salted caramel!
Showing posts with label Cupcakes Take the Cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cupcakes Take the Cake. Show all posts
Sweet E's Cupcakes on Martha's Vineyard = amazing!
If you go to Martha's Vineyard and aren't full from must-try Mad Martha's ice cream, do check out Sweet E's Cupcakes in Vineyard Haven or Edgartown. Every time I've had some they were amazing! For more cupcake porn, visit Cupcakes Take the Cake! Click below or here to see our Sweet E's coverage.
salted caramel!
salted caramel!
Seattle cupcaking and tonight's the big night of Gotta Have It hotness
Conveyor belt cupcakes at Blue C Sushi! I couldn't believe it.
The divine s'mores cupcake from Trophy Cupcakes, who put my face on cupcakes last year!
And here's the Cupcake Royale lineup at tonight's Gotta Have It fun, free reading (do tell anyone you know in Seattle, I promise hotness):
Rachel Kramer Bussel, Shanna Germain and Naked Girls Reading at Babeland! (no need to RSVP but that links through to Facebook where you can easily pass this info on)
June 27, 6-8 pm
Babeland
707 E. Pike Street
Seattle, WA (Capitol Hill)
Join Gotta Have It editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, contributor Shanna Germain ("Genesis") and burlesque performers Jesse Belle-Jones, Polly Wood and Heidi Von Haught from Naked Girls Reading for a fun, fabulous event at Babeland Seattle for short, sexy readings from Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex, plus free cupcakes! Free EdenFantasys tote bags will be given away.
Cupcakes will be 5 dozen mini cupcakes by Cupcake Royale, also in Capitol Hill. Flavors:
Baby raspberry rhubarb (rhubarb cake w/raspberry cream cheese frosting)
Baby gay (vanilla funfetti cake w/vanilla buttercream and rainbow sprinkles)
Baby peppermint on chocolate
Baby salted caramel
Baby triple threat
Cupcake headphones!
Cupcake headphones for sale on Etsy - at Cupcakes Take the Cake!
And some cupcakes and a cake pop I found at my favorite park, Stuyvesant Square, this weekend:
And some cupcakes and a cake pop I found at my favorite park, Stuyvesant Square, this weekend:
"The Gay" cupcake at Seattle's Cupcake Royale, free for you at my reading June 27th!
Visit Cupcakes Take the Cake for the scoop on "The Gay" cupcake at Seattle's Cupcake Royale in June, benefiting the It Gets Better Project!
You know where can get these in mini size FOR FREE along with 4 other flavors?? At my reading at Babeland June 27th! Once again, please please please tell your friends, pass on the Facebook link, etc.
Monday, June 27 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Babeland
707 E. Pike Street
Seattle, WA
Join Gotta Have It editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, contributor Shanna Germain ("Genesis") and burlesque performers Jesse Belle-Jones, Polly Wood and Heidi Von Haught from Naked Girls Reading for a fun, fabulous event at Babeland Seattle for short, sexy readings from Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex, plus free cupcakes! Free copies of SexIs Magazine will be given away.
Cupcakes will be 5 dozen mini cupcakes by Cupcake Royale, also in Capitol Hill. Flavors:
Baby raspberry rhubarb (rhubarb cake w/raspberry cream cheese frosting)
Baby gay (vanilla funfetti cake w/vanilla buttercream and rainbow sprinkles)
Baby peppermint on chocolate
Baby salted caramel
Baby triple threat
You know where can get these in mini size FOR FREE along with 4 other flavors?? At my reading at Babeland June 27th! Once again, please please please tell your friends, pass on the Facebook link, etc.
Monday, June 27 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Babeland
707 E. Pike Street
Seattle, WA
Join Gotta Have It editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, contributor Shanna Germain ("Genesis") and burlesque performers Jesse Belle-Jones, Polly Wood and Heidi Von Haught from Naked Girls Reading for a fun, fabulous event at Babeland Seattle for short, sexy readings from Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex, plus free cupcakes! Free copies of SexIs Magazine will be given away.
Cupcakes will be 5 dozen mini cupcakes by Cupcake Royale, also in Capitol Hill. Flavors:
Baby raspberry rhubarb (rhubarb cake w/raspberry cream cheese frosting)
Baby gay (vanilla funfetti cake w/vanilla buttercream and rainbow sprinkles)
Baby peppermint on chocolate
Baby salted caramel
Baby triple threat
5 graduation cupcake toppers on Etsy, plus Seattle excitement building
5 graduation cupcake toppers on Etsy - I'm proud of this Cupcakes Take the Cake post! Love researching the minutiae of cupcake culture, and making it timely, at that.
