We saved these cupcakes for Easter, and they were a big hit! We still have a few left over, but I’ll tackle one or two tonight after I eat the leftover honey ham. My family may not be religious, but we LOVE Easter. I love getting together with my family and I love honey baked ham, and Easter is the only time we eat a honey baked ham. This year, Suzi, Stan, and I did all of the cooking… and we’re still not sure how my Dad got away with that. Probably because he spent all day Saturday replacing our water heater. >_< Though there were definitely too many cooks in the kitchen, we had a good time and, luckily, we made the cupcakes the night before.

We used a recipe from Hello Cupcake again, and Suzi was excited to learn that they have a new book, What’s New, Cupcake?, which I’m sure she’ll be picking up from the book store soon. If you end up trying this recipe for next Easter (or just for fun!), we do recommend making the cupcakes the night before you plan to serve them. Because the frosting grass is all done by hand, it takes a while to do and it’s a good idea to let the frosting sit and harden a bit overnight so it isn’t runny when you try to eat it.

I somehow got stuck making the feet again and I helped dip a few cupcakes in the “dirt” {do you think Suzi is trying to tell me something?}. Scarlett {Suzi’s 7-year-old daughter} and I also helped decorate the grass cupcakes with eggs {Whopper’s Robin Eggs} and flowers {okay, they were really stars, but no one could tell the difference!}. And yes, they tasted just as yummy as they looked :)

Mish and I have both been up to some heavy investigating these past few weeks. While Mish was testing out primers, I’ve been trying to find the best cupcakes in Connecticut! The hunt began when I came back from New York thinking, there must be some good cupcake places in CT, too! Last week, I told you about the New Haven Cupcake Truck, but this week our cupcake investigation target was a bit less mobile, that is, a stationary bakery.

Truffles Bakery is located on busy Route 4 in Farmington, which makes it a difficult place to get in and out of, but the perfect place to stop on the way home from work for a sweet pick-me-up or a delicious ready-to-eat dinner {photo above of Truffles Bakery © Matthew J. Wagner} Yes, they have a variety of yummy cupcakes, cookies and other baked goods, but they also serve soups, salads, sandwiches, quiches and other small entrées. We tried the New England Clam Chowder and it was the best chowder I’ve ever had outside of Boston. A few tables and chairs are arranged outside for a small eating area, making Truffles a great location for a get-together with friends for a snack and coffee or quick meal. I can’t wait to go back when the weather starts getting nicer! They also have a smaller location inside UConn’s School of Law in Hartford.

Of course, by now you want to know about the cupcakes! Their flavors are plentiful and on an average day they have most of them in-stock, or you can call ahead a few days and have Truffles make a custom cake or cupcakes {Truffles calls this the “Build Your Own” service} for your party. On the day that Suzi and I went, Truffles was serving Buttercup Yellow, Chocolate, Carrot, Ret Velvet, Raspberry, and Magic Middle {chocolate or yellow cupcakes filled with chocolate ganache}. I bought myself a Buttercup Yellow, Raspberry, and Magic Middle, and a carrot cupcake for Mish {she loves carrot cake, but she couldn’t make it to Truffles because she was donating blood}. Truffles offers a “cupcake in a box” service where they place a cupcake on top of confetti in a cute transparent plastic box and tie it with an elastic bow. I put the carrot cupcake in a box for Mish. Suzi bought Buttercup Yellow, Chocolate, Carrot, and Red Velvet.

Results? The Buttercup Yellow was my favorite, but not by very much because I loved all of them! As the name suggests, it’s a buttery-sweet flavor, sort of like buttery sugar cookies. I tried some of Suzi’s Red Velvet and so far I think Truffles makes the best Red Velvet in CT, but you can’t beat the New Haven Cupcake Truck for its mobility! My cupcake adventures are far from over, but Truffles has definitely become one of my new favorite destinations for baked goods. {It helps that it’s less than 10 minutes from my house, too!} I also fell in love with the t-shirts the servers were wearing {they say “peace, love, & cupcakes”}, and I found out you can order one yourself in over 20 different colors! I ordered a short-sleeved one in light blue {only $10!}, and it will be ready in about a week. I hope when I go back to pick it up they’ll have the Buttercup Strawberry and Buttercup Lemon Raspberry cupcakes for me to try, yum!

Do you have any recommendations for cupcakes places we should try next? We’d love to hear them! :)

Over the weekend, I hung out with my “twin” Sani, which was long overdue. I accompanied her on a drive to Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven to pick up her house keys that were left behind in her haste to get home for her Spring Break. Because I’ve been reading up on cupcake establishments in CT, I knew there was a cupcake truck {yes, mobile cupcakes!} that roams around New Haven. Sani, who is always up for an adventure, said she’d love to find it.

I checked out the Cupcake Truck’s blog for its location and we found out it was only 5 minutes from SCSU. We scoped it out, parked, and waited in line for 30 minutes for our treats. Unlike some of the other bakeries I’ve been to so far for my cupcake fix, this one leaves the frosting off until you order so you can have a more custom cupcake. They typically have 4 different cupcakes and 4 different frostings to choose from, which means 16 different flavor combinations! Of course, as much as I love cupcakes there was no way I could eat 16 different ones, so I settled on two: Red Velvet Jones with White Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting and Guinness with chocolate frosting. I opted out of further customization, but you can also add sprinkles, cookie bits, edible gold, and candy flowers to top off your cupcake!

Sani {above} admits she had never eaten an entire cupcake before this excursion. I think she needs to stick around a bit more!

P.S. The Cupcake Truck also caters and offers “do-it-yourself party boxes.” For more information, check out their website.

