The Decatur Dish

I spent this past weekend blissfully out of Smalltown, Georgia!

Have you heard LCD Soundsystem's "New York, I love you but you're bringing me down"? Well if you haven't, or you'd like to see Kermit the frog sing it, then just dance your little mouse this way. Anyway... that was kinda the point I had reached with Smalltown.

Only I don't love Smalltown. I'm just not quite a Smalltown girl. But for some reason I just keep moving from one Smalltown to another for... ya know... the almighty dollar. There-fore... I take singular joy in roadtrips. Love them.

It should surprise exactly none of you that when I vacation, I eat damn well.

So should you happen to be in Decatur, Georgia anytime soon... I have some recommendations. Because, yes, it was all good.

Manuel's Tavern

It was Fish & Chips night when I showed up on Friday, but I chose the Turkey Reuben with their signature steak fries instead. I washed it all down with a Leinenkugel Creamy Stout (and a half). It was all crazy delicious.

Warning: You won't get three pickle spears with your sandwich unless you eat with two pickle-hating friends who also order sandwiches.

Kilwin's Ice Cream & Chocolates

Mmmm... They have ice cream, sure, but we were more intrigued by the wide selection of things dipped in chocolate. We had marshmallows covered in chocolate. Sadly, they looked... awkward... in pictures. : ) But they tasted exactly how they should. There's something so comforting about a fresh marshmallow coated in chocolate.

Excuse me, I just drooled a little bit. Let's move on.

The Flying Biscuit Cafe

We met some friends at the Flying Biscuit one day for brunch and this might have been my favorite meal of the trip. I ordered the Clifton Omelette which is, according to their menu, "three large farm fresh eggs with goat cheese, mushrooms & fresh basil, topped with spicy tomato coulis." To the right there, you will see what my travel companion and I could not leave untested, the cinnamon roll pancake.

Not pictured: the "dreamy creamy grits" that finally did what Smalltown could not do by convincing me that grits could in fact be desirable. And actually, in this case, hella good.

Now just so you know, it wasn't just all fun and games dining out. We also made up a wicked good vegetarian stuffed bell pepper recipe that we ate on for two days. The pictures I took were lacking so you'll just have to wait until I make that recipe again. I have a feeling it will happen sooner rather than later.

Annnnd... Sunday before I left, we made cupcakes.


Blue velvet cake, Julia Child's Italian Meringue icing, and Andes Crunchy Peppermint bits (no, not bacon). They were Olympic themed but I think the lighting of this pic doesn't quite communicate that. Go U.S.A.!

Speaking of those Olympics... I'm going to watch a bit more of them tonight before I turn in. And when I do turn in... I wouldn't mind dreaming of a Decatur breakfast.

Chinese New Year Cupcakes!

or, "Valentine's Day is Nothing to Blog About"


This post is going to be a little bit out of keeping from my usual shtick. You see... the product I created this morning was not amazing. From the Cherry "Five Spice" Cake to the blue cinnamon cream cheese icing, nothing went quite right for me. Was it tasty? Not really. Is it something people will want to duplicate? Nah, gurl.

So why bore you with the play-by-play?

Exactly my conclusion.

I will say that the fortune cookie recipe (and procedure) is one you should definitely try. If you have... a lot of time... an excess of patience... and an obsessive compulsive desire to do the same thing many times in a row until you create five serviceable cookies that are maybe tasty. If that sounds like you, then hop over to Cheeky Kitchen's fortune cookie post. Heck... you'll probably want to check it out anyway... she makes it look easy.

If you're still with me, then I'm going to answer the age old question: How do I eat a cupcake with fortune cookie on top?

Come on, don't pretend like you haven't tossed and turned over this question. So many things to consider...

Anyway... I'm going to do the heavy lifting for you, because... well, I care about you. Here's what you should do:


1. Undress that sucker. Treat her like a lady, but like a lady you'd like better naked.


2. Careful not to disturb the cookie, take a bite of the cupcake. (If it's my cupcake, then take a moment to be disappointed in the lack of cherry-ness to the cake. Note the sad blah-ness of the icing, while you're at it.)


3. Gingerly (yeah... ginger was one of my five spices... It was actually a play on Chinese Five-Spice and not actually the spice called "Five-Spice." The fails just keep coming, don't they?) pluck the fortune cookie from it's icing bed.


