We had the huge honor of working with Enamor Events (www.enamoreventsblog.com) and a host of other great vendors for an Old Hollywood wedding photo shoot. Take a look at our cupcakes and the wonderful layout thanks to photographer Ricardo Navarro (http://ricknavarrophotography.com).
I took these pictures while everyone else was focused on the bride, aren't they awesome! These cupcakes are basic vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing, but I changed the icing color to match the theme and my wife and I added blue and blackberries and dark chocolate for decor and garnish. Crazy cool, right?
Another picture I shot after Ric took his professional pictures. He managed to make the cupcakes look elegant, without losing the edible factor. I hate cupcakes that look so good you don't want to eat them...I would eat these cupcakes any day!
Last but not least, a deliciously sweet vanilla cake that I made just to bring together the to types of cupcakes we created for the shoot. This gem did not make it into the spread, but I sliced it up for all of the vendors afterwards and it was a sweet way to wrap up everyone's hard work.
Cupcake Crawl - San Francisco, CA!
Cupcake Crawl: San Francisco, CA!
I love what we do with CupcakesEverywhere.com. Planning events, baking cupcakes, raising money and awareness and feeding people, wow, all make my heart smile. However, I would be fibbing if I didn’t admit that this event right here is probably close, if not at the top of my list of favorite things. Cupcake crawls!!!
I know I’m not changing the world, I’m not even baking or feeding folks, but traveling, meeting people and eating tons of cupcakes is super cool and I’m so lucky to get the opportunity to do this and tell you all about it! Panama City, Florida was a blast and now ladies and gentlemen, San Francisco, CA!
I had so much freaking fun visiting San Francisco. The double decker tour was informative and full of beautiful sites. The restaurants were a blast, lots of great food and great conversation as my wife and I traveling with friends. But one of the main highlights was the cupcake shops!
In my quest to find cupcake shops all over San Francisco, without a car, I found my handy iPhone tracker to be the best companion. I was actually walking down the street and pulled out my phone to check cupcake stores in the area and found one right across the street! Cako Cupcakes, @cakocalifornia was first on our mighty crawl! Their cupcakes were so delicious, my wife enjoyed the Red Velvet and Strawberry Cheesecake and I feel head over heels in love with an Expresso Chocolate Cupcake (which I learned is no longer on their menu online). It was also cool to find out that they were on Cupcake Wars, unfortunately they did not win, but being on the show is cool and an accolade all by itself.
Next up on our crawl was Kara’s Cupcakes, @karascupcakes. This establishment is the Wal-Mart of cupcake stores in San Francisco, CA. Not in a bad way of course, but in a we are located all over the city, more Yelp reviews and branding than anyone else kind of way. The great thing about this is you can’t miss them (hence several locations) the bad thing is this raises the bar when you eat one of their cupcakes. My wife and I enjoyed their cupcakes. I had their carrot and sweet vanilla and my wife tried a mini of their banana. * Side note, after the first stop my wife had to resort to mini’s, she was worried she wouldn’t be able to keep up otherwise. Overall, I enjoyed their cupcakes, they were good…I didn’t like the fondant toppers, I’m not a fan of fondant unless it’s for presentation and these small flowers, etc. didn’t take away from the cupcake, but it did not add much either.
The next day I was determined to visit a few more cupcake shops, plus, I had a Groupon for a shop that I had to redeem! I’m just has hardcore about my Groupons as I am about my cupcakes! So my wife and I were off on a mission to add some cupcake shops to our crawl. We found a trendy little area on Union Street in San Francisco and since neither of us were familiar with the transit system, we lucked out and with a mixture of walking, a trolley and a bus ride. We found American Cupcake (www.americancupcake.com) and That Takes The Cake (www.that-takes-the-cake.com) on our adventure!