P.P.S. We added a new category, “cupcakes,” to the blog. We hope to have quite a few more cupcake excursions like this one!

That’s right, 4! My awesome Dad paid for Stan and I to spend another night in New York. Explanation to follow!

Day 2, Monday, we slept in a bit and hunted for more vintage clothing and cupcakes. I didn’t really find any great pieces of clothing that really stood out to me, but that was probably because I was lamenting my lack of money. I had hoped I would have my tax return money before the trip, but, because I gave the IRS the wrong routing number, that didn’t happen. :( Of course, when I stumbled upon a tokidoki store, I didn’t think twice before buying a $100 messenger bag. I justify this with the fact that I didn’t buy anything else {other than food and Metro Cards} and my dad gave me $100 for the trip. {He isn’t usually this generous, but he just got his bonus! Yay for everyone!} Haha, thanks for sponsoring our trip, Dad. We also found more cupcakes to munch on. I bought this scrumptious and enormous raspberry swirl cupcake from Crumbs Bake Shop on Broadway. It was so huge I had to split it with Stan {and I’m not usually so generous, either}. We also had a late lunch/early dinner at Goodburger, home of the Goodburger! {If you don’t get the reference, I’m old}.

Day 3, Tuesday, began horribly. We checked out of our hotel, went to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), then realized they were closed. Nice one, Sami. They’re closed every Tuesday. I felt like this entire montage of Arrested Development Charlie Brown-esque sad moments. Seeing the Tim Burton exhibit was my sole purpose for going to the Big Apple! :( :( I called my dad, who was staying in New Jersey, to ask if we could camp out with him for a night, but we realized it would have cost more money in taxi fees just to get there and back than it would have cost to go home and come back another day. We hung up, grabbed our luggage from the hotel, and began our walk back to the train station. My dad called me a few minutes later and offered to pay for us to stay another night. Yesss! We had to check into another hotel, but we were very, very happy.

We acquired more cupcakes, this time from Magnolia Bakery, which has been in Sex & the City. I bought two: caramel, which was very sweet, and red velvet, which made my teeth look vampiric, munching on my latest victim. We shopped around a bit more and ate at Five Guys because Stan is addicted to their burgers. On our way back to the hotel, I spotted Radiance Tea House & Books. I’d never been to a tea house before, so we went in and ordered a pot of Spring in Kyoto, a flavorful mix of Japanese green tea, sunflower, and peony blossoms. I couldn’t resist ordering edamame, which I have become addicted to. Radiance describes themselves as “an oasis in the city,” and wow are they right. I didn’t ever want to leave that place, I was so relaxed. But, we did. Stan and I went back to our hotel, watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on my MacBook, then went to sleep.

Day 4, Wednesday, we woke up, checked out of our hotel, and went straight to the Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMA. It was wonderful. If you’re a big Tim Burton fan, or even a little one, it would be a shame to miss it. The exhibit runs until April 26th, and you can check out a lot of it online here. There is so much of Burton’s work that went undeveloped and unpublished, and that alone is worth seeing, but it was amazing to see his preliminary drawings of characters that would appear in his movies, or costumes that were worn by Johnny Depp or Christopher Walken. It was very crowded, but still totally worth it. After the exhibit, we hopped on the train and headed home, exhausted.

…It was wonderful :)

Stan and I got into New York just before 1pm, and we were able to check in early to our hotel and walk around the city. We had plans to meet up with my city-dwelling French companion, Tibo, at 4 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to check out the Tim Burton exhibit, but it’s nearly impossible to get into on a weekend. You have to go really early and get timed tickets specifically for the Tim Burton exhibit, and by the time we got there, they were all sold out. So, we’ve decided to save Tim Burton until Tuesday when we see Tibo again.

So instead we shopped around a bit, ate some ludicrously expensive food (but this is New York), and like any good Apple nerds, we visited the 5th Ave Apple store. It was gorgeous. A little bit smaller than I expected, but I think that’s because there were so many people there. I got some shots of the front of the store and a shot from underneath the Apple while we were in the glass elevator:

We met up with Tibo around 5 and he took us to Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. We had to do a double-take when we saw the line — who would ever wait in a 30 minute line to get milkshakes? Tibo promised us that they were “the best shakes in New York,” and he was right. They were super creamy, sweet but not too sweet. Next time you’re in New York, I highly suggest stopping by. They have food, too, like your typical burger stand. If you go to the Shake Shack website, they also have a camera so you can check out the line before heading there. Very convenient, but I’d say it was worth the 30 minute wait anyway. We may go back for dinner tonight…

As we were walking around, killing time before we met up with Mish, we happened upon a little cupcake shop, Baked By Melissa, and of course I bought cupcakes. Now, Melissa knows what she’s doing. Her cupcakes are bite-sized which is great because you get to sample more for your money without getting stuffed. I tried three — cookie dough, red velvet, and tie dye. All were equally delicious, but I have to say the cookie dough was my favorite because I’ve never had a cookie dough cupcake before. I was glad we found Baked By Melissa because it wasn’t on my list of cupcake shops, though Tibo had heard about it. They’ve actually gotten a nice bit of press. Melissa has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, People and Daily Candy.

After swinging by Carmine’s near Times Square and finishing off Mish and her co-workers’ leftovers, we went out in search for a place to spend the rest of the evening. Tibo brought us to a tiny hole-in-the-wall type wine bar that features live jazz every night. Fat Cat was the perfect place to end the evening, kicking back, playing pool, and listening to some killer jazz.

More adventures, shopping, and cupcakes to come!