Sep 5th 2010 12:22:49 pm

This post is based on the blogging prompt “What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in the past year?” from IndieBizChicks’ September Blogging Special.

Isn’t this view of the Brooklyn Bridge awesome? I think this photo is a good representation of the challenges I have faced over the last year as I have been trying to get comfortable living in New York City. I took this photo at about mile 12 of my long Team in Training run yesterday. I had already run over the Brooklyn Bridge, across Manhattan, up the West Side Highway, and back down to the Manhattan Bridge. I was exhausted and a little loopy by the time I made it onto the Manhattan Bridge, but I was still blown away by the view. The run was an extreme challenge, but so totally worth it to experience so many beautiful parts of the city on foot.

Living in NY is similar: difficult, but totally worth it. I am (finally) REALLY enjoying the city this summer. When we first moved here I was a little overwhelmed. I can’t quite remember all of my complaints – they have seemed to dissipate over time – but I know that the fast pace, noise, and difficulty getting around were a few of them. New York is just a lot different than the other places I have lived. I was always open to tackling the challenge of living in a big city, but I was not always sure I would succeed and find happiness. Running has been a big part of helping me appreciate NYC.

I joined Team in Training for a lot of reasons: to get in better shape, to help raise money for a great organization (there is still plenty of timt to help!), to celebrate the tenth anniversary of my last marathon, to celebrate my 30th birthday, to be a part of a New York City tradition, and to meet new people. I know that I have already raved about the TNT experience a lot, but it has far exceeded my expectations. Through my runs I have explored parts of the city that I may have never visited and I’ve had a lot of fun with a great group of people. To illustrate, here is a video of us running over the Brooklyn Bridge from about mile three yesterday:

I was probably having a little too much fun… like usual.

Anyhoo, New York is pretty great. Last night I was completely pooped, but Travis and I traveled out to Coney Island for a Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game anyway. We had a good time sampling too much junk food (like Nathan’s hot dogs – yum!) and checking out the wild scene on the Coney Island boardwalk. One more NYC experience checked off the list!

5 Comments » Categories: Brooklyn, Exercise, Feeling Happy, Food, New York, Team In Training

Aug 23rd 2010 12:43:07 pm

I have an impromptu cupcake review for you today! On our walk home from my road race yesterday, Travis and I came across this CupcakeStop.com truck in Park Slope. The truck was so cute with its pink and blue paint, like it was painted just for me!

I actually wasn’t feeling so great after the run and did not have an immediate desire to eat cupcakes – astonishing, I know – but I couldn’t let a surprise encounter with a cupcake truck pass me by!

We ordered four cupcakes to take home: S’more, Oreo Cookies and Cream, Boston Cream, and the Elvis – a peanut butter banana flavor. The flavor selection was actually quite impressive for a food truck, with about a dozen choices, but not quite as good as what a brick and mortar cupcake shop can offer. The presentation of the cupcakes was reasonably nice as well, with piped icing and some decorative toppings, like sprinkles and marshmallows. And since we were carrying them home, I was especially pleased that they offered cupcake travel boxes!

We waited until evening to dig in and taste test the Cupcake Stop cakes. I tried the S’more flavor first (of course!) and immediately loved the chocolate frosting. It was quite sweet, but very smooth. I also really enjoyed the marshmallow filling inside the cake, but I wished there had been more of it. I continued on and tasted all four flavors, but the S’more cupcake remained my favorite. The cake part of all of the cupcakes was a bit dry – especially in the Elvis – and they were all somewhat small and flat. The Cookies and Cream cupcake had real cookie pieces throughout the tasty icing and the cake, but other than that it was fairly boring. The Boston Cream cake had filling inside, but just barely – probably less than a teaspoon – disappointing.

Overall, the cupcakes were fine. All of the flavors were good – not bad at all – but they just didn’t wow me and they weren’t as “special” as cupcakes from other bakeries, like Robicelli’s. I would visit the truck again if I had a super cupcake craving and it was nearby, but I wouldn’t search it out or make a special trip to the CupcakeStop.com truck.

One of my other (small) complaints is that the CupcakeStop.com company seems a little overly commercial – like it only exists to capitalize on the cupcake trend. But hey, I am writing a cupcake review on my blog, so I don’t have much room to criticize!

CupcakeStop.com was created by Lev Ekster, a recent law school grad, and the company has two store locations and multiple trucks in the NYC area. You can also order their cakes online and have them shipped anywhere in the US for free. They have a Twitter account that announces their truck locations, plus a Facebook page. One last cool fact about CupcakeStop: they donate any leftover cupcakes to City Harvest.

