WMD Cupcakes

Last Saturday was the birthday of a very good friend of Mike and me.

I wanted to create something special for the occasion; something sweet.

I thought up many possibilities, but nothing was really jumping out at me.  Mike had no idea what desserts, candy or flavors Alan liked or disliked.  Did I mention they lived together for a year?  Yeah.  Boys.

And suddenly, my mind drifted back to the summertime, as the three of us were driving to Cape Cod for the weekend.  Alan couldn't believe Mike and I had never heard of the Wafles & Dinges truck.

A few weekends later, Alan and Mike visited the truck.  Mike went back for seconds and also brought one home for me.

Our lives have never been the same.

Now, let's take a moment to look at the menu.  Ah, the WMD - Wafle of Massive Deliciousness.  Always on the liege wafle.  Always.

And then it hit me - liege flavored cupcakes with every single dingle.  WMD cupcakes!

There were a few trials, lots of taste testing and a bit of jealous on Mike's end.

Let's go through the assembly; I will bold the dinges, just so you can hold me accountable.  First, the cupcake.  This was the most important element and required a bit of research on the flavors and traditional recipes for liege wafles.

But finally, Mike and I agreed a cinnamon-y cupcake with turbinado sugar folded into the batter is how a liege wafle would taste in cupcake form.

Next, the Nutella.

Then, the Speculoos butter cream.  Speculoos cookies are like the little Biscoff cookies you receive, if you're lucky, on the airplane.

For the finishing touches: chopped maple syrup candied walnuts, dulce de leche bananas and chocolate fudge strawberries.

Oh, you say I forgot two dinges?  Yes.  The whipped cream and ice cream.  I know.

But these two elements just weren't going to make it down to the Lower East Side on the subway.

However, if these were served at home, they could be on the cupcake without issue.

Judging by the way these cupcakes were quickly consumed by Alan and everyone in the party, I think it's safe to say they were a hit.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

At Christmas time, it is customary to recognize the door men, elevator men and handy men of your apartment building with a nice card and extra monetary incentive to keep them doing such wonderful work throughout the year. I was introduced to this custom last year, my first winter in Manhattan.

But since money is generally tight, and especially so around the holidays, last year I decided to gift a big batch of baked goods to accompany our handwritten cards and the cheer Mike had so nicely included.

Last year, I sent down a lot of decorated sugar cookies. This Christmas, I didn’t decorate one sugar cookie.

Not one.

Right along with money, time has been a little tight as well.

So, this year, I decided on red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.


I was debating how to top the cupcakes, so I presented Mike with two designs. Hands down, he chose the red sprinkles.


They were beautiful. They did not take on that commercial-looking red-hue.

Instead the red was a deep, natural red.


I was beginning to wonder if the cupcakes had gone over well taste-wise.

But my fears were resolved as Fernando, the wonderful elevator operator who returns me to my safe haven each night, greeted me and thanked me many times over for the “red muffins”.

“I had many,” he said with a smile.

Gingerbread Cupcakes

These mini cupcakes were a belated 25th birthday gift for my friend Victoria.

When I first moved to New York and was having difficulty adjusting to city life, Victoria and I would go on “Cupcake Crawls”. We would select 5-6 bakeries to visit in an afternoon, where we would sample a staple flavor plus one specialty flavor. We are tough cupcake critics and we made the disappointing discovery that there are few good cupcakes in the city.

Hoping my version would fare better than some we had tested, I presented mini gingerbread cupcakes, with a dab of vanilla icing and a sprinkle of red sprinkles.