Quite a bit of time has elapsed since my last entry. I apologize to the blog community. I have been somewhat side-tracked lately due to a sweet development in my life.
I. am. back.
A recent visit to my favorite domestic destination, New York City, consisted of an abundance
of delicious eats. The avenues were full of trendy, little eat spots and food truck vendors at every street corner. I hopped onto the subway and managed to find some time to dip into three cupcakeries in the area with a few recommendations from friendly locals: Crumbs Bake Shop, Sugar Sweet Sunshine and Magnolia Bakery. Crumbs happens to be the "talk" of what a cupcake is in New York City, but I would have to say the cupcakes are definitely overrated. They were definitely scaled larger than the average cupcake, but came nowhere close to a party in my mouth. Magnolia Bakery was a cute, hip little shop. The cupcakes were not too memorable either. Of all three, Sugar Sweet Sunshine definitely left a tasteful impression.
It was the light green cupcakes that caught my eye as I stepped into the shop: Pistachio, quite a rare flavor you will run into at a cupcake shop. I have searched high and low for a good pistachio-flavored cupcake. Houston has none that are worthy of bloggery. I left the shop with two pistachio cupcakes and an assortment of other flavors. I had a taste of one before I left the shop, and it was pure heaven. Pistachio nuts were consistent throughout the cake and for the finishing touch, crushed pistachio pieces were grazed on top.
This NYC trip took me back to my visit earlier this year to west coast. Not only was the San Diego weather beyond perfect, the pistachio cupcake I had at Babycakes was byfar the best I've had yet. The pistachio flavor resonated throughout the cupcake and to top it off, the icing was perfectly whipped and topped with dancing sprinkles. I would definitely make a trip out there again someday to snag me a nice dozen of these.
Being the intermittent health nut that I am as of late, as contradictory as it sounds with my routine consumption of cupcakes, I ran across some interesting health facts about pistachios:
1. The green color in pistachios come from lutein which helps to support eye health
2. Almost 90% of the fat found in pistachios is the healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats
3. A serving of pistachios has more potassium than half of a large banana
Spicy Cupcake Lady
