Yearning for batter days

During When Tara Met Blog's last LA Cupcakes MeetUp at Crumbs bakery, Lauren Schick from UCLA's newspaper--The Daily Bruin came to interview me about the cupcake trend hitting Los Angeles. Below is the resulting interview that hit today. I'm quoted quite a bit in it and at least I don't sound as trite as I did in past interviews.

Yearning for batter days
Lauren Schick
Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2007

A hopscotch jump from Rodeo Drive, the young and posh wait 30 minutes to shell out $3.75 for a bite-sized childhood treat. Three blocks away, a grown man orders a glass of milk to accompany his multicolored sugary snack while a group of students leaves the shop with a 12-pack for a study session on campus.

Los Angeles’ sweet tooth is craving cupcakes and never has a blast from the schoolyard past tasted so good.

“The stores are cute, the cupcakes are cute and there’s a childhood-like (quality) to it that everyone remembers,” said Tara Settembre, a journalist, blogger and public relations executive who moved to Los Angeles from New York City, where the cupcake trend took off at Magnolia Bakery around 2000.

Settembre started the Los Angeles Cupcake Meetup Group, where
people can munch on cupcakes and meet new people at different local cupcake stores.

“Coming out here I missed not having all my girlfriends going out for
cupcakes because it’s so traditional in New York. ... So I thought I’d start this group, have cupcakes and meet people,” Settembre said during the group’s seventh meeting at the newly opened Crumbs in Beverly Hills.

Outings among friends that were common at local coffee shops are now becoming increasingly popular at cupcake shops such as Sprinkles Cupcakes, Yummy Cupcakes, Dainties and SusieCakes, which have sprung up in Los Angeles.

“I think (cupcakes are) really popular because it’s a cake that, literally, you can hold in your hand, and you get the entire package and it’s relatively inexpensive,” said Evan Aldrich, a second-year mechanical engineering student, who frequents Sprinkles Cupcakes at least twice a month. “It’s a very L.A. thing to do, like Pinkberry.”

But Krystina Castella, author of the cookbook “Crazy About Cupcakes” and former UCLA Extension professor of product design, was one of the first to recognize and capitalize on the trend. She sees a bigger cultural picture to the cupcake frenzy that has caused its popularity to spread. “People are staying younger longer; they’re getting married later and having kids later. Before ... people got married in their early 20s and they were immediately adults and now people have an extra 15 years or so to be kids themselves. That’s why the flavors (can be) adult but at the same time it reminds you of being a kid,” Castella said.

Still, the incredible success of cupcakes in a health-and-diet-conscious city like Los Angeles has been an unusual surprise.

“That’s part of the reason that I didn’t know if cupcakes would be very popular here, but obviously they are, and there’s a lot of different recipes that are vegan or low-fat,” Castella said. “It depends on the
recipe, but the average cupcake recipe in my book ... is about 250 calories, which is the same as a Nature Valley Granola Bar. It’s one of those things that you’re willing to splurge for.”

As the trend adapts to its new locale, Los Angeles manages to make its mark on the cupcake.

“You’ll see a lot of places doing all-natural ingredients or the mini-sized cupcakes. I didn’t see mini-sized cupcakes in New York. Out here, they want even smaller than a cupcake,” Settembre said.

With over 10 specialty cupcake shops in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica, some wonder if the trend will last or if the taste of cream cheese frosting will soon go stale.

“I think there will stop being so many (cupcake shops) but I don’t think it will go away. I mean, cakes haven’t gone away,” Settembre said.

Similarly, Castella is optimistic about the near future of the miniature indulgences. “I think it will last a couple of years and ... there will be a few that climb to the top and become franchises. ... I think they’ll stay but I don’t know if they’ll always remain at the top of the excitement list,” Castella said.

Amy Berman, owner of Vanilla Bake Shop, one of the newest L.A. bakeries, isn’t concerned about the longevity of the cupcake trend. “Everybody likes sweets. People may not necessarily want a huge cake or a slice of it and have to deal with a fork and knife and plate. But (cupcakes) are just easy. They’re sheer convenience and indulgence,” Berman said.

Adults and children with soft spots for the spongy and sweet now have plenty of variety to satisfy their palates. But, for those who in true L.A. fashion are ready to move on to the next big fad, Castella offered her hint to the next phenomenon in kid food gone adult: Popsicles.

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We do the mash

the Monster Mash! And it was a grave yard smash.

