Thursday, August 30, 2007

J'adore Les Cupcakes!

J'adore les cupcakes sounds so...
Well, FRENCH!
I was the "picky eater" in the family.
I refused to eat cake, including birthday cake and
CUPCAKES!
I mostly played with my food, lining things up in rows, making designs etc.
How I wish I was still a "picky eater"...
Photo by Helene of http://tartelette.blogspot.com The French really do adore the American cupcake.
Look at these unique
cupcake/cones from Helene of Tartelette!
Helene took this beautiful photo too.
I found this interesting 2-layer birthday cupcake from Robyn of
The Girl who Ate Everything.
Photo by Robin Lee of http://www.roboppy.net/food/I love the anatomical view that Robyn took of her own birthday cupcake!
I'm not the world's biggest cupcake eater,
But when ParisBreakfasts reader, Paige L. wrote me,
You don't like cupcakes?

But they're cakes made for one!
You can put them on little pedestals with glass domes...
And, they can sit out in view all day without going stale, so the anticipation builds.
They're art!
So I had to go out and get a CUPCAKE! for Gawd's sake
...
and paint it...

Just around the corner IL BAMBINO has CUPCAKE ART
on their walls.
Plus trays and trays full of CUPCAKES.
I think I may be fonder of the Crayola birthday candles than actually
eating cupcakes.
I must admit they are fun to paint :)

36 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:01 PM

    You do have a gift in making cupcakes look french! Oh yummy yummy!

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  2. Anonymous12:15 PM

    If only I didn't like cake! And cupcakes? With all the frosting piled high? Forget about it. I'm helpless. I love the way you paint frosting! It's lovely and so low calorie. Do you see many cupcakes in Paris? It has always seemed to me like they are not as into the super-sweet stuff like we Americans are--cookies and cakes with lots of frosting for example. Have you found this to be true?

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  3. Anonymous12:20 PM

    You've inspired me, I'm going to Roussillon in Oct and Bologna next Spring. I love those red earth tones so much I have to check them out in person. Thanks

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  4. SARAH B I've never seen a cupcake on a Paris street, though I have seen MUFFINS! of all things.
    But I do see cupcakes on many French blogs, like Tartelle, and beautifully designed too.

    ANNE CHUNG perhaps you need a personal guide to come along?

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  5. Anonymous12:30 PM

    Oh, man, I LOVE cupcakes. But then, I have a major sweet tooth, so most any sweet appeals...unfortunately.

    Delightful cupcakes!

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  6. Now those are CUPCAKES on that tray that gal is holding. Zowie. I too was a picky eater but NEVER for that kind of food. ;-)
    The paintings are sweet.. pun intended.. and I love the crayola candles you painted.
    Another Fun post.
    Cris

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  7. I am not much of a cake person either, actually. (Love chocolate, just not as fond of the cake & icing form.) But I have to say your painted cupcakes are beautiful! And I love the painted crayons. :)

    Sarah B, my own experience with my French friends and in-laws is that they really don't like cakes & icing either (TOO sweet). But clearly some French like them just fine! :)

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  8. In thinking about the Americans verses others on sweets..My Italian Grandfather only ate cake once a week and ALWAYS scrapped off the frosting. It was way too sweet. I think the American way of drinking colas all the time has made our sweet tooths out of control. The French seem to be slimmer then us Americans. Or is that a myth?

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  9. Anonymous2:12 PM

    Hi Carol,

    That painting is awesome, thanks! :D I'm glad the cake could provide some inspiration, hehe.

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  10. Anonymous2:13 PM

    I love your selection of treats for us today
    xAnnie

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  11. Aw, cupcakes are so cute. I could eat nothing but baked goods and be happy.

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  12. Your painted cupcakes look so tempting. The crayola candles make me dream to be a child again and paint on the walls. ;-)
    (I stopped making cupcakes for my kids after my oldest took my lovingly decorated birthday cupcakes to preschool and later praised them as "almost as good as the ones from Safeway's"!)

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  13. Anonymous3:51 PM

    Hurray!
    Thank you for painting cupcakes! I think you did a beautiful job.

    Paige

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  14. Anonymous6:13 PM

    Ah the woes of a reformed picky eater! I know them well....having transformed from a twig-shaped food sniffer into one who eats EVERYTHING with gusto (except frosting; somehow it never really took hold with me) and simultaneously transforming into the quintessential Eileen Fisher/Chico's woman. Oh well, while I would fight to the death over the cupcake, you're welcome to have my frosting. :-)

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  15. cupcakes are 2nd to macarons for me :)

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  16. why are we all so taken
    with cupcakes?

    i think it is because we can
    *EAT *THE *ENTIRE *THING...