I enjoyed the entire CupcakeStop.com truck experience and am glad I stumbled upon the truck. Have you found one of the trucks in the city and tried their cupcakes?

4 Comments » Categories: Food, NYC Cupcake Review, New York

Aug 17th 2010 11:37:09 am

I am not a religious person, but I have an unshakable faith in the power of love.

…and in the power of sweets!

(I woke up in a terrible mood and I am doing everything I can to shake it, including doodling donuts running away with hearts…)

2 Comments » Categories: Art, Cute Things, Food, Just for Fun, love

Aug 13th 2010 12:30:44 pm

This is my last BlogHer-related post, I promise!

The BlogHer conference last weekend included two large expo halls where companies had booths to promote their brands and new products – very common for large conferences. The companies in the expo halls were giving out lots of free samples and swag. And by lots, I mean more than you could carry home!

I toured the expo halls twice. I met some really nice people, got my photo taken with the Jimmy Dean Sun, and tried my best not to pick up too much free stuff. Despite my best intentions (I try hard not to be a greedy swag grabber), I came home with two large bags of product! I managed to collect everything from NyQuil to tuna fish – a very random assortment!

The company reps were all extremely sweet and informative (that’s their job, right?) and none of them required any of the conference attendees to commit to blogging about their product. The free stuff really was “no strings attached,” so why am I having an ethical dilemma? I probably shouldn’t be, but I feel guilty for taking the free swag! I tried to only accept things that I truly thought I could use, but I still feel guilty. Should I be feeling this way? Do the big companies know that we will feel guilty about the free product and feel compelled to reciprocate in some way? Am I a sucker?

There is no way I can blog about all of the companies I met, plus, I don’t want to. I have never done paid or otherwise compensated product reviews on this blog (although, I have received some free product that I have reviewed for Craft Critique) and I only write about brands that I really, truly like.

I do not plan to change my style just because I received some free product, but I do feel some pressure to acknowledge my gratitude for the companies’ generosity in some way… So, I would like to highlight some of my favorite things that I received at the BlogHer Expo. Is that an acceptable combination of integrity and reciprocation? I hope so!

My favorites of the BlogHer swag:

• TheYellowUmbrella.org is an organization created by Christine Baze to help educate women on how they can prevent cervical cancer. I received an actual yellow umbrella from Christine and promised I would help spread the word about her cause. Check out the Yellow Umbrella’s sister organization, Say Something!, to learn about how you can help spread the word about cancer prevention.
• The Bounty paper towel area in the P&G House at the Expo was co-hosting a collage art project table with the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. I actually use and like Bounty paper towels (they are thick & sturdy) and I was impressed to see them supporting and promoting a NYC nonprofit arts organization. The Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation was founded in 1995 by brothers Russell, Danny and Joseph “Rev. Run” Simmons and is dedicated to providing disadvantaged urban youth with significant arts exposure, access and education as well as providing exhibition opportunities to early and mid-career artists and artists of color. Very cool!
• The one piece of free product that I was most excited about was my new pair of Assets underwear. Yes, underwear! I know that is extremely weird, but Assets are the new, less-expensive line of Spanx undergarments and the company was handing them out to us at the conference. (Don’t worry, we got to choose the perfect size!) Ladies out there know how incredibly popular, but how terribly expensive Spanx are, so I am excited to see the company offering a more “value” version. Assets will be sold at Target.
• PUR Water Filters handed out free aluminum water bottles and hosted water filling stations all over the conference. BlogHer was trying to go more “green” this year and not providing bottled water was one step they took. PUR sponsored the water stations as an alternative. I actually love my new aluminum bottle (it isn’t too large and it has a little carabiner hook on top that you can use to attach it to a bag…) and I filled it up many times throughout the weekend.
• The new Jimmy Dean French Toast Griddlers that they were handing out at their booth were truly delicious – plus they use turkey sausage. I would honestly recommend them and will probably purchase them in the future. (And the actor who plays the sun is really sweet.)
• You already know that I love S’mores! Or at least you should, because they are one of my favorite foods. So I couldn’t resist the Hersheys + Honey Maid + Jet Puffed suite at BlogHer. You could visit the room anytime and make delicious S’mores over their mini fires. I only had one, but it was fantastic! I also picked up a little S’mores backpack and plan to use it and show my devotion to the treat.

For those who went to BlogHer, what were your favorite swag items?

