Third birthday

Blowing out the candles 

Birthday cupcakes 

Sometimes one cupcake isn't enough and the occasion calls for cake, too. (Not to mention two cups of coffee, three cans of seltzer, and a sippy cup)

Opening presents 

 The birthday girl got her own lawnmower and other lawn tools for the new house with enormous lawn 

End of a big day -- Pajamas and party hat 

Birthday Cupcakes

I went to Sprinkles to pick up my birthday cupcakes. First I went inside and got four cupcakes. But as I was leaving, I saw the cupcake ATM and thought I should try it out.

I made my choice and paid using that little black thing to swipe my card. Then the door opened and out came a cupcake!

As it was opening, I thought I better take a video of this, but by the time I got out my phone, it was finished opening. So then I was trying to make sure I had at least a still picture of it. But then the door started closing and my cupcake was still inside!  So I grabbed it out of the ATM, but the door was already closing like a garage door coming down, and it almost caught my box. So then the door was stuck for a minute and I'm thinking "I can't believe I broke the stupid cupcake ATM on my very first visit!!" 

 

But I didn't. It took a second and then closed and I was on my way. 

Cupcakes Idaho style

I made KB take me to the one cupcake place I could find in town.  It's called the Cocoa Bean. 

They were pretty good. But NO vanilla/vanilla or plain chocolate, which I think is weird. 

This is the raspberry lemonade. It had a pretty weird consistency-- super moist-- like it was actually soaked in lemonade. But it was yummy. 

This is the chocolate malted. The frosting was amazing. 

They also had one called "better than whatever," which is how you know you're in Idaho. 

Birthday

JM was not touring again this year, so a low-key birthday was on the agenda.  I went to NJ to spend it with Jill & Chris and my cute niece. Lara and Candace came down, too.  Here's my niece with auntie Lara, looking for birds, which is her new thing. 

The next day, I was babysitting while Jill worked. So we went to the park and on the way home, stopped at this bakery, Carlo's. Their town has several bakeries, so I like to try different ones when I come visit. 

I got the chocolate peanut butter cup.  The cupcake was too dense (not moist) and not very flavorful. The frosting tasted better, but it was almost crunchy with sugar crystals.  Not too impressed. It wasn't until afterwards that I found out these are famous cupcakes by Cake Boss. Of course I've seen the show once or twice, but I didn't recognize the name. 

Luckily, Jill got us cupcakes from Cupcake Magician the night before. So much better, and cheaper, too! 

Here's my birthday flowers from KB. 

While I was babysitting, we took long walks, went to the park, and went "swimming" in the play pool in the back yard.   I'll be saying good-bye to this cute face tomorrow and going back to work!

Cupcakes -- Philly style

Here are two cupcakes from a place called The Flying Monkey. I got a little excited when she said the frosting was Swiss cream. But I wasn't really crazy about it-- maybe because it was cold instead of room temperature so it was hard (I guess I could have waited for it to warm up, but didn't). The cake was also kind of spongey and was only marginal. Here is the vanilla/vanilla and the mint chocolate.






The next place we tried was called Brown Betty Dessert Boutique. My friend that I was with knows I'm crazy and was a good sport by walking our feet off to find it. These were better than the first place. We got vanilla/ vanilla, pineapple, and chocolate/ peanut butter.

The cake was pretty good, but this peanut butter frosting was to die for.

Molly's cupcakes

It is my 15th anniversary at NYF and here is the cake to prove it. It. Was. Delicious.

They got chocolate /chocolate because that's what Mary would want, and they also got a few vanilla /vanilla for good measure.  A new bakery to drool over, called Molly's Cupcakes.

My birthday week

 For my birthday this year, I spent the weekend in one of my favorite places (New Jersey) with three of my favorite people (Jill, Chris and LT). 

The weekend started with a red velvet cupcake from Crumbs, which a friend gave me. 



Here's Jilly Lou making my cake.  I asked for chocolate cake, so she went ahead and made a chocolate ganache.  So rich and delicious.  And three layers!

In the morning, we stopped at one of the many diners for which New Jersey is famous.  This is the Americana.  This photo doesn't necessarily capture it, but I got the most amazing brunch -- Monte Cristo French Toast.  It was so good. 

Overall, a good and low-key birthday.  Next year, I hope to be somwhere listening to John Mayer, but if that doesn't happen, then I hope it's just as sweet as this birthday. 

