cupcake stores, I decided to visit the Magnolia bakery closest to at least one other cupcake store. I managed to find one within walking distance to 2 other cupcake stores. On our first day of arrival we got into New York on Manhattan island at 9.30am, this was unfortunately too early to check in. So with nothing but time up our sleeve, we decided to knock off a few of our MUST DO's.

We located a few stores and checked out Dylan's candy Bar, along with the Hershey's chocolate store and M&M's world right next to times square, thus also knocking off Times Square from our list. We visited the world famous Toy's R Us in times square with 3 giant levels and a MASSIVE Ferris Wheel INSIDE the store, which was so much fun! Then we headed for Bloomingdale's and in the store stumbled upon our first cupcakery of our visit. And what better one to start the tour with, but Magnolia Bakery.

The store was only a small one but it was full of character and so very cute.

The staff were amazing and really quite lovely. After the tough decision Steve decided on the Red Velvet and I went with a Sno-Cap (which was devils food chocolate cake and a luscious meringue frosting.) It was delicious and definitely met our expectations. Honestly, it was a great way to start our cupcake tour as it got us off on the right foot and gave us a good base to make opinions on future cupcakery's.

Sno-Cap

Red Velvet

Steve and I ate half of our chosen cupcakes first, then swapped so we could try both the cakes. We agreed that the particular flavours we each chose were our favorites so quickly swapped back. I had the Sno-Cap and the meringue frosting was AHHHHMAZING! I cant wait to get back home and try to make my own version of this cake - absolutely deeee-lish!!!

Next we set off for Sprinkles. I knew that this would definitely rank high on my list as I have done so much reading about this cupcakery. Especially after Sprinkles recently made the news with their new "ATM" style cupcake purchasing system located in Beverly Hills - the first of its kind in the world.

I really loved the concept they use to identify which flavours were what. See the dots on the front of the building, well that's their flavouring system. Depending on what flavour you choose, there is a corresponding coloured dot combination that identifies that flavour to the staff. It is an ingenious system which they display on their menu board and makes it quicker and easier to identify if they have that flavour in stock through the window.

So again sticking to our "no more then 1 cupcake each, per cupcakery", I chose lemon and Steve surprisingly chose the salted caramel (which is normally my pick). Honestly though, after our cupcake at Magnolia, I wasn't really in the mood to eat my cupcake straight away, and neither was Steve. So we opted to take-away and eat them later on. Little did we realise that would be 3 days later - and still, they rated as one of our top picks! The only thing that really disappointed us, was the lack of variety of cupcake flavours available on that particular day. They do, however, rotate which flavours are available, based on the day of the week - like a roster system.

Lemon

Salty Caramel

(Keep in mind that we tasted these 3 days after we bought them!!) The lemon was very fresh and zesty. The cake was moist and tasteful, and the frosting was delicately soft and very more-ish. The salty caramel was a surprise to both myself and Steve. They had lightly dusted the top of the frosting with small pieces of sea salt, which really made the frosting pop. The cake, again, was soft, moist, fluffy and just begging to be eaten. The funniest part about these cupcakes, is we had eaten so many sweets in the days prior that we decided all cupcakes waiting for us in the room would get the opportunity they deserved to be tested and rated, even if it meant only having a bite and throwing the rest away.These cupcakes were so good I couldn't stand to see them thrown away, and instead sacrificed myself to eat as much of the cupcakes as I could. I felt extremely sick afterwards, but I tell you what, it was sooooo worth it!

Finally, we made our way to Crumbs bake shop, our third and final cupcakery for day one. I honestly think out of the 3 cupcake stores we visited on the day, this one had the biggest range of cupcakes. The sizes of the cupcakes were also significantly bigger, so if you like more cake for your dollar, this is the cupcakery for you. Again there were multiple shops in the city, however we opted to go to the one just down the road from the previous two visited.

Inside Crumbs... the goodies cabinet!!!

Decisions Decisions.....

Need coffee??? ;)

We chose to "take-away" these ones again as we were really feeling the affects from the first cupcakes and also starting to feel the affects of jet lag kicking in, we needed to get back to our room and rest up ready for the nights adventures. I chose the Coffee Toffee, while Steve chose the Apple Cobbler. We didn't get to try these ones till the following night, and even then only managed to eat half of the Coffee Toffee which was insanely good but super rich. It had a fluffy cake that rated nothing special in my books, but had this coffee flavoured cream centre with a toffee frosting finished with toffee pieces. It was a really lovely mix of flavours. Unfortunately we never got around to eating the Apple Cobbler - but it still looked delicious.

Coffee Toffee

Apple Cobbler

So after day one, and trying the cupcakes we did, we both agreed that Sprinkles was our favorite. However at this stage, we still had about 7 more stores to visit.... so stay tuned for part two of our New York & Washington DC cupcake adventure!