Meat of the Moment: Meatball Bubble Gum and More

Bacon? Yawn. There's a new meat of the moment: meatballs. And its cult status is reflected in a slew of new products which employ meatball as muse, from phone cases to t-shirts to, yes, bubble gum.

I found out about this fantastic new product via In Touch Weekly, where it was listed as one of the "losers of the week". Well, In Touch, as much as I adore your hard-hitting coverage, on this note, I will have to respectfully disagree. Bubble gum that looks like nubbly little meatballs? That's hiliarous and charming!

This "Hearty Italian-Style Meatball Gum" is a perfect treat for me to bring back to my Italian-leaning family in New Jersey for the holidays. 

It appears out of stock on Amazon at the moment, but I have already signed up for updates about when it's available again.

Of course, if meatball gum isn't your style, you could go for some other products by the same manufacturer, including Thanksgiving-themed gum:

Thanksgiving themed gumballs

this includes "twenty-two delicious gumballs in the classic flavors of Thanksgiving - turkey, cranberry and pumpkin pie! Enthusiastically approved by pilgrims. Twelve shrink wrapped tins in each illustrated display box."

If you're looking for something you can enjoy year-round, try the TV dinner gumballs.

TV Dinner Gumballs

The product description: "Remember when there were only three networks and you had to get up out of your chair to change the channel? This is the gum for you! Your vegetable is buttered corn flavored gum, your main dish is roast beef flavored gum and for dessert, apple cobbler flavored gum."

Find all of these sweet treats at accoutrements.com.

Cake Byte: Sweet Fair Craft Show at CakeSpy Shop Tomorrow!

What are you doing tomorrow, Capitol Hill, Seattle?

Well, whatever you had planned, cancel it. Well, unless it was visiting CakeSpy Shop. Because that is what I am suggesting.

We're having a little craft fair tomorrow at the store, and it's going to rule so hard!

Here are the details:

From 12-5 on a sleepy Sunday 9/25, come hang with us at our first-ever Sweet Fair! Featuring DIY crafts, zines, soaps, treats, records and wearables from folks in the community, it should be a ton of fun!

• Date: Sunday, 9/25/11
• Time: 12-5 pm
• Location: CakeSpy Shop, 415 East Pine St, Seattle WA 98122

Can't wait to see you there!

Save the Date: Official CakeSpy Book Launch Party at CakeSpy Shop on October 13

People. It's happening.

My book is out. It's called CakeSpy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life. It rules. It's available for purchase. And on October 13 at CakeSpy Shop, at 415 East Pine Street in Capitol Hill, Seattle, we're gonna have a party to celebrate this momentous occasion.

If you're not in Seattle, don't despair: it's also the kickoff of my lovely and amazing Tour de Sweet book tour, which will span the entire nation (lucky you!). And I sincerely promise to draw a cupcake, unicorn, or robot in every book, free of charge. Um, the books you still have to pay for though.

But back to the launch party at the store.

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. 

• Date: Thursday, October 13 (this is also the night of the Cap. Hill art walk!)
• Time: 6pm-???
• Location: CakeSpy Shop, 415 E. Pine Street, Seattle, WA; online at cakespyshop.com

For the rest of the tour dates, click here! To purchase the book in advance, visit cakespyshop.com.

Cake Byte: Meet Kari Chapin, Author of The Handmade Marketplace, at CakeSpy Shop!

You know what's totally sweet? Making a living doing what you love. And if you're curious about how to make it happen with a handmade artwork (or artisan baking business, for that matter, because many of the concerns are the same!), this event featuring a meet and greet with Kari Chapin may be of interest to Seattleites!

Here's the 411.

It’s an exciting new world for crafters. Handmade is hip, creativity is what the market wants, and there are many profitable sales opportunities that didn’t exist a few short years ago. For crafters who have more confidence running a sewing machine than setting up a website, The The Handmade Marketplace: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and On-Line by Kari Chapin breaks down and makes sense of the global possibilities for marketing and selling crafts.

Come meet the author of this wonderful book, who is in town for the Schoolhouse Craft Conference this weekend! From 6-8 pm Kari will be at CakeSpy Shop to hang out, eat cake, and answer your questions about starting a small craft business.

About the author: Kari Chapin is a marketing and publicity savvy crafter who has sold her goods online as well as managing a bricks-and-mortar store. She has worked in marketing and publicity for a variety of arts and nonprofit organizations and managed a retail store featuring artisan goods.

• Date: September 22, 2011 (Thursday)
• Time: 6-8 pm
• Location: CakeSpy Shop, 415 East Pine St, Seattle WA
• Cake will be served.

Buy The Handmade Marketplace: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and On-Line here!

Cake Byte: The Second Annual Whoopie Pie Bake-Off At Oddfellows Ruled

Fact: The second annual Whoopie Pie Bake-Off at Oddfellows Cafe in Seattle totally ruled.

Don't believe me? Well, tough, because I have photo evidence. Here are just a few snapshots from a very sweet afternoon:

Judge Michael Wells takes his job very seriously.Celebrity judges. Megan Seling of The Stranger and Bake it in a Cake, Michael Wells of the Chamber of Commerce (also, Capitol Hill's premier bon vivant), Jennifer Shea of Trophy Cupcakes, just to name a few--plus, members of The Presidents of the United States of America and more!

