Case Study 32: "The Turkish Fig"

"My name is Turkish. Funny name for an Englishman. I know." - Snatch

Wine, music, cupcakes.

For us, tunes, food, and wandering reigned supreme. Driving around aimlessly for hours, we had warded our teenage angst off by roving the woods for cliffs to jump off and watching the stars by the Redding reservoir. We stood in the 3 am moonlight of the tall grass field next to his once-childhood home and spent one Valentine's Day eating homemade chocolate cookies in a parking lot, windows down and Snatch soundtrack blaring The Stranglers. They say first loves are never really over.

"The Turkish Fig" is a fig cupcake with a walnut encrusted honey frosting and vanilla buttercream on top. It's drizzled in honey and sugar crystals. There's a natural sweetness brought by the earthiness of the fig, and warmed by the local honey, a reminder that best and most familiar things always come from places closest to our hearts. Some things are just better when baked by two.

Most of us fall young and hard for our firsts, promising a lifetime of longing, with those moments of uncertainty, discovery, and anguish playing like movies in our memories. Though this might be true for many, I'm lucky to know that I've gotten to keep mine for always as living reminder of my youth and a truly wonderful friend.

Case Study 31: "The Velvet Collection"

Fashion Week has arrived in New York, and it's inescapable. As the madness at the tents ensues, I sit here in quiet rainy Philadelphia, snuggled with magazines and blogs. I'm downright inspired by the classic fabulosity, the innovation, and the outrageousness that is fashion today. And so, the sartorial sophisticate Cupcaketologist brings you: "The Velvet Collection."


"The Orange Crush" is an orange velvet cupcake with lemon buttercream and yellow crystals. Preen and Vena Cava both showcased pops of orange this week so far for Spring, and St. Vincent opened Rachel Comey's show in a refreshing reminder that summer is not quite over.

"The Russian Doll" is a purple velvet cupcake topped with a black raspberry buttercream and encrusted in flaked sugar crystals. It's inspired by the rogue elegance of Freha's spread in September's Vogue UK and the decadence of autumnal jewel tones and velvet against the backdrop of brilliant stones and clutter.


"The Mademoiselle" is a pink velvet cupcake topped with a vanilla buttercream coiffe and pearls. It is reminiscent of the black and white, and yes, pink of Chanel. Karl Lagerfield and Lara Stone have been making sweet music together lately, and to that marriage I raise my glass and say, Santé!

Case Study 30: "The Idyllic Apple"

For better or for worse, I had a painfully romantic childhood. My parents had met young and left home early, growing up together and creating the life they always imagined. Dreamers beget dreamers, of course, and when we settled on the tiny border of New England and Westchester, it was the perfect pastoral backdrop to host my wanderlust.
Summer reigned supreme for my aqueous adventures, but it was autumn that held my heart. Leaves turned slowly here, and the Housatonic and Hudson Valleys were glorious seas of golds, reds, and oranges for months. We were apple pickers, perfect pumpkin seekers, and fall vegetable roasters. And there were Friday nights when I'd rather sit near the fireplace and watch my parents dance eyes-closed to Elvis Costello's "Toledo" with wineglasses in hand than be anywhere else in the world.

The Idyllic Apple is an apple pecan cupcake with a vanilla-nutmeg cream cheese buttercream and cinnamon sugar sprinkled atop. It's reminiscent of the orchards we still travel to every year and the cider donuts that never make it past the car.

I have this memory of driving in our first Jeep years ago, top down in early October, my brother and I are in the back. Django Reinhardt is playing gypsy jazz and I am facing back as we drive through Westchester roads past churches converted into homes and pastures. We walked rows of a vineyard in wool sweaters, chased a surprised pheasant and watched as the sun squeaked the last golden light of the Indian Summer.

I always wonder if it ruined me, to look back so fondly on these years and question if I'll have it as good someday. And then I remember who I come from, and I already do.

