Tag parties that cook

Quest For the Best Cupcake

4 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in General Tagged with bakery, cupcake recipe, cupcakery, cupcakes, Kara's, Love at First Bite, parties that cook, Sibby's, Sprinkles, That Takes the Cake June 9th, 2009 @ 5:16 pm

Last summer, I was seeking out the best frozen yogurt places. Now, I’m after the best cupcake. One thing is clear from this adventure: cupcakeries are the newest fad. I have always thought of cupcakes in terms of little kids’ birthdays, day old sprinkles, and plasticky frosting. Now they are being used as an alternative to hostess gifts, wedding cakes, and even inserted into people’s regular meal regimen. Move aside iPhone and Angelina Jolie; 3-dollar mini cakes have taken over popular culture.

Some of the most popular cupcakeries in the Bay Area:

Sprinkles (San Francisco, CA) – This cornerstone of the cupcake phenomenon has its roots in Beverly Hills, CA. The creator of Sprinkles, Kimberly Nelson, has made a huge splash as she expands her stores nationwide. There was so much hype about Sprinkles coming to the Bay Area that all of the other cupcakeries followed suit. Sprinkles makes their cupcakes fresh throughout the day and also sells mix for their most popular cupcakes in their retail stores!

Chocolate Marshmallow – Belgian dark chocolate cake and marshmallow cream with bittersweet chocolate ganache.
Ginger Lemon – Spiced ginger cake with lemon cream cheese frosting.
Red Velvet – Southern style light chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting (it lives up to its reputation and then some!)

Pros: They are one of the originators!, delicious flavor combinations, multiple locations create convenience, seasonal flavors are created throughout the year, good-sized cupcakes
Cons: high prices for cupcakes and merchandise, lots of hype and high expectations has created some disappointment for customers, the only mini cupcakes they have are for dogs!

Love At First Bite Cupcakery and Bakery (Berkeley, CA) – With a cute name like this and a menu like theirs, it is difficult to dislike this bakery. Here are some of the cupcakes that I found the most enticing:

Chocolate Razzle – Guittard chocolate cupcakes frosted with raspberry buttercream, made with fresh raspberries
Lemon Kiss – light & fluffy lemon cupcakes kissed with lemon buttercream frosting
Pumpkin Bliss – pumpkin spice cupcakes wedded in bliss with cream cheese frosting

Pros: Their use of fresh ingredients (doesn’t the thought of fresh raspberries going into your dessert make you feel healthier and that much hungrier?), the price ($2.75!), the option to create your own, offering of cookies and cakes as well
Cons: all the way in Berkeley!, the decorations are not as decadent as some of their competitors.

Kara’s Cupcakes (San Francisco, CA) – Kara’s was started by a woman right here in San Francisco. She had a childhood sweet tooth that grew into a passion and then a career after she enrolled in pastry school. She started with a small word of mouth cupcake catering business that eventually got so popular she was unable to fill all of the orders. She opened her first store in San Francisco’s Marina District and now even has a retail store in Ghirardelli Square. Kara can still be found working in the store kitchens!

Fleur De Sel – chocolate cupcake with caramel filling, ganache frosting and fleur de sel
Banana – banana cupcake with silky soft cream cheese frosting
Java – chocolate cupcake with a rich espresso buttercream

Pros: mini cupcakes, regular sized cupcakes, and filled cupcakes, Bay Area roots, multiple locations, locally bought products, donation of cupcakes to local charity organizations
Cons: many people complain about poor customer service

Sibby’s Cupcakery (San Mateo, CA) – I feel that Sibby’s is for the cupcake insiders of the Bay Area. It doesn’t have a storefront but is available for delivery anywhere! They can specialize cupcake decorations according to the theme of an event or a favorite color combination. Decorations are flawless and incredibly impressive. All of the cupcakes, except for the Super-Chewy Chocolate, are made in mini and regular sizes as well.

