Many, many special order cupcakes were baked this past Saturday. 14 dozen in all.

We’re slowly converting the older cupcake photos to new and improved solo shots. Check out the Menu Page for the entire collection.

Mocha

Carrot

Burnt Almond

Here’s a snapshot of a recent experiment: our ever-popular devil’s food cake with a snappy orange buttercream frosting, topped with candy oranges and leaves.

We’re still tweaking recipes every day here at Snack HQ. In fact, we just perfected our Hazelnut frosting. It is, I believe, my favorite frosting to date. Combining a rich hazelnut flavor with a deep chocolate undertone. Mmmmmm. None of that is going to waste, no sir.

Previously we had a delicious light meringue that would never quite lock in. If we didn’t rush it into the fridge, it would droop and appear to melt. Not very appealing, I have to admit. For that and other reasons we are cycling out the meringue from our recipes and going with the more traditional buttercream. I’m sure as we come up with new takes on it, our beloved meringue will return.

I’ve always had the impression that Sprinkles was trying too hard to be the Starbucks of cupcake shops. The overtly branded “cupcake experience” style of marketing they do has always rubbed me the wrong way. But to be fair, I figured I had to witness that experience first hand, to give them a chance to win me over. So, while in Los Angeles for a few days, I took the opportunity to visit their flagship store in Beverly Hills (a few blocks down from Rodeo Drive).

I discovered that the more I try to harsh on the Sprinkles buzz, the more I run into another brilliant little innovation of theirs. In person I found their color coding system of flavors confusing, and the menu painted on their back wall hard to decipher. I was ready to slam them for it right here on this blog (and I guess I kind of just did). But then I discovered that their knives and forks are made out of wood, just like a popsicle stick, with the Sprinkles logo burned into them. Damn I wish I’d thought of that.

Sprinkles is a streamlined, spartan operation — a food boutique, for sure. And will ultimately become a cupcake juggernaut, much like Starbucks before it. But competition is what pushes you forward and keeps you innovating, and we couldn’t ask for a better competitor.

I just found this amazing archive of Hostess snack food ads featuring Marvel and DC superheroes of the 1970s. An interesting foreshadowing of the comic book/snack cake fusion we intend to unleash soon.