multiculti

The most appealing items to me at the church bake sale on Sunday were some cupcakes that were brownie on the bottom and white cake on top. The fudge frosting held up to handling better than butter cream (or even But-R-Creme) would have. Whoever made them wisely broke one open to reveal their chocolaty goodness. My wife and I split one of those and one of something that would best be described as a graham cracker praline. The cupcakes were so good, they made me wish I had bought more.



The sale is part of the annual Harvest of Blessings at All Saints Church. In addition to the food, they sell religious items from the Paraclete, some handmade crafts, Boy Scout popcorn and the like.

There were two marshmallow treats that I was able to resist. The chocolate-peanut butter mallow bars were sold by the plate, not individually. The marshmallow snowmen were cute but the little fellas looked squished from all the handling required to assemble them. Even if the chef wore gloves, I would still prefer a gentler touch.



We also saw some kid-friendly sugar cookies decorated as turkeys and some actual pralines labeled with the important disclaimer that they contain pecans. Oh really?

mallow inn

Middleburg is in the heart of Virginia's "hunt country." Riders on horseback and their hounds hunt foxes the way they did in the cartoons we watched as kids. On Sunday, my wife and I met some relatives for a delicious brunch at the Hunter's Head Tavern in nearby Upperville. I had heard that the restaurant's owner was not a fan of fox hunting and designed a logo in which the fox gets the upper hand. There's even a comical mounted head near the bar.



If I had been eating alone, I probably would have gone to a shop called Mello Out, despite their inability to spell marshmallow. They specialize in handmade marshmellos [sic] but have other menu items too. I would have ordered the Adam's Apple, which is apple, peanut butter, bacon and honey on brioche.



My wife and I did stop in to get a package of their marshmallows. Our friend Maureen from Fox Chase Farm was with us. While we were there, the staff was taking some Cosmic Cupcakes out of the refrigerator and putting them on display for the day. Fortunately for us, the frosting on one of the cupcakes had gotten stuck to the container. Since it was unsuitable for sale, the manager gave it to the three of us to split. The frosting was rich and tasty and the cake was exceptionally moist. It was the best cupcake I have had in quite some time.

horsepower

Fox Chase Farm was festooned with pink on Saturday for the first Ride for the Cure Virginia. It was one of only a few such events in the country and was the most successful. Susan G. Komen For the Cure will receive over $100,000 in proceeds. My friend Maureen, who bought the farm ten years ago, asked me to make announcements before and during the Ride.



The festivities started with the singing of the National Anthem by Angela Knight. She wore all purple with a sash that read "Mrs. Haymarket." She makes appearances on behalf of the Mrs. Virginia organization when she's not performing as a lyric coloratura with the Washington National Opera or singing her own Christian music in concert.

Several breast cancer survivors walked around the outdoor performance arena while Michael Bicoy of the U.S. Army Chorus sang "You'll Never Walk Alone." The hard part of performing that song is making the audience momentarily forget about Jerry Lewis. Bicoy succeeded easily.



One of the riders was Greta Kreuz from WJLA-TV. She took over the emcee role during the catered dinner under a fancy white tent. I sat at a table with Olympian Joe Fargis, who is revered among the Middleburg horse set. The dessert cupcakes were decorated with pink ribbons.



Most of the donations came from the riders and their sponsors. More money was raised with a silent auction set up around the perimeter of the dinner tent. Three celebrities I know donated items to the silent auction. Thanks go to Jimmy Kimmel, Susan Olsen and Richard Cheese. Everyone seemed pleased that the winner of $4000 in the 50/50 raffle was the guy who hauls the manure off the farm each week.

A crew from the PBS show "Equitrekking" shot video and conducted interviews with some of the participants. They posted a three minute story on YouTube.

frosting shot?

Have cupcakes jumped the shark? The New York Times predicted a cupcake crash a year ago, comparing them to the brief, big-city popularity of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Several other publications, including Newsweek, are saying that the cupcake fad is about to fade. The intensely pro-cupcake blog, Cupcakes Take the Cake, alerted me to the latest round of naysayers. At least The Philadelphia Inquirer says the "trend has outlasted expectations."

The recent popularity of cupcakes is credited to the product placement of Magnolia Bakery on "Sex and the City" and the opening of the cupcakes-only Sprinkles in Los Angeles. Here in scenic East Tennessee, it takes a little longer for trends to reach us. One would assume that the same delay applies to the end of the cycle.

