girls who sell cupcakes

more safari cupcakes

2007-04-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

So I was strolling through the impenetrable depths of Kenya today, when I happened upon the rarest of sights! An endangered cheetah cupcake resting on a tree branch alongside one of its mates, no doubt after feasting on zebra or antelope or perhaps a couple of hippopotami. I was fairly confident that my benign presence would barely pose a threat--especially with their being so thoroughly sated on delicious delicious wildebeest--so I stole a photo.

stand back and be amazed.

2007-04-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

Have you seen what our masterful bakers can really do? These are some examples of cupcakery at its most extravagant. Pull-away: I dub thee fantastical.

Speechless? That's okay, words don't work as well when your mouth is stuffed with CUPCAKE!

we are women of words

2007-04-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

Some Thoughts on Lent and the Undeniable Power of Cupcakes...
from our own Especially Emilie

Born and raised Episcopalian (the slightly less fervent, more rebellious, but perhaps equally self-righteous cousin of the Catholic) I have come to embrace all --well, most-- of the Episcopal traditions. And every year, my mother, my sister and I participate in Lent together. Now, let me give you a little background on Lent: Traditionally, one gives up something, usually food related, as a sacrifice in recognition of the time Jesus spent fasting in the dessert directly before his crucifixion. It begins on Ash Wednesday, forty days before Easter, actually, I take that back, it really begins on Shrove or Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras in New Orleans. On this day, everyone eats as much rich food, drinks as many alcoholic beverages as possible and dances as irreverently as Jerry Lee Lewis before the forty days of deprivation to follow. This way, they can hopefully begin Lent with penitence in their hearts, and a hangover in their heads.

Each year I see Lent as a self-reflective time to exercise self-discipline. I look forward to cleansing my body and spirit by giving up all junk-food and sometimes even a couple bad habits. Usually, the process is relatively easy, and even enjoyable ...usually... It was easy before I was surrounded by CUPCAKES EVERYDAY! Now, I know you're thinking, "It's just forty days." Yes, it is only forty days, but forty days is a loooooong time, my friends. Forty days surrounded by luscious chocolate, scintillating snickerdoodle, and that conniving carrot cake is a very long time. Yes, these along with virtually dozens of other alluring flavor combinations are enough to make the strongest, the most dedicated fall. It is more than a mere mortal can stand, and with great shame I must admit that I, too, have succumbed to these evil seductresses, these saccharine sirens, clothed in frosting and sprinkles. But, in my defense, may I just say, I believe that if the Devil had come armed with cupcakes while he tempted the weak, starving Jesus fasting in the dessert...I think even Jesus could not have said no to a chocolate Guinness Stout cupcake with Bailey's Irish butter-cream frosting, and frankly, the whole story would probably have turned out a lot differently. I'm just sayin'...

this cupcake knows how to work it

2007-04-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

Maria is an evil frosting genius!!! She thought this outfit up last night, and I swear to holy goodness that our lemon strawberry sales were up 513% (don't quote me on that). Whatever the case, this little baby can work the camera. Damn, cupcake, you're lookin' fine! Not to mention the super cute 50's candy dish it's sittin' pretty in. Emilie noted the serving size of such a snack bowl, and commented "No wonder people were skinnier back then if this is the serving size of a snack." It's an excellent observation--I don't think I've ever served chips and salsa in anything more diminutive than a 5-gallon tub (with an abundant backstock of refill). But then again, this is filled with one dense and completely devastating cupcake. That changes things a bit I suppose. Unless I were to serve cupcakes in a 5-gallon tub, with dipping butter on the side. That sounds more like a 21st century serving, no?

rabbits in top hats? how about hi-hats!

