Bird of a Different Color

Holiday-specific food has always been a problem for me. It seems I become addicted to particular items that can only attained at certain times of the year. I must admit that as a teen, I was obsessed with the overly sweet Cadbury cream egg. As soon as they appeared, I would begin to hoard them, attempting to collect enough on my own and from gifts to last as long as possible. Fortunately, this behavior lead to Cadbudy cream egg burnout and they longer do anything for me except turn my stomach.

But that didn't keep me from falling prey to similar specialty foods. You may remember the fun size Milky Way Dark, now called Milk Way Midnight? Milky Way makes many of their candy bars in several different sizes: minis (just a bite), fun size (a couple of bites), regular size and "2 to go' (formerly king size). Now, I have been a major fan of the Milky Way Midnight since they introduced it. After the candy bar formerly known as the Mars Bar (Now called Snickers Almond. I detest candy rebranding. Mars doesn't even have a candy bar called Mars any longer!), I think the Milky Way Midnight is my favorite. And it is also the favorite of several of my friends. At one of my previous jobs, we did a taste test of the three sizes the Milky War Midnight was available in, determining unanimously that the fun size was the perfect proportion of nougat to caramel to chocolate. Wouldn't they all the be the same? Not at all. Each is subtly different and the fun size was perfection.

The only problem? Milky Way Dark fun size was only available at Halloween. Why? I'm not sure, but like the aforementioned Cadbury Cream Eggs, I and many of my friends would hoard the fun size at the holiday, making them last as long as possible. Until that dreadful day, the thought of which sends shivers down my spine. I remember being at Target and looking through the candy for the Milk Way Midnight fun size, none to be found. I looked elsewhere. None. Zero. Zilch. I finally wrote the company and was informed it was no longer being produced. What a sad and miserable day for America.

But, really how hard is it to change out the chocolate in the enrobing machine? It can't be that difficult. If I win the lottery I will make them produce it again; if I had a time machine I would go back to the year 2000 and buy as many bags as I could find. The I would go even further and grab my child self, bring him to the future and get his teeth sealed, then return him to the past. I like candy too much for someone who hates the dentist.

Since the Milky Way Midnight debacle, I have tried to remain aloof about seasonal candy and food. But, I must admit that it's limited availability is part of it's attraction. Only being able to have something once a year makes it more special.

But, I do have a weakness: SweeTARTS Chicks, Ducks and Bunnies. Sure, they are just SweeTARTS in a special holiday shape, but there is something about that is just different. The Easter shapes are just better, perhaps because they're bigger. They seems to dissolve on your tongue in a way that a conventional SweeTART does not. Or maybe it's because Easter is the last major candy holiday until Halloween? And I'm just looking for something to hang my desperation on? Regardless, I try to limit myself to a couple of bags per season. I enjoy them while I have them and try not to hoard them. I don't want to burnout and also don't want to reach the level of addiction that would cause me to write to the company were they ever to stop producing them...or start petitions.....or a 'Save the Chicks, Ducks and Bunnies' Facebook page. One may take on Milky Way, but one does not want to take on Willy Wonka. I've seen the movie.

Plus, there are more important things in life than candy.

There is cake.

Sugar Rant

It's true, I'm an old lady and I love sugar cubes. Do you keep them in your cupboard? Do you use them? Do your kids even know what sugar cubes are? Do they get those, 'one lump or two' jokes from cartoons?

Next time you're at the market, check out the sweetener section of your store. I won't even call it the 'sugar' section, because as I think you'll find: there are more things there that aren't sugar than are. Every kind of artificial sweetener you can buy.

Now, I have nothing against artificial sweeteners. I know they're very important, especially for diabetics, and keep people healthier. I'm thankful there are more choices out there and that some of the newer choices are made from natural sources and processes. But, to edge out sugar? To the point where there aren't even sugar cubes on the shelves?

That's just wrong.

