Seeking Sweetness: Daily Snapshot, Woody Allen Inspired Cupcake Art

CakeSpy Note: if you follow me on facebook or Twitter, you probably know I'm partial to adding bits of sweetness to my daily surroundings, via sidewalk chalk, small cutouts, and the like--I call it "gentle street art". Here's where I post a daily feel-good photo, for no particular reason other than to showcase these sweet little nothings, in hopes that they'll make you smile.

This time, it's a shout-out to one of my all-time favorite movies, Manhattan--a cupcake crossover into the real-life setting for one of the film's most memorable scenes. 

P.S. when I got to this park, at about 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, nobody was there. But in the time that it took to do the drawing and hold it just right for this photograph, a small crowd had gathered around me to see what, exactly, I was doing. So you see, it gave us all a sweet story!

Master-Peeps Theatre: Mondrian Peeps

The best part about Easter? Messing around with the candy, of course. There are so many things you can make happen with the sweet treats that proliferate around this time of year--make S'meeps (that's Peeps S'mores), create dessert taco plates with rice pudding and jellybean "rice and beans"; you can make Cadbury Creme Deviled Eggs.

But it's also fun to add a bit of high culture to your candy-eating, and so I present this Mondrian-inspired Peeps creation. Filled in with black jellybean outlines around Peeps, marshmallows, and various other candies to fill in the gaps, this was as fun to make as it will be to eat.

My favorite part, of course, is the Peeps that are torn in half to fit in certain sections. I will tell the truth, it was gratifying to rip them apart.

If you like Peeps art, you might also enjoy the Starry Night one I made a few years ago:

Happy Easter Season!

Get Dirty: Dirt Cake Recipe from Cake Gumshoe Sabrina

Have you ever heard of "Dirt Cake"? Well, neither had I, sweet friends, but Cake Gumshoe Sabrina was kind enough to share after I had what can only be described as a "Facebook freakout" after seeing her post pictures of this masterpiece online.

Here's the 411, from Sabrina:

According to your comment, I'm assuming you have never had the yumminess that is 'DIRT CAKE!' It is quite simple to make and makes for a happy tummy.

Dirt Cake

• 1 regular-sized package of Oreos (or store brand)
• 1 box of instant chocolate Jello pudding mix (the no-cook version)
• 3 cups of milk
• 1/2 or 1 tub of whipped topping 
• 1 package of gummi worms

Procedure

1. Step 1: Crush your Oreos! I place cookies in a large ziploc bag, gently use a rubber mallet to break them down to smaller pieces/crumbs. HINT: You could also use a blender if you've got one handy, it's a lot faster. If you use one, break up the cookies a little bit beforehand to help w/ the process.
2. Step 2: Make some mud. Prepare the package of pudding mix by combining 3 cups of milk and blending thoroughly. Add 1/2 to a full tub of thawed whipped topping (as found in the freezer section) and mix well.
3. Step 3: Build! In a deep bowl, clear flower pot or several individual bowls, add a layer of crushed Oreos (aka dirt) then spoon a layer of your mud pudding, follow with another layer of dirt and repeat until you're out of both. I usually end up with 3 layers of cookie crumbs and 2 layers of pudding.  HINT: As you build your layers, feel free to drop a few gummi worms in!
4. Step 4: Garish. Add gummi worms to the top of the 'cake' and refrigerate for several hours.  HINT: If you happen to have a sprig of fake flowers laying around, clean the plastic stem and stick it into the dirt cake. Sometimes the flowers can be too heavy or lopsided so this won't always work...but it definitely adds to the effect! 

Enjoy!

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Sweet Links

Photo credit: Nutropolitan Museum of Art

It's gonna be a sweet weekend...starting...NOW!

New favorite thing ever: a blog inspired by the Art of the Peanut Butter Sandwich.

Sweet discovery: One Smart Cookie! (thanks, Jill!)

Cool and sweet: CakeSpy is featured as the "Cool Girl of the Month" on the Sock it to Me! Blog.

Sweet feature: read the awesome article featuring CakeSpy, Orangette, Gluten-Free Girl, Savory Sweet Life, and Frantic Foodie!

Better together: Peanut butter and jelly bars from BAKED.

Sweet, but not to eat: an iPhone application which lets you design cupcakes. Cool! (thanks, Rosalie!)

North country: I must visit Lily on Orcas, and soon!

Bakesale for Japan: A sweet roundup by The Sated Palate.

As a Levain lover, I am excited to check out their Frederick Douglass Blvd. location!

Sweet decorating: in Philadelphia, Bredenbeck's is starting a series of cupcake decorating events! Sweet!

Boo-Meringue! Lemon Coconut Meringue Pie on Bon Appetit--you are welcome to make this for me, pleaseandthankyouverymuch.

Speaking of coconut...how about these Mann's Cookies? (thanks Becky for the intriguing lead!)

Chocolate chipotle cupcakes stuffed with caramel...that's right, say hello to "The Vinny" by Fields of Cake.

CupcakeCamp Seattle is coming, and the poster is awfully cute.

Batter Chatter: Interview with Stacy Heller of OneSmartCookie

Fact: it's always fun to discover a new baking business. OneSmartCookie is a newcomer to the Seattle scene, a small home-based cookie business specializing in one of a kind sweet petite treats. Who is the baker, and what does the future hold for this business? Let's learn more with this interview with proprietress Stacy Heller:

So. OneSmartCookie. TellMeMore. I'm a stay-at-home mom of four who sort of fell into baking cookies for others. Peer pressure got me addicted to Diet Coke and baking. I started "playing" Julia Child as a kid, it was way more fun than house or school - all those small bowls lined up called to me! I like cookies best because each one is like a small canvas. The "realist" in me knows what a banana looks like, the "artist" in me likes to interpret what a decorated banana cookie looks like. Far sweeter!

