I have been waiting for this book >>Crazy About Cupcakes<< to be released forever....I've had it ordered on Amazon since last February. A couple of weeks ago I decided to email Krystina Castella, the author, and ask her what inspired her to write a book about cupcakes. I found out that her book is much more than just recipes...it's templates and color palattes and themes that focus on flavor combinations and design elements...and over 300 creative cupcake ideas and it includes not only cupcake recipes and frosting recipes, but topping recipes and filling recipes, as well! Her favorite cupcakes are "anything chocolate or coffee flavored. The Office party...Coffee Break...cupcakes are all based on flavors of favorite coffee drinks. I also like stacking cupcakes with flavor combinations--my wedding cupcakes and petifour cupcakes are based on tiered cakes, and in a few of them I use stacking different flavors to combine flavors," she said.
It quickly became clear to me why she wrote this book: She loves cupcakes! And, she's tested thousands of cupcake recipes, sometimes doing one recipe over and over, just changing one ingredient to see how it would affect the cupcake. You should hear her talk about them...she made me smile. It was like a was speaking to a cupcake soulmate. But, she doesn't only make cupcakes. Krystina is an industrial designer who got into cupcakes after selling her business manufacturing furniture, clothing, toys, and housewares a few years ago. She's a professor at the Art Center College of Design and used her students as guinea pigs for all of her cupcake recipes...and, she said they were often very harsh critics. She told me she got her love for baking from her grandmother, who taught her cool techniques and how to make things look good! Here's what Krystina said when I asked her what the emphasis was, decorating, recipes, or a combination of the two: "To me, there are three parts to the cupcake--the cake, the icing, and the decorations--all work together to make a good cupcake experience. For example, Thanksgiving has pecans and maple and cranberry cupcakes, and Christmas has eggnog, gingerbread cupcakes. Even the everyday section cupcakes which aren't intended for an occasion have breakfast cupcakes with breakfast flavors, or healthy cupcakes with healthy ingredients and flavors."
Her recipes can be made "by the book," but Krystina encourages everyone to experiment and explore...get inspired by her recipes and decorations and then try something of your own making. The part I can't wait for is the chapter on Baking and Decorating Techniques which includes charts that give you ideas for different flavor combinations.
Here are some of the "Everyday Cupcakes" types in the book: Breakfast Cupcakes, Hidden Surprises Cupcakes, Healthy Cupcakes, Cookie and Candy Cupcakes, Totally Chocolate Cupcakes and Ice Cream Cupcakes. In the process of baking her cupcakes, Krystina said that learned that there "are people out there that enjoy cupcakes as much as I do. I have also learned that if something feels right when you are doing it...like me creating cupcakes for fun...to trust the process and keep at it--it will eventually lead you to a fulfilling place." Then she added, "My business card has four words. discovery, strategy, fun, fulfillment. It is how I approach everything in my life.
I think we're all going to be crazy about this cupcake book!
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