About 3 years ago I heard about the whoopie pie and attempted to bake my own, with disastrous results. No amount of buttercream could salvage those dense little frisbees, and they actually decomposed out in the garden, shunned by the sparrows.
After trying the real deal from Whoopie in Grey Lynn, I know where I went wrong. Their tagline is 'Where cookie meets cake' but I'll raise that to 'Where cake meets cake'. A whoopie is basically two cupcakes sandwiched together, and probably concocted by some clever woman suffering from PMT who wanted more than one cupcake for her morning tea. Squash two together, call it something different (I'm not buying the Amish men 'whoopie-ing' when they opened their lunchboxes story) and hey presto, you're back to a single serving. Genius!
Anyway, the flavour combinations are gorgeous, I went with a Vanilla Bean & Mixed Berry (delish) and a Banana & Walnut (so-so but apparently a best-seller), and made a note to try the Gingerspice next time. You can even order a dozen personalised whoopie pies as a gift, they come in a cute presentation box and at $2.50 each they are slightly smaller than the standard $5 size.
Do we need anymore reasons for makin' whoopie? No thanks Mr. Cantor.
x
If you're a regular reader you'll know that my daughter has been sick lately, and there was one day where the only things she ate in 24hours were a mouthful of play-doh and this teensy Black Doris Plum Cupcake from Petal. Because the doctor had said to let her eat whatever she felt like (play-doh excepted of course) I put aside all the usual healthy eating parental aspirations.
Then, the next day, I asked what she wanted to eat and she replied...'cupcake'. Not bad for a 19month old! So, off we went back to Petal for another cupcake (not that I minded).
Thankfully for us both, she was back to eating normally a couple of days later, or the lovely new winter clothes I've put aside would be too small before I even had a chance to wear them. Lucky, too, that Petal do this sweet little version of their most popular cupcakes. Bite-sized and beautiful, you'll burn it off again just walking back to the car. Right?
x
Am I cruel or what? Opening my first post for the year with such a delectable delight.
I'm sure, Beaunz Belles, that you made those New Years Resolutions to lose weight and eat healthily with the best intentions, but where is the fun in that? Diet schmiet I say.
The best diet advice I ever received was 'eat a little of what you fancy'. That came from my gorgeous Nanna June, once crowned runner-up Mrs. New Zealand (they were all married in those days), who was perfectly petite and curvy until she became terminally ill a couple of years ago.
So, my New Years resolution is not to (attempt to) abstain from cupcakes altogether, it is to eat only the most gooey and creamy and delicious cupcakes, and to stop everything else I'm doing and really enjoy it so that I feel satisfied with just one...a day.
I gave it a go with the above cupcakes (my own heavenly creation of Christmas mince cupcake with brandy butter icing) and it worked a treat. Best of all, I ate the first one for dessert, then happened to still be awake and ate the leftover at 12.01am. Not cheating!
Happy New Year Beaunz belles, here's to a year of great cupcakes, among other things.
x
After popping into Peppin Boutique in Herne Bay, it would have been a travesty not to visit Icing on the Cake too. This tiny little shop is home to one of my favourite sugar fixes in Auckland (and you know there are many!)
This time I had my heart set on a Lamington cupcake for my (Australian) boy. Apparently, like all good things we believe to be our own, the Lamington belongs to our friends across the Tasman. The story goes that it was named for Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland. He hated waste and when his maid dropped his beloved sponge cake into a bowl of chocolate, he suggested she cover it in coconut (to prevent messy fingers) and they ate it anyway. 110 years later, it is making somewhat of a culinary comeback. Have you tried the chocolate version from Little & Friday? Divine!
Back to the present day. Who ever thought to turn Lamington into a cupcake was a genius: berry cake with a layer of jam and coconut, finished with a dollop of vanilla bean buttercream. Mmmmmm...
Hey, we'll let them have the Lamington, it's the least we can do after that thing that happened on Sunday night, that which cannot be mentioned in our house.
x
It's official: I have found my food nirvana and it goes like this...
Light as air vanilla cupcake smothered in salty-sweet caramel buttercream that sticks to the roof of your mouth in an eyes-roll-back-in-your-head-pornographic kind of way. It might look too pretty to eat, but this is not a cake to admire from a distance; especially as it only makes an appearance on special occasions. Lucky for me, such a happening coincided with my latest visit to MRKT and it was love at first bite.
If you want to know when you can next get your hands on one of these babies, 'like' Petal on facebook and get ready to run. See you in line...
x
