a "press"ing post...

a HUGE thank you to 805 Living, Destination Wine Country and Santa Barbara Magazine for "talking" about Enjoy Cupcakes!

what's your favorite?

That's probably the most frequently asked question we get in the shop...so here's our answer

A FLIGHT (or 2 or 3!)

A cupcake flight consists of 6 little yummies for $10 (they even go in a special tasting order to pair with the Saarloos & Sons wine tasting experience).  

Seriously, it's challenging to pick a single favorite because we work hard to make sure each one is very unique and super tasty.  Although, I must admit that some weeks I am a little partial to certain flavors & this week my obsession is the blueberry lemon chardonnay.  I used to make it with a lemon pudding filling and a blueberry frosting, but I am so happy Kevin challenged me to re-think and improve on this flavor.  Now we feature a fresh blueberry curd (the color is so beautiful, which also leads to my favoritism) & a mildly tangy lemon frosting.  Now if I could only find a dress (or maybe a silk headband, or a handbag or some tall suede boots), to match this curd (Kevin wants to publish an Enjoy Cupcakes pantone book!)

blood orange cupcake remodel (& more)

If you came by the shop on Thurs or if you were on the receiving end of my cupcake run to Santa Barbara (that feels like a lifetime ago!) then you may have tried the blood orange cupcake with an orange chocolate frosting...did you like it?  We didn't feel like it had enough of a "wow" factor so we "remodeled" it!  

Vanilla cake with a blood orange curd center, topped with blood orange frosting and sugared orange zest.  "WOW" (i hope!)

**Kevin here!** I am high-jacking ambers blog.  Amber has no idea I added this.
See that yellow plate, it is now gone.  Amber put it high up in a cabinet so that when I opened the cabinet it unfortunately leaped out and exploded on the counter.  R.I.P. little yellow plate!  Mention this and get a free large cupcake on me.  Now back to her blog -

Other new flavors this week are...

Vanilla Peanut Butter Brittle...vanilla bean cake, filled with peanut butter mousse, topped with salted caramel frosting and peanut brittle (made with love by Kevin)

Milk Chocolate Kiss...chocolate cake, filled with gooey milk chocolate fudge (it's the first time I've made milk chocolate fudge and the texture is so different from our dark chocolate fudge...it's super gooey good.  Kevin dropped a tray of about 50 of these little yummies and now I think he did it on purpose so we had them to eat for ourselves!).

Pomegranate Chardonnay...chardonnay cake, filled with pomegranate curd, topped with pomegranate infused frosting and a puddle of house-made pomegranate syrup.  This seems to be most of our customer's favorite flavor this week.

Hot Cocoa...chocolate cake, filled with vanilla mousse, topped with vanilla frosting, cocoa powder, marshmallows & chocolate sauce

We had an eventful cupcake week.  Starting late Friday night and finishing Saturday morning I baked off 1076 cupcakes for a baby's 1st b-day, Sunstone Winery grape stomp (special cupcakes made with Sunstone Viognier & Eros wines - so rich & delicious), a 60th birthday celebration & our dear friends ordered 500 mini cupcakes to honor someone special to them at his retirement party.  It was super fun and quite a rush when i finished the last one (I have a visual of the little chocolate blackberry syrah burned into my memory...i wanted to kiss it - he he he!

a pic from the party (& that's only about 1/2 of them!)

how to eat a cake...

a presentation by birthday boy, Cash Saarloos (we love u little man!)

BEFORE...

DURING...

AFTER...

 

baby cakes & babies are 2 of my favorite things!

feeling "fallish"

Biting into the spiced carrot cake cupcake makes me feel like "fall" (even though it's freakn' 100 degrees here)!  Come try it and convert your kids to vegetable lovers!  They'll never think of carrots the same way, right Brielle?)!

Spiced carrot cake, filled with a vanilla honey mascarpone mousse, topped with honey cream cheese frosting and sugared carrot zest

You can get the kids in the door with this one!

