I.C.'s first trip to Queens!

Today, I went beyond my normal boundaries.

That's right... this Manhattan-girl actually left the island and traveled ALL the way over to Astoria, Queens for the relaunch of their Astoria Market. I met some great people, sold some delicious cupcakes, bought a sweet pair of earrings made from old clock hands (thanks Dana Bunker!) and had a delightful Sunday afternoon.

I brought my top two best-sellers, Champagne and Mudslide 'shots' with me.

People seemed to really dig the irish cream frosting from my Mudslides - I even had a few people come back for more shots! Gotta love repeat customers.

Up Next: I'll be back at 201 Mulberry Street as OpenHouse Gallery hosts an afternoon event with Bowery Babes this Thursday from 3p-5p. This is a kids' event, so I'll be selling Pink Ladies (vanilla), Grasshoppers(mint) and Mudslides(mocha)! Non-alcoholic and yet still Intoxicating!

First Market = success!

This past weekend was my very first market for Intoxicating Confections, and I must say it was a smashing success! A big thanks goes out to OpenHouse Gallery - the gracious hosts of Park Here - for hooking me up with a table for the weekend. I was pretty nervous and had absolutely no idea what to expect or how many cupcakes to bake. People seemed to really love the concept and it made me feel more comfortable knowing that I have something that sets myself apart from the increasingly large amount of other cupcake shops out there.

Here's a pic of my table from the weekend - if you're reading this and took some photos, please send them over so I can add it to my album!

I'd have to say the biggest seller was the Champagne cupcake. Mainly because they taste awesome, but they also look so pretty and cute and pink and stuff. These 'shots' were also a big hit with the kiddies at the park, though I must say I was a bit uncomfortable selling margarita cupcakes to 5 year olds. My cupcakes are non-alcoholic (for now) so it was fine, and none of the kids could read yet - they just saw cute little cupcakes to eat - so Champagne turned into "Pink", Rum-and-colas turned into "Chocolate", etc. 

In any case, I'm pretty pleased with the turnout. Despite the freezing temperatures this weekend, people actually came out to support me, and for that I'm uber grateful!

Midnight Baking...

Ok, maybe it's not midnight, but it was 6am on a Saturday when I woke up just buzzing with ideas. Of course I didn't go to bed until 1:30am, but how can I sleep at a time like this?! Now that I can't bake my delectable and delicious carbomb and whiskey-ginger cupcakes, what can I replace them with? I needed to find out. I needed to get to the grocery store at the break of dawn looking for extracts. I just needed to. (OCD, here I come...)

First up - rum and cokes. I'm not a huge rum and coke drinker, but I served several thousand of those cocktails in my bartending days, so there's gotta be something to them. My take on the rum-and-coke: Chocolate Cola Cake with Rum Buttercream Frosting. The result:

Almost... angelic, huh? (or my camera-phone flash is wicked bright)
The chocolate-cola cake is uber-moist and goes really well with the rum frosting. I used a rum extract, so you get the rich rum flavor without the alcoholic bite when using real rum. Maybe there is something to keeping these shots non-alcoholic...

Look for these cocktail cupcake shots next weekend at Park Here - a new indoor park in NoLita organized by OpenHouse Gallery (201 Mulberry St). I'll be there Sat and Sun 11-6p!

Up next: Grasshopper cupcake shots. I don't know anyone that drinks these old-school cocktails, but they still do teach this recipe at bartending schools, and let's face it, who doesn't love mint and white chocolate??

Menu changes! Already!

So... day two of this blogging adventure and I'm already switching things up on you!

In order to comply with regulations, I am adjusting my recipes and (sadly) taking out two very popular flavors from my menu. I'll spare you the details, but until I can find a non-alcoholic subsitution for whiskey - or bake out of a commercial kitchen - I'm going to have to archive the Carbomb cupcake and the Whiskey-ginger cupcake. I know, it's heart-breaking. The good news is this will make room for other delicious flavors! And I'll still have the 4 other cocktail-flavored cupcakes available: Margarita, Champagne, Bocci Ball, and Mudslide. (Thank you Bailey's, for making an irish cream coffee creamer!)

To check out the delicious and delectable photos of these flavors, go to the Flavor page.

As for the two new flavors... I'm back in the test kitchen with some good ideas... Anyone up for a Rum-and-Coke (chocolate-cola cake with rum frosting)? How about a Grasshopper (white chocolate cake with mint frosting)? How cool, I just got the next two blog subjects lined up. And I promise to include pictures of the whole delicious experiment!

That's all for now... got any other cocktail-flavored suggestions? Email me @ intoxicatingconfections@gmail.com!

Greetings!

Hey there!

You are reading the first blog entry of Intoxicating Confections, a new local wholesale dessert company in New York City, specializing in cocktail-flavored cupcakes. If you can order it at a bar, I can make it into a cupcake! (Though I'm still working on the jaegar-bomb cupcake. That may or may not work out so well...) Right now it's just me, Jenn, your loyal baker, churning out these delicious confections to satisfy your sweet tooth.

I'm not a huge fan of blogs and/or blogging, and I had intended to just have a simple website with my cupcakes up for people to see, figuring that would be enough. However, it seems that the powers that be are telling me if I want to bake out of my home, say buhbye to the website. But how else will people know about my cupcakes??

So here we are... welcome to Intoxicating Confections, the Blog.


People are always asking me where I came up with this idea to make cocktail-flavored cupcakes, and I haven't quite found a witty and charming story to tell, so I'll just lay out the main points and you can come up with a fairy-tale that'll make you feel all warm inside:


1. Baking has always been a hobby of mine. I bought my first Kitchenaid when I was in high school and it is the same machine I use today (you don't know how old I am, but the point is that it's a pretty old machine that's still kickin').


2. In college, I started bartending to earn some extra cash. It turned out to earn me a whole lotta cash, so even when I started working in the 'real world' I kept bartending as a side job.

3. I still exist in the 'real' world (I work in publishing; that's all the info you'll get on that!). But I have some kind of career-ADD, so I decided to start this small business to keep my passions alive: booze and cakes! (Hence my Twitter name: @BoozyCakes. Go ahead and follow me...)


Look, I'm not here to compete with the other (seemingly thousands of) cupcake companies popping up all over the place... I'm just here to have fun and bake some de-frickin-licious cupcakes for you New Yorkers.

I don't have a store-front, so it'll be hard for you to pop in and say hello, but I will be selling my goods at various markets around the city.  More on that later...

I haven't figured out a good closing tagline, so I'll just end this with - thanks for reading!