Winter Wonderland

I love a blank canvas to create on, but I think love it even more when a client comes with an idea in mind and I get put my own little pastry spin on it. This cake order was placed in January while the scenery here in DC was typical for the season, brown and rainy with patches of struggling grass here and there. Nordic bliss steers clear of this area and white Christmas' are rare. This year however, things happened a bit different, we welcomed Blizzard 2010 which more than compensated for years of past winter seasons. We are still cleaning up after our guest. The snow came just in time for this cake to have the perfect setting.




The Cupcake


Sad but true this little darling gets a bad rap sometimes. With the opening of Sprinkles in California in 2005, the cupcake took center stage for the first time. Their possibilities all of a sudden became endless; vanilla and chocolate were no longer the standard. They were appropriate at black-tie events and soirees, not just little girl's princess birthday parties. However, lately many think that the cupcake has had her day in the sun. She is simply a fading fad like the slap bracelet, or the Segway (let it go they are on their way out). I do not sustain these accusations. I think that a cupcake can brighten any day regardless of size or toughness. Just the right size, just enough cake, just enough sweet, blissful, creamy frosting. Decorated or not, vegan or not, prim or rustic, these little buggers are a comfortable, familiar, lovely dessert that beckons us to return to our childhood even if just for a brief moment during our rushed days. I know of only a handful of desserts that can evoke such joy and reminiscing to such a vast population. So today, I salute you, and regardless of the trends and critics I will continue to make you by the dozens because when I eat you, suddenly I am 6. I am 6 sitting on the cream counter of my mother's kitchen crying with a mouthful of cakey goodness, "do I really have to have stitches again?". I got stitches, but before that...I had a cupcake.