Cakespy Undercover: Macaron Fever at Honoré in Seattle

Seeking Parisian-style macarons in Seattle? We'd been hearing some great things about Honoré in Ballard, so recently our Cake Gumshoe Kim went to see for herself. Here are her thoughts:

I wanted some macaroons--so I went to Honoré and bought 5! I've now tested all the flavors I got. Granted, these are the first macaroons I've ever had so I don't have much to compare them to, but I have to say they were amazing! They were everything I hoped they would be.

I chose lavender, coffee, pistachio and another one which I think was chocolate/coconut/salted caramel. They had about 10 flavors in all and i wished I could have got one of each, but unfortunately I was on a budget! I'm a sucker for all things lavender flavored - I had a feeling those would be my favorite so I bought two. I was right! The lavender flavor was just right, they were topped with little flowers, and had a delicious creamy chocolate filling which I didn't expect. The coffee one had a rich coffee flavor which was very satisfying. The pistachio flavor was very nutty and tasted just like pistachios... except sweet! Lastly, I finished off the mysterious chocolate/coconut/salted caramel this morning. It was so good! I could definitely taste the salted caramel, and there were little bits of coconut inside the cookie.

So to sum it up - they were all good, and all different. I want to go back and try more flavors!

On another note about Honoré's general awesomeness - the girl working the counter was so nice. She listed off all 10 or so macaroon flavors to me, sweetly, without an eye roll in sight! We also got a croissant which was very good, and they had a bunch of other pastries that looked really yummy.

Honoré is open Wed.–Sun.; 1413 NW 70th St.; 206.706.4035.

Sweet Spot: Dessert Links!

Flossing is now officially awesome, thanks to Archie McPhee's cupcake floss. (Thanks Jill and Maika for the tip!)

Check out this gorgeous Starry Night-inspired cake!

Gummi Bear Battalion: whimsical and fun food art.

Vegan wasabi fudge? We're intrigued.

Serious Eats weighs in on the phenomenon of enticing food smells.

Avocado...pie? Who would have thought it would sound so good?

They're known for their King Cake, but Haydel also makes another sweet treat: Roman Chewing Candy.

It's certainly not cheap, but we were exited to find a place that will ship a Hummingbird Cake.

Kelly Confidential: a virtual bakesale for a cause.

Chet and Dot makes cute cake-shaped pincushions.

Holey Yum: Donut Pies

Donuts play nice, don't they? They're so open to collaboration. There's donut bread pudding. Donut burgers. Donut muffins. Donut soup.

And now, Donut Pie. Don't be fooled by the photo at the top: these are no typical donuts. They're in fact little morsels of pie crust, with filling rolled inside of them and then fried. While they're certainly not health food, they certainly are delicious: crispy, not too-sweet, easy to make, and completely open to improvisation with flavor. Here's how we made them:

Donut Pies

1. First, choose your favorite pie crust recipe (we used this one). We made the equivalent of a single pie crust, and the yield was about 15 mini Donut Pies.
2. Next, decide what your filling would be. For our filling, we mixed one ripe banana, a small amount (1/4 cup, adding more to desired thickness) of heavy whipping cream, and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and two pinches of cinnamon. We mashed it until it was incorporated, but still a little bit lumpy. You can fill them with just about anything you'd use in a pie though. Let your filling sit to the side.
3. Roll out your pie crust, and then score into strips. The strips should be about 2.5 inches wide, but as long or as short as you'd like. The length will determine how large the donut's circumfrence will be, so if you like mini donuts, keep them shorter.

4. Lengthwise, spoon a small amount of filling in each strip. Be sure to leave a small gap of space at the top and bottom of the strip.

5. Fold the crust over the filling lengthwise, so that you have a long, narrow, filled "log" of pie crust with filling inside.

6. Form into a circle.

7. Since we don't have a deep fryer, we then filled a frying pan on  with about 2 cups of canola oil, set to high heat, and once hot gently placed the donuts several at a time into the fryer, frying each side about 3-4 minutes or until golden.

8. Gently remove from frying pan and place on paper towels to blot excess oil.

9. Garnish as desired: with additional fruit topping (as above), whipped cream, ice cream, or for a more donutty look, chocolate icing (as seen on the chocolate topped ones) and sprinkles or swirls. Yum.

A Sweet Proposal: Love, CakeSpy and Marriage

A note from Head Spy Jessie:

By profession, I am an illustrator specializing in portraits of anthropomorphic cupcakes. As such, I'm sure you can imagine the delightfully unusual requests for custom artwork I've gotten: cupcakes and a client's pet being chased by the Sta-Puft marshmallow man; an aggressive cupcake brawl; horror-movie inspired cupcakes--the list goes on and on. 

But last week, I delivered one of my sweetest commissions to date: a series of four paintings to be used as part of a marriage proposal. 

The first painting showed the happy couple flying into San Francisco for the weekend (shown top);

The second painting showed them having dinner at a fancy restaurant overlooking the Bay Bridge;

The third one showed them in a photobooth at the Musee Mecanique, where the photos coming out showed the actual proposal going on;

And finally, the happy couple back at home and enjoying some pizza at their regular place.

The artwork was delivered on Friday, and the proposal happened over Valentine's Day weekend; of course (duh!) she said yes, and the couple couldn't be happier. 

I live in a saccharine world for sure--but this one really made me melt like a puddle of ice cream on hot pie. It was such a pleasure to be part of such a sweet moment.

Looking Good: Sweet Treats from Look Cupcake in Seattle

Last week, something magical happened: upon returning home to the Cakespy Headquarters after running some errands, we found the most gorgeous box of cupcakes on our porch. Magic!

The parcel was from Seattle's newest custom-order cupcake business, Look Cupcake. Based out of a commercial kitchen on Lower Queen Anne, owner Rhienn Davis takes a unique slant on the cupcake trend by looking inwardly--literally--by specializing in gourmet, filled cupcakes.


Our assortment included three flavors: the Feather Boa (coconut cream cake, mojito cheesecake filling, vanilla buttercream, coconut garnish); the La Nina de Chocolate Diablo (spiced mexican chocolate cake with kahlua especial swiss meringue buttercream); and the A Formal Affair (vanilla cake, bittersweet ganache filling and whipped truffle frosting).

These cupcakes were--to put it mildly--crazy delicious. But even more than the fillings, what impressed us was the frosting. Silky, buttery and absolutely luxurious, it seemed different a lot of other cupcake-frostings we've tried. What gives? 

Turns out, they were topped with what is known as Swiss Meringue Buttercream (and in the case of the chocolate frosting, ganache whipped in, which only added to that luxurious texture).

So what is Swiss Meringue Buttercream? Happily, Rhienn (aka the "Cliff Clavin of buttercream") was able to explain:

The difference between meringue buttercreams (there are several - Italian, Swiss, French - every European country thinks they know best, apparently,) and regular "American style" buttercream (what we think of as a more "crunchy" frosting) is as follows:

• American buttercream is just butter (sometimes a little cream cheese) and TONS of powdered sugar mixed together. The result is that intense, super sweet, sometimes a little gritty, frosting. I make a great one with fresh ginger grated into it. Mmmm!
  
• (Pick your European country) Meringue buttercream is made by dissolving a relatively small amount of granulated sugar into egg whites, whipping it into a meringue and then adding the butter. They're smoother, creamier and less over the top sweet. They also stand up better in heat, which is awesome for those of us that do seven million weddings in the dog days of summer.
  

So there you go--unexpected free cupcakes, and an unexpected lesson on various different types of frosting: we'd call that a sweet treat, indeed.

For more information, visit lookcupcake.com.