Based on two hours last week, I would say that the cupcake bubble has definitely not burst in Knoxville. I observed a nearly constant stream of customers going into The Cupcakery while I was doing a remote broadcast from Massage Envy on Thursday. As I told my sales manager, The Cupcakery has the best looking cupcakes even if other places have better tasting treats. I'll attempt to prove it with some repeat photos from previous blog entries.

floor plans

The ceremonial ribbon was cut at the new Academy Ballroom this afternoon. The dance studio has completed the move from desolate Downtown West to ritzy Western Plaza, which is close to Sequoyah Hills. The handsome new space allows for beginner and advanced classes to happen simultaneously in separate rooms.



The event was attended mostly by members of the Knoxville Chamber and by several dance instructors, who are independent contractors rather than employees of the studio. Among the refreshments offered were some key lime cupcakes, which were provided by Rhonda Becker. They had a very limey flavor, which I thought could have been in honor of studio owner Richard Bull, a good Englishman.



Jeremy Norris and Emily Loyless asked me to consider repeating (again) my comedic rumba routine with Emily at their Rocky Top Dance Challenge on September 19 at the Knoxville Marriott. That would give me only three weeks to practice. I am going to think about doing it though, because the event is a benefit for Family Promise of Knoxville, a great local charity.



My wife and I plan to attend the Grand Opening party at the new Academy Ballroom on Saturday night. They'll have drinks, hors d'oeuvres and live music. Dancing to live music is a challenge to me. I still have trouble finding the beat, as my wife discovered when we went to a few Brad Walker Orchestra shows at the Kerbela Temple. While the waltz and rumba have a basic box step that is in my comfort zone, it is the foxtrot and swing that I will mostly encounter in real world situations. Heather Tang promised to help me with some basic foxtrot steps at the party. We'll see if I can actually get the hang of it or not.

preparation r

A sticker on the packages of cupcakes at Sam's Club seemed weird to me. Rather than buttercream icing, the cakes and cupcakes are decorated with something called But-R-Creme.



Either some of the packages could have qualified for Fail Blog or I did not recognize what white chocolate looks like nowadays.

in this corner

When you're looking for a great cupcake, the first place that comes to mind is probably a bakery like Magpies or a specialty shop like The Cupcakery. Another contender has emerged in the most unlikely of places; a little shack on Middlebrook Pike called Two Sisters Sandwiches & Sweets.

I happened to stop by Two Sisters on their first day of business. Shortly before my vacation, a nice write-up by Carly Harrington reminded me it had been a while since I promised Ruby and Dixie that I would return. The opportunity presented itself yesterday. The sisters told me they will soon have a new signpost. They also plan to paint the gray cinder block exterior with a brighter color.



I got a great pulled chicken sandwich for only $2.50. For dessert, I chose a banana cupcake with chocolate icing. The sisters insisted that I also try one of their Death by Chocolate cupcakes, saying it was their best. Another customer swore by their Red Velvet cupcakes. There's no place to eat at the shack, so I took the food home for lunch. The cupcakes got knocked around a bit when the bag fell over in my car but still tasted great.



Banana cake has always been a favorite flavor of mine and I would definitely order one of the cupcakes again. However, the ladies were right about Death by Chocolate. I cut it up and shared it with my son, who agreed that it was outstanding. The frosting was perfect, the cake was moist and the chocolate chips interspersed throughout were a nice surprise.

cupcake break

There is no way I could try every sweet treat that I saw on our trip. But I like window shopping for cupcakes even if I don't get to taste them. Here are some we saw at Hershey's Chocolate World on the second day of our trip...



...and some we saw at the Blue Duck Bakery Café in Southampton on the eighth day of the trip.

the mixable one

Bacardi Rum Cake has been on my mind for quite some time. I hinted to my wife that I wanted one as Thanksgiving, Christmas and other celebrations approached. We ended up making gooey butter cakes and other treats instead. I finally dropped enough hints that my wife agreed to make one that we could have for both Father's Day and my birthday. The biggest hint was when I brought home some rum on Saturday.

Because I couldn't find my wife's recipe card, I printed a 1978 recipe that I found on the Internet and took it to a nearby package store. I had to ask the clerk what happened to Bacardi Dark Rum. He pointed me toward a shelf with Bacardi Gold, as it is now called. I also had to ask which size bottle had at least a cup of fluid because they were all measured in milliliters. Fortunately he had a book which told us that 200 ml was only 6.8 ounces. Not enough. That's why I ended up with a 375 ml bottle and almost 5 ounces left over. When he asked to see my I.D. to verify that I was the person on my credit card, I asked if I could pretend I was being carded because of my youthful appearance.

The official Bacardi Rum Cake starts with a layer of chopped pecans at the bottom of a tube or Bundt pan. The cake is served upside down with the nuts on top. My son doesn't like nuts, so we talked about leaving them off one area of the cake. I thought about it overnight and decided we should try making cupcakes instead. It would be easier to omit pecans from some cupcakes and not the others.



