March 20 was National Macaron Day, and Dana’s Bakery, based in NYC, was running a super generous promotion of a free box of 12 macarons with a purchase on that day only. I jumped on the deal, which was sweetened with a further 10 % discount when I signed up for the e-newsletter. By Saturday of that week I had 24 macarons stylishly boxed and bagged in a signature Dana’s Bakery bag waiting for me on my front step.

I was so excited.

I ordered a custom set of 12, selecting flavors such as Thin Mint, Molten Chocolate Mac, S’mores, Orange Creamsicle, Cookie Dough, Key Lime Pie and Cup of Joe (ordering multiples of some). In the other box, I received the 11 standard flavors, which included those from my custom box, as well as Peanut Butter and Jelly, Red Velvet, Birthday Cake, Fruity Cereal and the flavor of the month, Mac Squared (a combo of a macaron and macaroon–the coconut cookie).

Ray and I loved them! They were all good, but there were a few that really blew us away. And there were also some that were really unexpectedly good, and those were:

• Peanut Butter and Jelly: Ray couldn’t have this one, so I got to try it solo and I was AMAZED how the flavors were so perfect. The peanut butter was so creamy and nutty, and the grape jelly was spot on. I felt like a kid again.
• Fruity Cereal: We both shared this one and were surprised how much it tasted like Trix or Fruity Pebbles.
• Birthday Cake: As Ray put it, this was not just a vanilla macaron with a pretty tie-dyed shell. It REALLY tasted like the cakes our moms made back when were kids. Holy nostalgia Batman!

My personal favorite was Cup of Joe. It reminded Ray of really excellent diner coffee. The Thin Mint was amazingly true to the Girl Scout cookie, and I think Ray really enjoyed Key Lime Pie.

If you like macarons, definitely check out Dana’s Bakery. They deliver nationwide, and sell their treats in a variety of retail locations. 

We eat a lot of eggs in our house, and I use them in almost every recipe I bake. Sometimes there’s nothing prettier than the deep orange of the yolk, and don’t get me started on my love for insanely runny sunny side up eggs … yum. I’ve also mentioned Oxo tools before, and I’ve been lucky enough to be included in their blogger outreach program. So when they sent out an email about trying out some of their EGGcellent tools geared towards all things eggs, I gladly accepted.

Oxo sent out a trio of tools: it’s egg beater, egg separator, and flip and fold omelet turner.

I’ve already tried out the egg separator, and am pleased with it’s performance. The tool perches easily on the side of just about any bowl or measuring cup and has an edge for cracking the egg on. Then you just let the yolk and whites slip into the little cup. The design of the egg separator allows for the yolk to be gently held in the cup (granted you didn’t lacerate it with a wild cracking) while the whites slip down into the bowl through several slits.

I’m interested in trying out the flip and fold omelet turner next weekend. Currently I use a wide spatula and a lot of jiggling, and sometimes it ends up in a slightly messy plate. The Oxo omelet turner has a nylon inner core, which gives it structure, and a silicone outer that is flexible and resistant to heat up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. The flexibility will also make it a good bowl scraper, especially when I’m scraping cake batter and cookie dough down off the bowl (yay for multitasking tools!)

The final tool is an update to something your grandmother may have had in her kitchen: a manual egg beater. But this Oxo tool is sleek and well-engineered (no offense to grandma!)

According to Oxo, the beater’s smoothly rotating gears were inspired by a fishing reel to reduce hand stress. This is a tool that your kids can use to help in the kitchen, especially when they might be too little to handle a hand mixer. Another great feature is that the gears are all enclosed, making it safe for your little ones to handle, and it has a bridge on the bottom that keeps the beaters elevated during use.

And so, I’d like to share the love and offer the Oxo Egg Beater in a giveaway! For a chance to win, head over to CFP’s Facebook page, give it a like if you haven’t already, and comment on the Facebook post about the giveaway (trust me, you won’t be able to miss it, I’m including a video from Oxo of the Egg Beater in action, whoo!)

The giveaway will close on Friday, 3/29, at 12:00 p.m. EST. I’ll use a random number generator to pick the winner, and you’ll have until 8:00 p.m. email me your address so I can ship it out the next day.

