Tuesday 21 June 2011

My visit to "Cupcakes" in Vancouver!!

Okay so its been a crazy whirlwind of a couple of weeks, hence my lack of blogging! I have been dying to blog about my visit to Cupcakes in Vancouver a couple of weekends ago.

It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon in Vancouver..a perfect day for strolling down Robson, weaving in and out of shops - starbucks in one hand, cupcake in the other. I was super excited when I got down to Thurlow street - where Cupcakes is located. Now, this was a tiny little shoppe, but oh so inviting!

Thankfully, I had a cupcake tasting partner with me that day otherwise I have no idea how I would have made my decision on what cupcake to taste! We decided to buy a 12 pack of mini cupcakes..wanted to maximize flavour/icing combinations!

My conclusion is that their icing was pretty incredible! I'm not sure what it was, but for some of them the icing tasted like this wonderful, whipped, piece of heaven..The only one that I wasn't excited about was their pink vanilla buttercream - a bit too sweet for me! But for most of them, I ended up focusing so much energy (and stomach capacity) on the icing, that I would almost not even think about taste/consistency of the actual cake..that is, until I took a bite of their "sweet sixteen" cupcake...vanilla cake with a pink vanilla buttercream on top....This cake was DIVINE!!! So completely moist and wonderful that I didn't even share it with my tasting partner! The only downfall was that it had my least favourite flavour of icing on it..but once I took half the icing off, voila - perfection!

The only constructive thing I have to say is that the cupcakes (at this location anyway) looked a bit beat up and were not consistent in size - likely a location-specific thing..

Cupcake Girls - your business and inviting branding is perfect! Congrats on your incredible success!

Stay Slim, eat cake


Tuesday 7 June 2011

New Additions to the Pipedream Family

At Pipedream, we're always looking for new ways we can set ourselves apart from the others...I had a BLAST during this past weekend's baking extravaganza because I did just that. Everything I baked this weekend had a new, fun twist to it! It felt soo good to have so much baking success this weekend - kind of like that feeling you got the first time you put on a pair of skinny jeans and realized that they really are fabulous!

So, it started with an order...baby shower! I made cupcakes for a friend's wife - she's expecting twin boys so ofcourse the theme started with blue...now, the little bit of "new" i added to these...little chocolate toppers! I made the chocolate, and used it to top off my newly perfected vanilla cupcakes! Here's a peek at the little chocolate bottles, booties, rattles..and ofcourse the finished product:


So, who doesn't love strawberries???? EXACTLY what I thought when I was making vanilla buttercream frosting this weekend...So I figured...let me throw some strawberries in here! Well..the result was a fresh, summer burst of flavour ontop of a vanilla cupcake...With the help of my creative genius of a sister (follow her @laclosette_Liza)...we came up with the perfect name for this new addition to Pipedream......"Berry Beautiful" is her name...


The last thing I tried this weekend..phew was I tired! I have always been a firm believer in the saying "great things come in small packages..." (for those who know me personally, know that I'm pretty small!!)...I had the opportunity to make cupcakes in support of a cause that is very near and dear to my heart - The World Partnership Walk (google it - its an amazing cause)! I decided that they had to be mini...and had to represent the theme colours in some way (blue and orange)..here's the result..they were a big hit and I can't wait to make mini-cupcakes again!



I can't wait to hear what you all think of the new additions to our Pipedream Family!

a quick "P.S" - we now have email: pipedreambakery@gmail.com - Email us for pricing or to place your orders!

Stay Slim, eat cake