When Less is More: More Cupcakes

When I was in grade school, each day for lunch I had cupcake envy as my best friend pulled out a mechanically frosted, cream-injected Hostess chocolate cupcake. This similar-but-better signature cupcake at More Cupcakes in Chicago tasted even richer and sweeter than those childhood memories.

Imagine a curated shop where cupcakes are like individual art pieces, on display to show their rich frosting and delicate garnishes. More Cupcakes is exactly that, a simple store where cupcakes are the stars.

Simple glass shelves showcase the unique flavors: from savory cupcakes like parmesan brown butter to cocktail cupcakes like cosmopolitan to sweet classics like red velvet. The extensive seasonal menu features an incredibly long list of flavors with at least 15 of them available on the day we were there. With two sizes, a regular size cupcake and mini-version in sets of three flavors, temptation abounds. We had a large group of tasters and therefore a good excuse to purchase a dozen.

In a modern bakery box, these cupcakes are carefully nestled in cutout cardboard circles with fingerholes so that they can be lovingly placed and removed without mussing their appearance. (Starting left and moving clockwise: coconut, chocolate vanilla cream, blood orange meringue, and oreo cookie.)

Starting top left and moving clockwise: champagne, blue cheese walnut praline and goat cheese basil (sans the pine nut garnish- they weren't finished with this one but we begged a sample).

Starting top left and moving clockwise: pomegranate, valrhona, salted caramel, the More signature cupcake.

My preference was for the signature and sweet cupcakes, particularly the surprise caramel filling of the salted caramel, the lovely citrus burst paired with the fluffy meringue of the blood orange meringue and the nostalgic cream filled More cupcake. While intrigued by the savory cupcakes and the cheese course for dessert that they evoked, the heavy and fatty mouthfeel of the cheese based frosting was too much for my palate.

But even after our over-indulgent tasting of 12 different cupcakes, the lengthly list of unexplored creative flavors still left me wanting to come back for more.

Not Really One Word Wednesday: Airplane

Well, Justin and I have been traveling quite a bit lately- practically every other week this month! This week, I was lucky enough to use an upgrade into first class on United. This was my lunch:

• warm nut mix of almonds, cashews, pecans, and walnuts

• a grilled chicken salad with edamame and yellow and red bell peppers over a bed of romaine lettuce with sesame dressing and a warm whole wheat roll.

• and for dessert, a warm chocolate chip cookie. It was actually all quite good.

I have a chocolate chip cookie theory that if they served the warm cookie and glass of milk to everyone on the plane, not just first class, customer service ratings would greatly improve!

I’ve also been eating the “for purchase” spinach salad with gorgonzola, walnuts and dried cranberries when I sit in economy (which is 95% of the time). It is a much fresher offering over the snack box choices and I have been very pleased with these new options. I find the United fruit, nut and cheese plate to be a pleasing and hearty snack.

So, we'd like to know:

What do you eat on the airplane?

Do you pack your own food?

Do you buy something ahead of time or one the plane?

Any recommendations for food at key airports like SFO, ORD (Chicago), DEN, or others?

I’ll share my answers if you share yours!

What exactly did we do at Food Blogger Camp?

(photo credit: Jaden Hair)

We've been back a few weeks now since food blogger camp and we realize we never really said exactly what we did there or who else we met!

(photo credit: Sarah Olson)

So, first of all we met some amazing and well-known bloggers who taught sessions in:

• food photography (Matt Armendariz from Matt Bites)

• food styling (Adam Pearson)
• making your blog more valuable to more people (Michael and Donna Rulman)
• from blog to book (Jaden Hair from Steamy Kitchen and David Leibovitz)
• food blog best practices (Elise Bauer from Simply Recipes)
• food writing with the senses (Dianne Jacob)
• building a better blog with multimedia (Diane Cu and Todd Porter from White on Rice)

For the details of each session, Diane and Todd wrote three great, in-depth posts:
• writing, food styling, and photography
• photography, getting a cookbook deal and the Zihuatanejo marketplace
• final video and recap

And we met other bloggers who wanted to learn more about blogging. Just like camp, we ate most of our meals together. (From left to right, Fran from Frantastic Food, Sarah from A Beach Home Companion, Casey from Good.Food.Stories and Cecilie from Lekkermunn.)

In addition to the technical details of blogging, we spent a day in the markets in Zihuatanejo checking out the fresh fruits and vegetables and meats.

We stopped at Fonda Irma, one of many ready-to-eat food stands in the market, and tasted specialties like chile relleno, chicken molé (above) and goat soup. The food was incredibly authentic and delicious!

And by the end of the camp, we all felt like we shared a unique week together at a time when the food blog community is growing together. (From left to right, Brooke from FoodWoolf, Dianne Jacobs, Diana from DianasaurDishes and Casey from Good.Food.Stories.)

Most importantly, Justin and I felt inspired to learn even more, to practice what we learned in this week and to grow our new connections with other food bloggers.

Justin and I are looking forward to putting our learnings into action! We thank you for reading our blog and looking forward to sharing new things!


