Eating my words

Well, it seems I may owe Kate McEachern an apology.

In my Best Food Moments of 2009 post, while extolling the virtues of my awesome Italian buttercream frosting, I challenged Ms. Cupkate to a Bobby Flay-style Throwdown.

Of course, I did this before actually tasting one of her cupcakes. Oops.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Bay Area street food scene, a bit of an introduction.  As implied by the clever name, Cupkates is a mobile cupcakery founded by Kate McEachern, who baked as a hobby in her student years at UC Berkeley. After an internship at Chez Panisse, which McEachern describes herself as "quite possibly the worst intern in the program’s history," she went on to a successful publishing career - serving as managing editor of Dwell magazine for several years then moving on ChefsBest, a company dedicated to sensory tasting - before starting Cupkates last year. Now she drives around Berkeley in an awesome polka-dotted truck (converted from a mail truck) selling her tasty treats to college kids, foodies and everyone else in between.

Earlier this week, Cupkates rolled out a new flavor: salted caramel. Now, salt + caramel = one of my most favorite taste combinations in the world, so I was eager to try one. I caught up with the van on a stop at 10th and Heinz Streets in Berkeley and ordered up a couple to bring home for dessert. It's only a minor miracle that I was able to keep myself from devouring them before that evening.

They were worth the wait.

I think this is quite possibly the best cupcake I've ever had in my life. I don't know why, but I was expecting the cake itself to be vanilla flavored. Maybe because I eat salted caramel often as an ice cream topping and it's always with vanilla ice cream. The cake turned out be chocolate, and it turned out be wonderful: moist, spongy, flavorful but not overwhelming. And the salt. Wow, I just can't tell you how much I loved the salt. I don't know what kind it was. The grains were larger than kosher salt - they almost resembled tiny flecks of coconut - and the flavor was more complex.  And it just complemented the sweetness of the caramel frosting just perfectly.  I can't wait to get back to Cupkate's to try some of her other flavors - s'mores, Twinkie and her signature red velvet.

In the meantime, perhaps I'll work on upping my cupcake baking skills before I go mouthing off again. I actually still think my frosting can hold its own; it's just the cake part that needs developing. But I do like a good challenge - and now I have a standard to work up to.

On another note entirely - what do you think about the new template? I checked out some free Blogger template sites but they had so many choices, I got overwhelmed and just went with a different stock one.  Remember, I'm a Libra and I have a hard time making decisions.  I'd love to hear your feedback on whether this one or the previous one looks better. Thanks!


The deets: Cupkates mobile bakery, various locations in Berkeley. Check the website at www.cupkatesbakery.com or follow on Twitter @cupkatestruck to find locations and times.