Kosher Critic: What’s new cupcake?

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Kosher Critic

Issue of July 30, 2010/ 19 Av 5770

Much like in the fashion industry, the food industry goes through fads. An excellent example of this is Jamba Juice. Seemingly overnight, these stores popped up in cities all over the country. Then suddenly one night, poof, they were gone. Now we wake up to see dozens of Cold Stone Creameries where all the Jamba Juices used to be.

It's not hard to tell what the latest fad is. With specialty bakeries popping up all over and with a new show on the Food Network dedicated to it,  cupcakes have finally taken the spotlight. Cupcake decorating books have also experienced a surge in popularity and I was asked to review "What's New Cupcake," the follow-up to the New York Times bestseller "Hello Cupcake," both written by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.

When the book arrived at my house, I excitedly tore open the packaging only to discover 230 pages of way-over-my-head. "What's New Cupcake" is a decorating book that is imaginative and whimsical. The decorations are adorable, like a cupcake that looks like Chinese food and another that looks like a flower, but that being said, once I had read through the entire book I found that "What's New Cupcake" was not so much a book about cupcakes as it is an arts and crafts book that just happens to use cupcakes. Nothing demonstrates this more than the lack of an actual cupcake recipe in the book.

In order to appropriately review this, I gathered together several friends of various baking and artistic skills and we set out to make a few of the different designs. My task was to replicate the Rubber Ducky cupcakes that are found on the cover of "What's New Cupcake." I will be honest: it was much less time consuming and difficult than I thought it would be. After only nine tries even an artistic novice like myself was able to recreate a very adorable rubber ducky.

The real problem with "What's New Cupcake" is not the learning curve or the creativity, it's what they need to use in order to get the designs. Jelly beans, cookies, donut holes and even full donuts are used in order for the cupcakes to acquire the necessary shape. For my ducks I needed marshmallows for the tails, donut holes for the head, M & M's for the eyes and taffy for the bills. After piling all that onto a cupcake and coating it with colored frosting the result is less then pleasing. Biting into one you find your taste buds assaulted by too many conflicting flavors and textures. I began giving out my ducks to friends who all had the same reaction: "Aww that's so cute. Uch, what is in this?"

If you are someone who loves arts and crafts and decorating then "What's New Cupcake" is the book for you. It's designs are fun to make and are sure to impress your friends.

Just don't count on them to eat them afterwards.