On purpose

Three years ago almost to the day, I traveled to New York City for the sole purpose of eating cupcakes.

It was the beginning of my dedicated research missions. I was incrementally shifting into author mode and allowing myself to invest in my book. I had a lot of self-doubt and definitely questioned what I was doing, but I did it anyway.

All three of the bakeries that anchor my research had a lemon blueberry cupcake on their July 2016 specials menus. Only two had D.C. stores, but all three operate in New York, so off I went to study the phenomenon.

I planned and executed a one-day trip. I tasted the lemon blueberry cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery, Sprinkles, and Georgetown Cupcake. My “lab” was Bleecker Playground, where I sat and conducted my comparative taste test, feeling nostalgic to be back in the same place where I first ate a Magnolia cupcake on my wide-eyed first trip to New York in 2010.

On its surface, the trip was peripheral to my book research. I study the history and cultural symbolism of cupcakes. My purpose isn’t food criticism and how cupcakes taste is only tangentially related to my book.

Then I met with a compelling coincidence. The day before my trip, Magnolia celebrated its 20th anniversary.

By the time they released this news, it was too late for me to reschedule, so I was left to observe the afterparty. I didn’t go to the original Bleecker Street store for my lemon blueberry cupcake. It was more convenient for me to visit the Bloomingdale’s location, where this sign was still displayed.

So, I encountered some historical material after all. I can see this picture in my book, so the research mission proved more substantial than it seemed.

And I was able to re-do the taste test locally this month, now that Magnolia has opened a D.C. store.

The fruits of my labor looked like this.

At first, there was no lemon blueberry on the Sprinkles menu. Then they made it a one-day special to commemorate the women’s soccer World Cup win. This is a lemon blueberry cake with soccer spirit.

Meanwhile, I’ve become an industrious home baker. Had this Sprinkles special not materialized, I was planning to bake the Sprinkles cupcake out of the cookbook. Having done so before, I remember it being quite good. My memory was correct.

On closer study, I found the lemon blueberry recipes in all three cookbooks, so I compared and contrasted the ingredients. I also noted how the lemon recipes vary from the bakeries’ vanilla recipes. Instructive.

It’s gratifying to chart my progress through such an attractive research device.