Benefit Make Up + The Cupcake Crusade = BFFL

The tasting on saturday was an absolute success! just wanted to post some pictures that Betsy McPherson took of the event!

Follow us!

on twitter @cupcakecrusade

and don't forget to become a fan of "the cupcake crusade" on facebook.

these are great ways to stay current about us, the coffee house, specials, and discounts :)

OH! Sidenote:

The website is up and running!

www.thecupcakecrusade.com

online ordering isn't ready yet, and right now we're only hand delivering in the atlanta area, but spread the word!

ALSO!

My friend Betsy, who takes all of the gorgeous cupcake pictures for me has her blog up and running!

Check out http://amomenttofocus.blogspot.com

She's AMAZING!

Pineapple all upside down and inside out

Executing pineapple upside made me a little nervous.

Mainly because I had never had pineapple upside down cake and didn't have much frame of reference.

They looked like this:




That's my grandmother's seven minute frosting recipe on top.

I never got a chance to eat one, but I heard they were lovely :)

Tasting!

Hi everybody!

I am back on the east coast, and ready for my first official tasting tomorrow.

Come on out, try a cupcake, and support us!

1pm Benefit Counter in the Macy's at Lenox Mall.

HODGEPODGE!

is the name of our one day coffee house.

well this coffee house is becoming a reality.



this is the building we officially have a lease for!

it's being converted from a garage into our dream.

the owner is amazing, as is his realtor. we got along from the beginning, and, more importantly, they believe in our dream and vision.

so if everything goes according to plan, you are now looking at the future home for The Cupcake Crusade.

SO EXCITING!

in a west coast frame of mind

lilaboo's asleep so i decided to take this time to let you know that i have not forgotten nor have i abandoned you.

the three of us (baby, husband, and i) have made our way to the west coast to introduce lily to a huge chunk of her family. unfortunately, dan had to go back yesterday for work, but doozer and i will be here for another week.

lucky for me, since atlanta apparently hit 99 degrees yesterday.

we were in huntington beach until yesterday, staying with aunt terry and uncle john. had a great family cookout and everyone over here got to taste cups of cake. i not going to lie, i was nervous at first.

i've been talking about these cupcakes via the blog and facebook, and all i could think of is they would want greatness, take one bite, and think "what is she thinking?"

but it was a huge sigh of relief when they loved them! enough to have seconds, thirds, and take some home. i'm not going to lie, it was a total ego boost.

not to mention the earthquake mother nature gave me on my birthday :)

so we're in a super cute boutique hotel across from the grove called The Farmer's Daughter. we had dinner at the farmer's market last night. other than getting sick with some gross sinus thing yesterday, it's been a lovely vacation.

and this will be the last vacation for quite some time. once i get back to the sweltering heat, it's back to getting the recipes, tastings, and getting the coffee house open.

more info to come on all those topics at a later date.

right now my mom just brought me sudafed and i'm going to partake.

The Key to Lime

This weekend was the execution of a recipe that has been dancing around in my head for awhile now.

My friend Betsy is amazing. She’s kind, funny, and always supportive. Not to mention she’s an obscenely talented photographer. In fact, she took the pictures for this post. ( and hopefully every other post i write)

And my dear Betsy loves pie. So when she agreed to be a taste tester this week, I couldn’t let her down.

And with that came the key lime pie cupcakes.

The premise is simple, adding scratch key lime pie filling to homemade super moist white cake, and top it with fresh, slightly sweetened, whipped cream.
The problem is finding a way to keep this a true cupcake, and not a key lime pie with a little bit of cake.

The decision was to make the mini cupcakes with a ripple of key lime filling. Anymore filling and the integrity of the name "cupcake" may have been compromised. Once cooled, they were topped with little mounds of whipped cream, making them the perfect one bite treat.

The jumbo cupcakes were a whole other beast entirely. The bigger the size, the more key lime needed. A layer of cake, a SERIOUS layer of filling in the middle, another layer of cake on top, and enough whipped cream for this cupcake to be a meal.

I figure if someone’s going to choose a key lime cupcake out of the list of dozens of flavors, they want the real thing.



Can you see the layer of real thing?

After my three person tasting, there were still forty cupcakes left over. So where do you bring extra cupcakes? To karaoke at the bar, of course.

Gave each server a mini and by the end of the night asked one to pass the rest of the good around to all the employees. The tin came back empty, the cupcakes got rave reviews, and I officially have a key lime recipe for the books.

Dreaming the dream

I suppose the first post of this blog should simply state the purpose of its existence.

I love to bake.

Always have.

Always will.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to stay home for the last six months with my new baby, Lillian, and have finally had the time to return to my passion.

A couple friends and I are on a journey to open an art and green inspired coffee shop in the heart of Atlanta; me manning the majority of the baking portion.

From now until opening I will be experimenting and perfecting classic cupcake recipes, as well as reconstructing many popular desserts into cupcake form.

I, myself, am a chocolate kind of lady. So if there are any desserts you love, that you'd like me to recreate, please let me know.

I will also post times and locations for tastings in Atlanta.

There will also always be a way to purchase any of the cupcakes you see on this blog.

Just contact me through my email.

Wish me luck!