According to the package of Butter Recipe Golden cake mix, the cooking time for cupcakes is about half that of the full size cake. The tops were perfect but when we flipped them over, some of the bottom nuts looked like they were a little overcooked. I should have looked online for cooking tips and rotated the pan. Most of the rum flavor and the kick comes from the glaze, which is made from butter, sugar, water and rum. Before adding the rum, we used some of the glaze to top the nut-free cakes. The non-alcoholic glaze turned into an opaque paste. It did not soak into the cakes, like the high-octane stuff did.



To dress up the cupcakes, we added a dollop of Betty Crocker buttercream frosting. We experimented with some right side up and some upside down. Tomorrow, I'll tell you about my family's history with Bacardi Rum Cakes. In the meantime, feast your eyes on these.

can you do a dollar?

The staff at East Tennessee Children's Hospital makes sure that Marc and Kim and I have an abundance of food and treats during the annual Star 102.1 Radiothon, which started yesterday and continues today from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. It's tough to exercise any self-control when local businesses show up with even more food that I love. If the good-looking treats from The Cupcakery had arrived before I had already eaten a piece of a staff member's birthday cake and a few Godiva chocolates, I would have grabbed one of the chocolatey ones. The bird's nest looked pretty nice too. So instead of eating a cupcake, I feasted my eyes by photographing them.



A highlight of yesterday's broadcast was the presentation of the proceeds from "Star 102.1's Dancing With the Knoxville Stars." To mark the occasion, professional dancers Emily Loyless and Jeremy Norris did what they do best to the tune of "Poker Face."



Lori Tucker, Mark Nagi and Terry Morrow handed over the big check. Later in the day, Beth Haynes, Russell Biven and John Becker came by to help ask for donations. You can phone in your pledge at (865) 656-KIDS or donate online via my fundraising page.

first pitch

By accident and design I found myself at two grand openings on Monday. Danielle and Wes Hope invited one and all to the opening of their new gallery for Hope Photography on Bearden Hill. My little camera was in my pocket the whole time but I was too self-conscious to take snapshots at a professional photographer's event. I felt like I had already been there thanks to the beautiful pictures of the construction progress on the Hope Photo blog.

The Hope's gallery space is inside Lisa Foster Floral Design. The open house was a showcase for several wedding services. When my wife and I arrived, we saw a white tent, a deejay, a wedding cake and servers offering sandwiches from the neighboring Pimento's Café. I especially enjoyed some red velvet cookies from a small specialty company. I think Wes took a picture of the cookies and the tent card for his blog.

I only had my cell phone camera with me earlier in the day when I was the first person to show up for the grand opening of Two Sisters Sandwiches & Sweets on Middlebrook Pike. Ruby and Dixie have taken over the old location of M&M Catering, which moved down the road last summer. Instead of the many large BBQ pit smokers that M&M had, the ladies have an inconspicuous electric smoker around back.



The sisters offered me a small sample of a smoked bologna sandwich and a nice moist mini cupcake. Their full size cupcakes looked great too. Perhaps best of all, they will offer frosting shots, like the cupcake bakeries in the big cities.



I promised Ruby and Dixie that I would eventually be back to buy a smoked chicken sandwich and a full sized cupcake. For now they are sticking with basic flavors but can make anything by special order. I told them I might just challenge them to whip up some Rocky Road or S'mores or Elvis-themed cupcakes. They'll also be selling soft-serve ice cream and slaw dogs, among other things.

nooner

The only cover song my wife and I heard during Julia Nunes' set on Friday afternoon was "Bye Bye Bye." She introduced it by saying that she could never write such angry lyrics. Although I would have liked to hear more covers, it made perfect sense that she would emphasize her original songs while on the radio. Julia was the lead-off performer at the WDVX Blue Plate Special. Her banter with the show's host was enjoyable and reminiscent of the monologues on her YouTube videos.



When Julia had finished her set, I started to tell her that Richard Cheese had emailed me about her. Before I could say anything else, she asked, "are you Frank?" Obviously Richard had told her that I might show up at The Square Room. To me, the picture that my wife took offers proof that I had been to Sun Tan City the night before as I continue to prepare for "Dancing with the Knoxville Stars."



One wall of The Square Room is actually a giant window. Diners at Café 4 can see and hear the concert from the other side of the glass. Months before either place opened, I got a coupon for a free cupcake from the café. The end of Lent presented the perfect opportunity to redeem it. The "Happy Happy Joy Joy" cupcakes looked good but I ruled those out because my wife can't eat coconut. Instead we took home a "Chocolate on Chocolate" to split later. The icing was great. However the cake itself was a tad too dry and crumbly for my taste.

fungus tingly duck sheets

Richard Cheese knows that I enjoy cover songs. He usually sends me a copy of his CDs, like he did with "Viva La Vodka." RC took a moment after his sold-out show in DC to send me a message about the artist who will be opening for him on Saturday in New York because she'll be in Knoxville on Friday.