9 Comments » Categories: Art, Fashion, Food, Thinking

Jul 23rd 2010 01:09:53 pm

I mostly intended to review New York cupcake shops here on the blog since there are so many, but I can’t pass up the chance to visit bakeries in other locales… so today you get a special Washington DC edition of the cupcake review. On Monday, I visited Red Velvet Cupcakery near the Chinatown and Penn Quarter areas of DC with my two aunts, Dana & Amy.

Red Velvet Cupcakery is a locally owned shop which has recently started to open additional locations. They use “only the highest quality ingredients available on the world stage and believe in supporting the community that has supported us,” including local dairy. Dana had received a recommendation for the Cupcakery from a co-worker and it was easy to find after we arrived at the Chinatown Metro stop.

The Red Velvet Cupcakery has an adorable store front, but a very small interior. There is no seating in the shop and because they only offer one thing – cupcakes – the menu is simple with twelve different flavors to choose from. The bakery case was filled with pretty dome-topped cakes, so even with the limited selection we had a hard time deciding on flavors for our to-go order.

One of the other customers in line ahead of us said we had to try the Vanilla Bean flavor, so we did. We also added a Devil’s Food, a Key West, and a Cookies N’ Cream to our order. They looked so cute in their specially made carrying box! We carried them to dinner and then back to the hotel to enjoy later…

And did we ever enjoy them! They were amazing cupcakes. The cake was moist and flavorful and the icing was light and fluffy. I ate the full Key West flavor and it had just the right amount of lime in the cake without being tangy or sour. The white chocolate icing was the perfect complement to the citrus. Yum! My aunts enjoyed the chocolate cakes and both said the were delicious without being too rich. We split the Vanilla Bean cake three ways, and I am glad we did because it was unanimously our favorite. Thank goodness we listened to the other customer’s suggestion! The vanilla icing was perfect in texture and flavor, with flakes of vanilla bean throughout. Extremely delicious!

The Red Velvet Cupcakery earned a near perfect score on my cupcake rating. It lost a point on frosting because some of the flavors were not as strong as others. Vanilla bean was the best. It also lost one point from the “overall impression” category only because the shop was so small and the selection was limited compared to other cupcake shops. However, Red Velvet Cupcakes are excellent and should definitely be tried if you get the chance. I am so glad I had the opportunity to sample them!

Thanks for the fun day, Dana & Amy!! xoxo

1 Comment » Categories: Food, NYC Cupcake Review, Trips

Jul 2nd 2010 07:10:40 pm

After my big race last Sunday, I determined that I had earned a trip to a new cupcake bakery. Travis and I headed over to the East Village to check out Butter Lane Cupcakes. Nearly all of the store fronts in the Village are picturesque, but Butter Lane is especially cute. The interior was just as charming with rows and rows of cupcakes just behind the counter.

Butter Lane specializes only in cupcakes and they use farm fresh, high quality ingredients. They call them “cupcakes for grownups.” They have over a dozen different frosting flavors that you can pair with one of their three cake flavors: vanilla, chocolate, or banana. (You can even order a frosting shot for $1!) It was difficult to decide what combinations to try, but we finally settled on the six cakes you see above: chocolate cake + raspberry frosting, chocolate cake + maple pecan frosting, chocolate + chocolate, vanilla cake + blueberry icing, banana cake + peanut butter icing, vanilla cake + caramel icing.

Butter Lane has received many rave reviews, so I had pretty high expectations. I fell in love with the cute shop and pretty cupcake presentation, but I just didn’t fall in love with the actual cupcakes. I wasn’t disappointed, but I guess I just wasn’t blown away.

We took our six cupcakes home and only ate two on the first day. It took Travis and I three days to finish them all. The cupcakes definitely deserve the full 5 rating for presentation, not only for the cute shop, but also for the unique garnishes on each of the cakes. For example, the vanilla caramel cake had popcorn on top. Cute! The actual cake was the most disappointing part of the Butter Lane experience. Even on the day of purchase, the cake was very dry and crumbled apart when we tried to cut it. The chocolate cake was the most dry, then the vanilla, then the banana. I wish we had purchased more banana cakes because it was our favorite of the cake flavors. The frosting was good, but it seemed a bit too sugary and dense to me. However, the wide range of unique frosting flavors earns Butter Lane a high frosting rating. I liked the chocolate icing the best – we should have ordered all banana cakes with chocolate icing!

