Check out what I got in the mail yesterday!
Baron surprised me with a robot cupcake print from the super talented Steph Calvert of Hearts and Laserbeams.  I love love love Steph's Robots: They're Just Like Us series and couldn't be happier with my gift.  I only wish I wasn't poor and could afford to buy a print of each of the twenty paintings.

Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky to have such wonderful friends.

Last week I got an e-mail from a PR agent for PhillySwirl, a Tampa-based company that makes ice cream and ice pops.  PhillySwirl was releasing a new product, Ice Cream Cupcakes, and they wanted to know if I would like some samples.  Long-time readers of CupcakeFetish know that cupcakes aren't actually my all-time favorite dessert -- that distinction goes to ice cream cake.  I've spent years fantasizing about how to make individual-sized portions of ice-cream cake, and though I've tried ice cream cupcakes before, they were far inferior to the full-sized cakes from Ben & Jerry's and Baskin Robbins that I love so much.  I was pretty skeptical about PhillySwirl's product -- if the hand-made ice cream cupcakes I had were that bad, there's no way factory-produced ice cream cupcakes could be good.  Nevertheless I immediately wrote PhillySwirl back and told them I'd be thrilled to try their new ice cream cupcakes.

They packed a cooler with a 12-pack of their ice cream cupcakes and a couple of pounds of dry ice and overnighted the whole thing to me.  The package left their offices in Renton, Washington at 5:40 last night and arrived on my doorstep in Pittsburgh at 10:10 this morning.  Who knew that you could mail ice cream?!

I decided to tackle the chocolate ones first.  They had a base of chocolate cake dipped in a chocolate shell topped with a layer of vanilla ice cream and a swirl of chocolate frosting.

The chocolate frosting was light and fluffy with a silky smooth texture; almost exactly like an italian meringue buttercream but a bit sweeter.  It had a rich, high-quality milk chocolate flavor.  Honestly, I was pretty shocked to taste such a high-quality frosting on a factory produced cupcake.  The vanilla ice cream was classic -- cool and sweet, nice and smooth, with a refreshing vanilla flavor.  It was lighter and cooler than the thicker, fattier ice creams, like Breyers.  The thick chocolate shell surrounding the cake melted quickly on my tongue, revealing a sweet dark chocolate flavor that wasn't too bitter.  The chocolate cake itself was denser and a bit sweeter than standard gourmet cupcakes, and tasted exactly like a Tastykake (which I happen to love).  It was good, but was the only part of the dessert that tasted "manufactured".

Overall the cupcake ice cream cake had an initially nice, sweet vanilla flavor that was quickly replaced by a deep, rich chocolate flavor.  The combined texture was nice and smooth and surprisingly silky (probably owing to the vanilla ice cream and silky buttercream frosting), but the chalky sprinkles were an unwelcome interruption.  If I were them I'd just ditch the chalky sprinkles -- they don't add that much aesthetically and they really detract from the smooth texture and gourmet flavor of the buttercream and ice cream, cheapening the high-class taste of the confection.  Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by PhillySwirl's chocolate ice cream cupcake.  It was really amazing, especially given the fact that it came off a factory line and was shipped across the country.

Six-packs of the ice cream cupcakes and a variety of other PhillySwirl products are available at Walmart, Winn Dixie, HEB, Giant Eagle, Topps, Sure Winner and independent grocers around the country. Party-sized 12-pack cupcake trays can be found at Costco, BJ’s and Sam’s Club. The swirled variety is available at Sam’s and BJ’s, and a combo pack of both all-vanilla and all-chocolate versions is available at Costco.  Check out their store locator to find a retailer near you.

I went to Ben & Jerry's earlier this afternoon for their free cone day, so I wasn't up to immediately downing a vanilla ice cream cake.  I'll update this post tomorrow with my thoughts on that flavor.

Check out this awesome t-shirt from Cupcake Royale that one of my friends just sent me:

 

Thanks Marcy!!

She also sent me a copy of Cupcake Royale's Official Guide to Cupcaking:
I'm a little turned off by the anti-robot vitriol.  What's up with all of the robot-hate, Cupcake Royale?  Do you really think that food made by humans tastes better simply because humans made it?  You don't think it has anything to do with the fact that robot-created food is often correlated with the use of preservatives and not-fresh ingredients?  How is this different from saying that food made by boys tastes better than food made by girls?

I say stop the hate.  Cupcakes should be a symbol of love, and friendship, and equality, not a vehicle for misrobothropy.

About a month ago I was hanging out at CoCo's Cupcake Cafe when owner Shea Mullen asked me "Hey, would you like to be a guest baker here sometime?"  My initial reaction was "Are you crazy?!?!  I'm an engineer, not a baker!!"  I thought about it for a little while and realized that I would probably never get an opportunity like this again, so I accepted.