Julia Nunes (rhymes with tunes), plays ukulele and sings cover songs on YouTube. She does originals too but I haven't gotten to any of those yet. I've watched and re-watched her amusing videos for "Build Me Up Buttercup," "Baby Now That I've Found You" and "Baby It's Cold Outside." After the songs end, Julia often talks to the camera. Her comments are as much fun to watch as the singing.

If time allows, I will try to catch Julia's performance on the WDVX Blue Plate Special at noon. I assume that she will open for Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere rather than the other way around. Obviously I can listen on the radio, however I hope to get there in person. Besides, I have a coupon for a free cupcake at the adjoining Café 4.

Attending the Blue Plate Special means two trips downtown for me the same day. I already have tickets to see the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra at the historic Tennessee Theatre on Friday night. Since my wife will be on stage singing with the Knoxville Choral Society, I'll have an empty seat next to me. Know anybody who might want to go hear the Polovtzian Dances on short notice?

brownies and cookies and cakes, oh my

Shopping at Sam's Club can be especially challenging during Lent. They usually offer free samples of meats I can't eat on Fridays and they always have plenty of delicious sweets that I have given up for the season. Today's Lenten Friday Forbidden Treat is a Sam's Club three-fer. Take a look at some brownies that look like cakes, some cakes that come surrounded with cupcakes and some gourmet candy cookies made with Heath Bars, Reese's Pieces and Ghirardelli Chocolate.

dance the hoochie coochie

One or two clicks on the Internet has got me craving a cupcake and counting the months (four) until my next trip through St. Louis. Now I need to figure out how I got to this point.

It started with a short message from my friend Susan Olsen. She wrote "marshmallowy goodness to you." I knew she would appreciate it when I wrote back something about toasting her with a glass full of Marshmallow Fluff. She then sent me a photo of a Fluff coffee mug topped with the stuff. She's been placing jars of Fluff in famous paintings and album covers and wrote, "I would welcome any ideas from you. I think you have a deeper understanding of the marshmallow."

Thinking about sweet treats prompted me to look at Cupcakes Take the Cake, which had an incredible shot of a s'mores cupcake from New York. I kept scrolling through their older posts and found one about the writer's recent trip to St. Louis. She visited a place called Jilly's Cupcake Bar, which instantly earned a spot on my to-do list with its photo of a cream-filled S'murtle cupcake. Half s'more, half turtle, total perfection.

on the first day of

Merry Christmas! I hope you've taken time to reflect on the true meaning of this holy day. I could try to write a thoughtful blog post (like Rich did) about how I am amazed that of all the ways God could have chosen to come to this earth -- as a fire-breathing dragon or a mighty warrior, for instance -- He instead became a fetus, born of an unwed mother.

But I want to get back to having a great time doing nothing with my family, so I'll just share some photos of Christmas treats that I've collected over the past week. Here are some reindeer cupcakes I saw at Food City, some Santas made by Nirvana Chocolates and some awesome gingerbread cookies made by my kids.

short and sweet

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, it's a fun time to watch Food Network and to click around sites like Cupcakes Take the Cake. Today I watched part of a TV show about desserts that I had recorded over the weekend and looked online at a collection of holiday cupcakes.

Some of the turkey-shaped cupcakes looked great, some were laughable and some were just plain weird. What really struck me as funny was that the turkey cupcakes being held up for ridicule on the very entertaining Cake Wrecks blog looked better than many of the examples on the cupcake tribute site.

drainage

Could milkshakes be the next cupcakes? I was clicking around the Internet looking at celebrity news and noticed some pictures of stars patronizing a new shop called Millions of Milkshakes in West Hollywood. The place got noticed by naming shakes after tabloid celebrities.

Cupcakes were made fashionable by "Sex and the City." However it was the success of cupcake shops in Beverly Hills and Burbank that is credited with the proliferation of stores around the country specializing in the single-serving desserts. One key to that success is the variety of flavors of cakes and icing. I tried a Graceland cupcake here in Knoxville a few weeks ago. Today I saw pictures of some Elvis cupcakes that were similar except that they had bacon on top of the peanut butter icing. Seriously, bacon.

Millions of Milkshakes says that they over one hundred ingredients that can be mixed into 75 million combinations. The base is ice cream, frozen yogurt or soy. In addition to the ingredients that get mixed in to the shake, there are several more choices of toppings to get sprinkled on top. Among other things, you could choose from candy bars and breakfast cereals, including Lucky Charms.

