Cupcake Jones

Greetings everyone!

Yesterday (Tuesday, February 9) my husband and I went for a drive into Portland. Not a big deal in itself, because Portland is only about five minutes away. But, what was a big deal - at least for this cupcake enthusiast - was where my husband took me. We went to Cupcake Jones!

Located in the Pearl District of Portland, Cupcake Jones is a cute (albeit tiny) little shop. They feature six cupcake flavors every day, three daily flavors (that is, cupcakes that they sell every day), and three special flavors. Each of the six flavors comes in two different sizes: "jumbo" and "mini." The jumbo cupcakes appear to be standard size cupcakes to me, but they are jumbo on taste - and what really differentiates the two sizes, other than the size, is the fact that the jumbo cupcakes are filled with a luscious creamy filling.

The Velvet Painting

Now, for the hard part. Deciding! Which flavor do I choose? I decided to go with a dozen of the mini cupcakes, 2 of each flavor, for $16.50. This way, I could try one of each of the flavors without feeling too guilty.

The cupcake is moist and flavorful, and the frosting is creamy, and well... YUM. It's FROSTING! (And for those who love frosting, they also offer "frosting shots" which is a little cup of just the frosting.)

Here's the rundown on the three daily flavors:

The Pearl - a vanilla explosion! White cake topped with vanilla bean buttercream. One of the best buttercreams I've ever tasted from a bakery. Each cupcake is topped with a sprinkling of clear, sparkling sugar sprinkles and a tiny white chocolate pearl.

Downtown Cupcake Brown - The chocolate cupcake is rich and sinful, just the way a chocolate cupcake should be. The jumbo cupcakes are filled with a chocolate ganache which looked incredible... and it took a great deal of strength to resist! The frosting is very smooth, chocolate-y and topped with a sprinkling of shaved dark chocolate.

Velvet Painting - Classic red velvet cake topped with an INCREDIBLE cream cheese frosting and a candied rose petal. The rose petal added such a delightful touch of elegance to this cupcake, and this (along with the Pearl) would be my two choices to serve at a tea party. So petite and pretty!

On Tuesdays, the three specially featured flavors are: coconut lemon (my favorite of the batch), caramel latte, and black forest. Here's my thoughts on these three delights:

Black Forest - deliciously moist devils food cake with a little shot of cherry sauce which adds extra moisture to the cake (and that little shot is even added to the mini cupcakes, so be sure to grab an extra napkin if you choose this flavor). Instead of frosting, they are topped with whipped cream, grated dark chocolate and a cherry. A truly outstanding interpretation of the classic black forest cake.

Caramel Latte - I actually "cheated" and got a large caramel latte cupcake (in addition to my minis), which is why I'm posting this review of Cupcake Jones today instead of yesterday... I indulged in my jumbo caramel latte cupcake yesterday instead of the mini cupcakes, and saved them for today. I just had to try the caramel pastry cream filling. And it was worth it! Incredible! The cupcake is a coffee flavored cake (I know, I know... coffee?!?!?!?), but it is quite yummy even though I suspect it would be even better if perhaps it were a chai tea flavored cupcake! (haha!) The frosting is a caramel buttercream frosting (delicious - may I say right now, this is the best. frosting. ever.), and topped with a drizzle of homemade caramel sauce and chopped coffee beans. Even though I am not a coffee fanatic (duh!) ... I must say that the chopped coffee bean topping added a very delightful texture to the cupcake, and I actually quite enjoyed it.

Coconut Lemon - My favorite cupcake of the six from Tuesday's lineup. Lemon cake (the jumbo cupcakes are filled with lemon curd coconut pastry cream - which sounds unbelievably good!) and topped with a swirl of lemon buttercream, toasted coconut shreds and a "lemon chip" which looked a lot to me like a little tiny sliver of candied lemon. What makes this particular cupcake my favorite? The lemon! It has a bright, light taste, and in my opinion, would bring a ray of sunshine into even the grayest of Pacific Northwest days. The coconut adds the right amount of interest and sweetness to the cupcake. It's just perfect!

I've tried a couple of specialty cupcake bakeries in the Portland area now, and I must say that Cupcake Jones is (by far!) the best. The cupcakes are flavorful, moist, and the frosting is delicious - and doesn't taste overwhelmingly sweet the way some bakery frosting can - it tastes like homemade buttercream! YUM!

Lemon Cupcake Recipe (Contest Winner!)

Hello Everyone:

Well, I've heard back from the contest winners (there were two!) and so I think it's safe to publish one of the two recipes -- I'll post the other one in a week or two.

Here is the recipe for Lemon Cupcakes, submitted by Christine from Ohio! I used Meyer Lemons for this recipe, mostly because they were available at Whole Foods when I shopped there, and they looked irresistibly beautiful!

Lemon Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup of butter (room temperature)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
zest from 4 lemons
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Juice from 2 lemons
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon Drizzle:
Juice from remaining 2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray muffin tins and dust with flour. Alternatively, you can line the tins with cupcake liners, however, there is a step that follows baking that can leave your cupcake liners somewhat sticky. If you don't mind sticky cupcake liners, then use the liners instead of spraying and flour dusting.

Cream butter and sugar together at medium speed for about 5 minutes. Do not skimp on this step, it greatly affects the texture of the cupcakes.

