I've been a loyal fan of cucpake blog "Cupcakes Take The Cake" for a few years now. The site posts what one famed blogger Rachel describes as "food porn" or sinfully beautiful photographs of cupcakes that literally make your mouth water. In addition to such visual seductions, "Cupcakes Take The Cake" has the scoop on different bakeries all aroung the globe, feautures interviews with some if the most passionate figures in the cucpcake world and gives everyone the opportunity to come together during the monthly Cupcake Meetups. Think of it like a book club for cupcake foodies who live in or around
Manhattan.
This month's meetup was held at Baked in Redhook, Brooklyn. The somewhat lengthy trek involves subways, buses or a boat if you're coming from the village. Yet on a beautiful day like today the trip is quite enjoyable. I had never been to Redhook before today...it's rather cute.
So you might wonder, what happens at a cucpake meetup? Well for starters, we sample cupcakes. The group of us piled into the bakery claiming a section of soft chairs and a full booth (we're a big group for a tiny bakery). The single room, decorated modernly with an art deco mirror behind the counter and a crystal chandelier overhead, smelled of coffee and quiche with a hint of buttercream lingering in the background. The mood was relaxed, yet for the entire two hours we were the line at the counter never waned. The selection of treats was neverending, featuring junior cupcakes, tarts, bars, granola...you name it, Bake bakes it!
Rachel with some junior cupcakes
Now as I said, clearly we sample cupcakes during the cupcake meet up. Baked left us with quite a bunch to choose from. From the vanilla-vanilla, chocolate-chocolate, red velvet, caramel apple and malt chocolate cupcakes...Caramel Apple was my favorite, hands down. It tasted slightly like a carrot cake cupcake, only it was much more moist and had a subtle apple flavor. There was certainly a deep buttery note that came from the caramel drizzle ontop of the cream cheese icing. The red velvet cupcake was definitely special as well. The cream cheese tasted as though it had bits of redhots mixed throughout...it was spicy! Now I'm a fan of the tradition red velvet cake but this was a treat. Many people enjoyed the simple chocolate and vanilla cupcakes as well, yet I believe the general concensus was that the caramel apple cupcake took home the gold medal.
My Caramel Apple cupcake and Red Velvet cupcake
The meetups provide us the opportunity to get together face to face and really share our love for sweets. Friends passed on information about new food events going on in NYC, new books that were coming out, new bakeries to try! Nichelle, another founder of "Cupcakes Take The Cake" and organizer of the monthly meetups, gifted an adorable knitted cupcake to the meetup groupie who had to travel the farthest to get to the event...a girl who had to endure the subway ride all the way from the Bronx. Rachel presented me with "Eat This!"written by Ian Jackman. I won the book after sumitting my story about "the most cupcakes I've eaten in one sitting" for a contest they were having. I was super exciting about winning (I'm really unlucky when it comes to contests). The book focuses on 1001 things to eat before you die. Pretty awesome if you ask me.
Overall, it was a fantastic meetup. It was just such a wonder mix of truly lovely people. I can hardly wait for next month...
Enjoy!
