My friends think I’m obsessed with cupcakes and when you consider all the facts, I can see how they’ve come to that conclusion..
Let’s start at the beginning —
While pursuing my MBA in Marketing at RIT, I was drawn to a certain, strong entrepreneurial cupcake shop owner, turned frosting extrordinaire, Heather “Cupcakes” Saffer. As a final grad school project, a team and I created a marketing plan for her bakery, at the time – The Cupcake Dreamery.
Over the course of our project work, Heather and I became friends. Afterwards, I helped her with a few cupcake-oriented PR needs & basic social media setup [now, Ms. Cupcakes could write a book on social media marketing!].
I spent a lot of time in her cupcake bubble and even worked an afternoon shift at her second bakery, Dollop Gourmet, oncewhen she was short staffed. Having the chance to decorate cupcakes and watching customers smile as they received their treats was one of my favorite food service experiences!
During my final year in Rochester, I made many visits to the Dollop bakery to chat cupcakes with Heather and sample her newest creation. This was my weekly mental break from everyday life.
I believe this time spent at Dollop opened the door into the magical, sprinkle-sparkled world of cupcakes.
After moving to Austin, I had a short stint of unemployment where I kept myself busy working behind the counter at Delish, an ATX cupcakery [now full-on bakery]. When I found out Delish wouldn’t let me frost the cupcakes without going through “training” I realized they were oblivious to my intrinsic baking talents and ditched Delish venturing back into the corporate world to pursue a traditional career.
A whirlwind trip later, I’m in New York City and Heather Cupcakes comes to visit me. I plan out an entire day where she and I venture from NYC cupcakery to cupcakery reviewing bakery creations & concepts while eating ourselves into a sugar coma. Her motivation was purely research oriented while my purpose was to find “The Best Ever Cupcake” [Mission accomplished].
There’s been a few other random cupcake acts in-between as well, such as draggin’ M<3 to a cupcake festival where I willingly paid to launch cupcakes at a guy dressed in a pig costume.
And for the record, I hit him right in where it counts!
I’ve also been featured multiple times on the famous cupcake blog Cupcakes Take the Cake, obsessively DVR Cupcake Wars (reruns included), will predictably show up at social gatherings with a plate of cupcakes in tow, excitedly attended any and all cupcake-themed events, and I consider it completely normal behavior for my friends to meet me at a new cupcakery to catch up rather than meeting for coffee or a cocktail elsewhere.
Lastly, let’s not forget, I got engaged at a cupcakery here in Austin.
Considering my above history with cupcakes, I’d say I’m obsessed too!
But what you don’t know, is that I don’t actually like cake.
[I’ll pause while you gasp]
Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of cake and 10 times out of 10, I will choose a cookie, brownie, or ice cream over cake any day [unless of course it’s ice cream cake…]
Don’t believe me? Then ask the people who actually see me eat the cupcakes. They’ve seen me implement my Bite Rule….Basically, I go all Cupcake Wars on those little cakes….
Bite 1: Taste the Frosting
Bite 2: Taste the Cake
Bite 3: Taste the Filling [No filling? That’s a shame…Proceed to Bite 4]
Bite 4: All together now! [Frosting, Cake, Filling]
Four bites max. That’s all I need. I can tell right then whether or not it’s a great cupcake and I don’t need anymore. <3M knows, he’s eaten many deconstructed cupcakes after I’ve torn my way through them to inspect and carefully evaluate every element. After I make my official tasting decision, I move on to the next cupcake in line or pass the remaining goods to anyone nearby.
Still think I’m obsessed? Maybe you’re right. I am but it’s not with eating them…
I like cupcakes because they’re just plain cute!
They’re pretty to look at, portion controlled desserts that offer unlimited flavor combinations with cake flavors, fillings, frostings, & toppings.
I especially enjoy mini cupcakes because I have less wasted cake and can still enjoy tasting each of the elements. Plus, mini cupcakes are much more fun – everything’s cuter when it’s tiny! [Baked By Melissa knows a thing or two about minis!]
I also truly enjoy baking and decorating cupcakes. I love that cupcakes require multiple steps from assembling the batter and making the frosting to filling the piping bag and the intricacy that can go into decorating each one separately.
But even after all that, my favorite thing about cupcakes is that they make people smile. Have you ever given someone a cupcake and watch their face light up? They get a huge smile and it’s a wonderful feeling knowing you made that something, that’s so small, so pretty and so delicious that it brings happiness to another person.
That’s the real reason why I love cupcakes – because I love watching other people smile when they receive one!
“Cupcakes are for sharing” – Baked by Melissa