4. Break open the cookie and behold thy fortune!

"Conditions are perfect"???

Hopefully I have at least one reader who caught the Flight of the Concords reference. But if you didn't catch it this time, you will next time. Enjoy...

(possibly NSFW if you work with children or stuffy people)


Wait a minute... I've objectified a baked good. I've failed to live up to expectations. I've mentioned feelings. I've quoted a love song (kinda?).

Dammit. This is totally a Valentine's Day post.

Mint Julep Cupcakes, or What Season Are We Having?

Boys and Girls, I have news. It's November. (That's not the news bit.) And Smalltown, Georgia is still enjoying temperatures in the 70s.

I don't get it. I keep getting up in the morning and making tough decisions about which ridiculously patterned sweater to add to my already patterned (sometimes twice) teacher outfit, only to walk out the door and realize I don't need it. A few days I've been glad to have it but then shrugged it off by afternoon again.

So today I asked my chatty 9am class what I should expect. It went something like this...

Student A: "I'm freezing!"
Me: "Really? Tell me, how cold will it get in Georgia?"
Student B: "Oh, it gets pretty cold."
Me: "Now, what do you mean by 'pretty cold'? Because I've been living in Maine for the last two years..."
Student B: "Okay, no, it doesn't get cold. This is about as cold as it will get."
Student A: "No way, it will get a lot cooler! Like in the 40s, probably."

(-_-)

Friends, I can do 40s.

So when I ask what season we are having, I really am asking. Apparently this is fall, but it feels like winter to my students. To a Mainer, this feels pretty dern close to an endless summer.

Since I don't know what season it is and since my Australian friends are having a different season entirely and who knows... they might be confused too... I don't think any of you can sass me for making a seasonally inappropriate cupcake.


Like many before it, this cupcake came to me in a dream. I woke up from an afternoon nap with the startling knowledge that I had all the ingredients to make a bangin' Mint Julep cupcake.

The cake is vanilla mint bourbon with a white chocolate bourbon ganache filling and topped with a mint bourbon marshmallow buttercream.

Overall, the flavor was... bizarre. The cupcake tasted a lot like the drink. Some tasters enjoyed this (one said, "What is this filling? More of that!"), others did not.

I wasn't sold in either direction.

I dropped one off in a colleague's office in the morning and came back from class later to find the following message on my dry erase board:

"How can you stand that much speermint?! It's like eating gum or toothpaste! But I still love you."

Hilarious. There is nothing I love more than an honest review. None of that smile and nod business for me!

As it turns out, the verdict is out on both the season and this Mint Julep Cupcake. To both this cupcake and the season, I say a big "Why you always gotta label things?!"

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Cakes

Update: Voting for Cupcake Hero is now open until October 21st at midnight. Check out the competition and vote here.

Complete credit for that winning title goes to my bff and former college roommate, Kira. This weekend Kira had the honor of being my first houseguest in Smalltown, Georgia. And... since Kira loves to bake as much as I do, we quickly decided to make some sort of complicated dessert happen while she was here.

And, in a perfect storm of blog contest deadlines and amazing thrift store finds, Kira and I decided to make A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Cakes.



In plain English, pumpkin and vanilla swirled cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese icing. As you might imagine, it takes a lot of ingredients to make that cake happen:

And there is just one more ingredient to pull the whole thing together...

Yes, indeed. A $7 Goodwill Cinderella costume.


Kira and I took turns wearing it while we made the cupcakes. Try not to be too jealous of our merriment. You could probably have just as much fun if you lightened up a bit.

Anyway... back to the cakes. We each tackled a batter. Kira made Billy's Vanilla halved by How to Eat a Cupcake and I was in charge of halving the Pumpkin Spice Cake by Joy of Baking.


Once the batters were ready, we got really fancy. I'd dropped and marbled and twirled and tie-dyed batters before, but I wanted these pumpkin swirl cakes to be more deliberately and artfully swirled. So... we filled two piping bags with our two batters, cut the tips, then dropped those two bags into a third bag with a large round tip.


And voila! A fairly labor intensive batter delivery method not for the faint of heart.

We made exactly 12 cupcakes and 24 minis.


In my opinion, it was all worth it. Look at that great loopy swirl! The swirl runs all the way down, around, and in the cupcakes. Ex-act-ly what I wanted. (yay!)

