Breakfast Crepes

I tried to track down a new bakery today, but turns out they are not open on the weekend. Alas, I will have to wait until next week. I did however eat these amazing breakfast crepes that a friend made for me. Peaches in the first one, strawberries in the second and bananas in the third, all with a brown sugar reduction on top. I demanded bananas like the bananas in bananas foster, but my friend informed me that they did not have a blow torch. I have no idea what they did to the fruit inside the crepes, but it was all oh so tasty. It was an amazing way to start off my weekend.

East End Cupcakes

A week ago a few friends and I decided to go down to Fore Street for some gelato at Gorgeous Gelato and also a stop into East End Cupcakes. I was excited to try them again, since my first visit to their new retail location happened to be on their soft opening and they had limited flavors available. This time when I went in there had to have been more than seven varieties available for me to pick from. They also had a few of their more creative combinations available, such as the Lime cupcake with Coconut Buttercream.

Blueberry cupcake with Maple Syrup Buttercream

This cupcake was sort of similar to a blueberry muffin, but I really liked it. This cupcake is what prompted our now ongoing discussion of when a cupcake moves into muffin territory. When they are dense, like this one was, it seems to be more of a muffin. I always kind of hope that blueberry cupcakes will be like the Melt in Your Mouth Blueberry cake recipe that Marjorie Standish has in her book "Cooking Down East", which is kind of unrealistic on my part. My mom makes a few of those blueberry cakes every year and it is one of the highlights of summer. My family always fights over who gets the middle piece, since it doesn't have any edges to it. This is the ultimate piece of blueberry cake and often is the first piece taken from the cake, which looks a little odd.

The East End Cupcakes blueberry cupcake was delicious and I would totally eat it (or a few of them) again. For me, however, the Maple Syrup Buttercream really made the cupcake. It was light, creamy and delicious.

Lime cupcake with Coconut Buttercream

Let me say, I hate coconut, so I didn't even try the Coconut Buttercream. I did try the cupcake part of this one, because my friend offered to share it with me, knowing how much I loathe coconut. The lime cupcake was delicious. There were even little lime rind bits in the cake itself.

There were so many options to choose from on the day that my friends and I went into East End Cupcakes. I love that they have already begun to bring out some of their more interesting flavors to complement their staples. I also love the simple decor that they have and the chairs are really nice to sit in on a hot summer day. They are surprisingly cool, which seems odd to say, but I appreciated it on the hot summer night that we went in.

I'm not sure how many cupcake aficionados who read this blog have seen http://mingmakescupcakes.yolasite.com/, but if you haven't already you have to go see it. The same friend that made my birthday cupcakes is trying out a few of Ming's cupcake recipes and made cupcake 32, the graham cupcake with key lime cream cheese frosting. My friend took some liberties with the frosting recipe, incorporating some of the rind in it, as well as making a candied lime rind garnish. It was so delicious and so beautiful, as you can see above. I liked the frosting much more than I liked the graham cupcake, but the flavors worked so well together.

My friends and I have an interesting debate going on (which started at East End Cupcakes one night), as to when is it a cupcake and when has it actually crossed into muffin territory. This cupcake was more of a muffin consistency, which was one of the reasons that I didn't like cake part as much as I had wanted to. I hope that the next test cupcake will be one of the cupcakes from 17-19, because they look amazing. Perhaps even 18 specifically...a sour cream apricot cupcake with a mascarpone frosting and toasted almonds...yes please!!!

Another interesting cupcake tidbit, I am currently watching Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. I love this show! I have always liked the food challenge shows on food network, specifically the ones where they have to build massive cakes or sugar sculptures and then move them to the display table, which resulted in at least one cake or sculpture falling over from the transport. Very sad for the competitors, but very funny for me.

My fantastic mini birthday cupcakes

They were the cutest! Vanilla cake, with strawberry puree in the middle, strawberry frosting and chocolate ganache to top them off. An amazing friend made them for me and had been planning exactly what to make for weeks. They were utterly perfect and delicious.

I apologize for the hiatus. I've been busy enjoying the summer, taking an intensive summer course and minimizing my internet time.