2007-04-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, looks like we've got another round of holiday cupcakes coming up! I don't know if my waistline will be able to withstand the onslaught. This Easter weekend we have two scrumptious specials gracing our growing lineup: a twist on our triple coconut cupcake, but with PINEAPPLE CURD in the center (do I stutter? you read me correctly, see picture), and the absolutely devastating introduction of a hi-hat: our already decadent valrhona chocolate cupcake capped with a pooling pillow of marshmallow fluff and drapped in chocolate ganache. The heavenly heaping of immaculate marshmallowly goodness with devilishly, sinfully sumptuous chocolate puts me in purgatory...but I'm happy to stay there indefinitely. Here's a naked hi-hat:
You might be asking yourself, how can it possibly taste as amazing as it looks? Well let me assure you, this cupcake delivers in spades. This cupcake is so DAMN good that we baristas were forced to lick the leftover marshmallow fluff from the bowl. Insanely jealous? Yea, I thought so. Where are the pictures from that??? Just wait til we get our hands in that chocolate ganache. It will be a licking fingers extravaganza!

two for bob

2007-03-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

Give it up for the hippest dog this side of the Sound.

Things One Should Know About Bob (the Dog) Before Asking Bob (the Dog) On A Date:
Bob's Sign:Taurus
Bob's Namesake:Bob Marley
Bob's (Caffeinated) Drink Of Choice:bonedry cappuccino
Bob's (Alcoholic) Drink Of Choice:white russian on the rocks
Bob's Dayjob:child psychologist
Bob's Alteregoist Nighttime Job:hardcore punkrocker
Bob's Favorite Flavor Trophy Cupcake:bring back the bailey's!
Bob's Key Ingredient in the ULTIMATE Cupcake:bacon
Additional Information:Bob likes hip hop music, burberry apparel and chunky jewelry. Bob dislikes posers and players.

one for bob

2007-03-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

it's well past fashionably overdue that a post be devoted to our most conspicuous customers: the bobs. the beauty of the bobs: both a man and a dog. bob of the upstairs loft who likes his jeans skinny and dog bob of the next-door salon who likes his women lusty. loft bob definitely takes the cupcake when it comes to having one of the most well-established trophy routines. it could be the coffee, it could be the cupcakes, but i think it's the coffee-cupcake ladies that bring this regular back regularly. don't let the miniature party hat fool you, the bob pictured isn't the dog...well not literally.

Things One Should Know About Bob Before Asking Bob On A Date:
Bob's Sign:Cancer
Bob's (Caffeinated) Drink Of Choice: a Tall Americano (with room, please)
Bob's (Alcoholic) Drink Of Choice:anything with vodka (thank you)
Bob's Dayjob:(get ready) an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist: Bob analyzes customer satisfaction data to better understand how his company can make their customers more satisfied. (Translation: Bob professionally manufactures and distributes satisfaction.)
Bob's Alteregoist Nighttime Job:Bob designs T-shirts and organizes concerts. Both ventures are designed to raise money to help fight global warming. (Save the planet. Wear a T-shirt.)
Bob's Favorite Flavor Trophy Cupcake:Carrot ("When I eat it, I cry a tear of joy." -Bob)
Bob's Key Ingredient in the ULTIMATE Cupcake:Herb (with Ranch Dipping Sauce)
Additional Information:Bob likes sushi and bands and dog party hats (obviously). Bob dislikes cupcake haters.

we wear many hats!

2007-03-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

don't judge.

cupcakes in the wild

2007-03-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Not many people come across the rare opportunity of experiencing cupcakes in the wild. I myself encountered one such creature on safari deep in the heart of Tanzania this last Tuesday. Observe:

...see how it interacts with its brethen, the dessert gazelle. Don't let it's sweetly tame and deliciously innocent repose fool you. They flee for safety, my friends, because this particular cupcake bites back.

little nibbles

2007-03-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

Cupcake Decorating Parties are all the rage, and we baristas had a little after-hours decorating party ourselves. We might just give the erotic bakery a run for their money, not for our skill level but because we're strictly amateurs.

No, but seriously. They're mostly tons of innocent fun:

back with a st. pat-attack!

2007-03-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

the doctor is in, and he approves.

being a barista is really like being a doctor: we're on call at all hours of the day. but then again, there's nothing like waking up at the crack of dawn to update your cupcake blog while listening to devotchka and eating a crumpet with ricotta and fig spread. it would be super cool if we had barista pagers though--QUICK! out of bed! the store needs an opener! 10cc's of super-charged caffeine STAT! I don't even know what cc's are but it sounds appropriate.

Anyway: BAM! Trophy Cupcakes has done St. Patrick's Day. and what a doing it was! that holiday has been had, son. check these babies out:

chocolate chip cake with mint buttercream

chocolate guinness stout cake with bailey's irish buttercream

p.s.