Add eggs, one at a time, to creamed mixture, blending well before adding another egg. Add lemon zest, and blend well, taking time to scrape down the sides of the bowl of your mixer and the mixer blade. The zest accumulated on the blade for me when I made these, so do make sure that you scrape the blade to make sure that the zest gets well incorporated.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In a different bowl, mix together the lemon juice, buttermilk and vanilla. Gradually add 1/3 of the flour mixture, blend, and then half of the lemon juice mixture, blend. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture, blend, the last of the lemon juice mixture, blend, and finish up with the last of the flour mixture. Mix for about 20 seconds on medium speed, making sure that batter is well blended but do not over mix.

Scoop batter evenly into muffin tins, filling each cup about 2/3 full. This makes about 24 cupcakes.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Cupcakes are done when a wooden skewer inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Now for the sticky part!

Juice the remaining 2 lemons (remember, you zested 4 lemons, but only juiced 2 of them), and pour into a small saucepan with 1/2 cup of sugar. Heat over medium heat until sugar is completely dissolved.

Using a wooden skewer, poke several holes into the crown of the cupcake. You should drive the skewer through to almost the bottom of the cupcake, as you want the syrup to be absorbed throughout the cake.

Now, spoon the lemon juice syrup over the cupcake. I used a soup spoon for this, and used about a spoonful and a half for each cupcake. Allow the syrup to absorb into the cupcake.

Allow the cupcakes to cool completely, and then frost them.

Thank you Christine for your winning recipe! I love these cupcakes! So yummy!

A note about the syrup ... do not make the same mistake I made and drizzle the syrup over the paper lined cupcakes while they were still in the muffin tin. Instead, move them to a cooling rack and drizzle them there... use yesterday's newspaper underneath the cooling rack to catch the drippings to avoid a sticky mess!

Christine won a Chatsford teapot, along with a tin of her favorite tea! (and I might add, these cupcakes are the perfect accompaniment to tea!!!)

Thanks for reading along, I hope you too will enjoy this recipe!

~Anne

Weekend Special! $5.00 Instant* Rebate!

Hello Everyone!

Well, the weekend is here already! And it's tax season, so I thought I'd offer a REBATE!

This weekend, beginning Friday, February 6, and ending Sunday, February 8 at midnight, you can receive a $5.00 INSTANT* REBATE on your purchase of 2 or more tins of tea!

This offer is good at either my Artfire Tea Shop or my Etsy store.


Offer is limited to stock on hand, no rainchecks, and is valid on all orders placed before midnight on Sunday, February 8. To receive your rebate via paypal, simply place your order, and process your payment. Once I have received payment, I will refund $5.00 via paypal. If you prefer to mail your payment, simply email me after you've finished processing your order, and I will email you with a corrected total, less the $5.00 rebate.

*You will receive your rebate as soon as I have received notification of your payment via email, so it may not be "instantaneous", but, it will be prompt.

Also, I do not have all of my teas posted to my shops yet, so, if there is something that you want, but don't see in either shop, please email me and I'll let you know if it's available.

It's Tea Time!!!

My favorite cookies

When I was young, my best friend, Paula, introduced me to her favorite cookies, and they quickly became my favorite too. They were Chocolate Chip Meringue cookies: slightly crisp, airy, light, and delicious!

I still love these cookies, and now that I have a new stand mixer, I can make them easily. Here's the basic recipe:

Meringue Cookies

3 Large Egg Whites (don't use the pasturized egg whites in the carton)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 c superfine sugar (or Baker's Sugar)
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with parchment (easy cleanup!).

In the bowl of your stand mixer, with whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium speed until it begins to look foamy. Add the cream of tartar, and continue to beat on medium speed until you reach the soft peak stage. Add the sugar gradually, and continue to beat until the meringue forms stiff peaks. Add vanilla extract and continue to beat until sugar is completely dissolved. (you can test this by rubbing a small amount of the mixture in between your fingers, if it feels gritty, it isn't dissolved completely yet)

Now, I drop the meringue onto the parchment lined cookie sheets in mounds using two spoons. You can use this method, or you can put it in a pastry bag and pipe it into little peaks if you want to make them fancy. They don't need a lot of room in between cookies because they don't rise, but you do need enough room to allow proper air circulation.

Bake the meringues for about 1 1/2, and then turn off the oven. Leave the cookies in the warm oven to cool (I usually leave them in there overnight, but, 2 or 3 hours will be enough time). This allows the meringues to dry out and crisp up.

You're probably wondering what happened to the chocolate chips... well, one thing that I've discovered is that you can put all sorts of flavors into these cookies, and they'll turn out great.

• At Christmastime I'll add crushed candy canes and mini chocolate chips after I've beaten in the vanilla extract and I'll put these out for Santa.
• Instead of Vanilla Extract, I'll add Orange Extract and add mini chocolate chips. These make a delightful treat with tea!
• Chocolate chips, or mini chocolate chips, added after the vanilla extract step makes for a great fat-free alternative to the classic chocolate chip cookie.
• Try sprinkling on some almond slivers before baking.

These are just a few ideas.

What makes these so great is that they're fat free... so you can indulge a little bit without feeling too guilty about it!

A great Tea Time Treat!

~Anne