Vanilla Moon Project

/

Greetings Cupcake Lovers, my apologies for the delay in this edition of the Vanilla Moon Project. I lost my blog post on the way to Portland. Or Jackson ate it. Or something like that. In the meantime, my Key Lime post got picked up by the Cupcakes Take the Cake blog!

Okay, it's high time we move on to the Carrot Cake cupcake as reported by Jamie days ago.



Let's begin with the lavendar blossom that perfectly echoes
the plum walls of the cupcakery.


I treated my darling husband to a double espresso.
He said two things: "That is some crema!" (about the Caffe del Doge) and
"I've been let into the inner circle" (about being invited to Vanilla Moon with me and Jamie).


Here she is, Miss Nutmeg, aka a Carrot Cake Cupcake.



Here are Miss Nutmeg's innards: hearty chunks of carrot and raisins.
And cake, duh.
The Review:

This time I ate my breakfast cupcake in the proper order, icing first. Well there wasn't much need to go further after getting that creamy cream cheese topping in my mouth. It was a swirl of nutmeg-laced heaven melting preciously upon my tongue. It was light and airy. I am spotting a baking trend here in my third week as a cupcake reviewer.

I actually do not care for raisins in things like salads, granola or carrot cake. I like my raisins on the rocks per se. I like them pure. Nonetheless, I was impressed by the size of this puppy in my cupcake. Too bad I didn't have Jaden with me this time, it was practically a salad as far as he is concerned.

All in all, another delightful cupcake. I can't rate it as high as the Key Lime cupcake because I am nothing if not biased for my favorite flavor.

As a very pleasant aside, the fine folks who run this fine cupcakery missed us! We normally do our tastings on Tuesdays but this time went on a Friday and they said, "We were getting worried you didn't like us anymore."

NOT LIKE YOU ANYMORE?!!!
Are you people livin la vida loca? :)


Friday Poems

/

Untitled

I am very alone right now
This moment has me by myself
If I were feeling healthier
I would play my guitar
And make up songs
To sing for life
All the air would hear
As the same way
Birds sing in the morning
Only now I understand
Them more because
I am now likened unto them
And their song
Sings to my heart
With a new meaning of life
Yet I have always loved them
Perhaps this moment inside me
Always knew it would come to pass
Maybe in your life
There are moments waiting
Such as this one was in mine
Also I guess I'll never want to die
As long as there are moments waiting
How about you?

I guess he ran out of moments.
Because he sure seemed to want to die as far as I could tell.

Or maybe I still don't understand much about anything at all and what I still see, ten years later, is him giving up on life when to him it was probably the acceptance of death.

The Twins

/

Ella came to sleep over at Nana's for her first time on Friday and Jaden joined the party as soon as humanly possible. There was backyard swimming, an impromptu birthday party for the "twins" and a dinner party (all of this on Friday). The "twins" proceeded to celebrate several ages as they turned 6, 9, 11 and 12 all in the course of 48 hours and changed names two or three times too.

There was a date for Jaden's weary parents involving a lovely bottle of wine at a local restaurant, lost sleep for Nana, a fight or two, a trip to the beach and a visit to Oma's before it was finally time to say goodbye. This time with Ella was the happiest I've seen Jaden in about a month.

Hugging goodbye


I think it's true love.
Thanks for the visit Ella!
Come back again sooner than soon.

The Vanilla Moon Project

/

We simultaneously discovered yesterday afternoon that our beloved cupcakery is closed on Mondays, but open bright and early every other day at 7:30 a.m. "Hmm," we thought, "cupcakes for breakfast?" Oh yes, there will indeed be cupcakes for breakfast.

A vase of sunshine said "Good Morning Bloggers!"



Aaron said, "We made the front page of the paper!"


I said, "Even the spoons here are beautiful!"


There was no decision to be made today.
The key lime cupcake won handily.


"Christie? What is this lime stuff oozing deliciously out of my cupcake?"
"Key lime SAUCE," she answered with a knowing smile.
"Jamie, I *have* to get a good shot of this SAUCE," I said.


People? This is how to eat a cupcake for breakfast.


The Review:

I had never even heard of a key lime cupcake but those of you who know me well know I heart key lime whatever. Plus it was the answer to No. 8. I ate this cupcake in reverse of my normal order, I ate the cake first. In the cake there is a hint of lime flavor, it is subtle but I was on high alert so I noticed it straight away.

