And finally…Cupcakes: My First Gourmet Cupcakes Ever.

Finally. A post about cupcakes.

The legend starts here. 😉

My journey in cupcakes began in 2011 at a bakery called Sugar Kneads Cakery in Loganville, GA. They weren’t always focused on cupcakes (they still make other delicious stuff too), but after being on Cupcake wars, they moved to their current location (which I will post at the end of this blog) and began pumping out more  and more delicious cupcakes.

The first thing I had from them was a blond brownie (this was at the old location) and it was scrumptious, but today, we focus on the cupcakes.

In case you’re wondering, I have an exceptionally good taste memory (sometimes I recreate restaurant dishes for fun) so that’s how I can review a cupcake from 2 years ago.

Here we go.

The cupcake on the left is the Pumpkin Cupcake and the one on the right is the Snickers Cupcake. The fact that one is a pumpkin cupcake confirms my suspicion that I got these cupcakes in late October of 2011. (Also, my computer told me when the picture was taken).

Pumpkin Cupcake Review

A lightly spiced fall flavored cupcake.

The Pumpkin Cupcake’s greatest attribute lies in its frosting. It is mildly yet tastefully flavored so if you are expecting to taste pumpkin pie in a cupcake, you may be disappointed, but if you just want a nice fall cupcake with accents of pumpkin and spice then you may like it. It smelled good too.

Mmmm that frosting…I kind of want one now.

Le Snickers Cupcake

A chocolate cupcake with caramel and chocolate drizzle on the frosting topped with a piece of Snickers candy bar.

This cupcake was fantastic. I guess you can’t go very wrong with a Snickers cupcake. It was really sweet, but not overpoweringly so. I wish there had been more than one Snicker on the top, but I guess that wouldn’t have looked as awesome.

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Speaking of awesome looking, Sugar Kneads is a very cute shop (like most cupcake shops) and they have a pink theme which includes pink boxes. I don’t even like pink and I was still a fan. I’m pretty sure I saved my first box for quite a while.

I can’t really decide which of the two I liked better. The Pumpkin Cupcake had more of a refined taste and the Snickers Cupcake was more of an easy crowd pleaser, but between the both of them, it was a great beginning to a cupcake obsession.

So glad I saved the moment in a picture.

The only critique I can think of for these cupcakes is that they were a little dry. If you like moist cupcakes, this may bother you, but if you tend to like a dryer cupcake….well I think you see were this is going.

The high points were:

The frosting on both.

The delicious spices in the Pumpkin Cupcake.

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I toyed with the idea of setting up a numerical rating system for my cupcake reviews, but I’m not sure that would even be helpful considering everyone’s tastes are different. Because of this, I think it would make more sense to just describe the cupcakes and let YOU decide what you think of them if (and hopefully when) you taste them. If I change my mind…well I guess my mind will have been changed.

I have so many cupcakes since these that I was also itching to write about, but I had to start with the cupcakes that started it all. 🙂 (Other cupcakes, wait your turn!)

Check out Sugar Kneads. I’ve been there several times now and it’s always enjoyable.

They also do wedding cakes and a bunch of other sweet stuff.

678-639-1134

150 Athens Hwy.
Suite 700
Loganville, GA 30052

http://sugarkneads.com/cupcakes/

And like ’em on facebook and tell them Cupcakes and the Universe blog sent you. (For extra points, also tell them this when you go to the store) 😉

https://www.facebook.com/sugar.kneads

Speaking of facebook, like the Cupcake and the Universe facebook page which now exists!

http://www.facebook.com/CupcakesAndTheUniverse

On the Facebook page, I will post shorter more bite sized (ha?) cupcake news, new posts when I put up a new blog, and other cool stuff. Join me and the cupcakes. We’re lonely.

Until next time Cupcake Nomads.

-Vanessa from the Universe.

Dealing With Wabbledoing Wabbledoos. (Difficult People and Comments on Boston)

Firstly, what is a Wabbledoo:

A censor word used when an internet commenter does not wish to use profanity explicitly.It was first used by violinist Lindsey Stirling to replace profanity on her website. Amid her rise in popularity, her fans and other internet commenters used this word (with variations) in place of curse words on other websites such as Youtube and Facebook. Holy Wabbledoo! She rocks my socks off! STWU already! We heard you the past thousand wabbledooing times!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wabbledoo

Yes, I got this from Urban Dictionary, but being a gigantic fan of Lindsey Stirling I already knew of the word and it’s many meanings before this.

Who are the Wabbledoos I speak of today?

