Sugar and Spice

At the beginning of Girl About Philly, we started a little competition called the Cupcake Showdown. It was our excuse to sample some of Philadelphia's best sweet treats. While the showdown experienced a slow down, my personal affinity for the art of the cupcake only increased with time. And before I get to my latest ranking, I will briefly mention that I am yet to meet the match of my two all-time favorites - the chocolate peanut-butter from Naked Chocolate, and the banana with cream cheese icing from Billy's in New York (technically out of our competition's geographic boundaries).

But finally this weekend I got a taste of what Brown Betty is cookin'...and it was good. Brown Betty Dessert Boutique is one of those feel-good places with a story that you could definitely see becoming a movie. The tiny corner shop has feminine touches and a cool sense of girl-power and comradary that is palpable. You can imagine the staff singing out loud while they mix flour and eggs and breaking into powdered sugar pillow fights at the drop of a hat. The kind of place that you wished you had thought of (and had the guts and baking talent to pull off). It just looks like fun...and smells like heaven.

Then of course, there were the cupcakes. I tried the chocolate red velvet cake with cream cheese icing -- which definitely gives Billy's RVC a run for its money (and is a lot closer to my apartment). My sis had the strawberry sour cream which was subtly sweet and a creative combination. Both were fresh, moist and delicious. Brown Betty, you've officially got a new BFF.

And the scoring:

Appearance- 8; Cakiness- 9; Icing- 9; Sweetness- 8; Freshness- 10; Overall flavor combination yumminess- 9

Total: 53

Brown Betty Dessert Boutique
1030 N. 2nd St.
215.629.0999
www.brownbettydesserts.com

Funky

So, last night I finally saw the light at the end of the self-imposed funk tunnel. The past few weeks, while splotched with the occassional ray of sunshine (the most notable of which would be the discovery of Salted Carmel Hot Chocolate from Starbucks ..nomnomnomnom) have been kinda sucky. The crappy weather that just happened to coincide with layoffs at work and overall drama didn't bode well for my mental state. I tried to power through it with DIPLO on Friday but I couldn't even make it to his set. The amount of scenagers alone was staggering, not to mention that no one had a problem with invading my personal space. So I peaced and got 13 hours of sleep, which allowed me to knock down this oncoming cold. Holler.

Last night I went to Beau Monde with my friend's parents, then went with the ladies to shake our collective shit to the musical stylings of DJ DEEJAY djay, which was wonderful per usual. I even got a missed connection out of it. Although in full disclosure I don't think it counts because I told him to write it. But, Imma take em how I can get em. My friend said he looked like he was 22, but hey.. at least he's legal? I still have to respond.

I'm gonna be honest, as much as a truly do enjoy being single, the winter coldness is making me miss someone to cuddle up to (which is probably why I had a set back and made out with a past hook up last week.) Ah well, we all have our setbacks, and mine happened to come in a chodey form. And my cats are reaching their spoiled teenager phase where they are embarrassed by their momma and don't want to snuggle with me any more.

OK I'm gonna wrap this up, because my thumb is still smarting from trying to force zip myself into a cute dress in H&M. Europe won that battle, my thumb and dignity lost.