As a Baskin-Robbins employee during high school, I enjoyed making and drinking milkshakes. My favorite was made with Jamoca Almond Fudge and chocolate syrup. I would need a spoon to eat the almonds after the shake was gone.

My enthusiasm for Millions of Milkshakes was brought back to earth by a review on Chowhound. The milkshakes aren't really milkshakes at all. They are more like Blizzards from Dairy Queen, which aren't all that different from the mashed in scoops you get at a Cold Stone or Marble Slab. The reviewer found the "shakes" to be not blended enough and to be way overpriced.

I found it interesting that all the press coverage highlighted on their website is focused on the celebrities who have visited. I didn't see any articles talking about the quality of the product.

long distance dedication

Neither the folks at Cupcakes Take the Cake nor I realized that tonight's episode of "Food Network Challenge: Cupcake" was a rerun from 2005 when writing our posts about the show. A comment posted on their site revealed the truth, which was verified with a few mouse clicks. I was also reminded that the contestant from Knoxville's MagPies Cakes used to be in a band called The Judybats.

Two weeks ago, when I programmed my DVR to record the Challenge, I got the idea to order a half-dozen cupcakes as a surprise for my daughter. They were delivered to her today. Before that could happen, I had to search online for bakeries in the Washington, DC area. The Washington Post recently rated the best cupcakes in their area.

The currently popular Hello Cupcake doesn't yet offer delivery service. Lily Lane Cakes had a nice website but the proprietor told me she was totally booked for the weekend. Signature Cupcakes eliminated themselves from contention with their steep $13 delivery charge and one-dozen minimum.

I eventually ordered from CandyCups Cupcakes. Their delivery charge was only $5 and the cupcakes were reasonably priced. Best of all, they could decorate the tops with floral designs my daughter would like. I expected the flowers to be drawn on with icing from a pastry bag. As you can see in the photo below, they used gum paste to make some nice three-dimensional flowers instead.

two minutes for icing

Knoxville will be represented on "Food Network Challenge" on Saturday. Six teams from all over the U.S.A. will compete to bake and decorate the best cupcakes in the country. MagPies Cakes will take on bakeries from New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Anchorage and Annandale (Virginia).

Maybe one of these days I will finally get to MagPies, although they've moved away from the storefront I used to pass regularly. They had a grand opening of their new location earlier tonight. Their website promised menu sampling, which I've heard is something they do once a month. Until I get there for a free taste, I'll have to settle for watching "Challenge: Cupcake" on Saturday night.

Oh, if anyone I know happens to get some cupcakes as a surprise from her loving parents, I hope she takes some pictures and sends them along for a future blog post.

mother-flunking shame

Fluffernutters were the topic of conversation when our friend Mary called from California the other day. She thought of me as she and her son were spreading Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter onto graham crackers. I told her that I put a piece of paper in the suggestion box at The Cupcakery on Friday with my requests for Fluffernutter, S'mores and Rocky Road cupcakes.

While on the topic of sweets, Mary asked if I had heard the sad news about Mother's Cookies going out of business. I told her yes, and that I had also heard about their sister brand Archway Cookies biting the dust. I was a big fan of their soft oatmeal cookies before my weight loss. Unfortunately for one fan, the company's closing has made her Halloween costume obsolete.

My wife had forwarded a Slashfood post about Mother's Cookies to me with a note wondering what snack parents would send to school with their kids. She served as Head Room Mother for several years while our kids were at St. Finbar School and remembered that most events with refreshments involved a big platter of the circus animal cookies that Mother's made.

Maybe fans of the frosted animal cookies need not despair. I saw a bag of a similar product made by Keebler while at Food City yesterday.



When I told our friend what my wife had said about Mother's Cookies, she informed me how things have changed since we moved away from Burbank. Mary and her family recently moved from Orange County to Riverside County. In both jurisdictions, the school system prohibits parents from sending in any cookies, cakes or cupcakes to share with the class for student birthdays. No wonder Mother's went out of business! Instead parents may send granola bars or non-food items like pencils. That will last until someone gets hurt. Be careful, you'll put an eye out kid!

cupcake, gonna have a cupcake

In celebration of my major award, I went only partially Elvis today. First, I stopped by Pilot to get a free copy of the News Sentinel to send to my mother. The print edition of the East Tennessee's Best section has a nice portrait photo of me next to the Best Local Blogger description.