    :-)

    i would much rather decorate
    a dozen cupcakes
    than one cake...
    you have the variety factor working for you.

    please paint more cuppycakes!

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  17. Carol -- when you're taking photos, or writing descriptions, or painting your desserts, you have a phenomenal way of making me drool and wish I could reach into the computer and take a bite! These cupcakes evoke the same Pavlovian response!!! BRAVA!

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  18. My goddness, my mouth is watering~you have such a way with your talent to do that!Loved the post and yesterdays, too~trying to catch up.

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  19. Thank you all
    for your varied and enthusiastic responses!
    I'm feeling glad I finally put my toe in the shallow end of the cupcake pool...
    I was passing "Hamburgers & Cupcakes" on 23rd street and I had to got in and listen to the server report on the 14 exotic cupcakes they were offering.

    I nearly fell victim to the Lemon Meringue cupcake but got out just in time.
    Your enthusiasm is CONTAGIOUS! :)

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  20. I love cupcakes as you can see from my photo's at times :) but your art is lovely and the paint is so delicate like a cupcake.

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  21. You're right, Carol, and I don't know in the USA, but, here in Faance there is this growing fashion about individual tins,with soft tins, and is is more and more easy to make the cupckaes!

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  22. Anonymous5:19 AM

    You are a cupcake!

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  23. It wasn't until I moved to Ireland many a moon ago that I heard of cupcakes. So my country is into these now? How sweet to hear about it here. I'm quite taken by Robin's birthday cupcake. How pretty and yummy-looking! Blessing, from a tartes aux pommes lover

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  24. Ciao Carol - Happy Blog Day! You're one of my picks :)

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  25. I adore cupcakes and all that you share.
    Love and blessings
    Jeanne

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  26. I love them, all of them... and I can almost lick my fingers in delight at the confections you so beautifully paint....

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  27. Anonymous5:06 PM

    Scrumptdiddlyumptious!!!

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  28. Oh, a lemon meringue cupcake...now you're talking! I had ever heard of them until I moved to the US, but I have fallen victim to the frosting idea!
    Your paintings are ever so tempting!

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  29. Cupcakes are not my list of favorite desserts to eat either, but there is something endearing about them nontheless - especially in painted form. Maybe it's the whole 'baby' syndrome (a baby *anything* is cuter than the adult version) thing - baby cakes are more appealing than their parents!

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  30. Moi aussi j'adore, c'est tellement américain!!!En France nous n'avons pas ça!

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  31. I'm here via a link from Tastespotting, and I thought if you enjoyed crazy cupcakes you might appreciate the ones I made recently:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirinqueen/1200406466/
    And I drew one:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirinqueen/1307214421/

    :) Yours are much finer. I love those Crayola candles!

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  32. I was picky too : ) That ice cream cone cupcake is a delight!

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  33. Anonymous9:13 PM

    j'adore les cupcakes! but there must be a certain consistency to the cake and the frosting cannot be too buttercream...

    mais je n'ai jamias vu de cupcakes à paris! à londres, oui, mais pas en france.

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  34. Anonymous3:19 AM

    Love the way you got the glasses in your painting.
    I had to make cupcakes after seeing your blog today! LOL
    There goes the diet!

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  35. Anonymous5:27 PM

    Hi Sarah B. (& all)
    Good news: new (and only) cupcakes store in opened in Paris!
    Here is the magical address... :-)

    "Cupcakes & Co"
    25 rue de la Forge Royale
    75011 Paris
    Tel 01 43 67 16 19

    Bon apetit!

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  36. I LOVE those cupcakes in a cone -- have always meant to try my hand at those.

    I am American and have been living in France for the past 5 years. The French do definitely like cupcakes -- I have made them dozens of times for friends and family, all to rave reviews (so much so that I have started a cupcake catering biz but that's another story). The thing is taste preferences are so different here. I have found they are scared off by anything too overly decorated and the buttercream definitely needs to be more cream than butter. Fruit flavors and other such fantasy creations we make in the US are not big hits either (I'm thinking some of the Elvis inspired peanut butter, banana variety of seen likely or S'mores. You get the drift.

    As long as it's chocolate, vanilla, caramel, Nutella, flavors that are familiar, well, the French are happy! And the idea of a perfect individual-sized cake "just for me" is still a novelty for them.

    As for me, I'm just trying to make some childhoods (and adulthoods) a little bit sweeter. For anyone who is interested, I'm at http://littlemisscupcakeparis.blogspot.com/

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