Looking forward to trying more cupcakes in Boston this weekend (and some heavy duty walking - less than 5 weeks til the Rock N Roll (Half) Marathon)! At this point, if I don't walk all 13 miles, I won't be kicking myself. I haven't trained as hard as I could have, but I do hope I will be able to do at least 11 in the 4 hours alloted. Then I will retire to my hotel and luxuriate and relax and maybe get some Sweet Iron Waffles.
And then prepare for one of the hottest readings I've ever done - Monday, June 27th, 6-8 pm at Babeland in Capitol Hill - I will be bombarding you with information/begging you to make it a packed one. For now, while I get that everyone wants to RSVP on Facebook to tell us why they can't make it, I will ask that if you can't make it, please do me a gigantic favor and tell your Seattle friends (you can use that handy Facebook link). It's a free event, with free cupcakes, and Naked Girls Reading reading from Gotta Have It, and Shanna Germain in from Portland. And free copies of SexIs Magazine (print edition). Trust me, it's gonna be super hot.
I probably won't read in Seattle for...a very long time (no offense to Seattle, I'm just retiring from most readings so I can focus on better book marketing, and I just can't afford to travel that much, physically or financially or timewise). I'm trying not to go insane stressing over Seattle and London, but at the same time, if I don't put every ounce of energy into these readings I can, what's the point?
I almost canceled the Seattle trip but then decided to go through with it, and I'm proud of that decision. I learned a lot from making that plan insanely early, which I'd never do again, but I'm looking forward to trying something I wouldn't have done. I'm also going to carve out some time in 2012 (my 2011 time is pretty much spoken for) to look into writing retreats, even if it's just 4 or 5 days. I need it, and owe it to myself. That is an infinitely better use of my time than the crazy reading schedules I've been keeping the last few years. I don't regret it, I just felt this total shift in my priorities, aided by my royalty statements. Doing something that doesn't work ad nauseam is, well, not wise. I'm not saying I'm so wise at 35, but I'm learning. Plus I just realized after ending In The Flesh that I like being at my computer more than on a stage. I like creating words. I have so many friends who live for being on stages, performing, acting, etc., and I admire them greatly, but I am not them, and I shouldn't have to be to be a writer. I enjoy gathering people together, hosting, organizing, but I also see the many costs that takes on me and I am grateful for a chance to have a quieter life.
Looking forward to trying more cupcakes in Boston this weekend (and some heavy duty walking - less than 5 weeks til the Rock N Roll (Half) Marathon)! At this point, if I don't walk all 13 miles, I won't be kicking myself. I haven't trained as hard as I could have, but I do hope I will be able to do at least 11 in the 4 hours alloted. Then I will retire to my hotel and luxuriate and relax and maybe get some Sweet Iron Waffles.
And then prepare for one of the hottest readings I've ever done - Monday, June 27th, 6-8 pm at Babeland in Capitol Hill - I will be bombarding you with information/begging you to make it a packed one. For now, while I get that everyone wants to RSVP on Facebook to tell us why they can't make it, I will ask that if you can't make it, please do me a gigantic favor and tell your Seattle friends (you can use that handy Facebook link). It's a free event, with free cupcakes, and Naked Girls Reading reading from Gotta Have It, and Shanna Germain in from Portland. And free copies of SexIs Magazine (print edition). Trust me, it's gonna be super hot.
I probably won't read in Seattle for...a very long time (no offense to Seattle, I'm just retiring from most readings so I can focus on better book marketing, and I just can't afford to travel that much, physically or financially or timewise). I'm trying not to go insane stressing over Seattle and London, but at the same time, if I don't put every ounce of energy into these readings I can, what's the point?
I almost canceled the Seattle trip but then decided to go through with it, and I'm proud of that decision. I learned a lot from making that plan insanely early, which I'd never do again, but I'm looking forward to trying something I wouldn't have done. I'm also going to carve out some time in 2012 (my 2011 time is pretty much spoken for) to look into writing retreats, even if it's just 4 or 5 days. I need it, and owe it to myself. That is an infinitely better use of my time than the crazy reading schedules I've been keeping the last few years. I don't regret it, I just felt this total shift in my priorities, aided by my royalty statements. Doing something that doesn't work ad nauseam is, well, not wise. I'm not saying I'm so wise at 35, but I'm learning. Plus I just realized after ending In The Flesh that I like being at my computer more than on a stage. I like creating words. I have so many friends who live for being on stages, performing, acting, etc., and I admire them greatly, but I am not them, and I shouldn't have to be to be a writer. I enjoy gathering people together, hosting, organizing, but I also see the many costs that takes on me and I am grateful for a chance to have a quieter life.