For even more posts on Food Blogger Camp, here's a list of everyone's posts:

• Food Blogger Camp: sad goodbyes (White On Rice)
• Food Blog Camp (Michael Ruhlman)
• Camp Tips & Insights (FoodWoolf)
• Matt’s Top 10 Moments (Matt Bites)
• Great Round-Up of Workshops (Recipe Girl)
• Ixtapa Nights – (Good Food Stories )
• Food Blogger Camp Re-Cap (Wasabimom)
• Food Blogger Camp, Part 1 (David Lebovitz)
• Food Blogger Camp, Part 2 (David Lebovitz)
• All I Got From Food Blogger Camp… (Steamy Kitchen)
• Food Writing, Photography & Styling Tips (worc)
• Food Photography, Getting a Cookbook Deal & Zihua Market (worc)
• Food Blogger Camp at Club Med Ixtapa (Dianasaur Dishes)
• Clicking the Mental Refresh Button in Ixtapa (Foodspiration)
• Food Styling with Adam Pearson (Foodspiration)
• Food Blogger Camp Part Uno (A Beach Home Companion)
• Food Blogger Camp Part Dos (A Beach Home Companion)
• Food Blogger Camp Part Tres (A Beach Home Companion)
• Kickin’ It at Food Blogger Camp (Dianne Jacob)
• Food Blogger Camp Tips & Insights (Dianne Jacob)
• Sensuous Writing with Corn Pops (Dianne Jacob)
• Eating in Paradise (Frantastic Food)
• Sunset (Frantastic Food)
• A Day at the Beach (Frantastic Food)
• And He Said, “Let there be light” (Frantastic Food)
• Constants (and Tequila) (Vanilla Garlic)
• Zihuatanejo Market: A Short Tour (Vanilla Garlic)
• Food Blog Camp Flickr Pool (Photos)

Fancy Foods Show 2010 Recap

Handheld honey, sparkling tea, and spicy ketchup were just a few of the new food ideas that Justin and I saw at last year's Winter Fancy Foods Show in San Francisco. As food scientists and product developers, we are always looking for new ideas. But as seasoned veterans of food trade shows, we have learned the hard way how to be selective samplers. Using a process more rigorous than the American Idol auditions, only the most tempting and unusual foods are allowed the pleasure of gracing our palates.

We recently attended the 2010 Winter Fancy Foods Show in San Francisco and spent 4+ hours in search of novel ideas, curious combinations and intriguing foods. No photos are allowed so apologies for the poor quality of my secret shots.

Our Fancy Foods Favorites:

1. Honest Tea Kombucha

We're fans of this raw, live fermented tea when it's mixed with fruit juices to off-set the tartness. Honest Tea is taking on top kombucha brand GT Dave's Synergy and Kombucha drinks and it will be interesting to see if kombucha becomes more mainstream. The kombucha craze is in full force in the San Francisco Bay Area. Honest T's flavors include peach mango, berry hibiscus, and lemon ginger. We even tasted the new top secret flavor in the works: apple.

2. Annie Chun’s Mini Wontons and Korean “Goes with Anything” Sauce

These frozen mini- wontons are perfect for soups or appetizers because they are just one bite.

Add the Korean Go Chu Jang "Goes with Anything" sweet n' spicy sauce and it's a match!

3. Pasta Slim Noodles

These Pasta Slim "noodles" are made with konjac flour which is naturally high in fiber (glucomannan) and low in calories. Other similar noodles called shirataki noodles are on the market but can have off-flavors. Pasta slim advocates a better flavor as well as low calorie and gluten-free.

4. Savannah Bee Co. Grilling honey, Cheese honey, and Tea honey

We have a soft spot for these honeys because they are purposefully paired with foods. Maybe one honey doesn't fit all.

5. Oikos Pure Pleasure Greek-style yogurt with caramel or chocolate

This thick Greek-style yogurt with 0% fat has caramel or chocolate on the bottom for a guilt-less pleasure. We love the higher protein content from strained Greek style yogurt with a sweet indulgence.

6. Naan Pizza

There's a bit of spice when Indian naan meets Italian pizza. We thought this was a tasty twist on a classic pizza from the Tandoor Chef.

7. Silence Tea

Shhh. Peace and tranquility are at the heart of this new line of Silence Teas. With all of the energy drinks in the market, it was refreshing to find a beverage celebrating the art of slowing down. Another beverage, Slow Cow had a similar philosophy with the same active ingredient as Silence Tea, L-theanine, an amino acid.

8. Dave's Gourmet Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

Celebrate the butternut squash in pasta sauce, don't hide it. That's the philosophy behind the bright yellow pasta sauce also made with garlic, onions, and roasted red pepper from Dave's Gourmet. We already saw this on the shelf at our Costco.

9. Zócalo Heritage and Naturally Gluten-Free Flours

Leveraging the 35 species of corn, 2000 varieties of potatoes and 650 native species of fruit in Peru, Zócalo Gourmet offers naturally gluten-free grains and flours. We saw sweet potato, purple corn, kañiwa and mesquite. Gluten-free was still a huge trend at this show.

10. Magnolia Tropical Ice Creams

These ice creams are made with unique fruit from the Philippines including flavors like ube, lychee, avocado, green tea, halo-halo and red bean.

