Kickin' it Old School (or Put Down that Cupcake!)

I've got nothing against cupcakes (or cake pops for that matter).  I'll take one right now, chocolate with chocolate frosting please.  But this recent cupcake and cake pop fixation must end.  Talk to your mom about it.  She doesn't get it either.  Because she probably made kick ass cupcakes and she's wondering why the hell you never paid ten bucks a pop and waxed poetic about hers.  And the novelty of a cake pop wears thin after a few bites of paraffin coated cake blobs.

There are shops.  Just cupcakes.  All kinds of flavors.  I think this is a fine idea, uniformity of size with enormity of selection.  They do this for donuts. But I've seen lines outside of cupcake places where the frosting is made from Crisco, the eggs are powdered and there's no butter in the house.  Only vegetable oil.  The only other time I've seen lines like this are outside Pierre Hermes' shop in Paris.  I'd stand in that line.  That man has mad skills.

He's old school pastry.  He is a master technician.  His pastries are works of art and architecture.  But they're also good.  And I think this is where the problem lies.  I remember going to pastry shops as a kid and checking out the case full of insanely cool looking treats.  And they always tasted like crap.  Cupcakes, on the other hand, don't come with a fancy pedigree.  You usually don't have high expectations.  If it's pretty good, it's good enough.

So today I'm giving a shout out to the old school pastry chefs who do it well.  The ones who make their own puff and pastry cream.  Who make delicious palm sized treats that require days of work and black diamond technique.  And to everyone out there who makes kick ass cupcakes at home, I suggest you go open a cupcake shop.  You'll make bank.