Samoa Girl Scout cookies!!
SOOOOOO good. Huge thanks to Rudy from Man Bakes Cake. Read my review at Cupcakes Take the Cake!
Food porn: grilled cheese and cupcakes
Yesterday I had the pleasure of celebrating my one-month anniversary with a lunch date at Melt Shop. We got rained on soon after we started eating but it was fun. I had the 3-cheese grilled cheese which was delicious and very rich and filling. I'm not a big fan of sundried tomatoes but otherwise it was awesome, though LA's Grilled Cheese Truck is still my favorite. The tater tots were great too. I'll be back next week to try more!
Buttermilk fried chicken grilled cheese (I didn't have this one but it looked good)
3-cheese grilled cheese with sundried tomatoes
tater tots!
And I hope you're visiting Cupcakes Take the Cake every day for royal wedding cupcakes, oozing filled cupcakes, and so much more! Here's my ode to the quiet sweetness of Sugar Sweet Sunshine on the Lower East Side in the morning. I am hoping to rouse myself from slumber for more walks there. It's invigorating and I don't even want sugar after a brisk walk, but I do like giving out cupcakes.
Buttermilk fried chicken grilled cheese (I didn't have this one but it looked good)
3-cheese grilled cheese with sundried tomatoes
tater tots!
And I hope you're visiting Cupcakes Take the Cake every day for royal wedding cupcakes, oozing filled cupcakes, and so much more! Here's my ode to the quiet sweetness of Sugar Sweet Sunshine on the Lower East Side in the morning. I am hoping to rouse myself from slumber for more walks there. It's invigorating and I don't even want sugar after a brisk walk, but I do like giving out cupcakes.
Royal wedding cupcakes!
We've got lots and lots of royal wedding cupcakes for you over at Cupcakes Take the Cake, with more coming. This is the new "cupcake holiday" between Easter and Mother's Day!
Earth Day cupcake roundup
This is how I put my college education to use, people! Please click through if you want more Earth Day cupcake cuteness, plus I linked to all the nonprofit groups that are benefiting from the sales of these cupcakes.
Magnolia Bakery Earth Day cupcakes
Magnolia Bakery Earth Day cupcakes
Random Acts of Cupcakes at Cupake Royale
Click here to read more about my evening at Cupcake Royale - a proper first day in Seattle post coming soon!
My April events
Quick run-through of my April events, click through for details (where I have a link).
April 11 - Cupcake Business Class, NYC, 6:30-9:30 pm
Cupcake Business Class will cover branding, business development and using social media to grow your business. The class will last 3 hours and will include Q&A. This class is also useful for anyone starting a specialty food business.
April 14 - This is Exodus, Bitches: A Jewcy Pre-Passover Comedy Blowout
On April 14th, Jewcy presents a night of pre-Passover horror stories and other religiously noncommittal Jewish-ish humor from several of the funniest writers and comedians in New York. Featuring Rachel Shukert, Good for the Jews (with Rob Tannenbaum of Playboy Magazine), Sara Barron, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Adam Lustick, Rose Surnow, Erica Reitman (Fucked in Park Slope) Maris Kreizman (Slaughterhouse 90210) and more! Come prepared to drink, because every bottle of beer or glass of wine you buy goes to benefit our favorite nonprofit bookstore, cafe, and event space that raises money to fight AIDS and homelessness, Housing Works.
Housing Works is at 126 Crosby Street, the event is free, and it starts at 7:00 PM
April 17 - attending CupcakeCamp Seattle
April 20 - one-page reading organized by Jason Boog
April 21 - Panelist, Game Show Speakeasy, Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, NYC
NEXT SHOW: THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 8:00 PM.