Grandma’s Chocolate Tea Cake – Rich chocolate cupcake with cream cheese/chocolate chip center, topped with Sibby’s rich and fudgy chocolate frosting. The most popular cupcake!
Snickerdoodle – vanilla cupcake and cinnamon cream cheese frosting topped with sugar and spice and everything nice
Super-Chewy Chocolate (mini size only) – Extra rich “brownie-like” chocolate cupcake with glossy dark chocolate frosting

Pros: amazing, customized decorations that will impress anyone, quick delivery, made fresh for every order, seasonal cupcake flavors
Cons: no storefront, order ahead and pickup/delivery only, $39 per dozen plus a delivery fee

That Takes the Cake (San Francisco, CA): This cupcake company began because the founders loved the trip down memory lane that came along with cupcakes. Everyone can relate to a nostalgic childhood memory with a sweet treat in his or her hand. That Takes The Cake has enticing, witty names for their cupcakes and bake with fresh ingredients that you can taste! They sell gifts and are big on the icing.

Tuxedo – Double chocolate buttermilk cake with chocolate chips topped with vanilla butter cream with chocolate jimmies.
Samoa – Rich chocolate devils food cake with chocolate chips filled with caramel topped with cream cheese frosting, toasted coconut and a drizzle of caramel.
Key lime-o-licious – Green lime cake topped with cream cheese frosting with graham cracker and green sanding sugar.

Pros: Daily rotation of flavors, clever new flavors, filled, mini, and regular cupcakes, catering option, known for lots of icing on each cupcake, cute gifts sold in store
Cons: depending on the batch, some Yelp reviewers claim to have had dry cupcakes, no seating except for one table outside, inconsistent texture.

Overall, this experience taught me a few things:

Don’t take your cupcakes too seriously. Try not to ruin your favorite childhood treat by judging and analyzing each cupcakery like it’s that weird girl in your high school Biology class. It’s hard to go wrong!
Experiment! Some of the flavors may sound out of the box but try it out. This cupcake fad has allowed for some really cool new flavors that might just inspire your own kitchen creations. Try our very own Mini-Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Dulce de Leche Buttercream!
Less is more. Lots of these sugary delights can end up weighing you down (literally and figuratively) for a few days following consumption.

I love that the food industry is always improving and innovating. I have yet to be bored with whatever is on the forefront of popular cuisine. So put on your stretchy pants and throw your inhibitions to the wind! You only live once, and these cupcakes are making it fun and delicious.

By Guest Blogger: Leigh Hermansen

Cookbook Club | Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

2 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in General, Menus & Recipes, News & Events Tagged with 101cookbooks, clemenquat salad, Cookbook Club, heidi swanson, lentil crostini, parties that cook, peanut salad, quinoa cookies, Rainbow Grocery, supernatural cooking, sweet potato spoon bread May 12th, 2009 @ 10:27 am

It was fitting to celebrate our one year anniversary Cookbook Club with a local San Franciscan author. Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking does more than encourage her readers to “buy local.” She focuses on simplistic cooking using whole and natural ingredients. Most importantly, it reaches out to the everyday home cook with its warm and alluring photos and delicious recipes that easily come together.

For this month’s cookbook club, we prepared dishes to sample each chapter of Heidi’s cookbook.

Chapter 1 | Build a Natural Foods Pantry
Heidi explains the first step in natural cooking is to expand your pantry with whole and natural flours, oils and fats, sweeteners, spices, and seasonings. For most cookbook club participants, we found needed ingredients at Rainbow Grocery, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s if we didn’t already have the items in our pantry.

Chapter 2 | Explore a Wide Range of Grains

Savory Amaranth Souffle
A gruyere soufflé baked in ramekins lined with toasted amaranth seeds. Just from the first bite, the abundant flow of creamy nuttiness caused everyone to ask what type of cheese was used for the soufflé. Though simple in appearance, the toasted amaranth seeds framed the soufflé well and complemented the soft texture with a grainy crunch. Bibby had mixed feelings about the soufflé texture and felt it would be a great breakfast dish given its texture noticeably similar to grits. Bibby admitted she didn’t make this recipe completely “natural” because she used white flour instead of amaranth flour, which may have given the soufflé its lighter texture.

Otsu
Japanese buckwheat noodles tossed in toasted ginger-sesame dressing with pan-seared tofu, sliced cucumbers, and green onions. This was applauded as a light, refreshing Asian alternative to pasta salad. Sandra marinated the tofu in the ginger-sesame dressing before pan-searing it to create a robust and flavorful browning. She learned “shoyu” sauce called for in the dressing is the Japanese word for “soy” sauce.

