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Friday, October 14, 2011 
Check it out! I'll be at two different Cupcake Royale locations for book events in the next few days! Check out the facebook event pages for the events here: Capitol Hill and Bellevue.
Find out more and find directions at Cupcakeroyale.com!
book tour, cakespy book Friday, October 14, 2011 
Happy-awesome-sweet weekend, friends!
In case you missed it: Mellowcreme Pumpkin-inspired cake!
OMG. Neapolitan Marshmallows! Om nom nom.
Plenty Delicious: I want to visit Plenty in NYC.
Sweet book to buy: Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food: A Grocer's Guide to Shopping, Cooking & Creating Community Through Food
OMG. My two favorite things in one wrapper: Juicy Lucy Burger Cupcakes!
Cool and sweet: Scoopalicious interviews Jeni of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams!
oooOOOOOooooOOOOOoooo: Cake Candelabra!
Fall into deliciousness: Everything Fall Cupcakes by Cupcake Project!
What is the cupcake? High Schoolers in Iowa will school you.
Lor Tatlisi: I've never met you, but I love you.
New favorite website: Candy Professor (thanks, Haley!)
Interesting: Inside-out cake recipe.
Highly acceptable breakfast fare: Pumpkin Pancakes!
Bakery I wanna visit: My Little Cupcake in Vermont!
links Thursday, October 13, 2011 
Image: Dessert FirstCakeSpy Note: My book tour has already begun--online, that is! Marking stop 4 for the virtual Tour de Sweet blog tour is Anita of Dessert First! She made a totally sweet version of my Blondie-topped Brownies!
It was hard to choose which recipe to make first, but I tried out her Blondie-Topped Brownies, because I’m always a fan of not having to choose. This recipe is exactly as described: a moist fudgy brownie layer topped with a sweet, butterscotch-y blondie layer. It’s quick to make, and the flavors mix together surprisingly well. And it’s certainly a conversation starter, like most the other recipes in the cookbook.
Congrats on a great first cookbook, Jessie! As part of her book launch, Jessie will be touring several cities, and she’ll be in the Bay Area next week at two great foodie locations: Teacake Bake Shop and Omnivore Books. I’m looking forward to meeting her and if any of you are local, I hope you’ll come too!
book tour, cakespy book Wednesday, October 12, 2011 
Photo: Culinary Concoctions by PeabodyCakeSpy Note: My book tour has already begun--online, that is! Marking stop 3 for the virtual Tour de Sweet blog tour is Peabody (my baking hero and fellow unicorn lover), who has managed to make my Pop-Tarts Ice Cream Sandwiches even awesomer. Here's Peabody's writeup, but visit her blog for the recipe and an interview with me!
So most of you know my buddy Jessie from Cakespy, but you might not know she came out with a whimsical and fun cookbook as well! It’s just quirky and magical, just like her. I was asked to join her Tour de Sweet and jumped at the chance!
Jessie and I think a lot alike and without every discussing what the other one is making we literally will have often made almost the same thing…great minds. Minus the fact that she can also draw and well…I make some really lovely blobs and squiggles that I call drawings. Just like most artist, my art won’t be appreciated until I’m dead, or so I keep telling myself.
If you love Jessie you will love her book. If you don’t know Jessie, head over to her blog and take a look. Her book is of course somewhat like her blog…but a little more unicorn action (not that action) and who can’t use that?
Thanks, Peabody. Just for you, here's a special Halloween drawing:
For the full entry, recipe, and a scintillating interview, visit Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.
book tour, cakespy book Tuesday, October 11, 2011 
Photo: Bake it in a CakeCakeSpy Note: My book tour has already begun--online, that is! Bake it in a Cake marks stop 2 for the virtual Tour de Sweet blog tour. And this one's a true victory: I have made Megan Seling a True Believer in the mighty Nanaimo Bar! Here's what she has to say:
I had the perfect plan. To celebrate the release of CakeSpy’s new book, CakeSpy: Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life, I was going to bake Nanaimo Bars into a cupcake! They’re one of CakeSpy’s favorite treats, after all, and I wouldn’t know about their magical existence without her introducing me to them.
But last night, when I made Nanaimo bars for the first time (can you believe I’ve never had one until yesterday??), I realized the bars, as dense as they are, are about 80% butter (no wonder CakeSpy loves them so much). I can’t bake these into a cupcake! The fluffy, custardy, buttery center would just melt away into nothing. What kind of Nanaimo bar has no fluffy middle layer? So instead of baking these treats into a cupcake, I simply made them and enjoyed them the way CakeSpy meant for them to be enjoyed. They’re every bit as delectable as she says they are—a co-worker even declared that they were “The best treat ever brought into the office.”
CakeSpy’s adorable new book also has some suggestions for variations—eggnog Nanaimo bars, peppermint Nanaimo bars, even boozy Nanaimo bars! Click here to buy the new CakeSpy book—you Bake It in a Cake fans will be happy to know, contains a recipe for cupcakes baked into cupcakes!
book tour, guest blog Monday, October 10, 2011 
OK, sweeties. Consider this your official reminder: this Thursday is the Official CakeSpy Book Launch Party at CakeSpy Shop in Seattle!
I will be there. My parents (from NJ) will be there. I will have books to sell you. And there will be cake.
Here are the details.
What to expect: an informal open-house type setting where we will have cake and treats (I will have 4-5 types of sweets made from recipes in the book!), alcohol (woooo!), original artwork as featured in the book on sale in the gallery, and my lovely little self on hand to sign the books which you should plan on buying.