Last Saturday I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30am and headed over to CoCo's for the morning baking shift.  I watched the sun rise over Pittsburgh's rivers and bridges as I drove to Shadyside -- what a beautiful way to start the day!  I found the amazingly awake and alert Kristen bustling around the bakery, getting the kitchen ready for the day's work.  She immediately set me to the task of measuring the water and sugar for the italian meringue buttercreams.  After I got the pot on the stove she assigned me the job of making all of the vegan cakes.  Exciting!  She handed me the recipes out of CoCo's big binder of secrets and I got to work.

After I finished mixing the batter (with a whisk -- no mixers here, CoCo's is hardcore) Kristen handed me a scale and had me divide the batter in half.  She added cocoa powder and red food coloring to one of the batches and had me whisk it together.  Dark streaks of purple combined with swirls of beige and red to form the vegan red velvet batter.  Pretty!
After Kristen examined my batter for lumps she grabbed an ice cream scoop and quickly filled an extra-large cupcake-pan.  Her speed was incredible; it was almost like watching one of those industrial factory robots!  When she was finished she turned to me and asked "Hey, do you want to turn the regular batch into Vegan Blacktops?"  "YES!!" I shrieked.  She handed me a bag of super dark cocoa powder and a small spoon and told me to put a spoonful of cocoa powder onto the top of each cupcake.  Then she took a toothpick and swirled the cocoa powder into the batter.  Finally she popped the tray into the convection oven.  In the whole time it took me to do two batches of vegan cupcakes, Kristen finished about four batches of regular chocolate and vanilla cakes.  Crazy!
Next Kristen had me chop up five pounds of butter for the buttercream.  (The sugar water I had put on the stove earlier had been combined with egg whites in the industrial sized mixer, and the concoction had been blending for quite some time.)  When the mixer bowl was cool to the touch Kristen had me slowly add the butter.  After I finished with the buttercream Kristen had me heat up some heavy cream and pour it on top of some chopped chocolate to make a big bowl of chocolate ganache.
Next Kristen frosted the Vegan Blacktop and Vegan Red Velvet cupcakes and dipped a third of the chocolate and vanilla cakes into the ganache to make the Audrey and Dark Side of the Moon cupcakes.  She even let me frost some of the Vegan Blacktops and dip some of the Dark Sides and Audreys.  Man, dipping those cupcakes in ganache is way harder than it looks!  I dropped a couple into the ganache; luckily the ganache was really thick so they didn't sink very far before I fished them out.  I tried gripping the cakes harder so that they wouldn't slip out of my hand, but then they ended up with dents on the bottom.  Augh!
Next we baked some Spicy Chocolate, Honey Spice, and Lemon Mint cupcakes for a wedding tasting that afternoon.  I got the fun task of sprinkling chili powder and cardamom on top of the Spicy Chocolate batter and swirling it in with a toothpick.  Kristen tackled the Honey Spice cakes while I made the Lemon cakes.  This time the recipe was a bit more complicated so I got to use a mixer.  Woot!

Kristen wasn't happy with the first batch of Honey Spice cupcakes, so she re-did them.  I thought they tasted amazing (especially warm), though they were a bit denser and more buttery than usual, almost like Honey Spice muffins.  (Kristen also culled some lopsided chocolate and vanilla cupcakes from the earlier batches -- CoCo's has very high aesthetic and taste standards.)  The upside to having high standards is lots of rejects to eat.  Yum!
As the second batch of Honey Spice cupcakes baked we prepared a couple of special orders.  Kristen had me pick and clean some mint leaves and raspberries for a batch of Audreys for a wedding shower.  She also handed me a huge bag of silver dragees and asked me to put them on the top of some Ellsworth and Vanilla/Chocolate cupcakes.  I carefully settled a single dragee on the peak of each cupcake.  By this point the ganache cupcakes had cooled enough to decorate, and we carefully placed fondant crescent moons and flowers on all of the Dark Sides and Audreys.
Next Kristen made the lemon mint frosting for the Lemon Mint cupcakes while I grated some lemon zest for garnish.  She frosted each cupcake while I followed behind sprinkling lemon zest on top.   I began carrying trays of completed cupcakes out to the display case.  By the time I finished placing the vegan cupcakes and ganche-covered cupcakes in the display case, Kristen had finished frosting all of the buttercream cupcakes.  Crazy!  She pulled out a big box of sprinkles and we split up the task of decorating the buttercream cupcakes.  Unfortunately I didn't check the alignment of the lid on my shaker and when I slowly tipped it over the first cupcake a downpour of orange nonpareils came out.  Oops.  Hopefully some small child enjoyed the vanilla chocolate cupcake completely covered in orange sprinkles...
As I took the buttercream cupcakes to the display case Kristen prepared the Tiramisu cupcakes by poking a hole in the top of the chocolate cakes, pouring a mixture of coffee and Kahlua inside, and then filling the hole with coffee and Kahlua cream cheese frosting.  She frosted the Tiramisu cupcakes and I transferred them to the display case while she made the peanut butter frosting for the Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcakes.  She handed me a pastry bag full of peanut butter frosting and had me frost half of the cupcakes.  They didn't come out quite as even as hers, but hopefully nobody noticed.  I put the ones I frosted on the back of the tray in the display case, haha.

