All in the name of research

I just started interning with Jen, a cake decorator from my church who is AWESOME! Seriously, go check out her webpage: No More Boring Cakes. If I can produce anything half as impressive, I will be pretty stoked! Anyway, we were talking the other night about different types of buttercream frosting and she mentioned Italian Buttercream which is a really light and fluffy frosting. It works really well for wedding cakes in the summer because it holds up well in heat and doesn't lose it's shape. I don't really like traditional buttercream all that much, I usually scrape off most of it. It feels a bit heavy and greasy to me, it is kind of a necessary evil when it comes to cake decorating. I am very interested in other alternatives.

Jen mentioned a cupcake shop in Vista that uses primarily Italian Buttercream on their cupcakes. Little Cakes Cupcake Kitchen. I LOVE cupcake shops! Cupcakes are so cute and fun. In fact, a few years ago I had the bright idea to open a cupcake shop but upon doing some research I discovered that they already existed and were actually really trendy. I abandoned my bright idea since apparently someone had already thought of it. It is really too bad, too, because these places must make a killing! When Sprinkles in La Jolla opened up they had a line around the block of people waiting for a tiny piece of cake! Crazy!!!

Since I am doing Dave and Ellie's cake this fall, I decided that I needed to do some "frosting research" if I was going to be a responsible cake decorator. I owed it to them to taste some of this Italian Buttercream. So I took myself on over to Little Cakes Cupcake Kitchen to try the goods.

OH EM GEE!!!

I never use that phrase because, well, I am not 13 year old girl. But in this case, it is the only phrase that fits! These were the best cupcakes I have ever tasted! They blew Sprinkles right out of the water! Over the last few months I have become somewhat of a cake connoisseur and I feel like I can give an educated review. The cake was perfectly moist. Not too heavy, not too dry, seriously... perfect. And the Italian Buttercream? I am sold! It is so yummy! It almost has the consistency of whipped cream. It is not too sweet and it is very light and airy. I always wondered about cupcakes with the frosting piled high on it. It seemed like WAY too much! Not so with Italian Buttercream - load it on!

I am definitely going to try my hand at making it. I think it would be perfect for the wedding cake. (although I might have to taste it a few more times... just to make sure. I want to be thorough in my research) Do yourselves a favor and go get a cupcake. Now. You won't be sorry! Here are a few pictures from their website to whet the pallat:

YUM!