On the third Thursday of every month at 8:00, at our home on the gallery bar stage at Le Poisson Rouge, Neil and Clams bring you their classic guessing game that has been a live downtown hit for over four years! A panel of NYC's nightlife favorites, from burlesquers to bloggers, join forces and attempt to guess the occupation of regular New Yorkers� and the identity of fabulous celebrity mystery guests! Past mystery guests have included Martha Plimpton, Zach Galifianakis, Mo Rocca and Randy Jones to name just a few. Who knows who you'll see next month! And every month contestants are drawn from our audience, so you just might get to come up and play the game for fabulous prizes from our sponsors!
April 22 - live interview, Sex with Jaiya (will be recorded), 4 pm PST, 7 pm EST
April 28, 6:30-8 pm - Cupcakes Take the Cake cohosts book party for Semi-Sweet: A Novel of Love and Cupcakes by Roisin Meaney.
Cupcakes Take The Cake has partnered with Hachette Book Group to celebrate the release of Roisin Meaney's new book, Semi-Sweet: A Novel of Love and Cupcakes. We will be having a book party at Solas in the East Village and eating cupcakes from Baked By Melissa. 232 E 9th St, New York, NY
April 11 - Cupcake Business Class, NYC, 6:30-9:30 pm
Cupcake Business Class will cover branding, business development and using social media to grow your business. The class will last 3 hours and will include Q&A. This class is also useful for anyone starting a specialty food business.
April 14 - This is Exodus, Bitches: A Jewcy Pre-Passover Comedy Blowout
On April 14th, Jewcy presents a night of pre-Passover horror stories and other religiously noncommittal Jewish-ish humor from several of the funniest writers and comedians in New York. Featuring Rachel Shukert, Good for the Jews (with Rob Tannenbaum of Playboy Magazine), Sara Barron, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Adam Lustick, Rose Surnow, Erica Reitman (Fucked in Park Slope) Maris Kreizman (Slaughterhouse 90210) and more! Come prepared to drink, because every bottle of beer or glass of wine you buy goes to benefit our favorite nonprofit bookstore, cafe, and event space that raises money to fight AIDS and homelessness, Housing Works.
Housing Works is at 126 Crosby Street, the event is free, and it starts at 7:00 PM
April 17 - attending CupcakeCamp Seattle
April 20 - one-page reading organized by Jason Boog
April 21 - Panelist, Game Show Speakeasy, Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, NYC
NEXT SHOW: THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 8:00 PM.
On the third Thursday of every month at 8:00, at our home on the gallery bar stage at Le Poisson Rouge, Neil and Clams bring you their classic guessing game that has been a live downtown hit for over four years! A panel of NYC's nightlife favorites, from burlesquers to bloggers, join forces and attempt to guess the occupation of regular New Yorkers� and the identity of fabulous celebrity mystery guests! Past mystery guests have included Martha Plimpton, Zach Galifianakis, Mo Rocca and Randy Jones to name just a few. Who knows who you'll see next month! And every month contestants are drawn from our audience, so you just might get to come up and play the game for fabulous prizes from our sponsors!
April 22 - live interview, Sex with Jaiya (will be recorded), 4 pm PST, 7 pm EST
April 28, 6:30-8 pm - Cupcakes Take the Cake cohosts book party for Semi-Sweet: A Novel of Love and Cupcakes by Roisin Meaney.
Cupcakes Take The Cake has partnered with Hachette Book Group to celebrate the release of Roisin Meaney's new book, Semi-Sweet: A Novel of Love and Cupcakes. We will be having a book party at Solas in the East Village and eating cupcakes from Baked By Melissa. 232 E 9th St, New York, NY
Cupcakes Take the Cake's April meetup: Book party for novel Semi-Sweet
Reposted from Cupcakes Take the Cake.
For our April Meetup, Cupcakes Take The Cake has partnered with Hachette Book Group to celebrate the release of Roisin Meaney's new book, Semi-Sweet: A Novel of Love and Cupcakes
. We will be having a book party on Thursday April 28 at Solas in the East Village and eating cupcakes from Baked By Melissa. RSVP on our Meetup page.
Author Roisin Meaney will be at the book party.
For our April Meetup, Cupcakes Take The Cake has partnered with Hachette Book Group to celebrate the release of Roisin Meaney's new book, Semi-Sweet: A Novel of Love and Cupcakes
. We will be having a book party on Thursday April 28 at Solas in the East Village and eating cupcakes from Baked By Melissa. RSVP on our Meetup page.Author Roisin Meaney will be at the book party.
You know you want a decapitated zombie gingerbread cupcake recipe
Right? If so, just visit Cupcakes Take the Cake for the recipe from Zombie Cupcakes: From the Grave to the Table with 16 Cupcake Corpses by Zilly Rosen!