2007-03-07T20:35:00.000-08:00

p.s. we are three hot green baristas.

speaking of green, in the spirit of st. patty's, trophy has some irish specials coming up. stay tuned for guinness flavored updates.

2007-03-07T17:59:00.000-08:00

A heaping teaspoon of matcha? Yes, please! This fine phosphorescent green powder is like normal green tea on super steroids. If God did drugs, he'd do lines of this. If the battle between green tea and matcha was portrayed in an action-packed summer blockbuster, Green Tea would be played by Sly Stalone and Matcha would be played by The Rock, where Matcha would be like "Hey Green Tea, stop thinking you can bring Rocky back. Get out of my house, GT" and Matcha would whip out a 2x4 and proceed to beat the crap out of Green Tea until it was as finely ground as itself. I should be a script writer.

So yes, matcha. You want it, we have it.

Anthony--only the coolest tea man this side of the sound and the Remedy go-to guy--came over to the shop today to teach me how to whip up this incogitable (yes it's a word, look it up) concoction. There's quite a process to it, it's a ceremonious affair. Not to mention the bamboo whisk kicks baby's butts. Check this out, it's a single stalk of bamboo split into tiny hairs that gather together to form one beautifully crafted tea beating instrument. Fantasmo! Every matcha latte is whisked to order by yours truly (yours truly being an all-inclusive term encompassing all the cupcake barista ladies) whereby a small amount of matcha powder and barely-boiling water is violently whisked together creating a frothy foamy mixture of lush green goodness.

Make it.

Mix it.

Mack it.

the caliphs of cupcakes. the pastry pashas. the kitchen kaisers.

2007-03-05T22:47:00.000-08:00

So it's been a good while since my last post (my internet access can be a bit spotty) but I think it's high time a little space be devoted to the super fabulous chiefs of cupcake cookery: Ana and Rick. Hot damn if they aren't the finest pastry chefs this side of the Pacific. It takes a lot to get up at the crack of dawn to crank out quality cupcakes every blessed morning. Thank the good lord for the strength and fortitude of those brave bakers' souls. They truly are the iron chefs of sugary confection.

hootenannious thingumbobs

2007-02-27T23:44:00.000-08:00

I think it's high time I have a party and bountifully bedeck it with our darling decorations. Actually, what I really want to do is arrange an alliterated affair, perhaps a costume clambake celebrating a particularly peculiar pairing--robots and red necks, hobos and hot dogs (thank you Bahnas). I think I digress:

So super cute. Although I think Emilie and I looked cuter.

I'm really happy with this picture I took of a pile of ballerina toppers. It's kind of weird and disturbing. Or maybe I'm just weird and disturbed.
This one too:

2007-02-26T09:55:00.000-08:00

Now you've gone and done it, Whitaker. If there's one thing I've learned, it's NEVER to take Peter O'Toole's Oscar cupcake.

magical mixtures and elusive equations

2007-02-25T23:58:00.000-08:00

So I'm just starting to get the hang of this HTML thing, and having a blast doing it! Make sure you check out the nifty link to the left of this--there are tons more Trophy pictures that haven't made it up here. Seeing as I'm a little under the weather and was barely looking for further excuse to leave my bed today, updating my blog kept me blissfully busy and inexcusably inert all the live long day...

Unfortunately that means I missed the unveiling of our Hummingbird cupcake today! Extremely lucky informants bragged of their stupendosity (yea, I said it) to me, and this was what I could gather from the euphoria-saturated babble:

The Hummingbird cupcake will be mine...

the enmity of two...

2007-02-24T00:08:00.000-08:00

And so the battle rages between two brothers, identical at birth but torn asunder by the angry cupcake baker gods and given two freakishly different hair styles. Can the two ever be reunited? Or are they destined to be picked and chosen over? Will their frostings ever meet again in brotherly communion and fraternal love? The saga continues...

In other news...RED CARPET CUPCAKES HAVE TAKEN THE STAGE! Bam. So cream-cheesy. (pun intended) These deliciously clad morsels were featured just this morning on Kelley Moore's Oscar suggestions.