At lunchtime I found myself driving past a BBQ joint I have been wanting to try. Pup's Pit is a small building tucked into the corner of a used car lot on Walker Springs Road. I ordered a pulled chicken sandwich with a mixture of mild and hot sauce. The combination gave me the perfect level of spicy heat, however the flavor was too ketchupy. Before eating the sandwich, I ate a little piece of chicken without any sauce. It had a good smoky taste. Next time I will have them leave off the sauce and put on my own when I get home.



As promised yesterday, my celebratory dessert was a Graceland cupcake from The Cupcakery. The banana cake was topped with peanut butter icing and a slice of dried banana partially dipped in chocolate. It was fine, however I would have liked it better if it had banana icing too. The clerk told me that the Pumpkin Harvest cupcakes in the same case had a cinnamon icing and a piece of ginger snap on top. Generally speaking, the Cupcakery's cupcakes look perfect but could benefit from more icing. I like icing.

thankyou, thankyouverymuch

Does your Friday morning routine include a stop at a convenience store? Maybe you can pick up an extra copy of the News Sentinel for me. I want to send copies to my mother, my grandmother and some other relatives. Remember that local Pilot stores give away the paper for free on Fridays during high school football season. Although I'm sure they would enjoy reading a preview of the Catholic at Fulton game, I actually want Mom and Grandma to see Clay Owen's photo of yours truly that will be included with the results of the News Sentinel's annual readers poll.

If you voted for me in the East Tennessee's Best survey, I sincerely thank you. Your votes in the Best Local Blogger category were enough to give me the edge over hundreds of talented local bloggers including the next two top vote getters, Richard Allen and Dave Foulk.

A year ago, I was very surprised to make the top three. You may recall that I placed second, behind Barbie Cummings. "Local Blogger" was a new category last year and I thought that some of the other bloggers might rally their readers to vote in the new poll. I'm all the more complimented that I won without having to ask. The blurb that accompanies the results is really, really nice:

There isn’t much Frank Murphy hasn’t done. You’ve probably heard him on radio station Star 102.1 as one-third of the popular Marc & Kim and Frank Show. He and his wife have done radio commercials for LA Weight Loss. He’s a member of Einstein Simplified, a comedy improv group that performs weekly in Knoxville. He was a judge on “Warehouse Warriors” on the DIY Network. He also likes to nap. A lot.

When he’s not doing all that, Frank writes on his blog. He’s been doing so since August of 2005. He writes about life, love, the Tennessee Valley Fair, swimming, Knoxville-turned-Nashville band Jag Star, body farms, fireworks displays, going to the movies, his love of the world’s largest things, shopping for tuna and fat-free salad dressing at Food City, and the latest on his quest to visit all 50 states. You know, all your favorite stuff.

It’s rare if a day goes by when Frank doesn’t update his blog. It’s also rare if a day goes by when East Tennessee isn’t reading it.

It's appropriate to acknowledge Jack Lail for sending a lot of hits my way earlier this year by linking to my post about Coed Naked Bar Hopping. That entry also got several clicks from the gang at The Sunsphere is Not a Wigshop (who reviewed this week's Einstein Simplified show, by the way). The follow-up post was linked to by Michael Silence.

Speaking of Michael's excellent blog, I got a laugh when the newspaper's photo department emailed me to arrange a meeting, they wrote:

Hey Frank,
KNS readers have voted you ET's Best blogger. Michael Silence was robbed. Can we get a photo of you in action sometime soon?

I think I just might celebrate my victory with a Graceland cupcake. The peanut butter icing and banana cake treat is the featured flavor this week at The Cupcakery.

half dozen of another

Bringing cupcakes was my wife's idea. She and I were invited to have dinner tonight at the home of some friends we hadn't seen in a while. They are the same couple who first invited me to get LinkedIn and who we once saw at a Junior Brown concert.

I went to The Cupcakery in Bearden and chose six from among their ten available flavors. I picked Grasshopper, Community Cup, Red Velvet, Peanut Butter Cup, Orange and Confetti. Rather than each take a cupcake for ourselves, we shared. Our hostess was kind enough to pause while slicing the cupcakes so I could take pictures. The Orange cupcake had a marshmallow cream filling and the Community Cup had a raspberry filling. At this point, I'll let the photos do the talking. Enjoy...

two great tastes

With the closing of the Fuddruckers in Salem, my wife and I had to find a different place to stop for dinner on our last trip. We picked a random Cracker Barrel along I-81 in Virginia and were immediately disappointed by the question: "smoking or non-smoking?" Our non-smoking table was in a direct line of sight and smell from the smokers. Even though the non-smoking section was much larger, we had to wait for a table. There was no waiting for a smoking table.

Cracker Barrel has a country store where we could bide our time. One corner of the store had a display that showed they know about the current popularity of cupcakes. In addition to the cookbooks and standard muffin pans, they had a pretty neat Ice Cream Cone Cupcake Pan. The cake looks like a cone. The frosting takes the place of ice cream.