In prep for the upcoming holiday many spooks, tarts and tricksters headed to a penthouse Halloween party, complete with live dancers and plenty of decorations.

Let me introduce the players in attendance:

There was the royal Super Mario Bros.' Princess Peach and her faithful plumber Luigi

The Joker himself was spotted by the bar on the arm of a flapper girl

Then there was the determined nurse and her unwilling patient

And from all the way across the pond came a Scotsmen and his merry maid

There were also wild strawberries, busy bees and angels parading about

As the night went on though, the enthusiastic strawberry and Princess Peach proudly showed off their hose

But sadly the festivities turned ugly when a cat fight broke out over the bachelor and his roses

More to report next time, dear readers.

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The lullaby of chimes and jackhammers

When I lived in New York City, people would assume that I woke up to car horns and garbarge trucks, but that wasn’t the case where I was living. I woke up to birds chirping in the back and unfortunately on windy days, to the sound of chimes. Both are oddities in Manhattan, but we had a tree in the back and this one neighbor had hung chimes from her section of the fire escape. Because this tenant liked her chimes, it meant that all 50+ of her immediate neighbors then had to hear her chimes and was forced to like or hate them too. I hated them, they used to annoy the heck out of me. At times it would sound like an alarm going off late at night.

Now our condo neighbors, which are only 15 feet away from our back window, of course have these gargantuan chimes dangling. The recent Santa Ana winds then had the stupid things chiming and clanking away all night. If those were mine I’d be so embarrassed knowing that they were causing such a racket. It’s one thing if the chimes were inside their home for decoration or outside a house where neighbors were further apart, otherwise you’re just a selfish jerk in my book.

Then as if that wasn’t annoying enough, a persistent jackhammer started to ba ba bang steadily after midnight and for the next couple of hours, thanks to the nearby I-405 highway widening. In the past, I’ve heard the sound of a beeping truck, backing up late at night because of the same construction, but that would at least fade away. This evening though, their work sounded like an Army helicopter was on our roof and playing new age/spa music involving chimes. Worse even, the ear plugs that I keep under my pillow for just such chime/jackhammer emergencies didn’t do anything to mute the sounds.

Study: Redbook writes “Sleep deprivation doesn’t just leave us groggy and grumpy—it also puts us at great risk for obesity, heart problems, depression and motor vehicle accidents. Unfortunately, more than half of American women get a good night’s sleep only a few times a week, according to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2007 Sleep In America Poll. One likely reason [besides jackhammers and chimes going off late at night] 87% of us opt to zone out in front of the tube for an hour before bed rather than turning in early, and watching television stimulates the brain, making it harder to fall and stay asleep. To ensure sound slumber, TiVo your favorite late-night shows for later viewing, and crawl into bed.

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LA Cupcakes #7: Crumbs

For the 7th LA Cupcakes Meetup we were invited to New York’s cupcake chain Crumbs, which recently opened shop in Beverly Hills. Decorated for Halloween with orange cobwebs, the pink and black awning shop near Rodeo was surprisingly inviting. Inside, the staff was super friendly asking our opinion on each cupcake that we tried and offering mini sized cupcakes as "samples" to each customer. I tried their sample of Cotton Candy, which was too pretty to resist in pink, blue and purple. It was basically a vanilla/butter cream cupcake with cotton candy like rocky sprinkles on top of pink frosting. It was moist and simple.

The first thing I noticed when entering the shop though was the huge sizes of the cupcakes on display. I’m also a fan of diverse flavors and Crumbs did not disappoint with large cupcakes for $3.75 in varieties that included key lime, blueberry cobbler, pina colada, banana split, cookie dough, Boston cream, caramel apple, pistachio, hostess, carrot cake, fluffernutter and so many more. My favorite though is the Raspberry Swirl, which is a vanilla cake with raspberry jam swirled inside it and on top of the frosting. Yum.

Later the owner, Harley Bauer, introduced himself and so generously wow’d us all further by giving our group 20 free regular sized cupcakes to try. So with a handful of forks, napkins and drinks, the 18 of us headed to a nearby outside seating area in front of a Wells Fargo to try them all. Overall, everyone was saying that Crumbs was now their favorite stop yet and I found it hard to disagree after eating the creamy, massive and inventive cupcakes. It seemed that people especially liked their pumpkin and raspberry swirl.