Mini cheesecake cupcakes at Baked by Melissa
Mini cheesecake cupcakes at Baked by Melissa in NYC (they also do mail order), special flavor for March only. $1 each (cheaper for larger orders). Read my review at Cupcakes Take the Cake.
Cupcake tissue holder and 5 other things I've blogged at Cupcakes Take the Cake
In case you need a cupcake-pick-me-up, a few items from Cupcakes Take the Cake:
cupcake tissue holder at Neatoshop!
Inception-inspired cupcakes with absinthe
Dr. Seuss cupcakes
Camouflage and Easter cupcake wrappers
pretty flower cupcakes
St. Patrick's Day cupcakes
And Nichelle posted this Cupcake Coif at Atlanta Hair Show!
cupcake tissue holder at Neatoshop!
Inception-inspired cupcakes with absinthe
Dr. Seuss cupcakes
Camouflage and Easter cupcake wrappers
pretty flower cupcakes
St. Patrick's Day cupcakes
And Nichelle posted this Cupcake Coif at Atlanta Hair Show!
Publicity is surreal, kindof like life
More fodder for my mini memoir...Tuesday is my 7-year job anniversary and 11-year apartment anniversary, and I moved to NYC in August 1996, which I still remember so clearly. I often have little clue how I got here, or even where "here" is and whether I like it or not. I'm reading Ellen Meister's novel The Other Life about a woman who can enter portals and visit herself in her alternative lives, one in which she doesn't have kids, one in which her mother is alive, and the questions it poses are fascinating. I bought it after reading her interview with Susan Henderson at The Nervous Breakdown. Who would we be if we hadn't made the choices we have, and if we were given numerous opportunities to toss away this life in favor for the road not taken, would we seize them? I'm not a character in a novel so I don't spend too much time pondering the paths I didn't take, just trying to make the best of this one. I'm attempting to tell "the" story (really "a" story) of how I got here in a mini memoir that I hope a major company wants to publish...we shall see, like with so many of the things I'm working on. No guarantees, but I'm trying to love the process. If it winds up being for sale, I will be sure to let you know. I'm not holding my breath, but I do hope it gets out there because it's been interesting to work on and try to figure out what I gave up and how I stumbled into doing the various things I do now and tackle things like hate mail, my misconceptions of the idea of what a "sex writer" is and what I love about writing and the creative process.
I snail mailed two stories recently as submissions to Zane's Chocolate Flava 3 anthology, and realizing that I needed to trim words to make the 3,500-word cutoff, and that I was actually really proud of the ways I'd tackled the subject, was a revelation. Lately writing has been, well, largely a chore, a task, a hurdle. Not fun in the least, and if it's all like that, I have to ask myself, why bother? Actually putting in the time and sending off those stories and making sure they were as good as I could make them, and accepting that "as good as I could make them" isn't the same as perfect or even good by anyone else's standards, but is literally the best I could do, made me feel a sliver of what I remember loving about writing.
I still do this horrible thing where I tell myself that what I've written sucks because it's not how someone else would've written it, and that's a self-fulfilling prophecy to never getting anything published right there. It's what I've done umpteen times, and the fact is, no, what I write is not going to be what someone else might've written, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's "better" or "worse." I should know after combing through thousands of stories for my anthologies that it's all subjective. Of course it is, yet that's so easy to forget when I feel doubts. So now I'm trying to just tune out all the other noise and focus on doing the best I can. It's meant cutting out dating and sex (until November0, and to a large degree, cutting way back on my social life and spending a lot of time alone which can be, yes, lonely. But it took me so many years of fucking around and accomplishing very little to realize that the things I want take time to accomplish, that I have to fight and push myself and slog it out to actually be able to be proud of myself. That doesn't happen by trying to go to every event and be supportive of everyone else's art and shove mine into those spare minutes here and there.
I struggle with that because I want more than anything to be a good creative citizen, to share with other people the art that moves me, and I do that, to the best of my ability. But there does come a point, and I think it's exacerbated in a city like New York, where you are pulled in so many directions that it can feel suffocating. It makes me long to move somewhere far, far away, somewhere far, far quieter, to lead a very different kind of life. And maybe if I can ever afford that, I will. I'm slowly starting to fall out of love with New York, certainly with the way I've lived here for most of my time here. This past week my body simply shut down and told me it couldn't hack that lifestyle. So I'm turning more inward and I find that, much as I hate myself a lot of the time, I like myself a good deal of the time, too, and even if I don't, I'm stuck with myself, and instead of turning outward, instead of constantly looking to other people who I think are smarter/cooler/sexier/better than me to give me a little of that validation, I need to find it somewhere inside. And if I can't today, I just have to hope I can work toward being that person who can tomorrow.
