The amazing bubblegum cupcake. It's even better than bubblegum ice cream.
I can’t really help it; I love cupcakes. Some of my more sophisticated foodie friends have decried their premature demise by writing them off as a trend. However, it doesn’t seem like they’re going anywhere with the long lines you can find at almost any given time outside of Kara’s Cupcakes and, now, American Cupcake which recently opened a flagship store on Union Street.
The beginning stages of a True Blood-themed cupcake.
Iron Cupcake San Francisco, a monthly event that takes place at the ever-charming Leland Tea Company, is coming up this Monday and I’ve decided to enter as a baker for the very first time. The theme, for June, is berries and after much deliberation, I felt it was high time to pay homage to one of my favorite television shows – none other than HBO’s incredible original series, True Blood.
Samovar's peppermint ryokucha tea was a perfect complement to dessert.
I can’t remember exactly how I was introduced to Samovar Tea Lounge, but I was so impressed by the selection and quality of both their tea and food on my initial visit, not to mention the ambience, that I have returned to the Yerba Buena Gardens location numerous times. I’ve brought my Mother to Samovar for Mother’s Day since she adores tea service and recently attended an informational fundraiser for 300 Acres.
The contenders...
There have been many takes on the infamous television show, Iron Chef, which requires acclaimed chefs to square off and use their ingenuity to create a unique dish with a theme ingredient.
This past holiday season, I was treated to “Iron Liver” at my friend Dave’s house where secret ingredients including thyme and cranberry sauce were skillfully combined with a variety of hard liquors and assorted mixers to (mostly) palatable results. Now, there’s Iron Cupcake – a monthly event I recently discovered thanks to Leland Tea Company. This wonderful gem of a place deserves its own blog post so I won’t elaborate much about the venue beyond this point.
Beautiful, vivid macarons in all sorts of colors and flavors.
*Update* I could blame it on a day of being frazzled from photo editing but it didn’t occur to me that I should just Google it, already; then I would have discovered that there is also a Paulette location right down the street from me. So, if you live in SF, do check it out. In the future, I’ll be less entranced by the pretty postcard the nice lady behind the counter gave me and thoroughly research it online. Thanks, Chia.
My Mom likes to send me on a hunt for good macarons whenever she’s having people over. In fact, she’s given me the challenge, which I have yet to meet, of finding ones that rival those we had the last time we were in Paris together. Since we live close to each other, it’s easy enough for me to drop them off and catch up with her and my Dad. However, besides La Boulange, I don’t really know of any other good places to get macarons in SF.
|
