Gigi's Cupcakes (OK)

I recently traveled to Oklahoma-- one of the 5 states (MA, RI, TX, OK, and now NY) where I have lived my fabulous life, to welcome my Very First Nephew to the world. This week's posts are all about the yumminess I got to eat while there. Hey, a girl's gotta eat, even if it's around the very demanding schedule of a baby in no particular rush to get here!

After our lunch at Rib Crib (that post here), Holly and I wanted something sweet. She said she suggested Gigi's Cupcakes, a store that just happened to be on the way to her house. Easy peasy! We walked in and the smell of fresh vanilla and baked goods surrounded us in the most delectable way.

PEEPS!

There were lots of Spring & Easter-themed cupcakes-- they have a lot of fun keeping up with the seasons/holidays! Peeps cupcakes!

We ordered four of the cupcakes, which tower high and tantalizingly with delicious buttercream frosting. I was taken in by the beauty of the wedding cupcake, a miniature version of a wedding cake with more frosting frankly than cupcake.

Holly's favorite is the margarita cupcake, and I was delighted to learn she would share some with me! It has lime frosting and sugar crystals on top. We also picked up a banana pudding and a S'Mores.
The wedding cake was good, and I love frosting, but that was too much frosting even for me. However that's an easy problem to solve: just don't eat it all! The cupcake was delicious; light and moist with rich vanilla frosting.
I didn't try the S'mores cupcake, but I did try the banana pudding one the very next day. It was good, but my favorite part actually was the banana pudding inside. Holy tastesplosion-- that was so delicious, they should sell it separately on its own. Oh my goodness I wish there were more of that delicious pudding filling.

The margarita cupcake, however, stole the show. This is super moist with the perfect sweet and sour flavor combination. Not too sour, balanced with a sweet tartness, and the frosting was just perfect. It had just the right amount of sweetness and the dusting of sugar crystals gave it a nice crunch. Once again, Holly picks a winner. I'd go back and get this one!

Overall Gigi's cupcakes are delicious, are beautifully presented and yes, I love the extra frosting. I realize some people might not like that so much -you can always scrape off the frosting that you don't want. What a lovely problem to have!

Gigi's Cupcakes
14101 N. May Ave.
Oklahoma City, OK
(405) 286-6200

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Cupcake Combo

Strawberry & Cardamom—why hadn’t I thought of it before? CHOW’s latest email had a recipe for this flavor combo in a cupcake, and I quickly filed it in my recipe folder. Then my friend Jen A forwarded me the same exact email, saying if I came to visit her on Sunday, we might just have to bake these! Yeah, that worked. ;) I would have come anyway, but cupcakes never hurt!

We made the batter step by step, and even accidentally switched up the eggs (adding the whole eggs before the single egg whites), but we kept going forward. Soldier on, bakers!

I’m glad the CHOW folks warned us the batter would look curdled, and not to worry, because it looked really curdled.

While we ate a delicious dinner (Jen’s BF Tom made us a feast of grilled salmon, sinful scalloped potatoes, chicken sausage, and a spinach salad), the cupcakes baked to a golden perfection.

We deviated from the CHOW recipe here--we skipped the filling and made our own frosting, riffing off a cream cheese frosting recipe Jen found. The secret ingredient in this batch? All-natural strawberry extract.

Jen had picked it up on a whim and we figured this was the perfect recipe to take it for a test drive. It SMELLED like a field full of fresh, ripe strawberries. Wowza.

I had some Trader Joe’s strawberries, which I sliced nicely and used to top the cupcakes. We also paired the cupcakes with some white port (have you had white port??? You must try it—light, delicious, and yes, sweet) and it was dessert perfection. Dreamy sigh.

Strawberry & Cardamom--a new favorite flavor combo! I'll have to try this in smoothies, cocktails and more. I'm learning to savor this summer!

Get the Chowhound recipe for these cupcakes (and more summer treats) by clicking THIS LINK!

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Eating My (delicious) Words

My first trip to Crumbs had me writing them off--the cupcake I tried was dry, too much going on, and in general left me quite disappointed. When Lil Sis was visiting, ABF asked if she'd rather have cupcakes or French pastry (my mind: French Pastry! Millefeuille!) She opted for cupcakes, so we walked to the FiDi outpost of Crumbs. I sighed inwardly but tromped on gamely because, after all, Lil Sis was visiting!

Maybe I was in a better frame of mind, but the smell of this place snagged me instantly. This was the same place where ABF had picked up the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake we'd halfheartedly shared ages ago, and yet this time smelled....different. Deliciously different.