I really feel like I left this other person behind when I decided to take this sex and dating sabbatical. It was sortof decided on a whim, but it's not just about my actions, but my thoughts. I left a lot of baggage behind when I made that decision and maybe I should've done it ages ago, but I didn't, and I definitely learned a lot about myself, especially in the last three years of dating. I'm trying not to become a total hermit and still get out and about (theater recommendation: Saving Tania's Privates at NYC's FRIGID Festival - really fucking amazing, bold, hilarious take on having breast cancer, twice) but not feel guilty for turning down any invitations. It's selfish, yes, but it's also the only way I'm going to wake up in the morning and not feel total dread, which is happening less and less, but shouldn't be happening at all.
In the meantime, was very surreal for my great-aunt to say, "I'm sure you saw your blog in The New York Times." Um, no, I hadn't...I really have to laugh, mostly at myself, at the audacity of hiring a publicist and the inane maxim "sex sells" when my cupcake blog, which I do nothing to promote, gets press without us lifting a finger. So yay cupcakes, yay randomness, yay for the surreal, and yay for just keeping on plugging, even on the bad days.
I snail mailed two stories recently as submissions to Zane's Chocolate Flava 3 anthology, and realizing that I needed to trim words to make the 3,500-word cutoff, and that I was actually really proud of the ways I'd tackled the subject, was a revelation. Lately writing has been, well, largely a chore, a task, a hurdle. Not fun in the least, and if it's all like that, I have to ask myself, why bother? Actually putting in the time and sending off those stories and making sure they were as good as I could make them, and accepting that "as good as I could make them" isn't the same as perfect or even good by anyone else's standards, but is literally the best I could do, made me feel a sliver of what I remember loving about writing.
I still do this horrible thing where I tell myself that what I've written sucks because it's not how someone else would've written it, and that's a self-fulfilling prophecy to never getting anything published right there. It's what I've done umpteen times, and the fact is, no, what I write is not going to be what someone else might've written, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's "better" or "worse." I should know after combing through thousands of stories for my anthologies that it's all subjective. Of course it is, yet that's so easy to forget when I feel doubts. So now I'm trying to just tune out all the other noise and focus on doing the best I can. It's meant cutting out dating and sex (until November0, and to a large degree, cutting way back on my social life and spending a lot of time alone which can be, yes, lonely. But it took me so many years of fucking around and accomplishing very little to realize that the things I want take time to accomplish, that I have to fight and push myself and slog it out to actually be able to be proud of myself. That doesn't happen by trying to go to every event and be supportive of everyone else's art and shove mine into those spare minutes here and there.
I struggle with that because I want more than anything to be a good creative citizen, to share with other people the art that moves me, and I do that, to the best of my ability. But there does come a point, and I think it's exacerbated in a city like New York, where you are pulled in so many directions that it can feel suffocating. It makes me long to move somewhere far, far away, somewhere far, far quieter, to lead a very different kind of life. And maybe if I can ever afford that, I will. I'm slowly starting to fall out of love with New York, certainly with the way I've lived here for most of my time here. This past week my body simply shut down and told me it couldn't hack that lifestyle. So I'm turning more inward and I find that, much as I hate myself a lot of the time, I like myself a good deal of the time, too, and even if I don't, I'm stuck with myself, and instead of turning outward, instead of constantly looking to other people who I think are smarter/cooler/sexier/better than me to give me a little of that validation, I need to find it somewhere inside. And if I can't today, I just have to hope I can work toward being that person who can tomorrow.
I really feel like I left this other person behind when I decided to take this sex and dating sabbatical. It was sortof decided on a whim, but it's not just about my actions, but my thoughts. I left a lot of baggage behind when I made that decision and maybe I should've done it ages ago, but I didn't, and I definitely learned a lot about myself, especially in the last three years of dating. I'm trying not to become a total hermit and still get out and about (theater recommendation: Saving Tania's Privates at NYC's FRIGID Festival - really fucking amazing, bold, hilarious take on having breast cancer, twice) but not feel guilty for turning down any invitations. It's selfish, yes, but it's also the only way I'm going to wake up in the morning and not feel total dread, which is happening less and less, but shouldn't be happening at all.