Disclosure: I received the 3 products (egg separator, flip and fold omelet turner, and egg beater)  from OXO as part of my participation in the Blogger Outreach program. However, my opinions are my own.

Confession: I’ve been one of those people who thinks vanilla is boring. Vanilla ice cream? Maybe with pie. Vanilla cake? Well, maybe, depending on the frosting. However, Pure Vanilla: Irresistible Recipes and Essential Techniques by Shauna Sever has proven me very, very wrong.

Vanilla is anything BUT boring. Sever lays down some really fascinating details about the vanilla bean even before she digs into the recipes. Here are a few I found to be interesting:

• Vanilla beans are the second most expensive spice, following the No. 1 saffron.
• The beans have to be harvested by hand (hence the hefty price tag)
• Vanilla beans are the seed pods of a specific type of orchid that prefers hot, humid climates, approximately 700-1,400 miles from the equator.
• Thomas Jefferson had a sweet tooth and was an avid ice cream maker–who would have known? When he was the ambassador to France in 1789, he fell in love with vanilla and brought some beans home with him. His vanilla ice cream recipe is kept at the Library of Congress.

And vanilla is the top-selling ice cream flavor in the U.S. So, okay, okay, I’m obviously missing something here and need to turn my thoughts around!

Luckily, Sever’s book makes it easy to get into the groove. With recipes ranging from breakfast items to cookies, cakes to candies and custards, there’s something for everyone, and almost all skill levels. I also like that there is a balance of typical recipes (vanilla pound cake) and the not-so-typical (twinkie bundt cake and vanilla nougat candies). The book’s photography is stunning, and even the inside cover space is put to work, providing readers with a vanilla lover’s cheat sheet (so if you don’t have a whole vanilla bean, you can figure out the equivalent of extract you use) and a metric conversion chart.

I decided to take one of the recipes for a test drive and baked the Big, Soft Frosted Vanilla Sugar Cookies on page 77. I used Sever’s suggestion and added instant espresso to the cookie batter and frosting, making them Big, Soft Frosted Vanilla Latte Sugar Cookies. The recipe was easy enough to follow, though the first instruction of beating the butter and vanilla together until creamy does not yield creamy results (really, you need to beat the butter and sugar together first, THEN the vanilla, but I made it work).

I used brown sugar, since I’m running low on granulated, but otherwise stuck to Sever’s recipe. I cut the frosting recipe in half, however, because I didn’t want heaps of frosting taking away from the cookie (you can see my cookies in the top photo of the collage above).

The cookies are very vanilla-y, not so latte-ish, and I like how the edges are crisp but the centers are soft. However, I can taste the oil in the recipe (it calls for 1 cup butter and a 1/2 cup oil), which distracts me. If I were to make these again, I’d sub in butter for oil.

So, if you’re a vanilla fan, pick up Pure Vanilla for your bookshelf, or give it as a gift for any of your baking friends … they’ll definitely enjoy it!

Disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher. However, my opinions are my own.

After you put in the time and effort to bake and decorate beautiful cupcakes, you need a way to display them, right? Luckily there are a number of options available to bakers, ranging from single cake stands (good for cakes and cupcakes) to massive towers. Materials can range from plastic to metal to glass to wood. So where do you start?

First, know what you need. Are you going to display 6 cupcakes or 66? Do you want something that is versatile enough to display cakes as well as cupcakes?

Second, what kind of materials do you prefer (and does it matter)? For me, I have a fairly inexpensive plastic Wilton cupcake stand. It’s nothing special, but it’s easy to store and clean, and when its covered in cupcakes, you don’t really notice it. But that’s me. If you’re looking for something that has more style without outshining your cupcakes, you need to look elsewhere.

Lucky for you, I came across a fantastic source for cupcake towers AND they were kind enough to send me one to review!

The Cupcake Tower was started by 2 sisters (Joy and Jennifer), and aside from their cupcake towers, they also sell cake pop towers and push pop towers. I requested the Tiny Round Tower with a chocolate brown ribbon set to review. And here’s what I have to say:

• Size: Just right. I was able to comfortably fit 20+ cupcakes on the tower, and more definitely could have been added (the website indicates that 32 standard cupcakes will fit, and I agree). Though it might be called “Tiny,” I would call this size “Just Right,” especially for anyone who bakes cupcakes for parties and family gatherings.