Harley also mentioned that they plan to open a total of five Crumbs stores throughout the Los Angeles area! In response to mentioning that he had a friendly staff, Harley said that he had wanted Crumbs to be the exact opposite of nearby Sprinkles (only two blocks away) meaning that hewanted Crumbs to be a "fun experience" for eaters. With the fun decorations and knowledgeable and welcoming staff it didn’t have the sterile or pretentious look of Sprinkles, so I’d say that so far he’s succeeding.

I brought home some leftovers for Raphael and he said they were the best ones that I've brought back since starting the group and considering that all he had this time was some crumbs (no pun intended) and half eaten cupcakes, that's pretty impressive. I need to go back and try the key lime and pina colada (more photos).

Which bakery in your area has the best cupcake dessert recipe? Oftentimes the best cup cake recipes come from bakers who love sweets and know how to make great treats. The biggest cupcake lovers even turn festive cupcakes into traditional Christmas food!

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The show must go on

I came across a ticket stub in the bottom of my winter purse and I started remembering shows that I had almost forgotten about, so I thought I'd type them down.

• Rod Stewart (post)
  
• Stevie Wonder (post)
• U2 (post)
• Madonna (post)
• Cyndi Lauper (twice / article)
  
• Deborah Gibson (post)
• Howie Day (post)
• Dolly Parton (post)
• Dave Mathews Band (post)
• John Legend (post)
• The Police (post)
• Michael Bolton / Lee Ann Womack / Patrick Swayze / Nancy Sinatra (post)
• Bette Midler
• The Bangles (twice)
• Neil Diamond
• The Village People
• The Beach Boys
• Wayne Newton
• Jon Secada
• The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
• America
• Bare Naked Ladies
• Vertical Horizon
• 98 Degrees
• Keane
• The Foo Fighters
  

I still feel like I'm missing some. The Beach Boys and America came to me just at the last minute too. My favorite shows were Bette, Dolly, Rod and Cyndi because not only do I love their songs I loved their passion on stage. Worst: Madonna (eh she's all theatrics, didn't sing the hits and took long breaks) and Dave Matthews (read the post).

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Cupcakes For a Cause

National Cupcakes for a Cause Week is October 15-21, and participating bakeries across the U.S. will be proceeds from the sale of their cupcakes to help support CancerCare for Kids. The newly opened Crumbs in Beverly Hills, which is our next LA Cupcakes MeetUp stop, is participating as are shops from all over (full list).

Also, for every friend that you send a free virtual cupcake/e-card to, $1.00 will be donated to CancerCare for Kids. You also get to design your own e-cupcake, which is fun. Over there ---> is the official red velvet When Tara Met Blog cupcake.

Now if only I could eat it.

I'm also busy saving the pink Yoplait lids that equal 10 cents per seal for breast cancer research. Right now California is #1 with the most lids collected and Texas is #2.

PS: Here's a photo of my office mates all dressed in pink to show our support and fundraise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Check out my retro boots.

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Tara does Dallas

and so do crickets apparently--I'll explain in a second.

I'm visiting the Dallas office this week and after entering my first hotel room (I had to stay at two different ones due to a whole reservations fiasco, which had me taking several taxis and didn't get me into a hotel room until 2:00 in the morning, but I don't want to go there) I saw a printed letter on the floor that read:

As you may have heard or perhaps seen, we have been experiencing an unusual phenomena (should be phenomenon) in the State of Texas (state was capitalized as if Texas is its own country like the United States) so far this summer. Due to the unusual amount of rain we have experienced a large in-flux of crickets as of late. We currently apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced; we are taking steps to minimize the problem as much as possible by spraying the fields as well as the outside of the building essentially doubling our normal efforts. Although we do understand they can be an annoyance, the crickets do not pose any health risk. Our staff is working diligently to remove the crickets from the guest rooms on a daily basis, however if you encounter any crickets please call extension 57 and our staff will be happy to come and remove them.

Of course, I immediately started looking around the room for crickets and then put my ear next to the window to hear them, but heard and saw nada. I then had images of the staff that are checking daily for crickets to remove them and pictured them in Ghostbusters’ gear, lol.

Geez, what happened that they needed to write this letter? Did someone get attacked by renegade crickets? Health risks? I didn't even consider that, they shouldn't have even put that in my head. I'm glad I'm not the public relations person who was forced to have to deal with this "cricket problem," which apparently is like the Watergate of the hospitality industry, and write the copy for this crazy letter. Maybe I found the whole thing funnier since I was now so tired I was becoming silly, but I had some good fun going on cricket patrol in my room that I even had dreams with 30 foot crickets in them.