My overall impression of the Butter Lane cupcakes was not as high as I was anticipating… which makes me think that I should give the bakery a second chance in the near future. They also have a space next door to the bakery where you can go to learn frosting techniques and frost your own cupcakes. I think I will try that out next time!

4 Comments » Categories: Food, NYC Cupcake Review, New York

Jun 16th 2010 10:29:49 am

Yesterday, two Swap-bot members were visiting New York City. (Brittany from Boston and Tarah from The Netherlands! It was so fun to meet them in person. I am going to write more about our visit over on the Swap-bot blog….) I headed out to meet them at Purl Soho. Purl Soho is a destination craft store with walls of beautiful natural fiber yarn and fabric. I have known about it since I moved here, but had never been inside until now. It is so beautiful! If you are a crafter in NYC, it is definitely a place you need to see! I am not a very strong knitter, so I passed over the yarn and bought some cute notecards and Japanese trim instead. Both will be helpful for my swapping.

We got coffee, shopped around Soho together for a couple hours, and then headed our separate ways. I made my way over to the East Village on a hunt for a tiny chocolate boutique. I had a coupon for Bespoke Chocolates and found the quaint shop on a side street just before they closed! whew. My coupon was for a selection of chocolates and I made sure to get two of their famous Pretzel-Covered Sea-Salted Caramels. Travis and I both agree that they are very tasty. You can definitely tell they are made from fresh, quality ingredients. Yum!

So, two more NY locales have been checked off of my “to visit” list! Fortunately, my list of things to do and places to see in the city only grows and grows no matter how many places I get checked off. I am thinking about creating an actual list here on my website of places I’ve been and places I want to go… but it seems like a daunting task. This city is too huge!

6 Comments » Categories: Crafts, Food, Friends, New York, Swap-bot

May 24th 2010 11:48:35 am

One of my favorite food stops in Park Slope, Brooklyn is Blue Apron Foods. It is a little gourmet grocery store that has a wonderful selection of fine meats and cheeses and other fancy foodie goods. Travis and I mostly go there for their amazing sandwiches, and every once in a while we also pick up a cupcake, or two.

The cupcakes are not baked at Blue Apron, but are delivered by two Brooklyn bakeries: Baked and Robicelli’s. Baked has a cafe location in Red Hook that I would love to visit for a future tasting, so for this installment of my cupcake review I chose to focus on Robicelli’s Cupcakes.

I purchased the following flavors:

THE BLUTH- Chocolate banana cake studded with chocolate chips and walnuts, topped with chocolate buttercream, chocolate ganache and roasted walnuts.

PECAN FRENCH TOAST- Maple custard soaked cinnamon cake with maple cinnamon buttercream and candied pecans.

CHOCOLATE GRASSHOPPER- Mint chocolate-chocolate chip cake with mint buttercream and ground chocolate.

My intention with these cupcake reviews was to be quite strict with my ratings, but that is difficult when there are so many amazing cupcakes in New York City! Robicelli’s Cupcakes have received my second perfect cupcake score (the last one was for Crumbs), and it is well deserved. Travis and I both loved all three flavors.

First, I was impressed by the extremely unique and inventive flavor selections at Blue Apron and the lovely cupcake garnishes, like nuts and drizzled chocolate. But the nice presentation is barely worth noting compared to the amazing taste and texture of these cupcakes! All three were perfect and extremely light and airy. They icing was exactly how I like it best, very light with a nearly whipped consistency. The cake was moist, yet fluffy. The gourmet flavors were decadent, but they were not too rich, and I think that is what makes Robicelli’s cupcakes so special. You can taste all of the distinct flavors, like the maple and cinnamon in the Pecan French toast, but nothing is too sweet or too intense. Often, mint flavored desserts can be overpowering and far too minty, but this Chocolate Grasshopper cupcake had just the perfect taste of mint combined with delicious chocolate. Travis and I finished all three excellent cupcakes easily!

Even though I gave Crumbs Bake Shop a perfect score, Robicelli’s cupcakes are better. Their smaller size and more unique, but reserved flavors made them easier to enjoy than Crumb’s giant size cakes. I will definitely be stopping by Blue Apron Foods in the near future to try more of the flavors! (Check out the Robicelli’s website to read about all the available flavors and to find the other locations where you can find their cupcakes.)