Once the cupcakes cooled, I made a quick cinnamon cream cheese buttercream. I used a brick of cold cream cheese, 5 tablespoons of softened butter, a splash of vanilla, and cinnamon to taste. Easy and delicious.


In keeping with our Cinderella theme, Cupcake Hero ingredient (pumpkin), Booo-tiful Cupcake Contest, we decorated 6 of the cupcakes with magical pumpkins just waiting to be turned into crystal carriages.


We topped the other 6 cupcakes with colored sugar, stars, and hearts and the next thing you know, A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Cakes.


And just take a look at the cross-section shot. Adorable. I just can't say enough about this swirl and how pleased I am with it.

And while we're at it, the flavor and texture of these two cakes works together extremely well. The batters were similar in consistency, so they piped well side-by-side. The combination of pumpkin and vanilla is a wonderful one, I think. I love pumpkin, but I do like to temper it with something creamy - think whipped cream on pie - so the vanilla addition made me very happy.

I would very highly recommend making these for any sort of fall festivus. They are light, moist, soft, and so delicately pumpkin and spiced. Mmmm...

I just might have to go downstairs for a minute... and... ya know... have a cupcake.

Fresh Market Cupcake Review

We just recently had a Fresh Market open up down the street. I toured the place with my aunt a week or so ago and we were impressed for sure. They have everything in there but I was most impressed by the huge bakery section. They have loaves upon loaves of fresh bread and tons of cakes and pies available whole or by the slice. Their dessert case is a thing of beauty.

I could go on, but I don't think you are really interested. :)

Understandable.

Anyway, I went back today to get some ingredients for the Daring Baker fiasco that is going down tonight.

And that's when I saw them. Cupcakes for 99 cents.


Well... there really is no need to even try to refuse a cupcake at that price.


So I picked one out (the options were this chocolate cake with an Oreo on top or the same chocolate cake with white icing and red and blue sprinkles) and brought it home to share with the brother.


And, you know what, it was okay. I was expecting a dry cake but it really wasn't. It tasted very much like a devil's food cake mix and the icing was very storebought smooth. The overall taste was sweet. And storebought. But in a cake pinch, it will do.


I decided that I was eating it because it was there, but my brother summed it up perfectly. He said "I think I'm doing the same thing. I'm eating it because it's here and I don't feel like driving to Dairy Queen to get something else that is sweet but better."

Here here, little brother.

Chocolate Chili Tango Cupcakes

Amber invited me to a So You Think You Can Dance viewing party, so the least I could do was make up a batch of dance-themed cupcakes.

My family provided me with some great suggestions like "Make ballerinas out of fondant" and when I refused to buy and mold fondant, they offered, "Oh... make different dance shoes out of fondant."

Right. Thanks.

In talking it over with Kate, I decided that I wanted to make dramatic tango cupcakes. How better to repeat the tango theme than through competing flavors?

Voila, the Chocolate Chili Tango cupcake was born. And, trust me, these cupcakes are dancing as fast as they can.

I used Chockylit's Chocolate Chili cupcake recipe for the cake and the icing (sans chili and cayenne).


Now... the verdict. I don't know what I was expecting, but I think it is soooo weird to be eating a gorgeous chocolate cupcake and then feel the slight burn of ancho chili powder. After tasting the cake, I decided to forgo the chili and cayenne in the icing -- these suckers needed to cool down. And they did! The chili is still there demanding attention, but it isn't as frightening with a nice dark chocolate ganache atop.

What did others have to say?

"Hm. Go with the plain chocolate icing." (commentor who tried a cupcake before it was iced)

"I shant be having one of those!" (commenter who did not, in fact, try the cupcake)

"It's really good."

"I'm not really noticing the chili so much. I'm more thinking this is better than the average chocolate cake. Oh... and now I'm getting the chili."

"I'd like another one..."

And... I think there might have been one cupcake happy dance. But then again, said dancer could have been dancing for any number of reasons.

All-in-all, the Chocolate Chili Tango cupcakes were interesting and absolutely perfect for the dance-themed party. This recipe won't be my chocolate go-to or anything, but it's a fun twist on a classic, for sure.

Don't forget to check Amber's blog for the dish on the rest of the party. Everything was super cute and very well put together. Thanks again, Amber!