Rather than cupcakes that just look like ice cream cones, some people will be celebrating summer with cupcakes that are mini ice cream cakes. You can make your own or buy some at a place called MaggieMoo's that I will have to try sometime when I'm out at Turkey Creek. The ladies at Cupcakes Take the Cake taste tested a brand called PhillySwirl that is available at Sam's Club. I agree with their assessment that these seem to stretch the limits of what we call cupcakes. Not that it's a bad thing.

Ice cream cupcakes would be great but what we really need for this weekend are some graduation cupcakes. Or the time to make them.

move 'em on, head 'em up

When there are changes to my blogroll or the sidebar, I try to make them on the first of the month. It's because I started my blog on the first of a month and somehow it makes sense in my mind.

I found Cupcakes Take the Cake when they posted entries about some local bakeries. They did it again today with a great story about a cupcake just like the one I tried last week except that it was mistaken for a bomb at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.

Slashfood is a site I've been visiting regularly for some time. Yesterday they showed us how to make cake-sicles, although they look more like cookie-sicles.

Amelia's Space often has a peek behind the scenes at WVLT. Today she posted about their coverage of the closure of I-40 through downtown. One day last month she took us to the farewell party for Jessa Goddard and Kim Bedford.

At last month's Blogfest gathering, I enjoyed visiting with Doug of Reality Me and his wife Cathy of Domestic Psychology. Her funny post about trying to find the bathroom that night made me want to check back periodically.

After the recent Papal visit, a friend reminded me to check Whispers in the Loggia for their intense coverage. When the Pope gets close to naming a new bishop for Knoxville, we will probably read about it first on their site.

Can anybody recommend a blog about improv? It would be great to find one that I like and to add it to the blogroll on June 1. That date has some improv significance to me.

always more fun

The cupcake fad is about to hit Knoxville in a big way. We already have VG's Bakery and MagPies, both of which I still haven't tried. However I have discovered another blog devoted to the little treats, Cupcakes Takes the Cake.

Now The Cupcakery has established its first foothold in East Tennessee with a delivery-only location in Oak Ridge. They plan to open a Bearden store in June. I had the opportunity to taste a couple of their flavors one afternoon last week when a box was delivered to the office. There were enough for me to take two varieties home. I cut each in half and shared them with my wife. The Double Chocolate had a disc of baking chocolate stuck into the buttercream icing as a garnish. The Peanut Butter Cup had a crumbled Reese's on top. As you would expect, the creamy frosting steals the show from the chocolate cake. That's probably why a cupcake shop in Los Angeles sells icing shots for 75 cents. I think I would enjoy one of these gourmet cupcakes with some buttercream injected into the middle. Can't have too much frosting.

If the Bearden store were already open, I would be tempted to swing by this week for the featured flavor, the Graceland. It has banana cake with peanut butter icing. I've always loved banana cake. By the way, why can't I ever find the frozen Sara Lee Banana Cake I loved as a child? Anyhow, back to the point. The Cupcakery will offer Graceland cupcakes from April 28 through May 3. I wonder if they might be similar to the Elvis Cupcakes I saw online. One of the blog commenters suggests a Fluffernutter cupcake. This. Must. Happen.

Bearden will actually be home to two cupcake shops. Their online calendar says Cities Cupcake Boutique will have its grand opening on Sunday, May 18 but according to their store hours, they will be closed Sundays. When I was a kid, Sundays were the busiest day at the Crestwood Bakery. Everyone went there after church. Oh yeah, back to the point again. Cities cupcakes are each named after a different city. Knoxville gets an orange cupcake. In a bit of political commentary, the vanilla cupcake is named after Washington, DC. Maybe they can do a peanut butter and banana cupcake and name it after Memphis.

lead us not into temptation

Only a week into Lent and I'm feeling the pressure. The culprit is cupcakes. They are everywhere lately. Last night some showed up at the Einstein Simplified show for Dave Snow's birthday. Although I didn't eat any myself because of Lent, I did persuade several of my fellow improvisers to twist the tops off to make cupcake sandwiches. Or icing sandwiches, if you prefer to call them that.

A few days back I spotted some turtle cupcakes at Food City. As a fan of both turtles and cupcakes, I had to take a picture. I saw a different take on turtle cupcakes at a store in Pigeon Forge recently. They sell a soft plastic mold for a pull apart cake, which is one step better than the cupcake cakes I saw at Wal-Mart last year.