Recipe:
The Idyllic Apple (Adapted from my mother's Och's Orchard Apple Cake, 1976), makes 1 dozen cupcakes

1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter
1 egg
2-3 apples, minced
1 cup nuts (pecans or walnuts), chopped finely

1. Set the oven at 350º and line a one-dozen cupcake pan, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
2. Cream the sugar and butter together in a bowl until combined and fluffy, roughly 3 minutes.
3. Add the egg and mix until combined.
4. Blend in the apples. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts until combined and fold in the nuts.
5. Fill the cupcake pan and bake 20-22 minutes, cupcakes will be dark brown.

Vanilla Nutmeg Cream Cheese Buttercream

1 c. butter
1/2 c. cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg
4-5 cups confectioner's sugar

1. Combine the butter and cream cheese with a mixer on a medium speed, 3 minutes.
2. Mix in the vanilla and nutmeg.
3. Gradually blend in the confectioner's sugar. If it becomes to dense, cut with 1-2 tsp. milk.
4. Frost cupcakes generously, and enjoy with fond thoughts of autumn.

Case Study 29: "The Wondercake"

College was a veritable mess of post teen wonder, and the start of another life journey - the kind where you don't even have to try to lose yourself in exchange for finding something. Six Augusts ago, I left my suburban Connecticut youth behind (already more mature than most, I was convinced), and was ready to attack the urban Ivy League life. But of course, this type of trip never runs as smoothly as anticipated. "The Wondercake" is a nutella-filled chocolate cupcake with vanilla bean buttercream encrusted in M&Ms and sprinkles. It's reminiscent of the long days in the libraries followed by late night dance parties and cookie pizzas. It's leaving the scheduled carpools behind for what we thought was independence and free thinking, but was really still coloring within the lines. It's sweet and colorful and a bit messy all at once, but isn't that life?

College was a whirlwind, and was it over too soon? I think 4 years of reckless wandering and hopeful deliberate soul-searching was just enough. They always said we'd come out on a path when we graduated, with heads straighter on our shoulders and a clear distinction of what and who we wanted to be as adults. But I think most of my peers and I came out a little more lost than when we started, and the real life journey started when we got our diplomas.

But it was there that we learned how to let go of our parents' hands and jump, to take steps and make choices more on our own. And we carry on, filled with memories, awe, and doubt in a world that seems even bigger and more gloriously unconquerable than before.

Recipe: "The Wondercake"

Chocolate Cupcake (Adapted from Dave Leibowitz's German Chocolate Cake)

Makes Approximately 2 dozen cupcakes:
3 ounces bittersweet and milk chocolate chopped and melted
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¼ cup + ¼ cup sugar
4 large eggs, separated
1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup dutch processed cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt 1 cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ vanilla bean, seeds scraped
1 cup Nutella

1. Preheat the oven to 350°, fill 2- 1 dozen cupcake pans with liners.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter and 1 ¼ cup of the sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the melted chocolate, then the egg yolks, one at a time.

3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

4. Mix in half of the dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture, then the milk and the vanilla extract, then the rest of the dry ingredients.

5. In a separate metal or glass bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft, droopy peaks. Beat in the ¼ cup of sugar until stiff. Fold about one-third of the egg whites into the cake batter to lighten it, then fold in the remaining egg whites just until there's no trace of egg white visible.

7. Divide the batter into the prepared cupcake pans and bake for about 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes completely before filling and frosting.

9. Using the “cone method”, fill each cupcake with 1 teaspoon Nutella, and replace top.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream

2 sticks butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ vanilla bean, seeds scraped
¼ cup milk
4-6 cups confectioner's sugar
3 cups M&Ms, smashed

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and vanilla bean.

2. Add 1 cup confectioner’s sugar and mix until combined. Mix in ¼ cup milk.

4. Mix in remaining cups of confectioner’s sugar, and additional milk depending on consistency and preference.

5. Frost cupcakes as desired, and roll in M&M bits. Serve at room temperature, preferably with friends, and drinks.

Case Study 28: "The Root of Enlightenment"

Multi-faceted. That's how I'd describe the sources of my inspiration. People, print, and nature. Words, sounds, and images. Eyes open to the world, for better or for worse. But in an age when everything is tweeted and blogged, to then be retweeted, and reblogged, it's certain that someone has been just as inspired as I am by the very same thing.