This semester, I have had the unfortunate “privilege” of dealing with some very difficult people; mostly people in positions of authority. I won’t reveal names here because while I like to rant, it is not my intention to turn this in to a bashing blog. Also, I would just end up feeling really pissed off when I finished writing.

The first person I had to deal with was a housing official at my University. She basically told me that I should not be concerned about the room shaking bass/subwoofer(s) of the people below and to the side of me because:

“This is a residence hall, not a dorm, we have activities here and we want people to be able to live however they want to.”

?????

So let’s just forget about people that actually pay a butt-ton of money because they actually want to get an education, right? #WhosleepsanywayamIright??

The next person I had to deal with was one of my supervisors. I have two jobs and both of them are music teaching jobs. One of my supervisors was being really rough with a child as she adjusted her violin posture.

This really offended me especially because the child was the only one of her race in that class and this supervisor has verbally expressed preference of teaching one race of child over another.

My thought process:

1. OMGsh this is terrible!

2. Oh I’m already dealing with so much other stuff. Do I want to put my job in jeopardy too?

3. This is how it all happened at the Holocaust. People in the middle, like me, did not stand up to people at the top, like this teacher, to protect people at the bottom, like this child. If I don’t do something, I am no better than a Nazi.

I mean no disrespect whatsoever to survivors of the Holocaust. Actually I mean this to show

1. How events like the Holocaust should inspire us all to make sure that things like this never happen again even on the smallest level. And

2. Um..I forgot what two was.

Also, just a heads up, I go through deep thinking processes like this a lot, so yeah.

So I positioned myself to help the child out for the remainder of the orchestra rehearsal so the supervisor wouldn’t come over again, and then I talked with the supervisor afterwards.

She got mad of course.

But it’s ok because I would have felt like less of a human if I hadn’t said anything. Integrity of values is important, guys.

The last situation I’m going to talk about is a professor. One of my professors.

**huge sigh** So this professor and I started out great last semester, but this semester things went south. (And we’re already in Georgia so you know that can’t be good.)

I could tell she was getting angry when I asked questions or made the slightest mistake. This was a really small class so it is super obvious when someone is taking stuff personally or singling out a student.

At first I thought: “Oh maybe shes’s on her monthly or PMSing or something.

But then more than a mouth passed.

Awkward.

So after a lot of tension and bad feelings all around, I went to her office to apologize for the latest thing she was mad at me for (“You better apologize” she told me) and then I broke down crying.

Only then when I was broken did she “attempt to understand me.”

This included her telling me that she thought that I was being lazy and insolent and trying to escape the system.

What the Wabbledoo?

But actually I suspected this already. It was just weird to have someone come out and be like “Oh by the way, I think you’re a low life and I don’t really like you much.”

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo….

I’m not really sure what to do about this teacher. However, I saw something on the book of faces the other day that made me think.

It was a heated angry response to the bomber in Boston.

The person said we should “torture them and burn them alive.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that this response is the kind of solution we need.

Yes people who bomb people randomly are beyond Wabbledoos.

But many people also thought Jews were beyond Wabbledoos in the Holocaust.

I think a famous quote by Pastor Martin Niemöller is applicable here.

First they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

The point here is: We can’t fight fire with fire or else we we all be burned. I am NOT saying the bombers should not be punished. I am saying that having this un-controlled anger is not ok. It is not ok for a teacher to have towards a student. It is not ok for a professor to have towards me. It is not ok for bombers to perform terrible acts, but it is also not ok for us to perform terrible acts in response.

Uphold integrity, speak out, don’t fight fire with fire, maintain your humanity even if others do not.

And here some peaceful music and a peaceful photo for you after this rather, long deep post. I promise I will write about cupcakes eventually. 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHCoApWlgt0

Photo Courtesy of Phoebe Clark.

Music Courtesy of  Gilbert Medam.

Click the link for real.

The Point of Everything (….or at least just this blog)

The universe is quite a large thing to tackle. Sometimes the best way to achieve a large goal is to divide it into half or more. So I divided the universe in half: cupcakes and everything else. 

My obsession with cupcakes began about two years ago when I

1. Watched the FoodNetwork show “Cupcake Wars”

2. Found out one of my favorite bakeries was on the show.

3. Went to their new location and tried a gourmet cupcake for the first time.

4. Yum

Since then, I have traveled the world (ok just the South-East, USA) in search of deliciousness in cupcake format and now I feel the need to talk about it.

However, it would be futile to define myself only by a single type of sweet baked goods, and thus: THE UNIVERSE. I am a musician, writer, poet, and a Vanessa, and I hope to share some deep, inspiring thoughts, and fun anecdotes with you. Welcome to Cupcakes and the Universe.