...how delightfully decadent! I don't think I can handle the glitter and glamor of it all. To be honest, I don't think we've gone over the top enough. We should deliver them in boxes shaped like limosines, then maybe we'd catch Oprah's interest. Or even better, the Oscars can be made completely out of cupcake, so when somebody wins, they can devour their award on stage as an act of gratitude and thanksgiving. I'd like to see Peter O'Toole bite the head off of a cupcake Oscar, but maybe that's just me.

Those eyes say it all.

2007-02-21T13:02:00.000-08:00

This so needs to go on a Trophy shirt. Sweeter than puppy licks. Copyright me.

mallow madness!

2007-02-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

So I've been doing much research in the way of marshmallows lately, in prepartion for the homemade mallows we will soon be serving with our hot chocolate at Trophy. I have long been denied the enjoyment of a mallow, as marshmallows these days are made with gelatin--a big no no for vegetarians as it is derived from animal hide and bones. Jennifer informed me over a curried meal last night, however, that marshmallows were originally named for the plant: "The traditional recipe used an extract from the mucilaginous root of the marshmallow plant, a shrubby herb (Althaea officinalis), instead of gelatin; the mucilage performed as a cough suppressant." (Wikipedia) It is possible to make marshmallows suitable for vegetarians by making them the traditional way, using powdered marshmallow root, egg whites, cane sugar, and vanilla extract, although powdered marshmallow root may be difficult to obtain. Ah well, I guess I will have to stick with marshmallow fluff. Speaking of fluff, when was the last time I had a fluffernutter? Hey-zeus those are tasty! There was actually legislation against the serving of fluffernutters in schools in Massachusetts. What is the world coming to when it tries to deny its children the enjoyment of a fluffernutter sandwich? Utter madness.

What we need now is a fluffernutter cupcake. We could even go all out and have a sandwich-come-cupcake day: tuna melt cupcake, hame & cheese cupcake, the possibilities are as endless and bottomless as my iron-clad stomach.

2007-02-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

Cupcakes make mouths happy.

oh! the many glories!

2007-02-18T19:21:00.000-08:00

New and exciting flavors are popping up every day! That green tea cupcake looks mighty delicious, but Ruby could probably make a crusty old muffin look luscious and inviting. Personally, I think it's the freckles--they're like sprinkles, but for your face.

Seriously, the peanut butter and jelly cupcake is the best thing since sliced bread. And who needs sliced bread when a classic lunchtime staple becomes a cupcake? Ditch the sliced bread and elevate your lunchbox to a new level of innovation.

Maria makes my days shine a bit brighter.

carnival!

2007-02-16T10:12:00.000-08:00

So I never did post pictures from our FABULOUS opening party! So here you go:

Ruby and Hadley enjoy some super tasty mini cupcakes! Almost as cute as the girls about to eat them...

Emilie and I played the role of cigar girls, only instead of cigars we handed out hors d'œuvre, and when I say played the role, who am I kidding? It's less often and more out of character when we're making coffee and properly clothing ourselves.

And of course Jen was absolutely ravishing in her handmade cupcake paper dress!

2007-02-15T09:50:00.000-08:00

Here at Trophy, we go the extra mile to ensure a shiny, happy, family-oriented cupcake experience. As such, any inappropriate expletives will be sterilized by cupcake-shaped censors. Way to go, Rick.

...communal sippy cups of java lovin. Emmie and I share a special bond: we can pull on each other's grind. Don't you wish that was a euphemism? It sounds pretty damn sexy.

2007-02-15T09:34:00.000-08:00

Many people ask me, what exactly is Red Velvet (or Red Devil, as one customer accurately misspoke). I feel my description often falls short of a well-rounded understanding. So I turn to my trusted friend, wikipedia: "James Beard's 1972 reference, 'American Cookery' describes three kinds of red velvet cake varying in the amounts of shortening and butter used. All of them use red food coloring for the color, but it is mentioned that the reaction of acidic vinegar and buttermilk tends to turn the cocoa a reddish brown color. Furthermore, before more alkaline 'Dutch Processed' cocoa was widely available, the red color would have been more pronounced. This natural tinting may have been the source for the name 'Red Velvet' as well as 'Devil's Food' and a long list of similar names for chocolate cakes." Amen. God bless wikipedia and god bless cupcakes.