There were so many delicious whoopie pies, and so beautifully presented. They were delicately sliced into fourths so that everyone could sample multiple types.

Rainbow whoopie pies, made by staffers at Linda's Tavern. Now, if this isn't my soul in Whoopie Pie form, I don't know what is.

Whoopie pie meets strawberry shortcake: a delectable strawberries and cream specimen.

So many flavor varieties. Here's a sampling of what you might have had on your plate had you been there. Not just chocolate whoopie pies here!

As a judge in the Gluten-free / vegan category of the bake-off, I was entitled to sit at a reserved table, and the judges all got pink champagne. YES!

Also, as a judge, I got a special name tag.

Some of the whoopie pies were even made with beer in the batter! These ones were made with a porter beer, I believe.

Just one example of a creative flavor: Lemon-coconut whoopie pies. NOM.

Pinkies-out: is that sea salt garnishing this whoopie pie?

There were even whoopie pies made with meringues!

Lucky someone: one of the winners won the original artwork I created for the poster! Sweet!

Thanks to the entire staff at Oddfellows (especially Tallulah!) as well as Audrey at Babeland for making this sweet event happen! For more awesome photos and a roundup including winners, visit Capitol Hill Seattle!

Sweet Success: Seattle's First Pie Slam At CakeSpy Shop Was Awesome

Every baked good tastes better with a backstory.

And there could be no sweeter illustration of this than at a totally sweet event held at CakeSpy Shop this week for Pi(e) Day on March 14: Seattle's first Pie Slam!

What is a Pie Slam, you ask? Think: Poetry Slam Meets Pie, and you're getting the idea. In this case, we opened it up to stories in addition to poems, but the basic idea was that each entrant would bake a pie, write a story about it, and present it to a crew of expert judges, who would then rate them on their story and pie, and ultimately come up with a winner.

The judges were like a who's who of the Seattle arts and food scene, including (from left to right) Dani Cone of High 5 Pie (and yes, her shirt says "Butter"), Kate Lebo of Good Egg, Nancy Guppy of ArtZone, Wendy Sykes of Four and 20 Blackbirds, and yours truly (not pictured).

As a judge, I had to try every pie.

I took this job very seriously.

The nine entries, which will be individually profiled on this site in the coming week (with recipes in some cases!), were very eclectic, but all very delicious, including a chocolate cream pie with macadamia brittle, a Shaker Lemon pie, a pumpkin pie in a graham crust, a Pake (pie in a cake), a "Lunchbox Pie" which included peanut butter, banana, and chocolate covered potato chips, a fig-apple-walnut pie, a blueberry pie, and two delicious apple pies.

The stories were equally eclectic, ranging from heartfelt elegies to love stories to college dorm memories to humorous anecdotes about pie versus cake battles.

Happy organizers, Wendy Sykes and CakeSpy-JessieIt was a tough competition: when the scores were tallied, it literally came to several half-point differences in score--it was that close!

But ultimately Kate McDermott's tale and Shaker Lemon Pie took the cake (er, pie?) and she won a totally sweet ribbon as well as an original CakeSpy painting; Alexander's Pake and humorous pie-versus-cake story took second prize, and he received a handmade mitt made by Wendy!

Of course, everybody else won because they got to eat all of the rest of the pie.

Stay tuned for individual entries on each of the entrants, including tales and pie recipes! In the meantime, check out the photo gallery here!

Cake Byte: Art Walk Tonight at CakeSpy Shop!

The line between cute and creepy can be a fine one sometimes, and artist-slash-standup comedian Emmett Montgomery walks that line with ease. His jokes are hilarious, and his artwork is unusual in the awesomest way possible: he makes puppets.

Yes, puppets. Out of paper bags, intricately decorated with sweet-but-dark characters. And this month, there's a selection of them on show at CakeSpy Shop, at 415 E. Pine Street, Seattle. 

The puppets range in price from $50 to $125, and tonight, you can come eat free cookies and meet the artist from 5-8 p.m. as part of the Capitol Hill Art Walk!

See you tonight!

Sweet Summer: The Strawberry 66 is Back at Cupcake Royale for July!

Let's get excited about Cupcake Royale. Why? It's that wonderful moment in time (the month of July) when they sell their made-locally, loved-globally treat, the Strawberry 66 Cupcake, made with "Sweet, ripe, super fresh strawberries from Skagit Sun Farms in an oh-so-summery buttercream atop a moist vanilla buttercake. Reminiscent of strawberry shortcake".

Why 66? Well, it's made with 66% local ingredients. That is no small feat! So not only is it sweet, it's a great way to support local farmers and vendors. Why does this matter? Well, according to owner Jody Hall,

I really believe in a sustainable business model - and local is one aspect of this ideal.  The 3 components of sustainability are environmental impact, economic viability, and impact on people.  With our effort to support local, independent businesses, we're hitting all three.  Because we're buying local products, we have a lighter environmental impact.  Impact is even lighter when we support the sustainable efforts of others as well. For example, our flour is sustainably grown with "no-till" farming methods that preserve topsoil, and our sugar is organic evaporated cane juice and has a much lighter impact in its processing.  

Looks like this summer is going to be totally sweet!

To obtain one of those delicious Strawberry 66 cupcakes, you can visit any of the four Cupcake Royale locations all July long; for more information, visit cupcakeroyale.com; for instant updates, follow them on Twitter!