charming cupcakes from miette

Dark Chocolate M&Ms, neat.

I'll be putting up observations on the making of the very tiny cupcakes soon. I think next I'd like to make a bunch of different types of frosting and figure out which I like best. Would anybody happen to know what type of frosting would be on these cupcakes (also small picture to right) or this cake from Miette? It's so charming! Oops -- they say right in their menu that it is "marshmallow-like boiled icing".

Miette is an organic patisserie with a store in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. My years living San Francisco were ill timed -- we got there just as all the happy happy start ups were shutting down and moved away just before the shops in the Ferry Building opened up. I used to work a few blocks from the Ferry Building and get a little sad when I think of all the food I missed out on, all the lunch time adventures I didn't get to have.

Seattle Bon Vivant took a trip to Home Cake Decorating Supply Co. and got the skinny on the shop, she includes photos and location/hours. I know I have certainly fallen for the place in the last week.

The very tiny cupcake, she is a success!

Cupcakes are everywhere. I just got the new issue of Bust (Amy Sedaris is on the cover!) and they have a whole page of cupcake stuff including a cupcake lip balm set at Fred Flare and these plush cupcake dolls at My Paper Crane. I've also been admiring the teeny tiny cupcake charms at Amyville.

And the most recent Is My Blog Burning? had a theme of My Little Cupcake (or Muffin), and the results are delicious -- Maki even broke them into groups for cupcakes, sweet muffins and savory muffins. Three people used the dark chocolate cupcake recipe from the latest Cook's Illustrated -- Samer/Thoughts, Minor Gourmandry and Seattle Bon Vivant (the latter two include the recipe). I used the recipe for the ickle cupcakes like the one above and it was very yummy.

While in Whole Foods I found a package of marshmallows that were made with fish gelatin and I'm curious -- would these marshmallows be acceptable to those who avoid eating meat but do eat fish? How about people who are vegetarians but also eat fish, Pesco-vegetarians? If you have an opinion please do write and let me know.

I Googled around a bit for an answer to this question and didn't find much more than a "yuck!", but I did find this recipe for vegetarian marshmallows using Emes Kosher Gelatin which is made from Carageenan, Locust Bean Gum, and Malto-dextrin. Tiny Trapeze has beautiful handmade vegan marshmallows in vanilla and chocolate flavors. Also, a Google search for vegan marshmallow turns up quite a bit.