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.

A complete failure.

Turns out I gave up on the itty cupcakes too soon. Tiffany, who is a genius, wrote to tell me to try little foil candy cups (thank you Tiffany!). I had a lunch hour free so I took a trip to the Home Cake Decorating Supply Co. on Roosevelt which Jessica told me about ages ago and I was happy to finally have a reason to visit. They had 3/4 inch rigid foil cups, I also bought some tiny sugar flowers and sprinkles, I had this cupcake from Magnolia in mind. What you see there is the result, cute huh? Cute but otherwise a complete failure tastewise, probably my fault for quartering recipes, or just more evidence of my acute inability to cook. I’ll put up my observations later, along with a second try if I get a chance.

A slightly smooshed but very delicious cupcake from Dahlia Bakery.

In the category of things I will plan but never actually do — after the tiny pies I was interested in making tiny cupcakes. Now, I know that a mini muffin size cupcake is pretty darn small already, but I was thinking about something 1 inch in diameter. I spent a little while researching things to bake them in — thimbles? mini cannele trays? and found this silicone caramel/medallion baking mold (second down on the page). According to other places carrying it the size of the molds are 1 and 1/8th inch in diameter, so little! But I just don’t need the tiny cupcakes enough to spend money on the molds. Ah well.

When I run out of things to look at on the interweb I inevitably end up looking at pictures of cupcakes — google images, flickr tags for cupcake and cupcakes. And of course Cupcakes Take The Cake has a Flickr group. I have come dangerously close to buying a cupcake shaped cookie jar off of Ebay many times. And just look at the picture of the cupcake from Dahlia Bakery that Seattle Bon Vivant posted, so charming.

Ikea is showing off it’s new textiles and has a mini web magazine with projects for things like room dividers, roll up picnic blankets, hanging organizers and decorating cushions. I’m glancing at it and I’m not sure how good the illustrated directions are, but all of the projects are practical. Find the backwards sewing machine at the side of this page and click (it’s a pop-up).

After reading the post at Orangette, and having something similar but very disappointing in an average pancake restaurant, we made a big Dutch baby pancake this morning. We used an 11 or 12-inch cast iron skillet. I mixed up the batter (and made a little more due to a last minute milk to cream ratio mix up) and slid the skillet in the oven and when the puffy magic didn’t happen right away I was a little worried. Then this!

And this!

It was so much fun, and really really yummy.

Orangette has the recipe posted here (thank you Orangette!): Jimmy�s Dutch Baby Pancakes.

added later: Also check out Jimmy�s Shortbread Waffles, yu-um.

Debbie Stoller added some March tour dates for her Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation book. They are in California including Dharma Trading Company and Urban Knitting!

A few more tiny foods things. Nick, the guy who took the Giant Martin and His Dinner picture told me that a grocery store near where he lives (in Paris, ooh) carries mini produce, and he took some pictures. It’s all cute, in an expensive sort of way.

I totally cannot read this site but just look at the gorgeous and intricate tiny pies!

So, how do you get the lime wedges back out of the beer bottles? (so they can be recycled.)

update: I got a bunch of suggestions including grabbers, pickle forks. I think the most suited gadget is this wine cork retriever. Using boiling water to soften the rind, then hold the bottle upside down and use a fork or tweezers to grab the fruit was a good suggestion (and less expensive than buying a gadget). One of my favorite suggestions, though, was the use of a hammer. Thanks to everybody who wrote!

While at Sur La Table yesterday I spotted these glitter spatulas, the lady at the counter said they remind her of fairy wands. (They come in pink too.)

I also liked these pastel reusable silicone cups for cupcakes.

Clever soap mold idea — Faith used the bottom part of a plastic soda bottle as a soap mold, it works sort of like those massage bar molds. She talks about gardening and has a bunch of DIY projects on her site too!

Congratulations go out to Gayla! Her book You Grow Girl has come out!

Gayla is the supercoolness behind the web site You Grow Girl and part of the duo of Superfantastico and Fluffco. Here is a little about the book from the book site:

You Grow Girl is a hip and humorous how-to for the blossoming generation of crafty gals who want to get their garden on.

Written and designed by Gayla Trail, the creator of YouGrowGirl.com, You Grow Girl guides aspiring gardeners every step of the way in transforming a tiny fire escape or a suburban backyard into the lush garden of your dreams. Along with all the ins-and-outs of soil, seeds, sowing and growing, You Grow Girl is chock full of fun and funky projects that make gardening more than just growing plants. You will learn to grow and bag your own tea, make hand salve and hair rinse out of plants from their garden, transform thrift-store finds into cool containers, and even sew your own stylie gardening apron!

Here is where you can buy the book, including US, Canada and International sites.