I repent

I decided to give Georgetown cupcakes another try.  Why?  Because it's Matt Cope's favorite cupcake place and I just couldn't believe that I could hate something that someone else loves.  So when I was in Soho on Monday eve, I stopped by and picked up two cupcakes. 

First I discovered one of my mistakes.  They have a cupcake called Vanilla squared, so naturally that's the one I picked on my first visit.  This time I noticed they have one called Birthday cake, so I asked what the difference was.  It turns out that Vanilla squared is vanilla with cream cheese frosting, but Birthday cake is vanilla with buttercream.  So this time I got the *right* cupcake and it was CORRECT. 

The second was Toffee crunch and this one was also delicious.  The cake was so moist and the perfect density and had delicious toffee bits in it.  The frosting was cream cheese with toffee bits, and cream cheese frosting is only good to me if it's on red velvet, pumpkin or banana cake, but with the toffee bits, I can still endorse it. 

I really don't know what happened last time, but I am repenting of my past transgression of dissing Georgetown  Cupcakes.  I hope I am forgiven. 

Portland cupcakes

I found two cupcake places in Portland. The first stop was Cupcake Jones. Julia and I split a German Chocolate cupcake. It was average, but I did like the chocolate coconut filling. In addition to having mediocre cupcakes, the people that worked here seemed to be brain damaged or something. We weren't impressed.

From there, we walked over to St. Cupcake Galore and this was the jackpot. We got two mini-cupcakes each. I got the vanilla/vanilla and the vanilla/cream cheese, and Julia got vanilla/coconut and vanilla/chocolate. I tasted Julia's chocolate frosting and it was so good, I got another vanilla/chocolate for the next day. Not only were these cupcakes delicious, but the people working there (I think they were the owners, actually) were not of borderline intelligence.

YUMMMMM!!!!!!

Georgetown cupcakes

There's a new cupcake place in town, but they might not be new to you. This place started in DC and it's called Georgetown Cupcakes. Apparently there is also a TV show about it and its' owners, called DC Cupcakes. The outside is clearly still under construction, but it's in a cool part of the city and it's a nice space.

These cupcakes were not my favorite. I tried the vanilla/vanilla, as usual. The frosting almost tasted like it was from a can, and the cake part was just okay. I also had the urge for the key lime, which was better than the vanilla/vanilla, but I didn't love it. Jill got the chocoloate peanut butter swirl, which looked great and which I will try if I ever go back.

Two Little Red Hens

This bakery has been around forever, but when am I EVER on the UES? Pretty much never, except for last weekend, when I went to visit my ONE friend that lives there. Anyway, for some reason, I've had chocolate cupcakes from Two Little Red Hens, and never thought they were spectacular, but wanted to try something else. First of all, this place is adorable. Secondly, this coconut cupcake.... mmmmmmmm..... so good!! I love a cupcake with cream filling. I'm a fan!

Cupcakes -- Orem style

I was in Utah for the holidays. I spent Christmas with my parents in Moab, and then drove up to Provo to see Julia and her new, old, beautiful house, then went a bit further north for a get-together with some of my mission friends. I think it's awesome that I have known these people for almost 20 years and we still talk and meet up when we can. (Those that live in Utah see each other more than I do, of course.)

Also on the list of things to do was to see if Utah people could do cupcakes the right way. As Julia said, "If there is anything people in Utah should be able to do well, it's cupcakes." These were pretty good, from The Chocolate, but I would not say they are top 10. I brought these to my mission reunion and only tried the Vanilla/vanilla and Peanut butter /chocolate. They did have lots of really delicious looking things and maybe someday I'll get to try something else.

From top left: Pineapple coconut, Vanilla/vanilla, Peanut butter/ chocolate, Red velvet.

Cupcakes -- St. Augustine

My efforts to find cupcakes in Orlando were thwarted (long story). When we drove to St. Augustine for the day, this was going to be my one chance. Thankfully with smart phones, it's easy to find cupcakes wherever I go, and we found this place called Luli's.

From the top right, Vanilla/vanilla (with sprinkles), Lemon, Gingerbread, Carrot, Banana/chocolate, Cookies and cream.

The regular cupcakes(chocolate and vanilla) were from a MIX. The others were dry. The lemon frosting was pretty good, though, as it was creamy and sweet, but the cake took away from that. The only really good one was the carrot cupcake (not from a mix) w/ cream cheese frosting.

Vanilla/vanilla and the lemon.

cupcake cruise

I'm heading for a short trip to Orlando next week and started searching for cupcake places to visit while I'm there. I found this link to a cupcake cruise. Yes, you read that right. I have never been on a cruise, and although this seems a little crazy, it could be fun.