Oh yeah..calorie counts on my cupcakes? INSTANT (temporary)
BUZZKILL.

Lil Sis snagged the Grasshopper cupcake (530 calories!? eeep!), which had devil's food cake with peppermint flavoring and mint icing--I was set on trying some of hers! She kindly obliged to her (bossy) big sister, and I was so glad! This was superb--rich chocolate, just enough icing, and bits of mini chips on top. Great texture and flavors. Dangit.. I like Crumbs.

ABF ordered the red velvet, your basic deep rich chocolate cake with a serious dose of food coloring and some creamy, fluffy icing.

I felt overwhelmed at first by the dizzyingly colorful cluster o'cupcakes, but eventually settled on the Good Guy, a vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream filling and copious amounts of sprinkles. SPRINKLES!

This was soft, light cake with a shot of buttercream in the middle that had an almost whipped consistency. I was shocked at how much I liked this cupcake! The sprinkles went everywhere on the ground and it looked like a clown had exploded, but it was well worth the mess (and I'm sure I made some squirrels very happy)!

The birthday cakes aren't cheap, but they're cute! I bet they're tasty, too.....has anyone out there tried them? They also have mini ones!

The portion sizes are easily double a normal cupcake (hence the larger calorie count), but these are easily shared and will leave you both happy.

A nice hot chocolate and/or coffee accompanies the cupcakes nicely!

The inside of the store is tiny, so we were forced out into the cold and ate our cupcakes outside, shivering but happy. Thank you, ABF, for treating Lil Sis & me to such a sweet treat, and for so gallantly leading us around the Financial District for a top-notch tour!

And thank you Crumbs, for teaching me a delicious lesson---always give a cupcake a second chance to make a first impression!

Crumbs Bake Shop
87 Beaver St
New York, NY
(212) 480-7500

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St. Patrick's Day Prep!

My friend Carlota & I have a video on easy, make-ahead recipes for St. Patrick's day (or any day) that will give you plenty of time to enjoy the party WITH YOUR GUESTS! You can find the recipes below (though the Mini Shepherd's Pie recipe is HERE), and you can visit Carlota's blog here, and follow us on Twitter (@Kittenmagix for Carlota, @LKPNYC for me!) If you like the video, hit the 'like' button on the YouTube page--thanks, and Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Chocolate-Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Buttercream from Smitten Kitchen
Guinness, Irish Cheddar and Cashel Blue cheese from Fresh Direct & Trader Joe's
Shepherd's Pie recipe adapted by LKP here (all ingredients from Fresh Direct!)


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Champagne, Cupcakes & Curls!

Thanks to That Sara, of NYC Nom Nom fame, I had an unexpectedly wonderful Wednesday evening the other week. She had a spare ticket to a Gilt City event at Ouidad's 'Curls' Night Out' event. I was already home for the night in Brooklyn, but I'm always up for something fun (free shampoo, styling, champagne AND cupcakes!?!? Shiver me timbers!!) so I hopped right on the subway and made it there in a record 42 minutes! Yay, Q train!

Butter Lane Cupcakes

I need deadlines, even for sweet tasks. I bought a LivingSocial.com deal a few months ago: 6 cupcakes for $8 at Butter Lane. I had been meaning to sample their cupcakes for a while after hearing good reviews. They're a relative newcomer to the NYC cupcake scene (about to hit the 2-year mark) and I had yet to sample the sweetness. My coupon, however, expired today (8/31), so on my way back from a meeting I popped in with Mel and we filled our box with six sweet snacks.

It's a tiny little storefront, adorably decorated with a bright poppy wallpaper print, chalk drawings on the board, and a rotating parade of cupcakey deliciousness on an Ipad mounted on the wall. If you didn't want a cupcake when you walked in, you will by the time you reach the register.

The guy behind the counter was super helpful and patient, and didn't even roll his eyes when he saw my voucher! :) He talked me through the different kinds/flavors. Butter Lane makes three flavors of cupcake: chocolate, vanilla and banana. They top them with either a regular American-style buttercream or a lighter, softer French buttercream (egg whites and melted sugar). I can now say they are both yummy. They're a bit smaller and fifty-cents or so more than my standard go-to, but they blow Magnolia & Company out of the water, I dare say.

It was early in the day, but this was my one shot at heading down to this part of town, so we had a smaller selection than you might if you popped in around, say, 3pm. We picked 2 of the Elvis (banana cupcake with peanut butter frosting), a vanilla with vanilla buttercream, a chocolate with sour cream frosting, a chocolate with maple-pecan frosting, and, of course, a cherry!