In the meantime, was very surreal for my great-aunt to say, "I'm sure you saw your blog in The New York Times." Um, no, I hadn't...I really have to laugh, mostly at myself, at the audacity of hiring a publicist and the inane maxim "sex sells" when my cupcake blog, which I do nothing to promote, gets press without us lifting a finger. So yay cupcakes, yay randomness, yay for the surreal, and yay for just keeping on plugging, even on the bad days.
5 other desserts on top of cupcakes - combating the "___ is the new cupcake" food writing trend
How I fight back against silly food trend stories like the ubiquitous "____ is the new cupcake" - see my latest Cupcakes Take the Cake post (and, if you want to be super awesome, Tweet it, link to it, pass it on): "5 other desserts on top of cupcakes: macaroon, whoopie pie, cookies, donut, pumpkin pie"
I took this photo at Frosting Bake Shop in Walnut Creek, which I hope to return to next time I'm in the Bay Area:
I took this photo at Frosting Bake Shop in Walnut Creek, which I hope to return to next time I'm in the Bay Area:
Theater pre-recommendation: Saving Tania's Privates by Tania Katan in NYC at Frigid Festival
Sortof like I'm gonna try to do with books, I want to share with you theater and events I want to see, whether I wind up having the time/means to see them - sometimes they sell out or my time is limited. I did buy tickets to see Joan Rivers perform on April 5th, finally. I've been wanting to see her in a small setting (in this case, Laurie Beechman Theatre in NYC) since I saw her documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work). But one show at a time...
I can't really "review" something I haven't seen, but I did love Tania Katan's memoir My One-Night Stand With Cancer (plus the cupcake on the cover!) and am hoping to sneak away from the writing to see this. All you need to know is at savingtaniasprivates.com.
It's part of the Frigid Festival:
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 through Sunday, March 06, 2011
3 Theaters, 12 Days, 30 independent theater companies and over 150 performances...see you at FRIGID New York!
Okay, more info in case you didn't click through, from Tania's site:
The one-woman show that was a smash hit in Seattle, Phoenix and Edinburgh finally makes its way to New York! Phoenix based writer and comedic performer Tania Katan has adapted her outrageous and poignant best selling memoir My One Night Stand With Cancer, into the critically acclaimed one-woman show Saving Tania's Privates, which will make its NY debut at the Frigid Festival @ Under St. Marks Feb 23-March 6.
When Tania Katan was 21 years old she loved her breasts. They were round and perky, pert and fabulous – openly adored by many. Suddenly, in the midst of her carefree college days and during some really great sex, her partner stopped touching her breasts and said, "Do you feel that, Tania? It's a lump." Tania's perky breasts were given some gloomy news: stage-3 breast cancer. Hilarity ensued! Or more accurately, absurdity.
After a mastectomy and some good old-fashioned chemo, Tania left cancer far behind. 10 years later, at 31 years old, Tania was about to celebrate her secured status of being "cancer free" when she found herself in bed with another girlfriend who stopped touching her breast abruptly to ask a familiar question, "Do you feel that?"
By the age of 31 Katan had survived two mastectomies, a string of psychopathic girlfriends, her idiosyncratic but loving family AND running a 10K race in the desert while on chemo just to impress a girl. Obviously all that was left was to write a book and then adapt it into a play.
With wit, courage and honesty Saving Tania's Privates details Tania's race for a different kind of cure; a race that takes her through a medical labyrinth where phlebotomists miss veins, friends quietly retreat, and the prospect of being 'normal' seems to disappear every time she thinks she's got life firing on all cylinders. It explores whether bad relationships can give you cancer and whether good ones can take it away. It is, in short, a remarkable and utterly unforgettable story of survival.
From Phoenix New Times:
In one case, she conducts a quick poll about how many people would have made the same decision she did in a particular situation. We know it's going to turn out badly, but she's been so honest up until then, most of us raise our hands in embarrassed solidarity. At another moment, she asks, "Do you know anyone who's had cancer twice and lived?" The mind boggles, and the answer sticks in the throat. What is "twice"? What is "lived"? It's the closest most of us will get to being where she's been.