Peanut Butter Smores...buttery graham cracker crust under a chocolate cake, filled with chocolate mousse, more graham crumbs, whipped peanut butter frosting, marshmallow & chocolate sauce.  This cupcake idea was dreamt up last week.  After Kevin BBQ'd he asked, "what's for dessert?"  "Nothing," I replied.  Kevin got sad!..."we have a cupcake shop & we don't have any dessert?"  I went into the kitchen slapped some PB on a graham cracker and topped that with some chocolate mousse and then we were both very happy!

santa barbara cupcake delivery...

Hi All!  Last week I made a cupcake delivery trip to SB and it was awesome (I LOVED meeting some of my facebook friends, whom I delivered to, face to face).  Here's a pic one of our super sweet customers (Cathy) took after I dropped off the goods @ one of the stops (she rallied peeps in her office - they weren't ALL for her!) 

Anyway...I am think'n I may do this on a more regular basis - what do you think?  Next stop in Santa Barbara is scheduled for 9/18.  The available flavors will be from our weekly menu so check them out on our menu page, starting on 9/14.  Call, email or facebook me with your orders (805-451-0284, amber@enjoycupcakes.com).   Thanks for all your cupcake love!!!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 new flavors!

Well, actually 6 because we scratched one we didn't feel too good about (if our eyes don't light up when we are describing a flavor, we know it's not going to be a successful cupcake!)

#1

Raspberry Lime Chardonnay...Chardonnay cake filled with raspberries & cream, topped with lime frosting, sugared lime zest and a pretty berry (looks like Christmas, tastes like summer!)

#2

Cocoa cake, filled with vanilla cola pudding, topped with a fudgy (is that a word?  if not, let's make it one!) cola glaze

#3

Mud Pie...chocolate cookie crust under a chocolate cake, filled with whipped chocolate mousse, topped with Kahlua frosting, cookie crumbs & dark chocolate sauce 

#4

Coconut Lemon Haystack...vanilla cake, filled with lemon curd, topped with coconut milk frosting, coconut & lemon zest (this is the goodie that replaced our failure - formerly known as "seedy lemon"...I tried to be too fancy and colored the frosting with tumeric and it was NEON - yikes!  And the seeds didn't go over too well either!)

#5

Caramel Apple...vanilla bean cake, filled with an apple pudding type thing (kinda like the inside of home-made apple pie w/o the chunks), topped with vanilla sweet cream cheese frosting and lots of caramel!  Ooey, gooey good!

Opal helped me pick the apples from our yard - they were pink inside!  Crazy Alan did some grafting magic to our tree several months ago and the result...the best apples I have ever eaten.  

new cupcakes and joyful occasions...

New flavor for the shop this week...a tasty treat called, Plum Black Mango.  The pink color is purely from red plums - so pretty!  The inside is a beautiful orange color and the best way I could think the show it was to have Opal dive into one of these little yummies! 

Vanilla cake, filled with mango curd, topped with plum frosting and a blackberry reduction!

In addition to baking for the shop, we enjoyed an eventful weekend...here are some visual highlights ~

mini cupcakes for a baby shower celebration

A variety of cupcakes for a pre wedding celebration on the luxurious Channel Cat!  The wedding festivities were coordinated by the lovely & talented Colette Lopez from La Fete Weddings.  The highlight for me was making the carrot cake cupcakes.  We didn't have this flavor on our menu so I spent time experimenting & coming up with a unique twist on the classic flavor.  I spiced the cakes with Saijon cinnamon, nutmeg, fresh ginger.  I filled the cakes with a light honey mascarpone mousse and topped 'em off with orange blossom honey cream cheese frosting (whoa...that was a mouthful!)

I love little cakes and got to make this cute little 6 incher for a darling girl, turning 2.  Her mom and I spent a lot of time coming up with the flavor (we wanted to avoid allergies, we wanted to keep both parents and little one's taste buds content with a mix of vanilla & chocolate and I just had to incorporate a little jelly bean flare because that's the b-day girl's dessert of choice!).  It's a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of vanilla cake and a thick layer of chocolate mousse and chopped strawberries in the middle.  The cake is frosted with vanilla bean frosting and decorated with dollops of fresh strawberry frosting.  Happy #2, Lilly!

Now it's my Friday...Cheers & Goodnight Friends!