Where is my mind?

A few weeks ago, my pal Lacey asked if I'd be into making some cupcakes for an upcoming benefit she was throwing. Bakesales and benefits being two of my favorite things, obviously I was on board.

I'd like to carve out a little space making baked goods for charity for the rest of my life. Baked goods as a social movement, anyone? Maybe it's because I'm lacking in most other creative qualities, but I find baking to be a perfect form of diy-ness. I mean, you take a bunch of random ingredients that aren't worth much - flour, water, sugar, baking soda, heat, time, etc. - and you create something that is almost sure to make people happy. Something tasty for people to eat that wasn't made out of petrolium biproducts and surplus corn in some factory with an average output of 100,000 treats per minute. Something that can help persuade people to donate time and money to a good cause. Baked goods for social change. I mean, even if your baked goods totally suck, you can just throw them out and start over again. No big deal.

I'm getting a little sappy here, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that the world would be a better place if there were more bakesales. Of course, it helps that the organization benefiting from the event's baked good sales is really awesome. If you have a chance, read up on CHIRP and the low power radio movement. It's super rad. Chicago has a wonderfully rich music scene and a history of community activism, both of which are grossly underrepresented on the radio these days. By securing a low frequency broadcast license, CHIRP will be able to bring a new voice to local community groups and independent artists that would otherwise get very little exposure due to the fact that the airwaves are so heavily saturated by generic big media.

Here's a great article on the low power radio movement:

Also, read more about CHIRP and what they're trying to do.


Now, for the baked goods. The event had a bit of a Pixies theme, so I'm going to go ahead and call these "Where is my mindcakes". They're pumpkin cupcakes stuffed with cardamom cream cheese frosting, and I have to say - they're one of my favorites. They're subtle, but tasty - like a slow dance in your mouth. Be warned - you might forget your name, social security number, or why you're wearing gold lame leggings in public after eating one. Or maybe you just won't care.



I did get some feedback that these could probably benefit from a slightly higher frosting:cupcake ratio, so I'll probably fill 'em up a bit more next time.

I invented this next cupcake for a potential election night party, but ended up pretty wrapped up in the excitement of barack-a-palooza and went to the rally in Grant Park with my roommate. There are a few things more important than baked goods - watching history in the making is one of them.

I couldn't just let the cupcake idea go to waste, however, so I made them up for the Cease to Resist dance party. They're chocolate cupcakes which I filled with a blueberry red wine sauce and topped with some lemon cream cheese frosting. I have to say that the blueberry wine sauce was a total experiment, but it came out so good that I was licking it out of the pot once I finished filling the cupcakes. They're called blue state cupcakes to honor my two home states - Illinois and Massachusetts.




To continue with the Pixies theme, I'll leave you with this video of Chicago's Blue Ribbon Glee Club covering Where is my Mind?

Enjoy.




Brought to you by Barack Obama, The Pixies, Oh My Golly, CHIRP, and the love of bakesales.