Dining with the Bloggers - November 9th.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been bombarded with cupcakes. No, not like that, silly - I wasn't covered in them, they were just all over Santos' blog. New color, new style - cupcakes, cupcakes, CUPCAKES! I was going MAD! I needed cupcakes, and I needed cupcakes NOW! Dining with the Bloggers? Dining with a cupcake!

But. I've already dined with Santos. Luckily, in one of her posts, Santos linked to a Cupcake-themed blog, Cupcake Bakery, written by Chockylit. If you check out Chockylit's other site, you'll find that her real name is Cheryl, and that she actually sells the delicacies she bakes - but on her blog, you'll get absolutely GORGEOUS looking cupcakes, complete with recipes. There are all sorts of interesting flavor combinations and, for lack of a better word, "themed" cupcakes. Churros and Chocolate Cupcake anyone? Thai Ice Tea Cupcake? Or do you just want plain and decadent Melt in your mouth Chocolate Cupcakes with Whipped Cream? Chockylit's the way to go!

Me? I chose to go down the Red Velvet Cupcake with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting lane. Why? When Chockylit actually warned that the thing that was most exciting about this cupcake was the frosting, and the novelty of the color? Ummm - any excuse to eat cream cheese frosting perhaps? The fact that red and white are the colors of the Danish Flag?The fact that both Nic and Lori had tempted me about these? Probably. I just knew I had to try them.

I must agree with Cheryl. They do look stunning, and they're okay tastewise - and the vanilla bean cream cheese frosting is good, as suspected - but they're not something I think I'd make again. Just not interesting enough, particularly not when the rest of her blog is FULL of recipes that are just crying out to you, wanting to be made! And, another thing I love: Cheryl's a bit of a geek - check out her experimenting with different mixes of baking powder/baking soda/cream of tartar in the Red Velvet post - I love that kind of thing! Yup, I'm a geek too!

Btw, I made 2/3 of the recipe, and substituted one tablespoon of the flour and the cocoa with 1/4 cup of cocoa in total - and used baking powder and baking soda. The Cake Club Girls agreed the cupcakes were magnificent, so maybe it's just me... And I mean - look at them - would you pass up on one of these?



Cathy's been busy busy this week, but of course knocked something up for DwB!