Though I generally stay in the cupcake lane, I’m pleased to investigate the savory side of life. Having visited some of the leading bread bakeries in the country, I’m using today’s National Sourdough Bread Day as an excuse to publish my research. These may or may not meet the technical definition of sourdough. It doesn’t… Continue reading In praise of sourdough

  Today I joined 26 other people on a cupcake tour of Georgetown. I repeat, more than two dozen cupcake fans paid for a guided tour of Georgetown and its defining cupcakeries. We, the people, still like our cupcakes. The tour visited Sprinkles, Georgetown Cupcake and Baked & Wired. We ate seasonal cupcakes inspired by… Continue reading Cupcakologist at work

It’s National Chiffon Cake Day. Does olive oil cake qualify? Concluding it doesn’t matter, I baked cupcakes with Laconiko blood orange olive oil. I wrote about the company this week and felt the urge to move from theory to hands-on practice. Here is Laconiko’s orange olive oil cake recipe.

Cupcakes deliver unspoken messages. This is the premise of my book, based on my “psychology of cupcakes” article. It’s what I spend my waking hours thinking about. Sometimes cupcakes make overt statements. They become the medium of a political message. Today Sprinkles is expressing solidarity with the gun-control protesters. The cupcakery took a position during… Continue reading Frosted with purpose

This week I attended a panel discussion about ‘American food’ as curated in America The Great Cookbook. Washington Post food editor Joe Yonan edited the book, which he summarizes as “One nation, in all its flavors, captured on these pages.” The panelists included the Kallinis sisters, co-owners of Georgetown Cupcake. Food for thought aplenty, plus… Continue reading Medium and/as message

This National Oatmeal Cookie Day is a case study in tolerance. We begin with the conventional cookie, which, being a Sprinkles creation, is hardly ordinary. Notwithstanding the addition of cornflakes, Sprinkles is here to represent the standard preparation. As a species, the oatmeal cookie takes well to modification. It can be gluten-free, exemplified by the… Continue reading Tolerant

I feel fortunate this St. Patrick’s Day. I’m lucky to have limitless potential to find pots of gold at ends of rainbows. I’m enriched by special days and ordinary days to practice cupcakology. It’s a sweet life indeed. Today it’s frosted with green.

It’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Week and Sprinkles is featuring its chocolate chip cookie cupcake. It was a rare chance to read the theory then taste the professional product in practice. I combined classroom research with fieldwork for a comprehensive study.  

There are two food holidays today. For Pi(e) Day, I already had my fill on National Cherry Pie Day. It’s also National Potato Chip Day. I didn’t find a cupcake with potato chips, but I did get reacquainted with the Milk Bar Store compost cookie, which contains potato chips. I also found an ice cream flavor… Continue reading Mixed media

I’m fidgety because this month’s food calendar contains too few opportunities to spin whatever day into a cupcake day. So I need to draw inspiration from the flavors of the month, so to speak. March is National Flour Month and National Caffeine Awareness Month. OK, now we’re talking. I’m consummately aware that my favorite form… Continue reading Because cupcakes

Things I expected: To find gourmet National Strawberry Day cupcakes at my habitual destinations. First photo is Sprinkles, natch. Things I didn’t expect: News of limited-edition strawberry Hostess cupcakes. I haven’t yet found them in a store. Stay tuned for the results of this most curious research mission. https://twitter.com/Hostess_Snacks/status/968491568750612480

With apologies in advance to pastry chefs and anti-pun purists, I hereby glaze over the difference between sticky buns and cinnamon rolls. The latter were easier to find, so I used them to study today’s National Sticky Buns Day. Preview: I look forward to trying the Dominique Ansel Kitchen cinnamon spun roll on Sunday, following… Continue reading How the (sticky) bun rolls

I’m full. Full of happiness that National Cherry Pie Day drew my attention to said creatures. It was time and calories well spent to fill my piehole aplenty. I so appreciate these diversions from cupcakes. They are always enlightening. In this case, I gained an appreciation of the subtle cloves and distinctive consistency of the… Continue reading Into the piehole

National Almond Day says California to me. When Sprinkles offered dark chocolate almond for a few weeks last year as a throwback flavor, I tasted memories. California is the birthplace of Sprinkles and my home for 20+ years. The button on the plate is my souvenir from the Sprinklesmobile, when it visited D.C. to promote… Continue reading An almond story