• Construction: Sturdy, but you need to realize that each layer simply sits on the next … there are no grooves for the pedestals to fit into. This could be problematic if someone bumped into the tower, but then again, I think that’s the case for all cupcake towers. One nice thing about this is that you don’t have to display the layers stacked–if you wanted to you could use this for 2 separate cake displays instead.

• Look: Classic. The towers come in white, with either round or square layers, and an accompanying ribbon pack to finish the layer edges. Customers can select from a number of ribbon colors, and these pieces fit on easily and can be changed out as needed.

• Overall: The Tiny Tower from The Cupcake Tower is a good buy. It looks good, is easy to store and set up, and can be used as 2 separate layers to display more cupcakes, cakes or pies. While I can’t speak for the larger stands, The Cupcake Tower certainly has you covered, with the Large Round Tower fitting 208 cupcakes (the Large Square Tower fits 138).

So if you’re in the market for a piece to display your cupcakes, check out The Cupcake Tower. Between the variety of sizes and ribbon detail packs, you’ll be able to customize the perfect stand for your baked creations.

Disclosure: The Cupcake Tower provided me with the Tiny Round Tower so I could review it. I am not keeping the product; instead, it is being donated as a raffle item for The Evening of Sweets and Treats to benefit the Philadelphia Food Trust. My opinions are my own.

You’re probably familiar with cake pops, due to the work of Bakerella and her popular confection on sticks. Now, a cake ball is just like a cake pop, sans stick. And I think I prefer them that way.

There’s a bit more work involved in creating cake balls and pops than in cupcake making, since you’re baking the cake, cooling it, breaking it down into crumb, and then reconstituting it into bite-sized balls with a binder and final coating. It’s not difficult, but you’ll want to set aside enough time (or break it into multiple days), and having a good resource for recipes makes things much easier.

Enter Cake Balls: More Than 60 Delectable and Whimsical Sweet Spheres of Goodness by Dede Wilson. The books begins with a great upfront section that walks you through Dede’s techniques, preferred ingredients and equipment. If you take the time to read through her process, you are guaranteed to make perfect cake balls (granted you follow your recipes correctly!)

I like that she provides the baker with a wide assortment of bases, ranging from yellow and chocolate cake to brownies. From there, she provides a variety of binder recipes and finishes up with some coatings. I even learned that frosting isn’t your only option for binding; you can use jam, ganache, even liqueur!

Following this section, the reader is greeted by a variety of cake all recipes, many with gorgeous photos accompanying them. Dede has a recipe for everyone, and it seems easy enough to customize them even moreso to your liking (something I do a lot).

My only complaint is the book’s binding (picky, I know). The book is spiral bound with a perfect cardboard binding surrounding it. The spiral binding roughed up some of the pages, and also makes it sometimes difficult to turn the pages, but that’s certainly forgivable, given that you have so many recipes to play with.

Check back later in the week to see what kind of wild and booze-infused cake balls I came up with using Wilson’s book.

Disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher. However, my opinions are my own.

After reading The Daily Meal’s take on the 50 best cupcakes in the country, I knew I would need to check out some of these for myself. There weren’t many on the list in New Jersey, but I did notice one bakery that isn’t too far from Ray’s hometown in the north. Since we’d be up there for Christmas, I tempted him with the thought of swinging by Ava’s Cupcakes in Rockaway, NJ for some tasty treats. And to up the curioisty factor, Ava’s Cupcakes was the winner of Cupcake Wars in season 4, episode 8!

The shop is quaint with a lived-in feel to it … very different from a lot of the  minimalist-chic bakeries I’ve been to in larger metro areas. There were at least 15-20 different flavors to chose from that day, which made things difficult because they all looked fantastic. We settled on a 4-pack, paid, and were on our way to Ray’s family Christmas.

When we began our tasting, we started with the banana guava (a winning Cupcake Wars flavor), which had a very simple look, but packed quite the flavor punch! The cake was intensely moist and reminded me of my mom’s banana bread, flavorwise. I could tell that a lot of bananas went into making this cake … no artificial extracts here! The guava filling added to the moisture of the cupcake and went well with the banana.  I appreciated the balanced cake to frosting ratio, and found the frosting to be creamy, though I couldn’t quite place the flavor. Was it vanilla? Was it banana? I’m not sure, but it was good.