My absolute favorite was the cherry: soft, delicious vanilla cupcake with real cherry bits in light frosting (I'm pretty sure this was the French buttercream). I wish I'd gotten two of these (but it's a good thing I didn't).

My second-favorite was the Elvis--that peanut butter icing was WAY too good, and the cake was like the lightest banana bread you ever did taste.

Even the mini-marshmallows on the Elvis were soft and fresh!

Not only did we get cupcakes, we also got coffee. And what do they put in their iced coffee? Frozen coffee cubes! Aww yeah. Any iced coffee pro will tell you THIS is how you make good iced coffee. That way it doesn't dilute the drink! The coffee comes from Stumptown Coffee, and I was delighted to find that it was smooth, not the least bit bitter or acidic, and was a steal for $1.75.

Sara Sara Cupcakes

Despite being absolutely stuffed from the Iguana Grill, our lunch party took a (super-short) walk next door to Sara Sara Cupcakes. LaShauna had told me about this place a lonnnng time ago, and it was definitely on our trip roster. Keep in mind that I had to fly out of OKC early the next morning to get back to work, so we were on a tight timeframe. I wish I'd had more time so I hadn't been so stuffed, and so I could have visited with so many other people in OK!

Sara Sara is in an old house, painted bright white inside with matching furniture and decor. Bright, funky, fun. If only it weren't for the developing storm in the background, I might have relaxed a little bit more. As we ordered cupcakes, which I could barely imagine eating at the moment, thunder was rumbling in the distance and growing ever closer. I noticed, and I wasn't super thrilled!

We looked at the tall display case of sweet offerings, and as I was still stuffed to the gills with chimichanga, I let ABF do the picking. He chose the Crimson & Cream (a sort of red velvet, I believe) and the Vanilla cupcake with Vanilla icing. He also got a glass of ice cold milk--we were surprised to see regular milk, chocolate and strawberry available (don't tell Jamie Oliver!)

As we made our way back to the table, I saw 'looks' on LaShauna & Gene's faces as they watched me take a seat. I stopped in my tracks and said "What?" That's when I heard the sirens. Awesome (as in NOT awesome). I stepped outside and saw a sight I haven't seen in a good 10 years or so--grey-black skies, the wind whipping up the undersides of leaves on the trees, and the unsettling wail of tornado sirens( Click the video below for an earful of what we heard that day).

Yeah. This is one of the things I will never miss about living in Oklahoma. I do believe it was ABF's first experience, and God bless him, he was enjoying it. He thought it was cool (I did NOT!) and even called his parents from the porch of Sara Sara, telling them to turn on the Weather Channel. I was thinking "oh Geez, they're going to wonder where in the heck I brought their son," but apparently they all got a kick out of it! Fortunately my mother didn't realize how close I was to the storm's center, and I wasn't about to tell her. Until now, of course. (Hi, Mom! Everything turned out fine, even if it sounded awful for wayyyy too long!) More storm sounds in the footage below--just click play!

We waited through the booming thunder, the insane lighting, and even the sudden hailstorm. I must admit it was very hard to think about cupcakes at this point. I was thinking along the lines of 'Listen for the freight train sound and find a place to go!' Happily, it never came to that. Tornadoes touched down in areas around us and unfortunately, caused awful damage, but we were safe.

On to less life-threatening matters: the cupcakes.... If you're not a huge frosting fan, this is the perfect cupcake for you! It has just enough icing for most people, I think (I am a frosting fiend and love the frosting at NYC's Magnolia, Buttercup BakeShop, and above all, Little Cupcake Bakeshop!) The crimson & cream was good; I enjoyed the moist cupcake part, but not the odd icing, which was more of a slick sour cream frosting than the tangy sour cream buttercream I'm used to with a typical red velvet. I'm weird, though, so keep that in mind.

The vanilla/vanilla combo was a win/win, however. The cake part was light, strong but not overpowering vanilla flavor, and the icing was yummy. The texture was interesting--it had a grainy sort of texture to it, as if maybe the sugar crystals weren't completely whipped into the frosting. I liked it a lot.

These cupcakes tasted fresh, weren't too sweet, no overkill on the icing, and the store is just charming. The cupcakes are $3.25 each, which is actually more than most cupcakes here in NYC, but if you're in the area, I think they're worth a trip. I do prefer the cupcakes I've had at my favorite local shops, but these are still good! I'll have to swing back one of these days and try another one when I'm a little less distracted by the impending fury of Nature! Thanks again to LaShauna for putting Sara Sara on my radar!