Anyone want to join me?

Sprinkles East side

There is a new cupcake store in town, but it's not new to me, since I was just there 2 1/2 months ago in San Diego. Sprinkles is now bi-coastal. After a long week, it was just what I needed. Plus... I had a coupon for four free cupcakes, so it was worth going to the Upper East Side.

(photo stolen from this blog)

clockwise from the top left, Black and white, Salted caramel, Pumpkin, and Milk chocolate. They were all good, but the Salted caramel was the hands-down winner of the bunch! Although I like these cupcakes a lot, I still like the cake to be a bit more dense. But they have a good cupcake/frosting ratio and both the cake and frosting are really good.

Birthday week

Another year has gone by. Since my boyfriend John Mayer has been taking a much needed break from the limelight and is not touring this summer, I had to come up with something to do for my birthday this year.

My birthday started a few days early with a BBQ at Jill and Chris's house. Chris is an awesome BBQ'er and basically made a dinner made to order for me. We had burgers with blue cheese in the middle and bacon on top. He also grilled some corn on the cob for us and we had some cut up watermelon. It was all delicious!!

After dinner, we walked over to one of their three cupcake spots, Mr. Cupcakes. These were good, but not great. Clockwise from top left: Lemon, Tiramisu, Vanilla/Vanilla, Coconut.

This is the Vanilla/Vanilla, which they named "Birthday cake" so it was a perfect choice for me.



Last year, I went to see JM with Anne Lise in a venue near her town of San Diego. About a week before my trip, I sent an email to another one of my Norwegian friends, Sara, and told her she should come down too. I don't know why she couldn't drop her life of a full-time job and three kids and husband on one week's notice, but she couldn't. This year, I didn't wait until the last minute to invite her and when she said she could come, our reunion was on!! Sounds like a perfect birthday to me!

The day I arrived, Lise picked me up and we went straight to the beach. Afterwards, we found the closest cupcake place (thanks to smart phones!) and ended up at Sugar & Scribe. The owner/baker was there and we chatted her up for a bit. My first thought was "never trust a skinny chef" but in this case, that saying does not apply. My routine is to go straight for the Vanilla/Vanilla but the chocolate buttercream frosting looked so good, I went for that one. And it was a good choice. It was maybe the best chocolate frosting I've had. (except for maybe Lise's norwegian chocolate frosting.) It was super creamy, but not super chocolately, which is good for me. I didn't get a picture of it, but this is what their display looked like:



On my actual birthday, we went to the famous Sprinkles, which has opened a location in San Diego. Although these are good, it sort of bugs me that they are so basic but cost $3.50 each. However, I do like them a lot. The cake is so moist and the perfect density, and the frosting is the perfect sweetness.

Anne Lise, Me, Sara

Sara & Me plus 4 delicious cupcakes (guess who got two??)

Clockwise from left: Lemon, Vanilla/coconut, Vanilla/chocolate w/sprinkles, Key lime



For our last cupcake adventure, we went to Corner Cupcakes . Lise had heard about this cupcake truck and then this week, the owner won "Cupcake Wars." We drove way out of our way to find the truck and were able to congratulate the owner personally on her win. However, the congratulations were a bit premature because these cakes were very marginal.

We tried all three of the show-winning cupcakes: (bottom from right) Belly Buster (Peanut butter & bacon cake, chocolate ganache filling, salted caramel frosting), Full house (coconut cake with lemon curd filling and lemon coconut frosting) and Two Pears (self-explanatory). We also got (top from left) Vanilla/Vanilla, Chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting and red velvet with cream cheese frosting.



The Belly Buster:



The verdict: The winner was the Two Pears cupcake. I have never had a pear cupcake before and it was pretty good. The lemon curd was not tart enough and the whole Full House cupcake was bland overall. But the peanut butter/chocolate/bacon/salted caramel cupcake was NO GOOD. The cake was really dry and crumbly, and did not taste good. The salted caramel frosting was pretty good, so I just ate that off the cupcake and left the rest behind (can't go wrong with salty and sweet).

The non-winning cupcakes were another story. One bite into the vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and we all agreed they were clearly from a mix. I could not be more disappointed. Again, the best part of these cupcakes was the salted caramel frosting.

So, the winner this week was Sugar and Scribe. Plus, they had lots of other tasty looking treats. I indulged in only one besides the cupcakes and that was a no-bake cookie. YUM!!