Interesting Ingredient Suggestion

While baking, anyone ever substitute butter and or oil for...black beans?

This was a suggestion made by a dear friend, who I trust implicitly. But I'm still skeptical. So I guess I don't trust her THAT implicitly.

I'd like to hear from you if you ever tried it and if your cupcakes/cake, or whatever didn't end up just tasting like...uh, well, BEANS!

~AnnMarie

The Red, White, Blue, and Yummy

Our parents taught us never to show up to a party empty-handed. Can't say I always abide by that rule, but Flour & Sun Bakery in Pleasantville, New York, gave me a good excuse today to follow it.

I knew they were offering Memorial Day-themed cuppies this weekend and have been meaning to try this place out since it's so close to me, so I dragged Marc along to pick up a few on our way to a barbecue.

They had Caramel Apple, S'mores, Rainbow Cloud, and a few other regular varieties to choose from. We bought two Rainbow Cloud, two Red Velvet, and two S'mores. When I went into the kitchen to grab a shot of them, one had mysteriously disappeared. And the thief had knocked over one of the Rainbow Clouds in his haste. Hmmmmm....

I helped myself to the disturbed Rainbow Cloud. Would that be considered rude, Mom?

They had died the cake with red and blue food coloring on the inside too! And it was scrumptious!

I tried to coax Marc into going inside and stealing one of the S'mores ones, but he refused.

Pussy.

Anyway, hope everybody had a really nice Memorial Day weekend. We did...

Can't you tell?

Haha!

~AnnMarie

ARGH!!!!!#($*(#)*$#((@#(((#@)

And just as I give up and sign into Facebook (my back up for the videos) I get this notification:

Your video "Trials, Take 1: Carrot Cake Cuppie" has finished processing. You can now watch it or select a thumbnail. 18 minutes ago

This is after I deleted it. Of course...

~AnnMarie

Trials, Take 1: Carrot Cake Cuppie

It's Sunday and I don't feel like writing. Sebby (aka Dadster, Daddo, Seb-o-Seb, and most importantly Daddy) tried to take care of that by taking some videos of today's escapades. Which were pretty amusing. But alas, they refuse to upload :(. And after more than two hours of waiting for them to, I'm giving up. AND I'm bitter that now it's almost Monday morning!!!!!!

I'll fill you in more appropriately tomorrow, but just to let you know, it was an excellent first day. Very proud of our work. We did three trials of our Carrot Cake Cuppie, one that will be a staple, always available at SMBS.

For now, I need to get back to some writing that actually pays the bills.

Eat our crumbs!

~AnnMarie

Happy Birthday to You

I worked from my company's New York offices today, so I could be in the city to celebrate a very special birthday. Twenty-eight spanks go out to "The Nan." Twenty-two years and counting my friend...

So, you DO NOT show up to someone you've known that long's birthday without a cuppie. God was watching down on me when he opened up a Magnolia Bakery stand in Grand Central a few months ago. This morning when my train got in I stopped off there to pick one up for her.

My choice was the aptly named "The Grand Central." It was perfect as that's where each of us needs to go in order to visit one another.

Here's the birthday girl holding her gift.


On top of blue-green icing is a chocolate chip with the Grand Central insignia on it in gold. The actual cake was a marble one.

Happy Birthday Nancy!

<3 Am

TMI on TMs

My head is spinning from A to Z with visions of tiny letters in circles and all the warnings and threats and horror stories and laws that can go along with them, from ® to © to ™.

Here's an interesting link at FindLaw®. Scroll down for a snicker. Funny, but still relevant! (I'd love to know where this one went).

It seems like as far as recipes go, copyright infringement can get a little, uhhh, fuzzy?? Seems like that according to this post from one of our fave blogs Cupcakes Take The Cake.

But I think we're going to take cues from this one, for now, and make one of our main goals to get our chosen name, Skinnie Minnie Bake Shop, registered--and as quickly as possible before any of you snatch it up! Oh, I'm sorry, it's Skinnie Minnie Bakeshop, as Nicole corrected me this morning. OR, as another close friend called it: SMBS. Love that!

If anyone has information or advice to share on the subject, we're all ears. Meanwhile, I'll be working on my application. Do you need an attorney for this? Help!

~AnnMarie