Short & Sweet Cupcakes

Short & Sweet Cupcakes

1945 Avenue Road

Toronto, ON M5M 4A2

Tel: (416) 519-6633

After hearing about Short & Sweet Cupcakes, I told Howard that I wanted to check it out. The shop is right on Avenue Road, visible by the hot pink signs and chairs.

Inside, the shop is nice and bright, we can see the full cupcake trays and friendly staff working on grabbing cupcakes for the steady stream of families that came in.

The window display - looks like it's a back-to-school theme!

All the cupcakes are behind a glass pane, seated on trays or cake stands, and they're clearly labeled!

There's the gigantic menu hanging on the wall. Luckily for us, all the flavours are available on Saturday.

We picked the Lemon Drop Cupcake, a lemon cupcake with raspberry buttercream. The cupcake is dense, but the texture was fine - it just depends if you prefer light airy cakes over the pound cake versions. The frosting is piled on a garnished with a lemon candy. The cupcake didn't reach a strong citrus or tart flavours that I love in lemon and raspberry, but was still enjoyable.

Our second choice was their seasonal cupcake for August - the Banana Split. This was a banana cupcake with a chocolate ganache filling, topped with vanilla buttercream, chocolate drizzle and sprinkles. The chocolate ganache was delicious, but that frosting to cake ratio was too high for us. You can see the two levels of buttercream swirls piled on top of the cupcake. It just made the cupcake really, really sweet for us, and over powered the banana flavour.

It's not in our neighbourhood, but while we were there for the short period of time, lots of families came in to buy cupcakes. There was one funny conversation that we overheard between a mother and daughter:

"Mom, can we buy the bottle of sprinkles so that I can eat them all?"

"Err... maybe next time."

"Oh I can't wait! I'm going to eat all the sprinkles."

You might have noticed that there were two mini cupcakes in our first photo. The owners were kind enough to offer samples to the children and seeing us with our cupcakes, gave each of us one too. That mini chocolate cupcake was yummy, we simply can't resist fudge-like buttercream!

The Designer Cookie

The Designer Cookie
292 Eglinton Avenue West
Toronto, ON M4R 1B2
(416) 619-1197

The next place we went to was the Designer Cookie! Despite the name of the shop, they do have cupcakes here. Howard and I weren't sure why the gigantic sign was covering the menu, but at least we were given a rundown of all the cupcake flavours.

They have regular sized cupcakes and mini ones - always, always pick mini if you want to sample more flavours!

Here were all the available flavours that Saturday - from top to bottom, left to right: banana caramel, Oreo, crème brûlée, cinnamon, chocolate, and red velvet.

My favourite one? Probably the crème brûlée! While it was really sweet, I liked the crunch of the toppings.

Prairie Girl Bakery

There's a new bakery in the city! We had been planning to visit since the opening, but have been blaming the cold weather for my resistance to leave the office.

Easter Monday wasn't a weather-friendly day either, but enough waiting. We took the chance and luckily didn't get rained on. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me, but my colleague Jen did (yes, the same Jen that went with me on my first NYC Cupcake Tour). So all the photos in this post are courtesy of Jennifer Lum:

Prairie Girl Bakery

Suite 106, 18 King Street East

Toronto, ON M5C 1C4

(416) 504-2253

When you first step into Prairie Girl Bakery, you'll notice how clean, bright, and spacious it is. There will be customers in line and ordering cupcakes, but you won't mind the wait because you'll be distracted by this wall:

Don't you wish you had cupcake drawers like this at home? They even slide out:

Very clever and what a practical way to store and keep track of all the cupcakes.

There's also some nice cupcake art hanging on the walls.

But let's go back to the cupcakes, Prairie Girl Bakery offers two cupcake sizes: regular and mini. Five cupcake bases: dark cocoa, golden buttermilk, red velvet, banana, and carrot. The dark cocoa and golden buttermilk can be paired with many different icing flavours. The red velvet and carrot are matched with cream cheese icing, while banana gets its own peanut butter icing.