"The Root of Englightenment" is a German chocolate cake with an earthy frosting atop: a buttercream steeped in vanilla bean, nutmeg, and ginger root. It is then topped with a chocolate buttercream and a walnut.

But the concept of being authentic, the act of creating something from nothing, well I'm certain it still exists. In an age of mass production, consumerism, and noise, we can still make art if it comes from within and awakens another's senses. Because when you create something, and show someone else a new way of viewing the world, what it evokes in that person is something unique. It's a completely original moment, and that is inpirational in itself.

To also be inspired, check out Art in the Age, maker of Philly's own liqueur ROOT.

Case Study 27: "The Peach Pit"

"Summer afternoon- summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language..."

As a child, I always imagined Henry James reclining in a pasture somewhere in the English countryside, hat by his side, journal across his lap and sweat upon his lip. And as a single cloud passes across the sky, suffering from a state of both heatstroke and awe, he slowly utters the two most beautiful words that I too ever knew, and realizes that he need say no more.

Regardless of its validity or not, I lived my childhood summers in search of the beauty I imagined he spoke of. I splashed through June and July in Connecticut's ponds and pools and adventured through the trees and backstreams of the deep woods far from the safety of recognizable houses. In my teenage years, I rowed throughout the Long Island sound and jumped off old steel bridges into Lake Lillinonah, and spent my nights chasing the summer moon, with Nick Drake bellowing from my Jeep and as I ran through tall grass fields under the stars.

But when August rolled around, things slowed down. The humidity crept in, and more and more we sought breeze and shade. I read books lying across a long-gone horizontal branch in my favorite tree, and lay sweating on top of my sheets at night in an un-air conditioned house. I caught the wind on my bike, and devoured the fruits of deep summer: berries, melons, and peaches.
"The Peach Pit" is a peach and vanilla bean cupcake with a fresh peach buttercream covered in cobbler crumbs. It's topped by maple-brown sugar buttercream and a little ripe peach slice.

Though I spend most of my days now in a flourescent lit cubicle, and my parents gave in years ago to central air, every once in awhile, I roll down my Jeep's windows on a hot day to feel the August air. Or I get lost on a Connecticut trail. And occasionally, I still sneak outside alone late at night to see my old love, the big summer moon. September may be fast approaching, but summer is not over yet...

Notes from the Field: Out to sea.

A move to finish, words to write, an summer's end to find...

"All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea — whether it is to sail or to watch it — we are going back from whence we came. "

— John F. Kennedy, September 1962

Case Study 26: "The Cocopassione"

I once heard somewhere that there are people who march through life to the end in a comfortable bliss, taking it and all of its challenges as they come. Of this group of beings I know one thing - I do not belong.

Last week, while playing court tennis, the pro pulled me aside and said, "Hey, will you just wait for the ball? You keep rushing at it, and each time you attack, you miss it completely." And that's exactly it. Full of passion and aching to taste it all, I also charge life like a wild bat out of hell.

"The Cocopassione" is a coconut cupcake with coconut frosting and shredded coconut on top. Rough around the edges, but exotic and delicate, it is crowned by a tart passionfruit buttercream.


My favorite poet (and another Cape Codder)Stanley Kunitz wrote about life like this often:

"Outdoors all afternoon
under a gunmetal sky
staking my garden down,
I kneeled to the crickets
trilling underfoot as if about to
burst from their crusty shells;
and like a child again
marveled to hear so clear
and brave a music pour
from such a small machine.
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire.
The longing for the dance
stirs in the buried life."

By living through the bad feelings, I think you can begin to see the good. And also learn to love intensely and find ridiculous beauty in the most remarkable and unexpected places.

I guess it's just that desire, desire, desire that keeps me going on, rather than comfortably numb. It's the passion to completely experience life, its ups, its downs, and to its fullest, and to not miss a thing.

