Dear Phoenix

Andrea Adleman

Dear Phoenix, thank you for feeding me so many cupcakes when I was in town for the recent Association of Food Journalists conference.

At the first day’s lunch, dessert was this pair of boozy cupcakes.

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High Spirited Cupcakes served Black Velvet Band (Guinness stout chocolate cake with a Jameson chocolate ganache center and Bailey’s Italian meringue buttercream) and Strawberry Fields (strawberry butter cake soaked with a house-infused strawberry vodka, filled with a whipped cream-cheese mousse and topped with a whipped white chocolate ganache buttercream).

When there were a few good hours of free time, I scurried away for Cupcakes and Blue Sky field research at two bakeries near each other.

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Namicake vegan cupcake from Tsoynami, inspired by the Hostess classic. The tsoynami is vegan ice cream creations with mix-ins.

There was just one complication, dear Phoenix.

When the temperature reads this …

Phx temp screenshot Sept 2018

… you cannot claim this.

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Urban Cookies was technically near Nami, but the 0.3-mile walk felt endless in the heat.

Does not compute.

My last cupcake was … memorable. The Queen Creek Olive Mill was having a garlic festival complete with garlic gelato and cupcakes. In the name of critical inquiry, I tried both.

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Garlic cupcake. Yeah. Hopefully a one-time experiment.

The olive mill evidently takes pride in its normal cupcakes. I’m pretty sure vanilla bean olive oil cupcake are my five favorite English words.

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Final scorecard: ate cupcakes three out of five days. Five Phoenician cupcakes consumed. Southwestern Cupcakes and Blue Sky tour stop completed.