We are super excited to introduce red velvet CAKE to the Cupcakes family. Kathie, who takes all of your cake orders placed on-line and on the phone, consistently tells us how so many people ask for a red velvet cake, triple-layered with cream cheese. For a long time, we had to say ’sorry, no-can-do.’ However, our talented bake & pastry teams have worked together and have come up with the perfect red velvet cake recipe, for all of your special occasions.

Most popular in the Southern United States, Red Velvet cake can be best descibed as a creamy and decadent cake infused with cocoa and then dyed red to give it its distinctive personality. The most common and favorite pairing with the cake is a cream cheese frosting, whipped until fluffy and white.

Although red velvet cake has been around for quite some time now, numerous legends surround its place of origin, and on its method on turning the color of the cake to its rich, deep red. Some say that during World War II, bakers used boiled beets instead of food coloring, while others claim that the deep red color emerges when mixing buttermilk and vinegar with the cocoa. Whatever the truth may be, there is no denying that over the last decade, red velvet cake has gained popularity among celebrities (Oprah Winfrey is a HUGE fan) and has emerged as a favourite in North American households.

If you love our ‘red velvet’ cupcake, which is available on weekends or by special request, we know you’ll be excited about ordering a cake just like it for your next celebration.

A friendly reminder that when ordering the cake, it is triple-layered, and covered in cream cheese frosting. If you’d like any decoration or writing on the cake, it will be covered in a creamy white vanilla buttercream instead of the cream cheese frosting. If you’re not a fan of cream cheese, you do have the option to have your whole cake layered and covered in the white vanilla buttercream. All cake orders must be placed at least 36 hours in advance.
Call our orders desk today! 604.974.1300 ext 1

The Cupcake Girls

When I moved to Vancouver in March of 2006 one of the first places my husband David said I had to go was Cupcakes on Denman. While walking around the West End with my cousin, Carolina, we were drawn into Cupcakes because of the atmosphere, the crowd that filled the tiny Denman shop, and of course since David said too!

The silver cupcake stands were filled with all sorts of Cupcakes and we had a hard time choosing just one. So we did what any rational person would do and bought a half dozen. We asked the lovely front staff to pick out the top six and add them to our order. When they put what looked like a coconut ball in the pack, I told my cousin she could have that one all to herself, since coconut was one of my least favourite things.

As we left, we could barely contain ourselves from getting into the Cupcakes. As Carolina took a bite of the Koo Koo, her face froze for a moment. Then as she regained movement in her facial nerves, she demanded that I take a bite of the coconut cupcake. So I did. Again and again until it was all gone. The Koo Koo was beyond what I had ever imagined and opened up my world to all things coconut.

Now, 3 years later, I work at Cupcakes on W. Broadway and it is no secret that Koo Koo is my favourite Cupcake of all time.

Now it’s your turn. Share your Cupcakes story with us on Facebook!

Happy Eating!!!

Alex
Cupcakes Wedding Coordinator

Spring is always an exciting time for Cupcakes. A time for change, new window displays, fresh ideas and wonderful festivities to celebrate the arrival of warmer weather. Easter is just around the corner, so please make sure to check out our new easter cake designs online on our features page at: http://www.originalcupcakes.com/features.php

Our “bunny” cake, is sure to delight all those young at heart. This light fluffy coconut cake, layered with cream cheese frosting and then covered in coconut shavings, is finished with an adorable bunny face and long fondant ears.

If you’re looking for a smaller way to celebrate Easter, we have “big ones” which are 2.5 times the size of our regular cupcakes and are decorated with spring flowers, easter eggs, butterflies or a bunny face. You can also indulge in our newest big one, “tweet” which is a vanilla cake decorated with a nest of toasted coconut and three little birds sitting inside…tweet tweet…

Please make sure to order your Easter cake at least 48 hours in advance. Hope to see you soon at any one of our 5 locations across the lower mainland.

The Cupcake Girls

This blog is written by Cupcakes very talented one-of-kind pastry chef, Chelsea Rogers.

There’s always a cake or 2 that stands out in my mind every month, and for July it has to be this cake, overflowing with sugar flowers. I love the cool shades of green and white, perfect for an outdoor wedding. The frilly orchids contrast so well with the more geometric hydrangeas, giving a great sense of movement and pattern.One of the first questions I always get when someone sees a cake like this is “how long did that take?”. I generally don’t time my cakes (it would just be too scary!), but I know I spent about 7 hours on the flowers alone. Each petal is individually made by hand from gumpaste, veined, shaped, and dried. Once dried the pieces are assembled and hand tinted with powdered food colouring to achieve the most life-like finish. It’s a lot of work, but hopefully worth it! The best complement I can get is when people think they’re real.

