Sorry about the tacky headline; I couldn’t resist! I also must apologize about the lack of posts this month. July has been crazy for me — Stan & I moved, I started an online class, then we went to Michigan to visit two really good friends, Ben & Marcus. Here are some highlights from the trip {in no particular order}:

1. Kensington Metropark — Ben & Marcus to us to this great park that surrounds Lake Kent, where we visited their farm center, treated ourselves to delicious ice cream treats, and rented a paddleboat {and Ben took about 30 photos of swans}. We got lectured for not wearing life jackets {after we came back perfectly safe…}, but it was lots of fun! Except that Stan fed my sunglasses to Lake Kent  :(

2. Marcus made me this gorgeous necklace! He is a truly crafty, talented guy, who can also cook {see image 6} and make amazing hand/body lotion. At first, the charm on the necklace reminded me of an acorn, but I also see it as a green cupcake or a mushroom.

3. Belle is the best cat EVER. She’s not bulimic {like one of my cats} or a sociopath {like my other cat}, and she loves cuddling. She doesn’t try to attack you all the time, and is generally very low key and loving. She also likes to lay in boxes and feel like she’s included in things, which is why she set herself down in the Apples to Apples box as we played it. She does NOT like the flash though — she ran off very quickly after this shot.

4. Risk in silly hats. Even though Risk takes forever, we had lots of fun playing. Or, at least I did because I won both times we played! {Okay, to be fair, I won by default — the first time, Belle messed up the board after we decided to give up at 3am and in the second game, we didn’t read the directions properly so I had an advantage that I didn’t technically deserve}. I played in Ben’s safari hat, Marcus played in an elephant hat, Ben wore his Ash Ketchum hat that he made when he went as the Pokemon master for Halloween a few years ago, and Stan wore a sailor hat. These hats definitely improved gameplay.

5. Sava’s State Street Cafe in Ann Arbor had delicious food, but a wonky waiter. He messed up our food order twice, and we think he may have been on something, but I loved the restaurant nonetheless. The restaurant is named after its owner/chef, Sava Lelcaj, and the food is just amazing. Dishes range from rosemary chicken, pierogis, and butternut squash ravioli to pancakes, crepes, and delicious salads, all very reasonably priced. If you’re visiting Michigan any time soon, please stop by Sava’s, you’ll be glad you did!

6. Marcus made amazing sweet and sour chicken stir fry, with a homemade sauce that had pineapples in it. I won’t say much about it because I’ll be posting the recipe next week {written by Marcus himself!}.

7. We found the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile! We couldn’t figure out why it would be randomly parked in a parking lot, but I found out later that they were promoting the “Good Mood Mission,” where the company asked customers, “what puts you in a good mood?” and turned their answers into good deeds, as well as donating 3 million pounds of food to Feeding America. Because I was without my sunglasses {see #1}, I had a hard time keeping my eyes open for the camera as the sun was shining right into my retinas.

8. And, of course, cupcakes! More on these next week, but if you’re hunting for cupcakes in Michigan, make sure you stop by The Cupcake Station and Just Baked.

Boys enjoy cupcakes too, you know! And it’s for this reason a team of students from the Academy of Art University’s School of Graphic design decided to give cupcakes a new look.

Whippit! is a fictitious line of dessert products {cupcake mix, liners, & tins, pie crust & pans, etc.} featuring a masculine cupcake spokesman and no fancy-shmancy type. The products were developed by Jon Patterson, Sali Golzari, Karen Cheng, and Risaki Koyama in a packaging class taught by Michael Osborne, Founder, President, and namesake of San Francisco’s Michael Osborne Design and AAU School of Graphic Design alum and instructor.

“Whippit was a group project conducted over 3 months,” says Patterson on his portfolio website, where the project is filed under the “because cupcakes were just too cute” category. “The concept was to show cupcakes as affordances. Often times cupcake mixes are decorated with swirls and fun type. We chose to have a character, ‘whip-it boy,’ and each new product involves the use of him in some form.”

More on the project here.

Hello Poor & Pretty readers! I’m Suzi, Sami’s older sister and I love making cupcakes! Recently my daughter’s {Scarlett, who you may remember from the diy cucumber mask video} school PTA hosted a family fun night with tons of activities for the whole family, including bowling, face painting and Bingo! It was a great way to spend an evening with your kids.

Being the cupcake lover that I am, I volunteered to have a “Design Your Own Cupcake” station with my trusty sidekick Kaylie. With the help of the PTA, I gathered up all the supplies we would need: 200 cupcakes {yes, you read that correctly}, 12 tubs of frosting, food coloring, and more candy and sprinkles than even Willy Wonka’s factory has! Clearly, these were the makings of a great night! I dyed the frosting four different colors and also had chocolate for those with a more classic cupcake palate. Each topping had its own bowl and spoon to keep things neat and sanitary.  Additionally, each child had to have signed permission from their parents before they could dive into my cupcake heaven {because you never want to mess around with food allergies}.

I don’t know who had more fun — the kids or the parents! I don’t believe there is anything better than getting together with your family to create beautiful, colorful, fantastically fun art that you can eat!

Happy Cupcaking!
-suzicakes

My friend Brittany, who knows how much I love cupcakes, let me borrow The Icing on the Cupcake by Jennifer Ross. Though the story line is cute {a wealthy socialite from Dallas moves in to her grandmother’s home in the Big Apple after a crushing breakup and opens up her own cupcake shop}, I wasn’t a big fan of the characters. The saving grace of the book, however, would be the cupcake recipes at the end of each chapter — 24 in total.

Jennifer Ross must be the Goddess of the Cupcake. Her recipe names were quirky and went along with the happenings in the previous chapter. There was Wake Up and Smell the Scandal Carrot Cupcakes, Moving Blues Banana Caramel Cupcakes, Blue Blood Special Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Custard, First Blush of Crush Cupcakes, and my personal favorite, Margarita, Hold the Salt with Tequila Lime Frosting. I tried out this last recipe myself and I was honestly surprised with the result. Sure, I can cook and bake, but my creations almost never come out the way I’d like them to. These cupcakes were almost perfect. I decided next time I would use less raspberries, but other than that I wouldn’t change a thing. They were almost orgasmic; it was unbelievable! Stan, who is not a sugar fan, ate two!

Though I am anxiously waiting for Mrs. Ross to author a cookbook, for now I’m content with re-creating her cupcake recipes and trolling her blog for others not found in the book.

For my birthday, Suzi decided to make these deliciously adorable mini cupcakes, petits fours, from the Hello Cupcake book. These pastel and bright colors are perfect for spring, but with food coloring you can create all kinds of colors to be used for any occasion. These would be really cute for Independence Day, too, maybe red, white and blue cupcakes?

Tip: I didn’t get a photo of this, but to achieve the super-smooth frosting look all you have to do is microwave the frosting for about 10 seconds, stir it thoroughly because sometimes the food coloring separates, then dip the top of the cupcake slowly into the frosting. If you twist the cupcake in the frosting a little bit, then gently swirl it up and out of the frosting, it will settle smoothly across the cupcake. Next time, I’ll try to get pictures of this step!

Happy Memorial Day! :)