7 Comments » Categories: Food, NYC Cupcake Review, New York

May 16th 2010 12:21:05 pm

Travis and I were out strolling around Manhattan yesterday. His recovering knee is feeling better and he is now able to walk without crutches. We didn’t have a strict agenda for the day, but we did have a cupcake place in mind for a stop on our journey so that I could complete another installment of my Cupcake Review. Unfortunately, we got a little lost and/or we were misinformed by Google Maps and we never did find the cupcake place… And yet, fate works in mysterious ways because our path led us to Madeleine Patisserie on 23rd Street in Chelsea.

I had assumed that I’d tried a macaron before, but I must have been mistaken. In my head I imagined them as hard cookies filled with icing – sort of like colorful oreos. I was wrong!

From Wikipedia: “A macaron is characterized by its smooth, domed top, ruffled circumference, and flat base. Connoisseurs prize a delicate, egg shell-like crust that yields to a moist and airy interior.”

They are made with almond flour, egg whites, and sugar with flavored, cream fillings. Supposedly, the French do them best and the girls working behind the counter at Madeleine Patisserie had French accents – score!

We ordered a sample of four macarons: chocolate, caramel, cassis (grape?), and pistachio. They were incredible! Truly. I was blown away. Probably because I was not expecting to like them very much, but also because I think we stumbled on a very excellent bakery. The macarons were slightly crispy on the outside, with soft, moist insides. The fillings were all amazing, especially the caramel – very smooth and full of flavor. Yum!

I have heard that macarons are going to be the next cupcake in terms of popularity. After trying them I’d be inclined to agree except for one major difference between the two pastries… I would think it takes much more talent to make an excellent macaron than a cupcake, but I hope I’m wrong. I would love to be able to get macarons at more bakeries!

(p.s. I have been a little obsessed with my new Hipstamatic iPhone App lately. It allows you to take old-timey, analog appearing photos using your iPhone. It is what I used to take the photo above. There are a whole bunch of different settings and you can also buy additional “film” and “lens” styles. It is a lot of fun!)

6 Comments » Categories: Food, New York

Feb 23rd 2010 01:04:05 pm

New York City is back on my good side! On Sunday, Travis and I went for a late (really late, like 4 pm) brunch at Penelope Cafe in Murray Hill. (It was very delicious, by the way. I highly recommend it.) Afterward, I thought I should do my blogger duty and pick up some more cupcakes to objectively review for my loyal “NYC Cupcake Review” followers. ha!

Travis and I stopped by the small Crumbs Bake Shop near Union Square and picked up a chocolate coconut and a “Half-baked” cupcake to review. Crumbs is a relatively new bakery that was started in 2003 by a former attorney and now has over a dozen locations, both in New York and LA.

This was not my first taste of Crumbs cupcakes. Travis and I have picked them up at least twice in the past and I also always manage to have one at the museum cafe when I visit the Met. I don’t remember all of the flavors I have tried, but I know that caramel apple, blackout, brownie, vanilla coconut, and carrot are on the list. In the past, I claimed that Crumbs is my favorite cupcake shop in NY, and this review definitely reinforces that!

Crumbs cupcakes are large – about the size of a large muffin – and they come with tons of frosting and fun toppings. The bakery case reminds me of a gelato shop because of all the goodies you find stuck in the mounded frosting. The flavor selection is amazing and overwhelming, and they always have a
“cupcake of the month” that they are featuring. It is hard for me to choose anything other than the chocolate flavors, but every time that I do I am pleasantly surprised. Of course, for this review I went with chocolate!

Both of the flavors we chose were perfectly moist, with light, sweet icing. The chocolate coconut cupcake was simple with chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream frosting, and coconut sprinkled on top. The “Half-Baked” flavor consisted of chocolate cake with a vanilla buttercream filling (yum!), chocolate and cookie dough flavored frostings, and brownie and cookie pieces crumbled on top. So decadent and so delicious!

I tried to avoid giving Crumbs a perfect score, but couldn’t. Everything about the cupcakes was perfect, from the store presentation and the flavor selection to the texture and taste of the cakes. Even the take-out containers are terrific, with separate holders for each cake to keep them from toppling over. The only downside that some people may find is the large size and corresponding price. Each cupcake is $4.50, but they are definitely worth it and are easily large enough for two people to share. Travis and I ate our two cupcakes for dinner and we had a hard time finishing them between the two of us. (Luckily, Travis stepped up and ate the last bits, and he wanted me to add that he thinks these cupcakes are “fantastic.”)

I cannot recommend Crumbs cupcakes highly enough! They are the best cupcakes I have had so far in New York. Yum, yum, yum!

10 Comments » Categories: Food, NYC Cupcake Review, New York