Small Batch Wedding Cupcakes

Small Batch Wedding Cake Cupcakes

One of my favorite items at Gigi's Cupcakes is the Wedding Cake Cupcake, and this small batch cupcake recipe gives me all of the thrills with none of the downsides. It may sound boring to some people, but I just adore the hint of almond and vanilla and the purity of the white cake and white icing. Even for a dedicated sweet tooth like mine, however, Gigi's mountain of frosting on an oversized cupcake can be a bit much, and I'm just not in the store's neighborhood that often. An issue in making your own cupcakes, though, especially when you are a Single Grrl, is that most recipes make at least a dozen, and often two dozen, and they can be hard to cut down to make fewer. Luckily I stumbled across a great small-batch vanilla cupcake recipe several years ago. It only makes six home-style cupcakes, which is great when you want to have enough to share but not enough to have endless stale leftovers. I've tweaked the recipe to give it that "wedding cake" flavor, but you could easily revert to regular vanilla cupcakes by omitting the almond flavoring. While they are not a duplicate of Gigi's, they are tender and flavorful, just perfect for a sweet bite with tea or coffee or as a fun dessert, with or without colorful sprinkles.

Have a Burger Your Way at YourWay Burgers & Wings, Dallas

It's a bit of a coincidence that I've been on a burger tear as my work travels have taken me around the country. More by chance than design I've found myself at one gourmet burger joint after another in various cities. It's been a delicious bit of focused exploration, and I look forward to continuing the trend.

The most recent entry was during a trip to Dallas a few weeks ago. I stay and work in the north Dallas area when I'm in town. I had to make a run to a nearby FedEx Office to pick up a print job. I'd not been to this FedEx before, and I found that it was in a small strip of shops that contained several restaurants and a cake bakery. It was mid-afternoon, but I hadn't had lunch, so I decided to have a bite before heading to the hotel. After perusing the choices, I thought it would be fun to continue the ongoing burger research and chose YourWay Burgers & Wings.

YourWay is a small chain in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The location I visited was in the suburb of Farmer's Branch. The space has a clean, simple, contemporary decor, with the majority of the tables and booths in the front, with the ordering counter and bar along the left side in the back. It's not a huge restaurant, and is longer than it is wide, but it had a comfortable feel and could easily handle a sizeable lunch or dinner crowd.