"The Definition of Insanity is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results" - Albert Einstein

Monday, October 4, 2010

Nostalgia and References to Lord of the Rings

It feels like forever since I've had a really good blog post (or really any post at all) so I'm gonna make up for it with a super spectacular blog post. How am I going to do that? One Word: CUPCAKES

That's right readers, This post is about (among other things) CUPCAKES. I just feel like there's no reason I can't continue the cupcake tour just because I'm not in England anymore. And considering since I started blogging about cupcakes (among other things) this summer, I was given more cupcake themed Birthday presents than any other type of Birthday presents (which is awesome, I might add, and included among other things, a recipe book, a cupcake photo holder, and icing tips), I must have been doing something right. So get ready to start drooling because I'm already feeling nostalgic for the very recent past.

We all have the one and only Samantha N. to thank for this trip, who accompanied me and treated for this venture as a belated Birthday present. For those who don't know her, Sammy and I are friends from Middle School days back when we both had an unhealthy obsession with Lord of the Rings, particularly Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan. There are a lot of funny anecdotes I could put in this segment involving our friendship, but my favorite is the time we watched Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo and Juliet" in her basement while eating about 10 pounds of Chinese food from Lin's Wok and decided it was probably the worst movie ever made. (I'm sorry, but I can't take Shakespearean dialogue seriously when it's said by men wearing unbuttoned Hawaiian T-Shirts with purple hair. And for the record, I don't really like "Moulin Roughe" either, but on that point Sammy disagrees with me). But anyway, we roomed together Freshman year of college and managed to not fall victim to the "Don't room with people you knew in High School curse because it will destroy your friendship" Curse because we are still really close. Granted it's hard not to be close with someone you once sang to in a Blockbuster.

Look how excited Sammy is for our cupcake adventure!

So the venue I'm blogging about today is "Our CupCakery" in Dublin, Ohio. Located approximately across the street from the Jeni's Ice Creams in Dublin and unfortunately and unavoidably close to the Starbucks on the same street. We were there right around the time school let out, and Sammy and I must have seen no less than 10 different elementary schoolers with Starbucks Drinks that were so there they could barely fit their grubby little hands around them. It must be daily ritual for prepubescents to run in packs to their local Starbucks after last bell so they can hype themselves up on caffeine and sugar before they terrorize the neighborhood. Not to say that I don't think a little terrorism in the form of miscreants wouldn't do the city of Dublin some good, because it is a little too "white picket fence" for my tastes and everyone looks like they walked out of a J-Crew catalogue. Then again maybe I'm just scarred from seeing the movie "The Stepford Wives" (Nicole Kidman version). All I can say is that if I ever have kids, I'm not giving them an allowance.

Here's a picture of the front facade.

But I won't hold the location of "Our CupCakery" against the cupcake experience I had there. Although the outside might be a stony and cold facade, the inside is anything but. Everything is done in pastel colors (pink and green no less, which seem to be the universal colors for cupcakes), and the clerk, who I think might have been the owner, was super friendly and welcoming to us.

Our CupCakery sells regular cupcakes in various different sizes and flavors, but what makes it truly unique (and was our sole purpose for visiting) is it's make your own cupcake bar. (pictured below).

Anyone can walk into the shop, pick a cupcake, and decorate it with as much icing, sprinkles, cookie or candy topping as their little heart desires and then pay by the weight. The clerk told us the average cupcake is usually between 2 and 3 dollars, but that the record was $11.12. Which in my opinion is basically obscene. That being said, I was really bummed out there wasn't a picture of it.

So Sammy and I both decorated the cupcakes below. Mine is the one on the left and hers is the one on the right. Mine is supposed to be a two color interpretation of this art project I did when I was in Kindergarten, which may or may not be a Jackson Pollock but I can't remember for certain if that was the artist. I don't think Sammy's has an artistic theme. Also, I probably had more fun decorating this cupcake than is socially acceptable for a 20 year old. Oh well.

But let's be serious for a second, no matter how much fun it is to decorate cupcakes, the best part is eating them. Mine was a Lemon flavored cupcake with Raspberry, Lemon and Vanilla icing, Sammy's was a Vanilla cupcake with Vanilla, Raspberry, Lemon and Bubble Gum frosting. And I have to admit, I didn't expect these to be great cupcakes because they would be sitting out all day and I assumed they would go stale, but these were pleasantly moist and delicious. My only complaint was that I couldn't taste the difference between the different types of icing, but the icing was still good, a little too sweet for my taste, but good. Not overpowering.

Here's me with my cupcake :D

And here is Sammy with hers.

We are happy little hobbitses.

1 comment:

  1. I miss you guys! and LOTR! those cupcakes look nommy!

    ReplyDelete