We went with half a dozen mini cupcakes in order to sample as many as we could that day. We tried: Vanilla Lemon, Chocolate Peppermint, Chocolate Strawberry, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Carrot Cream Cheese, and their treat of the week: Cafe Au Lait (chocolate with coffee butter icing).

Back at the office, we sliced each cupcake in half for the taste test. All the cupcakes were spongy and light with a good texture (not too crumby). We found that the icings were also very soft and good in flavour. My favourite would have to be the Chocolate Strawberry. Most places don't get the strawberry flavour in the icing to be noticeable, but this one was. I think it's safe to say that I will be back for some more!

Collar Cupcakes

Well I heard you.

Batter photos make you lick your monitor.

What about this one?

Vanilla Cupcakes
Recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
(Makes about 36 mini cupcakes)

1 cup of all-purpose flour
3/4 cups of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of whole milk
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and have all ingredients at room temperature. Also have your cupcake liners ready.
2. With your electric mixer, beat the flour, sugar, baking powder, and butter on low speed until everything is combined.
3. Gradually pour in half the milk and mix.
4. Whisk the egg, vanilla extract, and remaining milk together. Then pour into the mixture.
5. Scrape and continue mixing until the batter is smooth.
6. Divide your batter evenly into the paper cups, about 2/3 full, and bake for 20-25 minutes. Or until a cake tester comes out clean.
7. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.
   

I wanted to make little collars. To do these, before you pour the cupcake batter in, take a pair of clean scissors and make a small cut. Then, fold down the left and right side to make a collar.
Don't you think these would be great for Father's Day, a corporate look, or as shirts? I think I'll add a bow tie next time!


Pink Grapefruit Buttercream

1 stick of unsalted butter
2 cups of confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons of honey
1/4 cup of grapefruit juice

1. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together.
2. Add in the honey and mix until combined.
3. Slowly add in the grapefruit juice until buttercream is smooth.
4. Optional: add one tiny drop of red food colouring or pink gel paste to dye the buttercream pink.
   

Bonus tip: The collars make it easier to rip off the shirt, err, I mean peel the liner from the cupcakes. Easier access! ;)

Sweet Gifts

Don't you love having a "thing" or hobby? I love it when co-workers and friends tell me about cupcake and baking things they've seen. Honestly, there are trip photos from friends where I get tagged as cupcakes or bakeries on facebook. So, I wanted to share some of the baking-related gifts I received this year! (Click here for last year's edition.) Maybe you'll spot something that you would like to put on your wishlist.

1. From the holidays, I got bubble bath cupcakes (thank you Pamela)! They come in these yummy scents: lemon meringue, apple strudel, orange chiffon, strawberry shortcake, blueberry cheesecake, and toasted coconut!

2. Howard found another set of flannel pajamas from La Senza! This year they had lots of cupcake patterns, we picked the pink and white set (the pattern is called "Sugar Spice" on the website).

3. The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf was on my wish list this year (recommended by Trilby). I want to thank Secret Santa Kurt for ordering a copy for me! I am looking forward to baking from this cookbook, recipe pages have already been tagged and noted. Thing to note, beautiful photography (by Peter Cassidy) and the recipes are very easy to follow. I really like how the recipes yield a dozen cupcakes. The cookbook includes lots of classic American favourites, so I think this would be the perfect nostalgic gift. If you have a copy, don't forget to read these tips from the publisher before baking. One day... we will visit the bakery in London!

4. This drool-worthy Cakes calendar was a birthday present. It boasts a year of scrumptious recipes. What a great way to start each month! Thank you to Kurt and Diana!

5. This book, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, was also a part of my Secret Santa bundle, so thanks again Kurt! It is written by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, photographs by Tina Rupp. This is such a beautiful cookbook - well done production and design! I really like the clean and simple ways their cakes and cupcakes are decorated. I am really looking forward to their next cookbook! My next trip to New York will have to include a stop at this bakery!
PS: Where do you get the little deer cupcake toppers on page 72??

6. For my birthday, we went to get mini cupcakes from Life is Sweet. I picked out earl grey with orange, butterscotch, lemon drop, white chocolate, double chocolate, and mango and lime. Sigh! While we were there, there was another couple taste-testing for an event (a wedding perhaps?).