News: Invasion has Texans saying Jiminy, crickets! (Got to love the headline)

The next night at the next hotel, I had dinner by myself in the hotel's restaurant. Sitting at an outside table, still in my white suit from my day of work, I enjoyed a glass of red wine by my lonesome as I waited for my meal to arrive. I didn't bring a book or hide behind my cell phone. Instead, I just sipped and looked around peacefully. A bunch of men were in the hotel though for some conference and as a result the other tables were full of male colleagues, so it made me sitting by myself all the more noticeable. One guy on his way out even remarked to me "You're a brave one" playing dumb I responded, "For wearing white and drinking red wine?" they laughed and silently congratulated myself for successfully avoiding their pity or any invitations for company.

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Flu shot on the rocks please

Cold and flu season is coming and it's that time again, for people to rollup their sleeves and get that all-important shot to protect them. OK that was the news lead that I used in recent outreach announcing that CVS Pharmacy’s are administering flu-shots this season, but yesterday I did in fact get a flu shot myself. My first flu shot.

I read all the literature beforehand in order to find some excuse that would let me back out. I did the same when I used to contemplate giving blood and would then to my glee find out that I couldn't because I visited a foreign country that year that was on the NO list and then there was the year that I got a tattoo, etc. Too bad the reason was never because I was under the weight limit though. Oh well. Anyway, I had no excuse when it came to the flu shot and since I was recently sick it made sense to do something about it this year. Being a fainter though, I was afraid it was going to hurt and then I’d pass out like I’ve done in the past when doctors took my blood or gave me needles. Giving blood though I'd surely faint, I even had to fight the urge when I went to the Red Cross to report on this story of a woman giving her 136th pint of blood, that’s 17 gallons.

But I had no excuse this year, especially since they were giving flu shots at my office, only a couple of feet away from my desk. Although I was still afraid that I’d faint at work. I walked into the designated room and saw a woman about to get pricked with the vaccine, so I entered like Frankenstein, my hands extended, waving my consent form around, grumbling, and all the while looking down at my feet. I was given a lollipop to calm me down. Cherry.

When it was my turn, I told the woman that I've never had a shot before, but she could have cared less. She pulled up my sleeve as I craned my head away as far as my neck would allow me. I felt a moist nap applied to my arm and then a quick pinch. It was nothing. I was fine. I let my heart race back to normal speeds, took a deep breath and walked out tall.

A day later though it now hurts! It feels like my sleeve is digging into the muscle and its sore when I move my arm. It's a little swollen around the target area too, but otherwise it's fine. Weird how it didn't hurt to get the shot, but it hurts a day later.

Disclaimer: Despite common misconceptions, those receiving shots will not have to worry about catching the flu from the shot since the vaccine is created from inactive flu viruses designed to produce antibodies, and these inactive viruses are not contagious. In fact, annual flu shots have been found to be about 75 percent effective in preventing the flu.

Flu treatments are usually a great idea in the long run, but flu shots can be painful if not done right though. Find a good doctor or nurse who can administer them painlessly and you should be fine. As always, if you a medical question about the flu or flu shots, check with your doctor.

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LA Cupcakes #6: Leda's Bake Shop

For my LA Cupcakes MeetUp group's sixth stop (we're now at 132 members!), we headed out to Sherman Oaks to visit Leda's Bake Shop. There we found mini cupcakes ($1.50 each) similar to the ones at Vanilla in Santa Monica, however these were much better and came in more flavors and with cute hand-made sugar fondant decorations on top.

Unlike the new comers that we tried recently, this shop has been open for over two and half years now and offers vegan cupcakes, which I thought I'd surely detest, but the Red Velvet vegan mini cupcake was surprisingly, sweet, moist and delicious. They do not use artificial red dye though, so although it tasted like red velvet, it didn't look it.

I also sampled their yummy lime coconut, which had a layer of lime curd underneath the icing and bits of coconut inside the cake. I tried their passion fruit cupcake too, which tasted like a yummy drink. Another one that I ate was the chocolate raspberry, which although I normally like in a chocolate bar, I found it to be just OK in cupcake form. I think I'm biased though since I prefer vanilla cake generally. Lastly, I brought home the Dolce de Leche for Raphael who quickly devoured the treat with no complaints.

Overall, everyone raved about the vegan red velvet, the chocolate chocolate chocolate, the espresso and of course the cute designs and mini sizes. One member commented, "The minis are the perfect size to assuage any feelings of guilt!" Oh and the bakery’s Blondie bars and chocolate chip cookies were yummy too, in fact several members purchased to go bags (more photos).