Sugar cubes are important for several reasons:
  1. They're just a more civilized way of serving sugar for coffee or tea. Some little tongs; plop, plop, stir and tap the spoon on the edge.
  2. Sugar cubes allow you to have the same amount of sugar every time you use it. Spoons differ in size and so do scoops. Maybe you're more aggressive one day and less another. This equals different amounts of sugar in your drink. Not with sugar cubes. One sugar cube is one sugar cube on Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
  3. Two words: champagne cocktail. Champagne cocktail!! You cannot make a Champagne cocktail with a packet of sugar, a packet of Truvia, a spoonful of sugar or a packet of Equal. You must have a sugar cube. You must place it in the bottom of your glass and douse it with a few drops of bitters. You must top it with your favorite bubbling wine. You must watch the bubbles stream from the cube to the top of the flute. You cannot do it any other way.
  4. What are you going to feed that horse that is leaning over the rustic fence on the idyllic country rode with tall trees shading the lane and a brook running along one side? You can't feed him a spoonful of sugar you pulled from your pocket, I know that much. And she sure doesn't want you to give her a packet of something that used to be sugar or was processed from a leaf of a plant in Mexico. She wants a sugar cube.
So what do we do? Two of the three stores I visited last weekend did not stock sugar cubes. You can buy them on-line and I'm going to get some of those fancy French sugar cubes. What great packages!

Talk to your store manager. Write your congressman. Most importantly, buy, use and serve real sugar cubes. Before it's too late. Before they are....extinct. And you'll have to make your own.

Restaurant: Sprinkles of Beverly Hills

If a place sells only cupcakes, is it really a restaurant? Is the cupcake craze really over? Or just reaching critical mass? Should a cupcake really cost $3.50? These are the questions I was asking myself as I entered Sprinkles of Beverly Hills' Dallas location with Kristina and Gab.

And by entered, I mean waited outside to get in the door. Seriously, there was a line out the door and the people were three deep inside. All waiting to get these gorgeous, supposedly sublime cupcakes. I had seen the proprietress of Sprinkles of Beverly Hills (I mean the name says it all, right?) last year on the Martha Stewart Show during cupcake week. And there were raves, from Martha and the audience. But could they be any better than any other cupcake?

I doubted it. The store itself is incredibly chic and well-branded, with light pink and browns covering the walls, and a very modern wood counter and display. At Sprinkles, they sell: cupcakes; drinks to go with cupcakes; t-shirts that talk about cupcakes; stands to put their cupcakes on; and their own brand of cupcakes mixes. That's it.

But was this 'experience,' this highly stylized store built to deliver the simplest of childhood treats, worth the cost? I wondered if the people standing there were all fools, and I with them, to stand in like for cupcakes and pay such a price for them. You can buy a pretty good cupcake at Central Market for $.50 and Whole Foods has some pretty fancy ones that cost a little more. But the ingredients are simple and the delivery basic. How can you make that better?

And then I tasted the dark chocolate cupcake. It was unbelievable: The crumb was moist and you basically need a fork to eat these little guys, and I should clarify that this $3.50 cupcake is no larger than a regular cupcake. The frosting was perfect, an absolute balance of chocolate and sweetness and creamy delight.

But, how?

Gab & Kristina Ogle the Cupcakes

When I bake, I use good chocolate, organic sugars, the best cocoa, good butter and free range eggs! I am pretty good at technique and know how long to beat things and what batter should look like. What could you possibly do to make a cupcake THAT much better? That divine?

I tasted the red velvet and the experience was similar. The banana chocolate, I think I could top. I could try and top anyway, but the addition of banana to batter lends a heaviness to the crumb that is impossible to combat. Yet, part of the charm.

You can find her strawberry cupcake recipe here. Notice anything out of the ordinary? Thought not.

I imagine she is leaving out some secret ingredient: MSG? Crack? Heroin? Something delicious and addictive. I don't know, but I do know that I want more and I would shell out $3.50 without a whimper, without a second thought. After a taste, you would too. Hold your breath, because Sprinkles could be coming to a town near you very soon...

The candy dots on top of the cupcakes distinguish flavors that might look similar, as in the variety of chocolate frosted cupcakes they sell. Here's the codes and the day on which each are available. I wanted to try lemon, so next time I'm going to try and hit them on a lemon day.



Tabletop: Everyday Creamer & Sugar

It may surprise you, but I realized a few weeks ago I needed a new sugar and creamer. Last year, I paraded my collection of sugar and creamer sets before you , and it probably seems to you that I must have one for every occasion. But, I got rid of the sets I considered to be the 'everyday' ones during the move (the Studio Nova set and the Russel Wright stacked set), my go-to sets for Sunday morning or casual use. I tried to use the Rosenthal creamer, but without a matching sugar bowl it felt odd. So I was on the lookout for an everyday set and found one while shopping in Indy. The set is white Melamine, so perfect for everything and everyday. And the sugar bowl is interesting, because the lid has no handle--you just kind of grab it by the sides.

This set says: Simple...elegant...plastic.