How a cupcake can change your life.

This is my favorite way to describe a food item that is simply out-of-this world marvelous. I use it very sparingly - the term "life-changing" is only given to the utmost of delicacies. The first thing I tasted worthy of this praise was the cinnamon swirl french toast at 5 Spot on Queen Anne. Oh man. Once it hits your lips...that stuff is heavenly. Thick slices of cinnamon swirl bread battered in vanilla custard and served covered in homemade caramel - I sound like a menu but if your mouth isn't watering right now, you don't have tastebuds. A number of quotes I have come up with to describe it: "if there isn't 5 Spot french toast in heaven, I'm not going" and "I bet even forks are happy when you order this" and of course "this french toast changed my life". Which is how I describe it to anyone who is thinking about trying it. Sadly, my life took a turn for the gluten intolerant, but I still recommend this highly to gluten eaters everywhere. And lucky for me, there are things like Babycakes cupcakes to fill that gluten-free sweets void in my life.


When I first discovered (officially) all of my food issues, a friend of mine was gracious enough to bring me over a goodie bag of gluten-free treats (including beer, she is eligible for sainthood in my book) and a canvas bag full of cookbooks. One of these was the cookbook from a (mostly) gluten-free, vegan bakery in New York City called Babycakes. 

At this particular moment in time, I was every kind of out-of-sorts a human being can be. I was upset that there were things in gluten-free cookbooks I couldn't eat because of the dairy, and vegan baked goods I couldn't eat because of the soy. As I began flipping through the pages of the Babycakes cookbook, I literally almost cried with joy. Being a girl who frequented Cupcake Royale  at least once a week during college, I thought I was never going to eat a cupcake again. These glossy pages were filled with recipes on how to construct delicious, virtually allergen-free cupcakes, cookies, brownies, banana bread, etc. etc. etc. I lived on baked goods from this book for weeks until I adjusted to the notion that there was [normal] food out there I could enjoy. In a way, this book saved me, at least my sanity. So naturally, when I heard they had opened a store in LA, I simply HAD to go.

Basically my entire extended family lives in Orange County, about a half hour drive from LA, but it still took 4 trips of going down there before I finally had the opportunity to get to this bakery. My dad & I landed in LAX and the first stop after getting the rental car was Babycakes. I was literally jumping up and down with excitement after we parked the car and I spotted it. As ridiculous as it might sound, this was kind of a dream come true. (You can cook out of something's cookbook for ages & still not replicate the amazingness of the actual thing!) We walked in and I was greeted by a minimalist interior design scheme and pastry cases full of baked goods that I could have. 

The first question I asked the alternative-looking guy behind the counter (I absolutely adore the people that work at places like this, same goes for Flying Apron in Seattle) was if I was restricted by gluten, dairy and soy, what COULDN'T I have? (You have no idea how much joy was brought to me by the fact that the questions was "what CAN'T I have?" rather than "what CAN I have?" to which the answer is usually "nada") He told me that everything except the cupcakes made with spelt was fair game. This means there were different kinds of breads, cookies and cupcakes to choose from. In essence, this place is heaven for those of us of the sensitive tummy variety: AMAZING.

I settled on a pumpkin spice donut (literally don't remember the last time I ate a donut), 2 chocolate chip cookies (that were out of this world!) and 2 cupcakes, one a brownie cupcake and the other a red velvet cupcake. Also, can't forget the coffee, especially since they had rice milk, which is a rarity in mainstream coffee shops - I've gotten very used to drinking my coffee with a touch of sweetness and black. I saved the cupcakes for later, and after dinner and a glass of wine, decided to enjoy the brownie cupcake first.

I have never fallen in love so fast before. I took one bite and was absolutely blown away. This was by far the most fantastic, delicious, life-changing gluten-free baked good I have ever laid taste buds on. The frosting was creamy, the cake was dense and chocolatey flecked with mini chocolate chips, and there is no way anyone could ever know it was made without the traditional cupcake ingredients. I really fully understood the line in Eat, Pray, Love where the woman is in Napoli "having a love affair with [her] pizza" - I was undeniably having a love affair with this cupcake. As with all good things, it came to an end, my hotel bed messy with crumbs, and I went to sleep extremely satisfied.

It might sound silly that something so seemingly insignificant can completely change your mood or your attitude on any given day, but honestly I think that is a pretty remarkable thing. If we open ourselves up to letting little things be the catalyst of greater change, there is no limit to our happiness. Even something so little as a cupcake can make you feel included, loved, grateful. If a cupcake can do all this, imagine what other sources of inspiration lay out there in the world for us to discover?

Let yourself have a cupcake every once in a while. You might be surprised by its effect on you :)

♥mb.