Some Important Thank-You's

I have been meaning to take a picture of the package I received from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes after winning the Batter Finger draw. Lindsay had that package to me within two days! It was wrapped inside with pretty tissue paper and a cute little recipe card, which I can't for the life of me find right now. She was also lovely enough to throw in two packages of pretty cupcake liners - and she could not have chosen better colours to suit me. I was giddy all afternoon and left my booty on the kitchen table for about a week so I could look at it and think up all the different cupcakes that would look best in them. I'm in the middle of testing a raspberry recipe and, if it turns out a winner, the next batch is going in the pink ones, I think, while the green has inspired me to do something lime-pie-ish - maybe with graham cracker crumbs... So a big, albeit late, THANK YOU! to Lindsay at Sweet Cuppin Cakes in Winnipeg!


More recently, I was in Ottawa dropping Kevin off at the airport and decided to use the time afterward to check out the cupcake competition. Unfortunately, there are no 'bricks and mortar' cupcake shops. There are a few suppliers if you want to order a dozen in advance and some bakeries that make them on top of the usual fair, but nobody solely devoted to the cupcake. I was able to get my hands on some at one of the more prominent cake shops, I wont say who, and was sorely
disappointed. Their icing was sugary and flavourless and the cake was dry. However...

I made the drive northward to The Candy Store to see if I could find some novel candies to top my cakes. This made the trip worth while. The woman behind the counter, I wish I could remember her name, was a wealth of info on the cupcake scene in Ottawa and lamented herself on the lack of a cupcake cafe. The shop itself is as cute in person as it is in the pictures in their website and whats more fun than looking at pretty things in pretty jars?

I bought two of each malt-ball flavour (Yum!)and some Milkies to do some decorating, and lovely-counter-girl threw in a handful of saltwater taffy. I am now a huge fan of saltwater taffy - I never would have thought!