How Charitable is Your Cupcake?

I can’t remember a school or church bake sale that didn’t include cupakes.  I fondly remember the ladies of my home church for their baking.  And who doesn’t have memories of counting all the shiny change after a bake sale – didn’t it seem like riches?

Publicly traded Crumbs Bake Shop has partnered with the non-profit “Success for Kids” to help at-risk children.  Their May 2011 Initial Public Stock Offering was a reported $66M, and it’s currently trading at $12.90/share.  (Look forward to a future post on just how much of that is going to be donated to the charity — I’m on it!)

The Cupcake Kids raises money through cupcake sales to help a ministry in Uganda, Africa.  It’s an international idea by kids for kids through cupcakes that has raised nearly $50k.

And, on an everyday basis, community groups, school groups, and individual people use the power of cupcakes to bring people closer together through events like a “Random Act of Cupcake.”

Looks like a little cupcake goes a long way.

Teacup cupcake

I collect odd bits of china – the only real criteria being at least a touch of gold.  How about using the teacups to serve your cupcakes?  It’s one idea for creating an inviting scene to share cupcakes with your adult girlfriends, while evoking those wonderful scenes from our childhood of playing at tea time.

If you’re looking for china to set a table out of Victoria Magazine, you won’t want to miss the CNY Regional Market on Sunday mornings during the summer.  Syracuse was home to Syracuse China from 1871-2009, and I’ve purchased pieces of their bone china for as little as $1/plate.  And Rochester’s Public Market offers Sunday morning fleas with nice china too, if you’re there early.  I’ve left with Lenox and even Limoges for less than $10/each.

Though a little bit more than paper or plastic, if you’re serving a cupcake work of art, why not complete your artistic presentation?

The Om of Cupcake

Who isn’t living a totally over-committed life these days?  If you can’t slow down, especially while you’re whipping up buttercream frosted cupcakes for end of school year parties, can I persuade you to steal a quiet moment with a cupcake?

Here’s my recipe for the Om of Cupcakes.  Take one part chocolate raspberry-infused buttercream cupcake and add one part local coffee shop with a window seat.  Omit cell phone; substitute “oops!” if you later see missed calls.  Variation includes reading a copy of “Hello, Cupcake!” or “What’s New Cupcake?”

This recipe for about twenty minutes of relaxation should be repeated daily to enjoy the full, long-term benefits.

You may not want to travel outside the United States this summer if your menu plans include cupcakes. According to the Food Museum On-Line Exhibit, “No other language has a word that means exactly the same as the English ‘cake.’” And, allow me to refine that sugar one bit sweeter: no other language has a word that means exactly the same as the American ‘cupcake.’

Read the rest of this entry »

Is there anything better than a cupcake and a cappuccino? The combination of sweet and strong creates its own special mood.

Today, I was at the Baker Street Bakery on Park Avenue in Rochester, NY. Park Avenue is a trendy, long street, of multi-colored houses converted into individual shops. The smell of sugar, baking in the oven, was wafting out the open door. I was treated to a tour of cupcakes – these were the ones with an airy French buttercream – and the assurance that everying at Baker Street was made from scratch.

So I asked Mary Ellen Leonardo, one of the owners for the secret of the perfect cupcake.

“Love!” was the shout-out from one of the bakers.

From there, I knew exactly where to go for my cappuccino on the side.