Just like regular cake, only, well, you know.

New York was the first place we stopped during our recent trip. I had originally thought we might do various touristy NYC things, but once we arrived and were settled into our friends' lovely Brooklyn brownstone, we quickly realized that what we really wanted to do was take it easy, hang out with our friends, and maybe go on a few walks. On our first day we visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Our friend Katia, who was graciously showing us her city, took pity on us when it was clear we'd need caffeine in order to continue. (I plead jetlag, despite the mere 3-hour time difference between the West and East Coasts. I'm sure it had nothing to do with getting approximately 15 hours sleep over the four days before leaving for New York. Nothing at all.) We stopped at a coffee place across the street from the scary-strict Brooklyn Co-op (where Mr. Elinoire and I, as non-members, were NOT allowed to buy anything so you'd better believe we didn't even THINK about it) and as we were ordering, I noticed a case of cupcakes.

(Mmm, cupcakes. Just like regular cake, only you usually get more frosting and you aren't morally obligated to share with anyone, which is usually not the case with an entire cake. Not that I'd ever attempt to eat an entire cake by myself because I am far, far too virtuous.)

Mr. Elinoire chose a reasonably-sized black and white-topped cupcake but I went for the larger cappuccino cupcake with the mini milk chocolate chips on the top.



We walked a little further and then sat at the base of a statue at the edge of Prospect Park and dug in. And that was when I discovered that 1. my ginormous cupcake had extra frosting in the middle, and 2. no way was I going to be able to finish it on my own. Luckily Katia and Mr. Elinoire were willing to help. Wasn't that nice of them?



Our trip fell between my birthday, which we celebrated with Chinese food before we left, and Mr. Elinoire's, which we celebrated with Italian food about two weeks after we got home. His family has an odd* chocolate-cake-with-green-frosting tradition that I have occasionally incorporated into the birthday cakes I make for him. This year's version was my own little homage to the Brooklyn Cappuccino Cupcake. Here is a birthday cupcake from the outside:



I made the cake from a mix (shhh) but used very strong coffee instead of water for a richer taste. The frosting is pre-made (shhh again) vanilla with green food coloring, and then grated bits of (genuine Swiss!) chocolate on the top. Each cake has coffee whipped cream** in the center. They were a big hit, if I do say so myself.



Plus? Tonight? After I took the pictures of the Last of the Birthday Cupcakes? Sylvie found the just-out-of-the-dryer load in the little laundry basket and decided to do her own imitation of a New York City cupcake. Awww.



*To be fair, it's not any odder than my family's tradition of dropping lines from this fabulous work into normal conversation.

**This was the first time I'd made "stabilized" whipped cream and I was very pleased with the result. I just added about a third of an envelope of plain dry gelatin to the cream, sugar, and veryveryVERYstrong*** coffee mixture and whipped it up.

***As in "so strong it would make any child who bit into the cupcake expecting frosting and chocolate cake and instead found the equivalent of a double latte inside cry because yuck! coffee!"