2.12.2008

My Weekend Outing

After a little cojoling, I convinced one of my sisters and my mom to a few outings this past Saturday. We started out at the Oh Sweet Sadie art and gift show, which I enjoyed. My sister and Mom felt it was a bit pricey compared to other craft shows offered around Utah Valley, but I appreciated the ammount of things that I wanted to buy--I usually go to these craft shows and find that they are catering toward people interested in home decorating and kids. I don't have a great interest in these two categories and so I was really pleased to find a good selection of products not geared toward home and kids--like notepads like this pad that I bought:


I love notepads; shoes (for adults of course); and head bands (again for adults). Everyone bought something so I think we were all happy enough.

Then we headed over to Steve and Barry's which I have talked about before. Well, the sale that they were having an entire month ago is still going on. Sadly, this means that the entire store is still really picked over. They also haven't changed the selection of clothes yet--I was hoping for some spring/summer selections. I did buy a great pair of teal ballet-flat shoes that I love, but otherwise I was very disappointed (So, Cranat, it is really good we decided not to go up--I'm thinking maybe in about a month).

By this point we all needed a bit of nourishment so we headed over to So Cupcake, a new cupcake shop that just opened in Salt Lake. I really like cupcakes and was really looking forward to trying this new place out. Sadly, I was a bit dissapointed. The shop was cute with its pink trimmings and I absolutely love the cupcake sketches that are hanging on the walls (check out their very cute website linked above--the sketches on the site are the same ones hanging on the walls of the shop), but I felt they missed out on truly making the cute point by putting down ugly linolium on the floors and doing nothing at all to the ceilings which was sad since they have really cute chandeliers drawing your attention up--I would have done some hardwood floors and some metal tiles on the ceiling (which, I know, is more expensive so maybe these are on their to-do list)



The cupcakes themselves were pretty looking and of a good size (I hate going somewhere for cupcakes and getting this tiny, little thing) but a little unimaginative in their names. The red velvet cupcake was called the red velvet cupcake--although on their website they have at least given a nod to trying to be creative we'll have to see if eventually these titles make it into the shop itself. I went with the cinnamon sugar cupcake which I felt was rather dry. My sister had the chocolate cupcake and also felt hers was dry. My mother had the red velvet cupcake and thought it was nice and moist. I did really like the frosting, though, so all was not disappointing. Unfortunately, I think the general verdict is that I will probably not be going back. Perhaps I need to perfect my own cupcake-making skills so that I don't continually have to be disappointed by others. Do any of you have any good cupcake recipies? I am looking for a recipe that is moist, but slightly dense.

So maybe the outings themselves weren't great, but I did have a lot of fun hanging out with my mom and my sister (and baby Grace) so as far as I am concerned a good time was had by all!

4 comments:

Science Teacher Mommy said...

How cute is that! I love that you call cupcakes nourishment.

Denise said...

Sounds fun. I have an awesome cupcake recipe...buy the box at the store with pudding in it!!! That always works for me :) I don't think I am too picky! I have a really good lemon cupcake recipe that ends up tasting like a lemon old fashioned donut!

Lemon Blossoms

Cupcakes:
18 1/2-ounce package yellow cake mix
3 1/2-ounce package instant lemon pudding mix
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 lemon, zested
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn out onto a tea towel To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tablespoons water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.
With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they're still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

I have thought about doing these with vanilla pudding to see if they taste like plain old fashioned donuts. They are dangerously good.

Courtney said...

Of course cupcakes are nourishment. Just like chocolate is nutrition!

Thanks for the recipe Denise, I'll try it out.

Courtney said...

Your Heart Out has just done a review of So Cupcake that you may find interesting. From their review I am guessing that they have started using the cuter cupcake names in their store and that they are doing a better job making their cupcakes moist. I really must disagree on their claim that there is plenty of seating, though.