While I was adding the links to Saturday's post, I saw a picture of a New York Giants cupcake on Slashfood.com. The accompanying story had a link to Clever Cupcakes, the Montreal bakery that made it. Slashfood gave us a homemade chocolate cupcake over the weekend too. Following a series of links that started on that site eventually brought me to a blog called Cupcake Project.

On top of all that, today's News Sentinel is all about the cupcake. The food section has a great picture that will make you hungry, which therefore qualifies the photo as "food porn," the snarky blogosphere term for glamour shots of anything edible. The pictured cupcakes are from VG's Bakery in Farragut.

The article also mentions MagPies Cakes in the Old City. Despite the pie in their name, they sell celebration cakes and cupcakes. The photos they posted on Picasa certainly could be called "food porn" too. As I looked at the pictures, I wondered why I've never succumbed to their enticement. After all, I've been going to the Old City on Tuesday nights for almost six years. I've also been in that part of town on several Sunday afternoons for practice sessions with people auditioning to join our improv group. MagPies' operating hours give me the answer. They're closed at 4:00 on Tuesdays and all day on Sundays, which means I've never seen them open.

hankey-panky

Kathy's husband Keith told me that they've never seen "South Park." Although known for his good sense of humor, he was being completely serious. This means that Kathy truly had no idea that her chocolate-covered marshmallow men looked exactly like the Santa-hat-wearing character from the show. The fact that she didn't know makes the coincidence all the funnier. Weird Ralph must have agreed. He submitted the blog entry to Digg.com

After reading the post, Kathy and Keith felt compelled to bring me some of her cream-filled cupcakes with ganache icing. It was absolutely delicious.

now showing in my head

There used to be a disproportionate amount of Food Network shows on my TiVo. I could watch almost anything they showed, especially "Unwrapped" and "Good Eats." Plus I would search for programs about BBQ competitions. Over time I found myself watching less Food Network as other shows grabbed my attention. Last night I once again felt the magnetic pull of food on TV when I tuned to a new channel on my satellite system: Food Network in High Definition. Wow. I could watch it all day. The schedules on the HD and SD channels are different. Fortunately for me, there are plenty of "Unwrapped" and "Good Eats" episodes in HD.

When I go to the supermarket I often can't resist taking pictures of food items I see. It's almost as if I had my own imaginary Food Network show. I had heard that cupcake specialty shops were a hot item in L.A. Our local stores are taking their cupcakes up a notch. I've seen some decorated to look like those dogs that resemble floor mops and some that are supposed to be cute space aliens. I was also intrigued by the birthday "cakes" comprised of many cupcakes that are all iced as one. In the photo below you can see a monster face next to a Care Bears rainbow.

sweet teeth

The staff at Garde Bien offered me a cupcake when I arrived for my haircut today. They were celebrating the birthdays of an employee and of a favorite customer, Carol Bass. I first met Mrs. Bass at the salon on the day of my makeover. After I finished my cupcake, I realized that I had forgotten to try eating it sandwich style. Cupcakes are an infrequent treat. I'll try to remember to put the icing in the middle next time.

Today's newspaper had a recipe for a different sandwich style treat. The Mint Chip Monster is made by splitting a chocolate snack cake and putting ice cream in the middle. Kids can decorate it to look like a monster. The idea for a fun food is reminiscent of the hamburger cookies I saw at a swim meet last year.

I briefly flipped past the AFI special on CBS tonight. They were up to the movie "Nashville" in their countdown of the top 100 films. In the clip, I heard a reference to the Grand Ole Opry, sponsored by Goo Goo Clusters. It got me wondering if the candies got their name from the initials of the Opry. They didn't. The Goo Goo website points out that the candies have been around 13 years longer than the Opry.

rollin' down the Imperial Highway

A friend in Burbank sent me a few episodes of a new local show called "yourLAtv" that airs weekdays at noon on KNBC-TV. It's sort of a modern day version of the old "PM Magazine" shows that used to air in many markets.

As a former Burbanker, I really enjoyed the show. Each day they identify the four best of something, like nightclubs, steakhouses or sushi joints. One of the episodes I saw had a taste test between two bakeries that sell only cupcakes. One was in Beverly Hills and the other was in Burbank. I can't remember which of the two places sells shots of icing. Just icing! I need to go there on my next visit.

Viewers can send in their own videos to the show. Given that it's L.A., the tapes are better than amateur quality but I suspect that some of the tapes I saw were shot by a crew from KNBC. One of the episodes featured a podcaster giving tips to viewers. He wrote that the TV station sent a crew to interview him.

The best segment I saw was sent in by Paul Scheer, who often appears on "Best Week Ever." The piece was about the show he does at the UCB Theatre. He and his co-stars improvise comedy based on audience members' MySpace profiles. They use a laptop and a projector to display the page on a big screen. Sounds like fun.