Chapter 3 | Cook by Color

Clemenquat Salad with Walnuts and Parmesan Shavings
This gorgeous salad of clementines, kumquats, celery, and walnut halves clearly demonstrates Heidi’s philosophy of cooking with colorful foods full of phytonutrients. Tanya was surprised by the salad’s beautiful colors and visual appeal because it was comprised of only a few simple ingredients. It was, however, a labor intensive salad to remove the skin and membrane from the clementines and celery. Sweet, crunchy, and slightly salty, this bright salad would be the envy at any buffet.

Sweet Potato Spoon Bread
Baked and mashed sweet potato casserole dotted with goat cheese and topped with parmesan cheese. This recipe appealed to Lauren with the possibility of being a “heartier” whole foods dish, and she was pleased with the ease of making this sweet potato casserole. She used red onions instead of shallots called for in the recipe, and it still paired nicely with the goat and parmesan cheeses. Resembling a sweet potato soufflé, this would be a great side dish for Thanksgiving.

Chapter 4 | Know Your Superfoods

Beluga Lentil Crostini with Chevre-Chive Spread
Goat cheese spread topped with beluga lentils on crostini toast. Erin learned beluga lentil turns shiny when it gets wet, and more than one of us had to look closely to realize it wasn’t caviar! As Heidi instructed, Erin used a splash of milk to help the goat cheese spread easier. The chive blossoms purchased at Rainbow Grocery were used as garnish atop these appetizer masterpieces.

Lime-Bathed Peanut Salad
Tomatoes and raw peanuts dressed with lime juice, olive oil, salt, jalapeno chile, and cilantro. Truly simple and easy to make. Bibby compared this salty, cool mixture to salads that can be found at many Burmese restaurants.

Hijiki and Edamame Salad
Dried hijiki, edamame, daikon, carrot, baby spinach, and soybeans in creamy miso dressing. Using a new ingredient, Rossie discovered dried hijiki at Rainbow Grocery costs $117 a pound! She only needed 2 tablespoons which (thankfully) expanded to an entire bowl. Rosie found this dish easy to prepare and would use the dressing for other salads because she enjoyed it so much. Edamame and canned soybeans were listed as separate ingredients, reminding us that edamame is a type of green soybean.

Garlic Scape Soup
Pureed soup with potatoes, spinach, garlic scapes, and lemon. This soup was akin to vichyssoise soup which also uses garlic, potato and stock. A helpful side tip from the recipe says green onions can be substituted for the seasonal scapes. Crissy thought of using spring (or green) garlic for even more flavor. Crissy used only 2 of the 3 potatoes in the recipe which she felt was still plenty of starch. The baby spinach gave the soup a more vibrant green color. We also tried the soup cold the next day, and agree with Heidi that it tastes even better the day after!

Chapter 5 | Use Natural Sweeteners

Red Quinoa – Walnut Cookies
Cookies made from whole wheat pastry flour, butter, natural cane sugar, eggs, rolled oats, red quinoa, and toasted walnuts. It was Erin’s first time using unrefined cane sugar and she appreciated the opportunity to purchase it in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. She whipped the butter for a long time using a stand mixer. This may have created a runny batter and Erin had to add more flour to the mixture after the first batch spread together. Needless to say, the innovative use of quinoa in cookies helped meet our daily dose of healthy grains (ignore the fact these cookies aren’t guilt free)! Next time, Erin will consider using mini muffin tins to possibly give better shape for these addictive biscuit-like cookies.

Basic Chocolate Cake
Michele branched away from the cookbook to try a recipe from Heidi’s website: www.101cookbooks.com. Sweetened only by maple syrup and coconut milk, Michelene was definitely skeptical to try a cake sans sugar. Perhaps it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, but this recipe was the least favored dish. Heidi described this as a “chocolate-packed, moist” cake, yet we found it dense and dry. Michelene noted the batter was thick and almost dough-like before she baked it in the pyrex dish. However, the maple sweetened chocolate-whipped cream frosting did manage to receive some approvals from the table.