Cake or Pie? Cake - they're pretty and tasty and festive and don't wear a "mask" of healthy (fruit pies - ha!).

Pants or Skirts? Pants - in my fantasies, "smart slacks" in reality, jeans.

Yes or No? First no, then yes. (doubt is a bad habit).

Vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry? Vanilla. Surprising depth to be found  in the more humble "package".

Cookies: drop, molded, rolled, cutout, or refrigerator? Rolled/cutout to make your eyes and stomach happy. Drop to make your mood and stomach happy. Any to make others just all-around happy! 

What is the last delicious thing you ate? Movie popcorn - I'm a savory girl! Sweets-wise - a New York style coffee cake my daughter made that is reminiscent of an Entenmann's (I find them only back east, where I'm from).

Where can we buy your cookies? Special order only through me at the moment. Contact details are on my blog.

What is next for you and your business? To bake or not to bake, that is always the question. I love baking, but doing it is truly a LABOR of love. I need to decide if I really want to turn it into a J O B versus a hobby....if it's a calling, can you choose though?

Find out more on Stacy's blog.

Cake Byte: CakeSpy Featured in a Brazilian Newspaper!

Totally sweet! I'm big in Brazil...well, my artwork is, anyhow! Last week an art director emailed me and asked if he could use my artwork from the Coconut French Toast With Bananas Foster recipe for his article, and I said "si!". Now, if only I could only figure out what the article said. 

A link to a bigger image of the article can be found here; the paper is online here.

Sweet Love: A Crush on the Book FoodFest 365! by Yvan Lemoine

It's time to share with you my favorite food-book find in recent memory. It's a sweet (and savory) little morsel of a book entitled FoodFest 365!: The Officially Fun Food Holiday Cookbook by Yvan Lemoine.

This is a book which documents a national food holiday for each day of the year, and is punctuated with recipes and stories about each food.

After taking it out two times from the library, I decided that yes, I must own it. Because it's through this book that I learned several things, including:

-February 21 is National Sticky Bun Day

-April 7 is National Coffee Cake Day (may I suggest this?)

-April 16 is National Eggs Benedict Day (your choice if you want to make it Cadbury Creme Egg-style)

...of course, the fact that my birthday, August 26, is National Cherry Popsicle Day doesn't bother me too much (although cherry-topped cupcake day would probably be more appropriate).

It's a super-fun book; I highly suggest it, sweeties.

You can get a sneak peek on the book website here; Buy the book here.

Seeking Sweetness: Daily Snapshot, Drawing by a 7 Year Old Fan

CakeSpy Note: if you follow me on facebook or Twitter, you probably know I'm partial to adding bits of sweetness to my daily surroundings, via sidewalk chalk, small cutouts, and the like--I call it "gentle street art". Here's where I post a daily feel-good photo, for no particular reason other than to showcase these sweet little nothings, in hopes that they'll make you smile.

This is a bit of sweetness that someone brought to me! Annabelle, 7 year old daughter of Sarah (who participated in the Bakesale for Japan and has a great blog called The Sated Palate), was so inspired by my cupcake-unicorn card that she did her own version. How sweet! Too bad I have to sue her for copyright infringement now.

Push It: PushCakes by Meringue Bake Shop, Orange County CA

Photo: Meringue Bake ShopWhen push pop meets cupcake, you get something awesome to shove in your gullet: PushCakes!

And I was the very lucky recipient of a sample package of these sweeties, made with love by Meringue Bakeshop in So-cal, which arrived on SpyStep (that's my doorstep) this morning.

Aside from some minor frosting sticking-to-the-top, the cakes arrived in fine form (and really, if you must know, I just licked it off the lid, and am pretty certain you'd do the same if nobody was looking). Also, a small circle of parchment paper would probably do the trick in keeping it from sticking.

While the push pop mechanism doesn't change the taste of cake at all, it does make it fun to eat, and if you ate it in front of someone else, it would probably make them jealous. And Kristin Ausk, the baker behind Meringue Bake Shop, makes a mean PushCake: cake layers kept moist between generous, almost mini trifle-esque layers of buttercream. Favorite flavor so far? The strawberry cheesecake, which tastes a little bit like both flavors, all at once, in a good way.

Here are the flavors that Mr. Spy and I devoured:

• Queen of Hearts (aka red velvet)
• German Chocolate
• Strawberry Cheesecake
• Sweet & Salty (salted caramel) 

...and yes, they were freaking delicious.

Want more? You'd do yourself a favor if you bought some PushCakes--do it here. And follow the baker online here.

Top of the Pops: Doughnut Pops by Frost Doughnuts, Mill Creek WA

Topping the list of things I'd like to pop in my mouth? Doughnut pops by Frost Doughnuts!

That's right: they've got a totally sweet new product over in Mill Creek:

We are excited to reveal our newest creation: FROST Pops! All of the flavor you love in FROST doughnuts, in a pop!

Launching for Spring, FROST Pops aren't doughnut holes on-a-stick, but an entirely new doughnut-based cake that has the moistest brownie-like texture you can imagine - dipped in chocolate! Best of all, they have the unmistakeable flavor of FROST.

The flavors will range from your favorite Evolved line doughnuts to new and exciting creations. Shown here are Red Velvet and Peanut Butter Perfection, both dipped in luscious chocolates. These, plus our newest variety Island Escape will be available at launch next week at a price of 1.49ea.

For more info, visit frostology.com; stay updated via their Facebook page, too.