Buttercup Bakes at Home More Than 75 New Recipes from Manhattan's Premier Bake Shop for Tempting Homemade Sweets

Introduction It seems like just yesterday when I first opened the doors to Buttercup Bake Shop one sunny August morning. I remember customers lining up for a taste of our divine creations, and the lines haven't stopped in the six years we have been here. Innumerable cupcakes and countless birthday and special-occasion cakes later, my tiny Midtown bakery is as popular as ever, churning out our from-scratch confections in full view of our devoted customers. Each of our famous cupcakes is lovingly frosted by hand in our front window and our mouthwatering layer cakes are iced and decorated in our glass-enclosed kitchen, as customers watch with their noses pressed against the glass whenever possible. Seeing customers sit down and enjoy their desserts is a joy. It seems that peeling off the paper to each cupcake transports folks right back to their childhood, and the expressions on their faces are always the same: deep satisfaction and happiness. Our from-scratch baking is so delicious and down-home that customers try to pass off our desserts as their own! I know this because one day several years ago a woman purchased a birthday cake inscribed for her son's birthday and asked us not to "put the sticker on the box." By sheer coincidence, her son was working nearby and stopped in just for a Buttercup snack. It was quite a funny moment, but all was forgiven, even though the jig was up! While our popularity has grown over time, so has the list of clientele who enjoy Buttercup's freshly baked goods. More and more folks are hosting parties and events featuring our signature cakes and cupcakes such as Buttercup Golden, Lady Baltimore, and German Chocolate, including theTodayshow,Live with Regis and Kelly,Late Night with Conan O'Brien,Saturday Night Live, and Miramax Studios, as well as dozens of television stations, publishing houses, and major magazines. It appears that New Yorkers, famous or otherwise, can't get enough of our sweet creations. As the desire to bring back the neighborhood bake shop grows, so has my passion to deliver freshly baked all-American desserts to the people who love them. With that in mind, I have plans to bring the neighborhood bake shop to every neighborhood in New York City and even farther, to your favorite city or town. Each bakery will have that same old-fashioned nostalgic charm, with those familiar sights and smells to delight the senses. While my business has flourished, so has my family. Since my last cookbook was published, I have gotten married to my sweetheart, Hernan. And in case you're wondering, the answer is yes, I made my own wedding cake! It was a simple but beautiful old-fashioned white cake with silky buttercream frosting, adorned with pale ivory buttercream dots and drop flowers. In 2004, my husband and I welcomed our remarkable daughter into the world, Isabel Eliana. What a treat it will be when she can climb up on a chair in the kitchen and bake with me! I'm sure she'll love to, since she already has a sweet tooth, and with a chef for a father and a baker for a mother, I think a love of food is most certainly in her blood. As a baker, I'm constantly creating new desserts. This book is a result of that creative desire. While it's hard to pin down my absolute favorites, a few of my new confectionary loves include Drizzled Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Cranberry Tea Loaf, Black and White Cupcakes, and Butterscotch Pudding. And while rich old-fashioned desserts continue to please our customers, today's crowd also wants a few low-fat, low-sugar treats. So I've whipped up a few recipes to include that satisfy the taste buds but won't necessarily pack on the pounds, like Low-fat Chocolate Bread Pudding with Raspberry Sauce, TeaAppel, Jennifer is the author of 'Buttercup Bakes at Home More Than 75 New Recipes from Manhattan's Premier Bake Shop for Tempting Homemade Sweets', published 2006 under ISBN 9780743271226 and ISBN 074327122X.