Lastly we decorated the cupcakes for the wedding tasting.  (And by "we" I mean "Kristen".)  She did an amazing job of frosting some Lemon Mint cupcakes to look like gorgeous yellow flowers while I took a handful of white fondant and attempted to dye it "eggplant".  After my fondant passed Kristen's inspection she showed me how to roll it out and cut shapes from it.  She sliced off some long thin strips to make some bows for the Honey Spice cupcakes, and handed me some tiny flower cookie cutters so I could make some fondant flowers for the Spicy Chocolate cupcakes.  She carefully shaved some white and dark chocolate into long rolls for the chocolate bliss cupcakes, and arranged all of the cupcakes on a silver platter for the tasting.  Beautiful!
We finished up the cupcakes just as the shop opened at 11am, and after that it was dishes time.  I spent the next twenty minutes washing various dishes (including a mixer bowl the size of a small bathtub) while Kristen wiped down our workspaces and cleaned up the kitchen.  After we finished cleaning up Kristen headed home (crazy how you can do a full day's work before noon!), while I helped Ananda (the other owner of CoCo's) arrange the cupcakes for the wedding tasting on a tiered serving platter.  I hung around CoCo's for another hour or so.  Amai stopped by with some friends and they tried the Vegan Blacktop and Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes that I helped make.  They seemed to like them which was reassuring -- I'd have felt feel terrible if I'd messed up any cupcakes that people actually paid for!  Shortly after Amai and her friends left I decided to go home.  I was so excited the previous night that I hadn't been able to sleep at all, and by 2pm I was ready for a nice, long nap.

Well, that was my experience being a guest baker at a cupcakery.  I had a wonderful time and I'm so thankful to Shea and Kristen for letting me pretend to be a professional cupcaker for a day.  Hopefully I wasn't too much of a distraction!

I've been posting about trademarks a lot recently, and I got an e-mail a couple of days ago from Craig Snyder, a trademark attorney in New York.  Craig explained that my understanding of the importance of Classes wasn't quite complete.  (Unsurprising given that I'm not a lawyer and don't really know what I'm talking about. )  Here's what he had to say:

Courts and the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) do not really focus so much on Classes of registration. The test they both use is whether there is a "likelihood of confusion" among consumers.  They look first at the appearance, sounds and meanings of the marks.  They then consider the respective goods or services.  This can include many factors such channels of distribution, sophistication of consumers, whether the goods are complementary, etc.  The Class of registration is not specifically considered...

Given this standard, Johnny Cupcakes (the apparel company) clearly has a strong case against Johnny Cupcakes (the cupcakery), as it's very likely that customers would be confused and think that the clothing company had opened up a bakery.  So, I just wanted to apologize for giving out bad information and saying that Johnny Manganiotis had a case for Class 43 (Hotels & Restaurants).  Again, I'm not an attorney, and my posts on legal matters do not constitute legal advice and should not be taken as such.

Given that there are currently nine stores in our database with "babycakes" in the name, I was curious to see if anyone had registered a "babycakes" mark.  There are currently eight "live" trademarks that include the word "babycakes".  (Go here and search for "babycakes".)  Four are not in food-related classes.  "Babycakes Baking Company" is registered in Class 43 (hotels & restaurants) by Babycakes Baking Company LLC in Seal Beach, CA, which I'm assuming is the cupcakery of the same name.  "Babycakes" is registered in Class 29 (meats & processed foods) by McCain Foods USA, Inc. in Oakbrook, IL.  "Babycakes Dessert * Drink * Dine" is registered in Class 43 (hotels & restaurants) by StavRio, Inc. in Carlsbad, CA.  I wasn't able to Google anything useful on these guys, but they filed for the mark on January 28th so it's possible they haven't made any public announcements yet.  And last, but not least, "Babycakes" is registered in Class 30 (staple foods) by Lone Star Consolidated Foods, Inc. in Dallas, TX.  Now, there is a special-order cupcakery by that name in Austin, but I don't think it's the same people considering that Babycakes in Austin opened on February 14, 2006 and the Babycakes trademark was registered on January 3rd, 1992.  Does this mean that all five cupcakeries called "Babycakes" are infringing on Lone Star's mark?  I don't know, I'm not an attorney, but maybe Craig could shed some light on that.

Another interesting thing I learned from Craig is that if you want to trademark a "mark", it's not just enough to make sure that nobody else has registered for that mark.  On your trademark application, you have to sign a declaration affirming:

"...to the best of his knowledge and belief no other person, firm, corporation, or other entity has the right to use the above-identified mark in commerce, either in the identical form thereof or in such near resemblance thereto as to be likely, when used on or in con­nection with the goods or services of such other person, to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive..."

In other words, you have to swear that to the best of your knowledge, nobody else is using that mark in the same type of commerce, even if they have not filed a trademark for it.  Yikes!

What's the lesson here?  If you want to be able to protect your business name, you must pick a unique name and you should file a trademark for it.  Google Search is your friend!

Also, Craig does a lot of work for startups and small businesses.  If any bakeries out there are interested in his services, you can check out his website.