Notes from the Field: "I'd drink it"

One word: Brilliant.

Concept, packaging, and crisp summer white taste, by a winemaker from down under based in Cali...

http://www.cupcakevineyard.com/

Case Study 25: "The Beachcomber"

While scientists keep trying to discover whether or not life had aqueous beginnings, I'd like to propose a toast to the remarkable bond that we humans have with the beach in general. Every summer, people leave their week-lives behind and escape to the shores of the world. They pack up their cars and hit the road with one goal in mind: to reach water."The Beachcomber" is a vanilla bean sandy mess of cupcake with vanilla frosting, cookie crumble and a gummy critter atop. It's reminiscent of the sand pails we had as children, and the shark teeth we scoured the beaches for, only to find hours later that they were sold for half a dollar each at the town's general store. It's the warm skinned post-sun feeling of drinking a Dark and Stormy as the sun goes down. It's the fires on the beach, and the broadest display of stars that litter the sky overhead, with the Ursa Major begging to be identified in her clear glory.
So what is it inside us that so instinctively yearns for the roaring waves and the wild beach roses? Maybe it's the infinite awe of looking out and seeing nothing but sky and water that draws us in. Maybe it reminds us of where we came from, nine blissful months of floating before our feet hit the ground.

Or maybe we do come from the water somehow. By watching the tide ebb in and seep out, we can understand how truly spontaneous, how changeable and how fragile life really is... and how little we actually do know about it.

Notes from the Field: "Hot fun in the Summertime"

A successful summer sweet is not always easy to make. More often than not, dessert is passed up when it's too hot out. But no drink, meal, or party is truly complete without a little indulgence. Some observations on achieving warm weather perfection:

-Must be light, airy, and ultimately intend to refresh.
-Must travel easily.
-Must be relatively simple, to make and consume.
-Must be able to survive heat (to some extent...or in my opinion, until viewed in its glory by those devouring it at a later hour).
-Must pair well with beverage (bonus points for summer beer, champagne or cocktail). Increased success rate if it appeals to party more after several said beverages.
-Must be consumed in good company: tunes, location, friends. No dessert fares well in summer if eaten alone.

And...

-Must look good at sunset...well that shouldn't be hard.

Case Study 24: "The Blackwater Turtle"

I spent a mid-June week in Truro, MA, the second to last town on the Atlantic-reaching tip of Cape Cod. It's not an area for nightlife or shopping, but a place of reflection and appreciation.

Mary Oliver, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, has lived among the ponds of Provincelands at this far point of the world for decades, and is an example of how the beautiful remoteness and nearly untouched natural state can truly inspire.
"The Blackwater Turtle" is a chocolate cupcake with a chocolate glaze and a ground pecan shell. It is then topped with sweet caramel buttercream and crowned by a chocolate dipped pecan.

Oliver's famous poem "In Blackwater Woods" describes the perspective being in this place can bring if you allow your senses to take over and just exist in the moment. She writes:

"To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go."

I found that type of clarity in Truro.

Case Study 23: "The Glittering Bee"

A package arrived at the beginning of the week with a card bearing something wonderful and moving from Marc Chagall. He said "If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." Oh how this resonates, whether it be baking, in love, and in life.
"The Glittering Bee" is a burnt butter cupcake iced in brown sugar frosting and topped with a honey-orange blossom buttercream. It is crowned with a honeybee embossed fondant disk, and glitters as all that is good with sparkling crystal sugars.

Students of bee behavior know that each member of the hive has a role, and goes through their life as destined by the motions they were predisposed to go through, almost as if they live always as determined by fate.As humans, our minds keep us in check, giving all sorts of rationale and weighing consequences. It pushes us to experience all sorts of emotions, but can also prevent us from experiencing them fully.

So what happens when life gets too... well.. "lifey"? Maybe in these cases we should to take cue from our destiny-loving arthropod friends and feel our way through it. We might just find that by doing so, everything works out somehow.