Cupcake Envy

It all started a few years ago. I was in Washington D.C. with Leo. He had a conference and I was exploring the city. One of my favorite places to go was the Smithsonian Museum of American History. After a wonderful day of exploring this amazing place I was going to meet Leo at the cafeteria in the basement at the Smithsonian. I wasn't hungry for dinner, but I thought something sweet would just perfect. Then I saw them. Beautiful fluffy baby blue cupcakes. Quite simple, just buttercream frosting and a vanilla cupcake but it was divine. The best cupcake I have ever had.

Since then I have been on the search for perfect cupcake and I have not found it yet. To my delight I have recently discovered some wonderful blogs dedicated just to cupcakes. One of my favorites is I Heart Cuppycakes. She has a wonderful variety of different flavors such as Creme Brulee and Midori Melon Mojito Cupcakes AND she shows you how to make them. She is also on a quest to figure out the best way to ship a cupcake and I'm thinking of trying that out to see if it works to send to some friends back East. Another fun site is Cupcakes take the Cake, showing wonderful tempting photos of cupcakes from bakeries and kitchens from all over. My favorite are the ABBA cupcakes in honor of Mama Mia! (which I am listening to this very moment. I LOVED the movie it was so much fun and makes me want to run away to Greece!) 52 Cupcakes has great decorating ideas, really clever!! And of course after all that you are going to need Cupcake Rehab..YES, YES, YES!!

While Leo and I were in San Francisco last weekend we came upon Kara's Cupcakes. We tasted the Sweet Vanilla, Java and Banana. They were very good, but not as good as my D.C. cupcakes. I thought they were rather small, especially for the price and I was a little dissapointed with the lack of variety. The fondant flower on the top of the cupcake tasted really weird. I have never tasted fondant before so maybe that is the way it's supposed to be.



So I thought maybe if I can't find the perfect cupcake maybe I'll have to bake them myself. I have always wanted to try a Red Velvet Cake. I think it might be more of a Southern thing because it is something I have never tried. I found this receipe Mom's Red Velvet Cake/Butter Cream Icing and I have to say it turned out pretty wonderful. Of course I made cupcakes instead of the cake. You actually need 2 oz of red food coloring and I only had one so next time I'll have to try 2. I subsituted 1 oz. of milk for the food coloring so it wouldn't be dry. Leo and I ate most of them. The kids didn't like them so much because they were "different" and not the traditional chocolate or vanilla. Next time I'll have to do Chocolate for them. So what do you think? Do you like my pretty cupcake? Still not the perfect cupcake, but I'll find it again if I have to hop on a plane to D.C. to find it!!