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Hanging with the Cast of Heroes

On Friday night I headed only 1.6 miles away from mi casa to see some Heroes (literally) at Demetrios Mavromichalis' Venice Grind Print & Art Gallery for the opening exhibition of “Hollywood Most Wanted,” an art showing of celebrity mug shots turned pop-art with enhanced colors and printmaking techniques. Zachary Quinto, the actor who portrays "Sylar" on NBC's television show Heroes, hosted the gala and as a result other Heroes cast members were present too. I was invited by Bungalow PR, who was responsible for the this hot party and with whom I do freelance work for.

The tiny gallery was packed with TV celebs and being fans of the show, Raphael and I were in our element. In fact, I couldn't help but be momentarily frightened when the bad guy, Sylar, walked in the backyard party area, which had an open bar sponsored by p.i.n.k (vodka infused with caffeine) + Bluecoat American Dry Gin, plus appetizers being cooked outside by Nourish catering. Not having had dinner, we filled up on the bite size portions, which were all divine.

While viewing the displays we spotted, Neil Patrick Harris, i.e. Doogie Howser, who has such baby looking skin that he looked not only young but pretty. He was there with another handsome guy, who I'm assuming was his date. Here's a photo though with Neil, Zachary and the artist Rachel Schmeidler.

Then Raphael noticed Hero's sidekick "Ando," actor James Kyson Lee, who hammed it up for his friends in front of the portraits. We took the opportunity to snap a photo with Raphael's iPhone, and James then turned and smiled right at the camera:

We also saw Heroes' dad, Jack Coleman, who we briefly chatted with by the bar. He shook my hand and shared that he liked the art show. He was the friendliest of all the stars there and looked handsome and generally comfortable in the crowd. What was really interesting though was to see that he and his on screen daughter, a.k.a. the cheerleader played by Hayden Panettiere (who I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival last year too) interacted as if they were really father and daughter. It was cute. In fact, when she entered the party in a short and stunning golden dress, she immediately ran right to Jack for a hug and to join in the photo opp with Access Hollywood, which was also there with a reporter and camera crew. I'm going to tape the show this week, in case I'm in the background ;).

Later Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) arrived as did actress Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), who apparently is the latest addition to the cast this season
.
For more photos check out WireImage and here. The exhibit runs from now until Nov. 4 at 12222 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066. Update: I saw the coverage on Access Hollywood, short and sweet but no moi in the background. Ah well, at least I was there.

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Across the Universal

Early this morning, I headed to an HD DVD press conference on the Universal lot. So early (6:15 a.m.) that I saw the sunrise from the highway and there wasn't any traffic on the 405 or 101-- nothing like small miracles to bring a smile to a sleepy face.

This is the third studio that I've had a walk-on pass for since being out in Los Angeles. I had attended Sony Studios in Culver City twice for a taping of King of Queens and then watching the filming of a TGIF commercial and also twice to The Warner Bros lot for screenings of The Brave One and The Astronuat Farmer.

Anyway, the lot was pretty standard with golf carts driving around, catering trucks too, security and sound stages. I walked past Stage 3 where an episode of Desperate Housewives was being filmed inside. I hear you can view Wisteria Lane inside, but that wasn't allowed via my pass, which by the way read "Terra Settiemere" (how they got that from Tara Settembre, even when in possession of my license for 5 minutes, I'll never know).

Link: What the? Who thinks of this stuff? DontSquat.com

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Turn, turn, turn

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

It seems that I can't make a big change in my life without everything else changing as well. For example, last year (yes, it has already been a year) not only did I leave NYC for Los Angeles, I moved in with Raphael and started a new job. Now, not only did I get engaged, but Friday was my last day at my work, thus the hookah party on Thursday with my co-workers.

I figured the timing now was right for a change at work, too. For the last three and a half years I've been in tech PR and although I'll still be doing tech to a degree, I'm going to be moving into more consumer public relations, which is new and exciting for me. All around this change should be good for me.

I'd like to go into more details, but I find there is so much I want to say on my blog that I can't because of the close people reading it. Which is a pity, because when I have news, my blog is the first place I want to go and write all about it. After three years of blogging, It's how I process/cope with the different things in my life.

Link: Have you seen the photo book, Porn for Women, with images of hunky men cooking, listening, asking for directions, accompanied by steamy captions like: "I love a clean house!" or "Well, I can't offer you any solutions, but I am a good listener." Hmm I always did like fantasy, lol.

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