Let me stress that this show is undeniably entertaining and will probably not make you miserable, unless you happen to be in an immediate-catharsis-needing place -- and if you are, you might as well get it here. This is a blood diamond of great, moving acting. Katan's huge smile, gangly arms, and defiantly flat, scarred chest are the captivating façade of a soul that just wants to survive and share. In particular, her stories of crushing, falling in love, and wanting to flee it are as romantic and toe-curling -- and terrifically, hysterically funny -- as anything you'll ever see and hear.
Cupcakes Take the Cake interviewed Tania wrote about her in our infancy (2005!) and quoted this part of her book:
“I’m sorry. Hey, do you want a little treat to go with your mocha? I saw some fancy looking cupcakes up there.”
“Sure, thanks.” Mom hands me a five. I’m living large.
The cupcake is amazing: light golden brown and four inches in circumference, and when I lick the fluffy pink frosting, it licks me back.
See also: Tania Katan's essay "Pragmatic Osmosis" at beloved essay site Fresh Yarn
I can't really "review" something I haven't seen, but I did love Tania Katan's memoir My One-Night Stand With Cancer (plus the cupcake on the cover!) and am hoping to sneak away from the writing to see this. All you need to know is at savingtaniasprivates.com.
It's part of the Frigid Festival:
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 through Sunday, March 06, 2011
3 Theaters, 12 Days, 30 independent theater companies and over 150 performances...see you at FRIGID New York!
Okay, more info in case you didn't click through, from Tania's site:
The one-woman show that was a smash hit in Seattle, Phoenix and Edinburgh finally makes its way to New York! Phoenix based writer and comedic performer Tania Katan has adapted her outrageous and poignant best selling memoir My One Night Stand With Cancer, into the critically acclaimed one-woman show Saving Tania's Privates, which will make its NY debut at the Frigid Festival @ Under St. Marks Feb 23-March 6.
When Tania Katan was 21 years old she loved her breasts. They were round and perky, pert and fabulous – openly adored by many. Suddenly, in the midst of her carefree college days and during some really great sex, her partner stopped touching her breasts and said, "Do you feel that, Tania? It's a lump." Tania's perky breasts were given some gloomy news: stage-3 breast cancer. Hilarity ensued! Or more accurately, absurdity.
After a mastectomy and some good old-fashioned chemo, Tania left cancer far behind. 10 years later, at 31 years old, Tania was about to celebrate her secured status of being "cancer free" when she found herself in bed with another girlfriend who stopped touching her breast abruptly to ask a familiar question, "Do you feel that?"
By the age of 31 Katan had survived two mastectomies, a string of psychopathic girlfriends, her idiosyncratic but loving family AND running a 10K race in the desert while on chemo just to impress a girl. Obviously all that was left was to write a book and then adapt it into a play.
With wit, courage and honesty Saving Tania's Privates details Tania's race for a different kind of cure; a race that takes her through a medical labyrinth where phlebotomists miss veins, friends quietly retreat, and the prospect of being 'normal' seems to disappear every time she thinks she's got life firing on all cylinders. It explores whether bad relationships can give you cancer and whether good ones can take it away. It is, in short, a remarkable and utterly unforgettable story of survival.
From Phoenix New Times:
In one case, she conducts a quick poll about how many people would have made the same decision she did in a particular situation. We know it's going to turn out badly, but she's been so honest up until then, most of us raise our hands in embarrassed solidarity. At another moment, she asks, "Do you know anyone who's had cancer twice and lived?" The mind boggles, and the answer sticks in the throat. What is "twice"? What is "lived"? It's the closest most of us will get to being where she's been.
Let me stress that this show is undeniably entertaining and will probably not make you miserable, unless you happen to be in an immediate-catharsis-needing place -- and if you are, you might as well get it here. This is a blood diamond of great, moving acting. Katan's huge smile, gangly arms, and defiantly flat, scarred chest are the captivating façade of a soul that just wants to survive and share. In particular, her stories of crushing, falling in love, and wanting to flee it are as romantic and toe-curling -- and terrifically, hysterically funny -- as anything you'll ever see and hear.
Cupcakes Take the Cake interviewed Tania wrote about her in our infancy (2005!) and quoted this part of her book:
“I’m sorry. Hey, do you want a little treat to go with your mocha? I saw some fancy looking cupcakes up there.”
“Sure, thanks.” Mom hands me a five. I’m living large.
The cupcake is amazing: light golden brown and four inches in circumference, and when I lick the fluffy pink frosting, it licks me back.
See also: Tania Katan's essay "Pragmatic Osmosis" at beloved essay site Fresh Yarn
