February 10th will forever be a birthday of sorts. The birthday of my book. What does one do in celebration? Surely it will be different than birthday parties of yore, with the meal of my choosing, a round of duck-duck-goose, and an angel food birthday cake heaped with clouds of loosely whipped cream. A birthday party seems a bit premature. But a little birthday cake—a cupcake—was just the right thing with which say, I’m thrilled.

There is a settling immediacy to blogging. One writes, posts, and puts it out there, for all of the world to see. But it is different with a book. With a book you write, send it in, and then you wait. Wait for comments from your editor, who shows it to her team of people. You edit, she edits, you read, and reread, write some more, [...]

I’m over the cupcake, in theory. They are so fashionable that they have become passé. A new Magnolia Bakery has moved in to the Upper West Side, so now ladies, babies and dogs can experience their confections a little closer to home. Hauling your butt down to the West Village, waiting in line with countless tourists for that bite-sized treat can be a grueling task.
So, in theory, I’m over them… and yet, I keep making them.
Hypocrisy? Perhaps. Delicious? Definitely. I feel like a hamster in a sugar-coated wheel, running away from and to this American dessert. There is just something about the cupcake. For a person like myself, a girl who is often looking for her will-power, a diminutive dessert is ideal. I could cut myself a huge hunk of cake, or I can savor one darling little cupcake. [...]

Well, we are here. And we’re camping. Sort of. No, we haven’t pitched a tent in Central Park, (though it is only blocks away). But we are waiting, my husband much more patiently than myself, for all of our goodies (like our bed, who knew the bed was a luxury item?) to arrive from California. Until they do we are making due on our new click-clackin’ sofa bed. So no, we are not exactly camping and no bits of plant debris must be plucked from my hair.
New York is great, lively, and busy, and HOT, because, well, it’s August. I’ve already explored some markets up and down the West Side, and have been forced to restrain myself in terms of buying, reminding myself that buying Sand Dabs without having a saute pan in which to quickly pan fry them in, would just be [...]

I admit it, there is nothing I like more than a good Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Icing. I also admit that all that red food coloring, the very coloring that gives the cake its charming name, kind of gives me the heebies. The way that it colors your fingers when you pick the cupcake apart, the way it leaves an incriminating red mark on your tongue long after you have consumed the sugary goodness, and really, just the idea of eating all of that food coloring, despite the delightful sweetness of the cupcake– puts a bad taste in my mouth. And so, when faced with the stunning problem of what do when faced with desire to have the cupcake, without all of the mess, I decided to make Brown Suede Cupcakes.
The Red Velvet Cupcake minus the red food coloring, proved to be just the thing to cure my [...]