But wait, there's more! Because I hate being at an event and waiting for people to arrive fashionably late (don't make me wait all alone in my party dress, people!), I would like to give you an incentive to come early: the first three guests will receive a FREE copy of the book!! That's right. You just mention this post and if you're one of the first three, you'll get the book at NO COST. And I will still sign it for you.
But even if you can't make it to this awesome event of the century, there are more chances to get your hands on my book over the next few days in Seattle:
For the rest of the tour dates, click here! To purchase the book in advance, visit cakespyshop.com or hit up Elliott Bay Books. Or win a copy here.
book tour, breaking cake news, events Monday, October 10, 2011 
Photo: Cupcake ProjectCakeSpy Note: My book tour has already begun--online, that is! Kicking off the Tour de Sweet blog tour for my book is Stef at Cupcake Project, who was inspired by my cupcakes baked in cupcakes--and she created her own fall version, which include all of the best fall flavors in one sweet treat! Here's a sneak peek at her post; read the entire post and find her recipe here.
When perusing Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life to decide what to bake for you for on the tour stop (what would a baking book tour be without sweet treats?), my choice was clear. In her book, Jessie creates the cupcake in a cupcake - genius!! The Everything Fall Cupcake is my own take on her creation (which, by the way, is her take on the work of her friend Megan Seling from Bake It In a Cake)...
...When you bake a cupcake inside of a cupcake, you end up with a little cupcake nipple poking out of the top of the original cupcake. This is normal, and as you can see in the photo at the top of this post, once you frost the cupcakes, no one will ever know it was there.
Cupcakes inside of cupcakes open up a whole new realm of cupcake possibilities. Take any two cupcake and frosting flavors you love and you might love them even more in the same cupcake! Not only do you achieve different but complementary flavors in one bite, but you also end up with varied textures, a super moist center from the twice-baked cupcake, a typical cupcake texture from the normal-sized cupcake, and a top that has flaky crunchy bits from the mini-cupcake's frosting spreading and caramelizing.
Photo: Cupcake ProjectFor Stef's recipe for "Everything Fall" Cupcakes as well as the rest of her sweet thoughts on the book, visit her site!
book tour, cakespy book, guest blog Monday, October 10, 2011 Legend has it that Candy Corn is named for its coloring, which is inspired by the gradient of a kernel of corn. Sweet as this story may be, I've got to squint really hard to see the resemblance.
Nonetheless, I'm happy to bring the iconic tricolor treat together with popped kernels of its namesake, in the form of Candy Corn Popcorn Balls. These sweet marshmallow-based popcorn balls work beautifully when studded with candy corn; adding an extra shake of salt makes for a sweet, salty, crunchy, crispy, sticky, and overall pretty irresistible fall treat.
candy corn, halloween, recipes, serious eats Monday, October 10, 2011 
Photo of my book by BakerellaAbout this time last year, I had one of the sweetest days of my life while working at CakeSpy Shop, my retail store in Seattle.
First, a friend surprised me by sending me a pie. Now, if you ask me, this is a much sweeter gesture than sending flowers. It's like sending flour!
Then, my friend Rebekah Denn came to interview me for what would eventually be this article.
And then--OMG--my longtime baking and blogging BFF, Bakerella, and her sweet friend Julie, came to visit. Bakerella, who is kind of a big deal in case you didn't know, happened to be in town for her book tour (a book which has proven so successful, by the way, that there are now notecards and cake pop kits to accompany it!).
Bakerella is the one who made this little video for me--and after that we waged a little bit of sweet warfare. (Check out our other sweet exchanges here.)
And now, she has stirred up that sweet warfare again with this make-me-blush feature on me and my work and my book. It makes me so happy to see how much can happen in a year, but how no matter what changes, our friendship--the sweetest part of the whole thing-- is for keeps.
breaking cake news, press Sunday, October 9, 2011 
I totally got lucky in Las Vegas.
Am I talking about slot machines? No. No, I am not.
I am talking about the trip I made to Retro Bakery, away from the glitz of the Strip, a buttercream oasis in the Centennial Hills neighborhood.
Now, to say "trip" may not be quite sufficient, because it was more like a Pastry Pilgrimage, involving two bus transfers and about an hour of transit either way (the other alternative was taking a cab, which I was advised would be "well over $50"). But it was so worth it, because once I got there, I was enthusiastically greeted by owner Kari Haskell, who I've known since the beginning of her business over three years ago (read the interview from way back when here!) who is about my height but somehow has about triple the amount of energy...
...and I was also greeted by this amazing spread of cupcakes and cakes and cookies.
Where to start?
Howsabout with a butterscotch cupcake, which I had been informed could "not be missed". I basically made eating this cupcake a race of "how quickly can you get into my belly?". Nobody challenged me to this race, but still, I think I won.
Poor cupcake. It trusted me so much (see picture, top).
and here's what I did to it.
...and then there were the cookies. Oh, the cookies! After eating the better part of a chocolate chip cookie, a white chocolate chip cookie, and a frosted sugar cookie with rainbow sprinkles, I wondered: what would happen if I combined all these cookies to form one super-cookie? What would happen? The answer:
...but don't worry. I was a gracious guest; I left Kari with a bunch of CakeSpy pins and a signed copy of my book!
And the rest of the cupcakes I purchased kept me company all through the rest of my journey back to the hotel and then on the flight back to Seattle.
Thank you, Retro Bakery, for making Las Vegas magical!
Retro Bakery, 7785 N. Durango Drive, #130, Las Vegas; online here.