7. Cute mini cupcake spatula/spoon! This mini set will be perfect for scraping the mixer's blade and for filling my smaller piping bags with frosting!

8. Cupcake cookie cutters from Howard's Secret Santa! Thank you to Megan for including these for me! =P

9. You see that small vintage pedestal holding the mini cupcakes? Birthday present from my brother, so thank you little brother! I know he doesn't understand ("What's wrong with regular plates?"), so even more gratitude for getting it for me. =)

10. My very sweet birthday card, thank you Howard. =)

On a random side note, after picking up my mini cupcakes on my birthday, we passed The Pie Shack/The Paw Shack. I had read about The Pie Shack in a bakery roundup from blogTO, so we quickly parked and went inside! Howard and I tried a slice of the apple cinnamon pie. Yummy pie crust! Howard also picked up the AAA Angus Beef Pie for later. We both want to let Tim know that we love the setup, decor, and the feel of the bakery, oh and Campbell? Such a well behaved collie!

Well now I'm curious, what kind of sweet gifts did you get over the holidays? Feel free to share links to the item or links to your blog in the comments below!

Kathy Lowinger

As some of you know, for my day job, I am a publicist at Tundra Books. This means I have the privilege of working with Publisher, Kathy Lowinger. Not many people are able to do what they love, but Kathy does, and all of us at Tundra happily feed off her energy and expertise.

Earlier this year, Kathy announced that she would be retiring. =(

So last week, we had a small get-together to toast Kathy's retirement. Naturally, I was on cupcake duty and with the help of everyone at Tundra, came up with these Kathy-themed cupcakes:

Books! This was an obvious one. I even gave one of the books a "starred" review. =)

Here are Bill and Kathy's pets: Mimsey (Hungarian Sheepdog), Rupert (Basset Hound), Abby (Boxer), and William Buster (Tabby).

Music note, treble clef, and a keyboard! Kathy loves playing the piano.

Swimsuits, we know Kathy will be lounging by the pool a lot more now!

Ballet slippers, Kathy owns quite a few pairs...

Camper shoes. Kathy really likes the ones with the strap over the foot!

This is Bill. Kathy's husband!

Thank you to everyone at Tundra for helping me with the Kathy-themed cupcakes! I love how well we know Kathy and I had a blast making them.

Kathy, we wish you all the best on your retirement!

Mini Cupcakes with Mini Eggs

Do you have a favourite seasonal candy? I have to say that I get a teeny tiny bit happy when I see Cadbury Mini Eggs back on the shelves!! I love the candy coated chocolates, in delicious egg-shaped bite sizes, and pretty speckled pastel colours! It is a good thing they're not made all year around!

It felt very Spring-like this weekend with all the drizzling rain. I attended a book launch on Saturday for Bradley McGogg, The Very Fine Frog. There was Cadbury mini eggs at this book launch too! Bradley McGogg is a picture book is about a finicky eater... but I wonder if Bradley would approve of cupcakes? For fun, I made some mini vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and a Cadbury mini egg nested in the middle!

Yellow, pink, and green!

Yummy mini cupcakes with mini eggs!


This is how I carry them to work!

Yellow Birthday Cupcakes

A close friend of ours needed cupcakes for her cousin's birthday! We were told he likes yellow and cookies & cream. So we made vanilla cupcakes topped with cookies & cream frosting and decorated with yellow fondant lettering. Happy 31st Birthday Alan!

Autumn Leaves Cupcakes

The leaves are changing colours. Yet, the weather is surprisingly gorgeous this long Thanksgiving weekend. We're going to look at the wonders of autumn in Algonquin Park. Also, lots of family friends are coming over to feast on turkey and treats! Naturally, desserts includes mini chocolate cupcakes with just a hint of maple syrup in the frosting. Topped with a leaf cookie of course! My cousin gobbled them up! As always, there are photos posted on our facebook page and flickr account!

1. Three frosting colours on the mini chocolate cupcakes.

2. Add the home-made cookie cutout of a leaf on the cupcakes.