Today is occasion to nerd out about baking powder. What a time to be alive. Strictly speaking, the food calendar calls it National Baking Soda Day and/or Bicarbonate of Soda Day. It has practical and theoretical meaning to me. Taking a cue from the scientists, I’m shifting the emphasis to baking powder. https://twitter.com/SciHistoryOrg/status/1079467332890701825 Author Linda… Continue reading Scientific research

I learned what results when you use ground nuts for some portion of flour in a cake. The teachable moment arose when I was reading Fresh India to choose a dish to bring to yesterday’s Sunday Supper Book Club meeting. Pistachio and Almond Cake with Saffron Icing was my selection and I opted to make… Continue reading Nutty capabilities

I’ve been thinking about fine chocolate ever since I acquired some bona fide research specimens at the Fancy Food Show in June. Until now, my study has been mainly theoretical, consisting of reading cookbooks in obsessive detail and noting the brands the authors recommend. I made it my business to visit those booths at the… Continue reading Chocolate chip cookie school

I was pleased to join author Noley Reid for a reading and conversation about her novel Pretend We Are Lovely. The novel is based on a family of four characters, each having a complicated relationship to food. The book contains numerous references to restaurants, grocery stores, home cooking, and baked goods. Carrot cupcakes figure prominently… Continue reading Feeding mind and body

It’s National Tapioca Pudding Day, which makes me nostalgic. Early in my career, I had regular meetings at an historic L.A. restaurant that invented the French dip sandwich. I always got tapioca pudding at Philippe’s, where we held Newspaper Guild meetings. It was midway between our main papers in Long Beach and the San Fernando… Continue reading Tapioca time travel

Hummus is soul food. In its perfect form, it has therapeutic power over mind, body, and spirit. If you let it, it will quiet all noise and offer momentary escape from life’s gravity. My deep dive into educational mode means I study cookbooks and try recipes. I bow to Zahav for a deceptively simple recipe… Continue reading Soul food

This is Rachel Kramer Bussel, founder of the legendary Cupcakes Take the Cake blog. In its heyday, the blog was the authoritative source of American cupcake news. My colleague David Sax interviewed Kramer Bussel in his Tastemakers book, in which I, too, am cited. Our cupcake world is small and sweet. Thanks to Kramer Bussel,… Continue reading Living legend

https://twitter.com/KatherineSophie/status/963796290860613634 This Valentine’s Day is one for the history books. It has been exactly a decade since Georgetown Cupcake opened for business on Valentine’s Day 2008. Studying its history involves sweetness and light and books and notes. All together now:

Today is National Blueberry Pancake Day. How is that applicable to cupcakes, one may wonder? Enter the Georgetown Cupcake bacon blueberry pancake cupcake from The Cupcake Diaries. Thus proving that whatever the question, the answer is always a cupcake. Footnote: yesterday was National Chocolate Cake Day. For that I refer back to my National Chocolate… Continue reading Pancake as cupcake

I’m thankful to be dedicated to cupcakology. Having made this my full-time profession, I’ve been following news, reading books and getting to know experts all year. I’m unspeakably grateful to be conducting doctoral-level research. While my studies are mostly academic, I recently got the itch to try my hand at baking. I blended theory, practice… Continue reading Thankful to learn

Research in tactical, sensory and academic form. Feed mind and body Sprinkles products. Mmmmm, good.

Award-winning author David Sax cites my “psychology of cupcakes” story in the bibliography of  his 2014 release, The Tastemakers. I had my first Cronut in October 2013. Exquisite and worth the hype. https://www.flickr.com/photos/14964382@N08/10029982435/in/album-72157636069708073 In September 2013, I helped organize a children’s bike ride with cupcakes. As one adult put it, the kids went all Lord of… Continue reading 2013-2014 cupcakology highlights