Spring is here and so are CUPCAKES!

I am not sure which one I'm more excited about, but this past week we got to enjoy a couple warm days, beautiful blooms on the trees and fresh cupcakes!

The wonderful C'est Cupcake has opened; even better, they were giving away FREE cupcakes all week!!!

This is a random elevator ... not sure where it's going, but we thought it looked funny in a field of mud.

Our V-Day

Given where we currently are living, our holiday celebrations have tended to be a little more subdued than they might normally be ... and without the constant barage of the media telling us about all the things we "need," I generally do not mind our simpiler celebrations. Although, I do occassionally feel a little helpless as it is just not possible to make things as special as I might usually...

My Mom has been wonderful at sending us a few things to cheer up our holidays, Valentine's Day was no different. In the box she sent last month, she'd included a few 'Valentine's Day in a Box' items, including cupcake tins and a great cupcake hand towel! Yay!

So, we did a bake in our outdoor fire/oven and actually had cupcakes for Valentine's Day!!! So much fun! I got to show off my new outdoor cooking skills when a group of Seventh Day Adventists teachers from Koror came by for a tour of our island home. I won't deny it, I did feel pretty good that I was able to treat them to a cupcake that I'd made over a fire pit!

Cupcake Shop in Paso Robles

I was astounded this week to see a cupcake shop in Paso Robles - just 15 minutes from my parents house! What a treat!

We only found it because Trudy decided that she, my mom and I needed an afternoon treat time ... sounded great to me!

We stumbled upon a delicious bakery that had just opened its doors 3 days earlier! We felt a bit shamed to not get a cupcake, but there were so many other delicious looking treats to try ... cupcake on the next visit for sure!

Last NYC cupcake run

Our last Sunday in New York was the 6th ... and we visited our final cupcake shop. A darling place with delicious cupcakes ... but a very odd rule about not allowing customers to take photos inside or outside! I got scolded for taking these. Very odd. But, of course we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless!

Top 10 Reasons to Eat a Cupcake (by Sugar Sweet Sunshine)

Brooklyn Cupcakes

This weekend, we left Manhattan (gasp!) for our cupcake run. Jason had been researching the next stop on our cupcake road and had read some good reviews about a place in Brooklyn called Ladybird. It was a charming little shop for some tiny tables in the front windows and too many delicious options to choose from -- we went with our usual Red Velvet and then opted for a Black & White. They were scrumptious and we were glad to have ventured out of Manhattan.

More cupcakes (and some banana pudding)!

As has become our tradition, we visited a new bakery this Sunday after church. Several months ago we had visited the original location of the famous Magnolia Bakery and were actually not that impressed. It is SUCH a tiny, tiny place that you can hardly even see the cupcakes, much less grab them from the self-service shelf and then crowd into line to pay...and due to the size, of course there is no type of seating provided...we wolfed down our cupcakes standing on the corner in the cold. Not exactly a relaxing outing. SO, I was very excited to learn that Magnolia recently opened another location on the West Side, which we of course needed to inspect. My friend, Sam, met up with us. The location is definitely much better with a few tables to sit or stand at and a much roomier area to view all the potential delicious items. Having heard that their banana pudding is not to be missed, we ordered a serving of this and a couple cupcakes. While the cupcake are really just OK, the banana pudding was fabulous! YUM!

Cupcakes!

Cupcakes are apparently, all the rage...there are more cupcake shops in NYC than we will probably be able to go to during the course of our year here. We're making a good effort though to visit them all! Every Sunday, in typical Tongan fashion, we do a bakery run after church, each week visiting a new cupcake shop, in search of the perfect cupcake. These were very thick, dense cupcakes with very fancy frosting. Pretty pricey at $3.50 each, but the shop was quirky, with several rooms of old, cozy furniture providing plenty of seating for guests.