11. Jelly Bellies Chili Mango

Ah, Jelly Belly- always coming up with new flavors to tempt us. This year we sampled a bit of sweet and spicy in the new flecked chili mango bean. Also, new was honey bean as well as a superfruit mix including pomengranate, acai, blueberry, cranberry, and cherry in the mix.

Some Honorable Mentions:

Favorite Authentic Packaging:

Mother-In-Law's Kim Chi

Most Unusual Product:

Le Foam- available in sweet and savory flavors like chocolate truffle and lemon dijon

Novel Take on Tea:

Numi Aged Puerh Tea Brick- this 60 day fermented tea is pressed into a brick and aged. You simply break off a piece and add to boiling water to steep.


And finally a few other trends we saw:

• plenty of tea including Chocolate tea from the Republic of Tea

• a lot of chocolate including burnt caramel and toffee as popular flavors

• gluten-free snacks

• bacon-everything including maple bacon marshmallows from Plush Puffs and Sir Francis' Bacon peanut brittle

• nut mixes- including new glazed flavors from Sahale Snacks like almonds with cranberries, honey and sea salt, and even a line of gourmet dried fruit and nuts mixes from Gary&Kit at Clif Family Winery and Farm.

All-in-all, it was an interesting show!

One Word Wednesday: Toasted

Even though we call it grilled cheese, it's really much more like a toasted cheese sandwich. Mmm, we've had grilled cheese twice this week and we'd like to know:

How do you make your grilled cheese sandwich?

Diagonal or straight-cut? And Why?

How did your mom make this sandwich for you?

We'll share our answers if you'll share yours!

Building Kitchen Traditions: It's Never Too Early to Start!

Can you remember the first time you "cooked" or "baked" in the kitchen? Even though we might not be cooking three meals a day from scratch like our grandmothers did, there's an opportunity to start new cooking traditions for ourselves, our friends and families.

We've recently started a baking tradition with my friend, Mama A and her daughter, Little I, who will be 3 in February. This was our second year of baking and decorating sugar cookies together and it was fun to see Little I's interest grow. I've learned that it is never too early to start building a new kitchen tradition.

Last year, Little I was almost 2 when she came over to decorate cookies (in photo above). I was amazed at her interest and ability to gently pick up sprinkles from Mama A's hand and delicately put them on the cookies at such a young age. Click for the full post on Little I's first sugar cookies.

This year, Little I's excitement about making cookies was wonderful to see. I received a lovely "princess" cookie cutter set which was perfect for this occasion. What a difference a year makes as Little I was more engaged and wanted to be even more involved. I made the cookies in advance and prepared the buttercream frosting. While Mama A put on a layer of frosting, Little I eagerly selected the sprinkles and put them on the top of the the cookies. It was a great moment to talk about the different colors and shapes. Little A had lots of opinions about which colors she wanted to use!

She also really enjoyed eating those sprinkles!

Three different generations were involved this year as my mom, "Grandma" Gail, stopped by and joined in the decorating fun.

Baking cookies together will be a yearly kitchen tradition we will continue. I'm also excited to start a cooking tradition with Little I where we make something with fruit and vegetables and other healthy foods.

Do you have any kitchen traditions with your kids or friends or family?

Are you thinking about starting some new kitchen traditions?

Food Science Friday: Light struck

Last week you may have seen me in a Corona commercial. With a brilliant blue sea and sky stretching out, the crashing waves roaring with regular frequency, and the pillow top of a weathered cabana, all that was remaining was the beer. And beer I did have.

My lazy thoughts drifted back to my days in graduate school when I lived with three students who all were studying some aspect of beer (two have gone on to become brewmasters). Late night discussions would turn to the fuel of our late night discussions (the beer) and the chemistry of light struck beer was of course one topic of we couldn't ignore.

For the purists, beer is simple from an ingredient standpoint (water, barley malt, hops, yeast). The role of hops is multi-fold, but it is usually thought of for the flavoring characteristics it imparts--the bitter taste and floral notes. Of the many chemical compounds present in the hop flowers those called isohumulones are some of the prima donnas. If you treat your beer well the isohumulones will perform a delicious dance, if you abuse your beer then will make the entire experience stink. Stink, literally, stink like a skunk.

The term skunky beer comes from the formation of 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol (MBT for short), which is chemically similar to what's in a skunk spray (hopefully you've only had to smell this racing down the highway and away). When isohumulones break down and recombine with sulfur groups naturally in the been proteins they form MBT, which is detectable at parts per million levels in your nose. However, a key in making this reaction go is the exposure to light energy that kick starts the chemistry. So, if you can avoid light, you'll help keep MBT out of your beer drinking experience.

I won't advise you to drink in the dark, for many reasons, and a cold beer on the beach is sometimes in order. Take my advice: pour it from a keg or dark bottle, keep it cold, and drink quickly! Then repeat.

One Word Wednesday: Comfort

It's a rainy day here and this cup of hot chocolate was just what I needed.

What foods bring you comfort on a cold and rainy day?

Are you cooking anything special today?