Monday, August 25, 2008

Where's Pablo?

Do you know this penguin? I did not until recently when I was introduced to Pablo and the Backyardigans. In fact, my knowledge of who's who in childhood pop culture is very limited these days and only exists because of several nieces who delight in Dora and Disney princesses. Personally, I am from the generation of Sanrio classics, when Hello Kitty, My Melody, and Little Twin Stars reigned supreme. Forget Barbie and Cabbage Patch Kids, this Canadian-Chinese kid from the 1970's still has her pristine collection of Hello Kitty pencil cases and stickers and currently has unusual empathy for a character named Kogepan.


A lucky little girl named Blake (a big fan of Pablo) celebrated a birthday with swirly pink, purple, and yellow cupcakes decorated with royal icing alphabet letters and numbers. Six dozen cupcakes later, I have a new respect for these small tasty treats. The whole cupcake hype has been wasted on me, who admittedly, poo-pooed the notion that a cupcake could ever be delicious or desirable (I don't like a mouthful of buttercream). But their appeal makes more sense to me now, both from a consumer and creator point-of-view.


First, rather than getting a slice of cake, it is inherently more special to get an individual serving that is yours alone, not a fraction of a greater whole. Second, even though cupcakes are technically simple and often devoid of much flavour complexity, the possibilities in design are endless as each cupcake is its own blank canvas individually but also as a group where repetition and patterns can be visually stunning. Vive le cupcake!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Charmaine! I have visited your blog and I am sooo impressed! I am so glad you have made the move from ophtalmo to pastry (although I'm pretty sure you must have been a terrific ophtalmo!)
We have the same Hermé favourites! I think I could kill for a plaisir sucré!
Do you mind if I add you to my blogroll?

Anonymous said...

I stumbled across your blog and was very impressed. I too split my time between being a physiotherapist and my hobby of cake decorating and various other foodie ventures. I haven't been doing the whole cake thing that long but I think I have a long way to go before I get to your standard. Keep up the good work ;-)

jenniferhoiyin said...

I love sanrio characters, and I also have a bunch of old pencils, notebooks, stickers and other knick knacks from my childhood.
Keroppi everything!

Love the cakies, especially the colors. :)

tara said...

Loved Hello Kitty and love these cupcakes; you're right, seeing the massive repetition of pattern is really striking. Well done!

Anonymous said...

i grew up with the sanrio characters too, but these days my 2 year old son loves the backyardigans and diego (dora's cousin). ;-)

Anonymous said...

Your cupcakes are lovely!...

I've just found my blog on your blogroll and I feel so honored...
:)

Thank you!!

I'll be back...

Anonymous said...

Yikes..those looks super cute and yummy!

Y said...

Don't know Pablo, but I love him and his little hat with the propeller.. too too cute!

Dragon said...

I love the lavender colour of the icing on the cupcakes. Very striking!

Lore said...

Hi Charmaine,

I'm planning to write a post on what I consider to be the most original August food photos. I will be posting the 10 photos on Culinarty (my blog) with a link back to the authors. This is actually the fourth edition of "10 Original Food Photos". I really like your first photo (who doesn't love Pablo right?) and I would very much like to include it in my post. Would that be ok with you?
Please let me know