Then we moved on to the lemon cupcake, which was one of Ray’s picks. The lemon aroma was wonderful … I think cupcakes should always be aromatic; it really enhances the experience. The cake was a smidge drier than the banana guava, but not in a bad way. It was finished with a lemon pie filling and lemon frosting. This wasn’t our favorite cupcake, but it was definitely on par with a typical lemon cupcake. We just thought it could burst more with flavor.

Next up was the chocolate hazelnut truffle, which I selected because of Ray’s love of hazelnuts (I’m so thoughtful!). This cupcake was also very fragrant and moist, with a good chocolate cake as the base. It was filled with nutella, which we thought was pretty basic, and was topped with a heavenly chocolate hazelnut frosting, hazelnuts, and a chocolate drizzle. If the filling had been a little more creative, then I think this cupcake could have been a contender for our favorite.

We finished with another chocolate cupcake, this time the chocolate pomegranate. The cake and frosting were rich, but not too sweet, which I appreciated. The pomegranate filling, however, wreaked havoc on the cupcake, making it fall apart. That was a little disappointing (I’m not a fan of self-destructing cupcakes), but it was a very flavorful cupcake, and flavor always wins in my book.

Overall, Ava’s Cupcakes is a solid bakery with a wide variety of creative cupcake flavors to choose from. The menu is updated daily, and the bakery also offers savory cupcakes as well as hand pies. Definitely stop in if you’re near Rockaway, and don’t skip the banana guava cupcake!

While in Toronto, the other bakery we visited was Prairie Girl Bakery. The shop is bright, the counter staff are bubbly, and there seems to be a cupcake for everyone, especially with 15 regular flavors and 2 flavors of the week to choose from.

Much like Dlish, Prairie Girl has specific flavors on certain days, as well as 2 treats of the week–flavors that will be available every day that week. Since we were on the move and planning to visit several other places that day, we opted for 2 sizable–in the good way–mini cupcakes. We selected one of the treats of the week, which was a chocolate cake with toffee frosting and toffee bits and then a daily flavor that was a vanilla cake and lemon frosting.

The chocolate toffee cupcake was VERY aromatic, specifically the cake. The frosting was sweet and creamy, with a great smooth texture. I found the vanilla lemon cupcake to be very well balanced, with a bright lemon flavor to the frosting. Both of the cupcakes were perfectly moist, and I think my only criticism was that the minis could have used just a little less frosting.

I also really appreciate the bakery’s “fundamental beliefs about baking,” which is shares on its website:

• We believe that any type of “mix”, vegetable shortening, “trans fat”, lard, preservatives, artificial flavors and bright food dyes have no place in a knock-your-socks-off cupcake;
• We believe in daily quality control, both in the kitchen and in the front of the stores, with the goal of baking up and serving the perfect cupcake each and every time; and
• We believe in never selling our customers “day old” cupcakes. When we have any delicious Prairie Girl cupcakes on our shelves as we close up the store, we give them to our friends at Toronto’s Second Harvest, a charitable organization with a common sense approach to hunger.

So, as the final cupcakes of our trip, I think we did well by stopping in to Prairie Girl. The bakery will definitely be on my “visit again” list.

[From top left to lower right] Apple Caramel, Maple Walnut, Salted Caramel and Mocha

Dlish, located on Queen St. West, was an easy decision for us because it’s located on the street we were staying and we’d be passing by it on our way back from Casa Loma. Perfect! The shop interior is simple, clean and Spartanly-modern, with the flavors of the day available in an unrefrigerated case on the main counter. We selected 4 to share with our friend Amanda.

We began the tasting session with the Apple Caramel Cupcake, described as a pure apple cake with pure caramel frosting drizzled with sweet buttery caramel.

The cake was very apply with a touch of cinnamon. The moisture of the cake was good. Ray and Amanda liked the caramel frosting, but felt like it needed a little bit of work. I actually picked up an odd nuttiness in flavor, which caught me off guard.