Then, then, I hit the pocket of limey goodness that is pictured above. The key lime SAUCE (this is official terminology btw). This was the heart of the cupcake and the heart of my love for this cupcake. It was tart, cool and creamy. It was the highlight of my morning. It was the sun in my shine.

Finally I tried the meringue frosting. I was not even wanting any of it, I was so satiated by the key lime SAUCE. I must say this frosting was the very definition of airy. Fluffy! Light! Weightless! A little too sweet for me but I suspect that is because I ate this in reverse order.

I know last week I said I would get coconut this week. There was no coconut today so that is not my fault. Also I have the inalienable right as a woman to change my mind at any time. Plus I had no way of knowing last week that this week there would be key lime on the menu. So there was no competition and I give my highest marks to the key lime cupcake! A+!!!

This is Jessica Nichols reporting...
Jamie? Back to you.

Alameda Antiques Faire

/

Yesterday I finally made it to the famed Alameda Antiques Faire. Marsh and I did our maiden voyage together. It was fantastic, huge, fascinating, overwhelming, nostalgic, delicious and much, much more.

Enjoy the show!
{We sure did.}


All photos by me!
© Jessica Nichols

1. Does Not Compute, 2. Love Me Some Retro Fabric, 3. Hard Luck, Get It?, 4. What Up G?, 5. Blockheads, 6. Lost at Sea, 7. File Me, 8. Spillage, 9. Shipping and Receiving, 10. A Couple Of Metal Js, 11. The Bell Tolls, 12. Throw Away The Key, 13. Keep The Key, 14. Pair A Sol, 15. Treasure Trove, 16. Who is the Fairest?, 17. Bicyclette, 18. Blue Heat, 19. My Grandma's Valise, 20. My Grandma's Other Valise, 21. Blue Seat, 22. En Francais, 23. Daisy Cokes, 24. Texturized, 25. Error Repeat, 26. Victor Counto, 27. Sunny Side Up, 28. Formica Baby, 29. Rook Shack, 30. For the Love of the J, 31. 2 is the Loneliest Number, 32. Rack Em Up, 33. Mother and Child Reunion, 34. Girlyness, 35. Measure Twice

The Mystery of the Cattle Herd

/
The Mystery of the Cattle Herd
April 11, 1979

I will leave this image very large so you can click on it & actually read the text.

I found this little treat in one of my famous plastic bins last night. I remember writing and illustrating stories endlessly as a young girl. Sadly the picture is missing. I found a few other little treats in there too. In time, my friends, in time.


The Author Herself

This was either my 2nd or 3rd grade photo so pretty close to the time the mystery was written. This was the famous Dorothy Hamill haircut I begged for, except the bangs. My dad must have trimmed them himself. I discovered so much in this bin last night. This is shortly after my dad got custody of me for example.

The Vanilla Moon Project

/

Jamie and I are proud to introduce a special joint blogging project about Vanilla Moon, a new cupcakery in our town. It opened last week and sold out of cupcakes almost entirely by the time we arrived. Today there were plenty and we arrived prepared with cameras, notebooks and little boys. We were ready to Cupcake.

The adorable business card.


Today's menu.



Jaden and I shared the Red Velvet.


Yeah Mr. Milk -- we got you.


All gone already?



The Review:

This was my first red velvet experience of any kind. Honestly I've been a bit fearful of the red, not so much the velvet. I am happy to report that the Red No. 40 has not killed me yet. ;) In fact, it was flavorless.

This cupcake was very moist. Did I think the dye would suck the juice right out or something? Hmm. Jaden has never eaten red food like this either. It didn't slow down the inhalation factor one iota.

The frosting was very, very light. Fluffy like a cloud. Not too sweet, which I really appreciated. Overall this was a very delicious cupcake! I was surprised how light and delicate it turned out to be. I guess I expected it to be dense, rich and too sweet.

Next week, I believe I will enforce my maternal powers and get the coconut. Sadly Jaden has taken after his father and informed me that he is "not too fond of coconut Mama."

Now I wonder what did Jamie try?


What did she see with her camera?

The Flickr Game

/

Daydream Lily played, then Ana played and now I want to play too.

The Flickr Game

A. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
B. Using only the first page, pick an image.
C. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into a mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.




The link names above reflect my answer to each question. You will really miss out on some of the Interestingness if you don't click through the 12 photos to see how the photographer titled their photos; for example and especially, this one and that one.

And that's just one!