Last December I showed my roommate, Laura, a cupcake photo shoot that had been linked on Cupcakes Take the Cake.  I loved the models' makeup and the cinematography of the photos, but thought the cupcakes were mediocre and the last few pictures were too hypersexual.  "Oh yes," she agreed, "we could do much better."

We could?  Over the next hour we brainstormed ideas for our own "CupcakeFetish" themed photo shoot, complete with an industrial kitchen, brightly colored cupcakes, and women in corsets brandishing kitchen accouterments as torture devices.  I didn't think too much on it after that, but Laura picked up the ball and ran with it, producing the most fantastic cupcake photo shoot I have ever seen.  Leveraging her contacts in the film industry, she formed a team comprised of a photographer, wardrobe stylist, hair/makeup artist, and five amateur models, three of which had never modeled before (which, thanks to Laura's direction, you wouldn't know from the pictures).  We shot during the last weekend in January in the Culinary Institute's kitchen.  The final version turned out to be more "cheesecake/pinup" than "dominatrix/fetish", but the stylistic choice was spot on, making the results even more amazing than I could have imagined.

  

Check out our new merchandise page to see the full set of pictures from the shoot!

Our original goal was to make a calendar, so each look was themed for a different month.  However, by the time the photos were processed and ready to be printed it was mid-March, and we didn't think the demand for offset calendars would be very large.  Instead we decided to print them on 4x6 cards, perfect for postcards or jotting down recipes.  You can buy the full set of 12 cards at our merchandise page for only $10, plus $2 shipping and handling.  We really hope you like them!

On a sunny Friday afternoon in June I found myself driving to western Ohio to attend Band Camp X, the 10th Annual Pittsburgh Vintage Scooter Club Camping Rally.  My boyfriend, a member of the club, had convinced me to go despite my lack of love for beer (yucky) and scooters (scary), the main features of the rally.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but a cake from Charm City Cakes wasn't on the list.

It turns out that Mary Smith, one of the decorators in the bakery/on the show, is a scooterist and had come to the rally.  She'd decorated the cake herself and brought it as a gift.

The cake was squirreled away until the last night of the rally when it was presented to the crowd after dinner.  Agonizingly, the cake was on display until after midnight, when it was finally cut and served to a crowd half-crazed from anticipation.  (Ok, maybe that was just me.)

I'll be honest.  I fully expected this cake to taste like total crap.  I've seen the show – cakes are baked at least two days prior to delivery, and are stored in a ginormous refrigerator until they're decorated.  Assuming the cake is made without preservatives, the refrigeration process should dry it out and mute the flavor.  Combine that with the fact that the completed cake was stored in the back of a barn for three days until it was served, and I didn't think it had a snowball's chance in hell of tasting good.

You can imagine my shock when I took my first bite and discovered that the cake was moist.  (Perhaps the gumpaste sides sealed the cake, locking in the moisture?  Or maybe the cake was made with preservatives?)  Not only was the at least-four-day-old cake still moist, but the flavor wasn't half bad.  Rich, buttery, and slightly sweet – a perfectly fine vanilla cake.  The frosting was peanut butter flavored, and had both the taste and texture of crunchy peanut butter with a tiny bit of powered sugar added for sweetness.  A bit odd, especially paired with a vanilla cake, but not untasty.  The gumpaste tasted like gumpaste – chewy, sweet, and flavorless, but I doubt anyone really expects it to be eaten.  Surprisingly, the strange flavor pairing turned out to be my biggest complaint about the cake.  Crazy!

So yeah, if you ever get the opportunity to try a cake from Charm City Cakes, do it!  Their "edible art" turned out to be way more edible than I'd assumed.

In yet another bizarre Pittsburgh Food Network run-in, I met Mary Smith from Charm City Cakes at Piper's Pub on Sunday afternoon.  Apparently she's friends with some of my beau's friends who coincidentally decided to go to brunch at the same place and at the same time as us.  Mary seemed like a very sweet and nice person; perhaps all the CCC cupcake-hate is just Duff?

The wonderful ladies over at Cupcakes Take the Cake have included Cupcake Fetish in their list of Top 10 Cupcake Blogs!  We are so flattered!  Thanks, guys!

Last month I attended a cousin's wedding in Florence, SC, an event which ordinarily wouldn't merit mention on this blog.  The couple in question, however, was originally from the DC area and the wedding cake(s) were from their favorite DC bakery: Cake Love.


When I first heard the touching story of how their friends carefully drove the cakes seven hours from DC to South Carolina, I groaned.  For a cake aficionado like myself, there's nothing worse than the torture of eyeing a wedding cake all night long, patiently waiting for the end of the reception so you can freaking eat the cake already, only to discover that the beautifully decorated cake tastes like toothpaste frosted cardboard.

[As long-time readers of this blog may know, I'm not the biggest fan of Cake Love — popular opinion seems to agree that their sparsely frosted cupcakes are way too dry (even after allowed to come to 72°F) and their runny buttercream is tasty but has obvious texture issues.]

After the cake was cut I forced myself to wait an excruciating 15 minutes before I ate my slice (it was still quite cold in the center), all the while mentally preparing myself for disappointment.  Long after everyone else had finished their cake and I couldn't stand the wait any longer, I took a bite, even though the center of my slice was still quite cold.  I was shocked to discover that the cake was really good.  In fact, it was one of the best wedding cakes I had ever tasted, if not THE best.  Holy crap!

I'd grabbed a slice from the ganache-covered cake which appeared to be alternating layers of white cake, chocolate cake, and some sort of white mousse with whole raspberries mixed in.  The chocolate cake was moist and rich, the white cake was soft and sweet, and the chocolate ganache was smooth and creamy with a dark cocoa flavor.  The white mousse was sweet and fluffy and the fresh raspberries added bursts of tart flavor that complimented the sweetness of the cake quite nicely.  My only complaint was that there was a too much mousse filling for the amount of cake — I think half as much would've been perfection.

Of the twenty weddings I've been to, two of the cakes were memorable for being good, and this was one of them.  Now I know — skip the cupcakes at Cake Love and drop the extra $4 for a slice of their delicious cake.