The 2nd question, once people realize the flowers are sugar, is “can I eat the flowers”. My answer is always “yes, but…”. They really aren’t that appetizing. When gumpaste dries it becomes very hard and brittle and small pieces can be quite sharp. Most of the pieces also contain wires as internal support. And there’s no vanilla or other flavourings in the gumpaste to balance out the bitter flavour of the food colouring. So generally, while the flowers are technically edible, you’re better off eating the cake!

This cake was made for Julia, who happens to be the grand-niece of my parent’s neighbour. So, Mum and Dad, this is the cake you keep asking about!

- Chelsea

I wanted to have an article about our Build-A-Cake page so I asked our web developer (and now great friend of mine) Chris at BashBang to write me one. Before any of this happened it was my Mom who came to Lori and I with the idea of the build-a-cake page for the website.  After 6 long months in the making Chris built this easy to use interactive tool for kids, parents and our creative customers to build their very own celebration cakes. Each custom cake can be built step by step by choosing from a variety of cake flavors, butter cream colors, designs and patterns. To top off your cake you can finish it with a personal message, image or an edible fondant accessory.

Thank you Chris for writing this article for us and to Jim for all of his creative drawings and artwork.

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About a year ago Heather&Lori from cupcakes asked me about building a virtual cake building engine. The idea was to create an engine that would allow users to custom build cakes for birthdays, parties or other special events. Apparently it was quite time consuming for the order takers at cupcakes to take these custom orders over the phone. It was difficult to describe each of the many, “many!” cake styles, colors, flavors, decorations, etc. So creating a virtual cake building engine that did the translation was a natural fit for the website. We at BashBang have made several avatar engines in the past and the build-a-cake application is basically the same idea. Have a base model and decorate it with various objects.

I won’t get into all the technical details of how we built this app, but I will say that we designed it in such a way as to allow for easy updates, additions, and changes. We wanted to build an engine that would grow with the company. There’s nothing worse then building an application and having to throw it away after a year because you’ve outgrown it.

Once build-a-cake was launched, we saw an immediate impact on the business. Order takers were saving a lot of time in taking custom cake orders. The other unexpected benefit was we were getting more cake orders, and the average cost per cake was a bit higher. People were using the application to purchase items they’d not normally know Cupcakes had to offer (such as fondant and accessories).

Build-A-Cake has been a huge success for the cupcake girls. They’ve been very happy with the application and we had a blast creating it. It didn’t hurt that we needed “samples” to create all the artwork. The hard part will be working off all the weight we put on during the project.

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We do weddings!

Our hand-crafted, chic wedding cakes and tiers of cupcakes are created and designed to suit each bride’s theme, colors and flowers to make her wedding a special and memorable occasion. Our creative team of consultants and pastry chefs at Cupcakes will help each step of the way to insure the exact look you want for your big day.

We provide our brides with a complimentary cake tasting that features all our different flavors of cake and buttercream.

Cake pricing will be quoted during the consultation based on the wedding cake size, look and design.

Consultations are taken at 2887 West Broadway.

Cupcakes Wedding Coordinator
t. 604.974.1300 ext.7
weddings@originalcupcakes.com
www.originalcupcakes.com

Cupcakes is created and run by Lori Joyce and myself Heather White, we are two best friends who grew up together in Victoria on Vancouver Island. Now thirty-three and thirty-four years of age, our life long dream of starting our own business together has become a reality. Both having a background in sales, Lori and I have worked for various companies dealing with everything from fashion to wastewater treatment.

Rewind back in time to Fall 2001, where we found ourselves working together in New York around the time of the tragic events of September 11th. Ironically, amongst darkness and devastation, Lori and I were inspired to finally make our life long dream come true. It was time to go solo and it became very clear to both of us that our new venture was just about to begin. Our new business concept had to be light, it had to be fresh and it had to be fun, a return to simpler times. There was no question, it had to be, Cupcakes.

Fast Forward to the present and 6 years from its conception, Cupcakes has won a special place in the sweet teeth of Vancouverites. With our three bustling locations to serve our customers, (1168 Denman, 2887 West Broadway and our newest location in Edgemont Village) we try to inspire every new and repeat customer with a mouth full of whimsy. We pride ourselves on our nostalgic trademark and brand that we built using colors like perfect icing pink, soft vanilla and rich chocolaty brown. Once drawn inside by the familiar softly sweet aroma, you are instantly tempted by an array of irresistible confections from the classic top selling “Sweet Sixteen” (vanilla cake with pink icing and pastel sprinkles) to our sinful “Heartthrob” (vanilla and chocolate marble cake with chocolate cream cheese icing and a white chocolate button to top it off) yummm!

Our talented Cupcakes team of 54 staff is busy providing various ideas for weddings, special events and other to-dos with our unique and scrumptious brand of retro cakes and cupcakes. Why is Cupcakes such a hit?

“because, who doesn’t love a cupcake?”