We moved on to the Maple Walnut, a walnut-studded maple cake with cream cheese frosting. We found the cake to be very walnuty in flavor–without constantly crunching down on nuts–and were impressed. We all thought the cake could use a bit more maple, but the cream cheese frosting hit that excellent balance of sweet and tangy.

I figured the Salted Caramel–a caramel cake topped with caramel frosting and fleur de sel–would be a crowd pleaser, and it was. Unlike the other cakes, this particular cupcake seemed a bit dry, but not bad. Funny enough, this caramel frosting tasted more caramely than the apple caramel (though really, I imagine they would have used the same base recipe for it). However, the salt for this cupcake is only on top, whereas mine, and many others, infuse the caramel frosting with salt. It was interesting to see a different technique, but I think I prefer the full infusion.

We finished our tasting with the Mocha Cupcakes, described as a dark chocolate cake topped with mocha frosting and covered with pure chocolate java flakes. The aroma was heavenly! We all noticed a wonderful coffee flavor from the java flakes, which was a great touch, both in flavor and visual appeal.

While I was a big fan of the Mocha, it seemed that Ray and Amanda were leaning toward the Caramel Apple. Overall, I was pleased with the size of the cupcakes (not huge), the balanced moisture and presentation. We remarked several times that a couple getting married could have ordered these 4 cupcake flavors for a wedding and it would have been beautiful.

If you’re in Toronto, definitely put DLish on your list to visit!

Ray turned 32 on Nov. 13, and before we left Buffalo for Toronto I knew that I had to get him over to Zillycakes so he could experience the cupcake bar.

I can’t completely recall what he ordered, but he definitely took advantage of the “make your own cupcake.” I believe his cake was a maple bacon, filled with apricot filling, and possibly topped with salted caramel frosting … yeah, that sounds about right. And the counter girl was sweet enough to put a candle in it.

I ordered one of their cupcakes straight off the menu because it sounded interesting. It was a rosemary cornbread cupcake with maple cream cheese frosting, topped with dried rosemary and some yellow sanding sugar. I really liked how the cornbread and rosemary popped–it was a flavor that worked very well together, though I think it’s a cupcake geared towards those with a more adventurous palate.

As I’ve said before, if you’re in Buffalo and love cupcakes, go to Zillycakes!

Swirls opened in 2011, and seems to be a blossoming bakery, even if it is tucked behind the East Aurora main street favorite coffee house Taste (which is also fantastic and features desserts from Butterwood in Buffalo). Fun fact: The cupcakery was founded by Michael Wulf at age 18. Now I just feel old.

Anyway, on to the cupcakes! After chatting with the very knowledgable and friendly counter staff, we selected 3 flavors to share.

We dug into the Caramel Apple cupcake first, which was a seasonal flavor. It was described as a vanilla cake with apple bits, a caramel infused filling and vanilla buttercream topped with caramel. The cake was very fragrant and moist, but could have used a bit more apple (the 3 of us are huge apple fans). The frosting was sweet and vanillay, but not over the top. A nice introduction to the shop.

Next, we tried the Red Velvet cupcake, mainly because I was intrigued when one of the counter girls explain that it was made with a special imported cocoa with a distinct taste. As we all know, I don’t really care for Red Velvet because I don’t see the wow factor. They always tend to taste like “cake” to me. However, in this instance, she was right–I got a really interesting cocoa flavor from the cake. Like the Caramel Apple cupcake, this cake was moist, but I think the cream cheese frosting could have used a bit more tang. Overall, we were impressed. A Red Velvet cupcake with some flavor!

We finished our sampling with the Mocha cupcake, described as a chocolate cake topped with a mocha espresso buttercream. We noticed this one to be a smidge drier than other cakes, but still good. Interestingly, the mocha espresso butter cream was almost a little boozy … the flavor was good, but hard to place. I verified that the cupcakery does not use any alcohol in that particular cupcake, so it left me wondering how they managed the unique floral chocolateyness.

For the first cupcakes on our trip, these were a good start. The shop was cute and well decorated, the staff were friendly and helpful (nothing is worse than a counter person who acts like they have no desire to wait on you, and trust me, I’ve been to a few bakeries like that), and the cupcakes were a nice treat to follow our ice skating. I highly suggest checking out Swirls in East Aurora, NY if you’re in the area!