Most places made my heart sing. American Cupcake was trendy with a cupcake bar atmosphere and adorable mini and regular size cupcakes to choose from. Between my wife and I we purchased 5 different flavors, but with so much walking to do, we jetted out of there to head over to That Takes The Cake. I’m a little bias towards this shop as I had my out of town Groupon and had the chance to try everything since my Groupon afforded me a dozen cupcakes! The other great thing (besides all of the cupcakes!) was that this shop was owned by an adorable couple that work together every day. How awesome is that! I joke with my wife about that being us one day, but as far as I’ve gotten is a hand shake promising that when I retire we can re-discuss. Since I’m in my early 30’s this gives my wife some time, but I’m hardcore about my cupcakes so look out for CupcakesEverywhere.com the store front, coming to you in 2042!
Cupcake Crawl - Panama City Beach, FL
Cupcake Crawl – Panama City, Florida
I’ve never been a big drinker. My college days were spent overloading on classes, working several jobs, and performing so alcohol never played a huge part in that season of my life. After I graduated from college, I realized that I missed any chance to be “cool” and social in crowded bars. So I settled on becoming the guy who brought cupcakes to functions! You wouldn’t believe how popular you become when your reputation is "the guy who has free food." But I think I needed to at least take part in a “bar crawl” once in my life. From my understanding, a bar/pub crawl is when people go from one location to another and drink. Sounds painful to me, but I’ve found a happy medium…a Cupcake Crawl! Now I am focusing my attention on traveling to different areas, crashing cupcake shops and getting crazy! By crazy, I mean devouring several cupcakes, buying a t-shirt or two, and taking pictures with the baker. (You have your crazy and I have mine.) For my first cupcake crawl, my wife and I happened to be in Panama City, Florida and it was the best opportunity to mad rush as many cupcake shops as possible in two hours. Luckily, I’m pretty handy with my iPhone directions so before we knew it, we had three boxes of cupcakes, fifty pictures of delicious sweets, four new friends and one of the best cupcake experiences I’ve ever had cupcakes!
During our cupcake crawl, we paid a visit to “It Takes A Cake”, “One Hot Cupcake” and “Sugar Crave.” All three locations were unique in their own individual ways. “It Takes A Cake” focused more on weddings and private events, but offered 5 delicious cupcake flavors. Since it was a crawl, we went crazy and ordered all of them! The shop was modest and quaint, but my favorite aspect of the store was that some of the cupcake decorations were made by the owners. There was an awesome cupcake sign on the wall that they created and I swear, if it was in stores, I would have totally purchased one! The cupcakes were tasty too! I loved the vanilla and butter pecan the most!
Next, we headed over to “One Hot Cupcake” and with a name like that, it better be a sassy shop…and oh, was it sassy. The cupcakery is managed by a husband and wife team and the store is filled with vibrant colors and creative flavors. The walls, décor, furniture, etc. is a modern blend of bright reds and sky blues! How cool is that! It was incredible to take in the rich atmosphere and taste their delectable cupcakes! Talk about a treat for the senses! “One Hot Cupcake” offers a variety of tasty cupcakes and icing options; their staple cupcake choices were my favorite! I love a red velvet cupcake any time of day! This shop, hands down, was the best looking cupcake store I have ever seen!
Our last stop was “Sugar Crave” this store sells ice cream and cookies but the main focus is cupcakes! I’ve never been to a store with so many cupcake options. My wife and I wandered back and forth perusing over the countless choices; we couldn’t decide on which flavors to get. If you have read some of our past posts, you’ve heard of the Pickle Passion Cupcake and this is the place to pick one of those up! We finally decided on four cupcakes because we were already at a dozen between the two of us and let’s face it…I can eat, but flying back home would have been a rough ride. Not only were the cupcake selections amazing, but the store itself looked as if it were designed by Willy Wonka himself! The colors were effervescent and super elaborate. They sold t-shirts, hats, aprons and anything else you can print a cupcake on. The walls were decorated with pictures, art, and much more; my eyes could only take so much. AND, the best part was, they sold cupcake clothing for me. Ummm, Awesome! I rock my t-shirt from time to time, and look especially debonair.
Cupcake crawls have now become my new passion and I’m figuring out what city to visit next. I can’t wait to begin on our next cupcake adventure but I’ve learned from this experience…if you are going to cupcake crawl, you have to go big or go home!
Any thoughts on where we should go next? We’ve recently been to Chicago and San Francisco and have some great pictures and posts coming soon…any ideas?!?
