Nosh Pit

Dessert on Wheels: New Mobile Sweets Truck Coming to Seattle

Street Treats will be on the move by spring 2010.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 16, 2010 at 09:46AM 2 Comments

The Street Treats truck will serve Half Pint ice cream, High Five pies, and homemade cookies, cakes, and bars.

First came Parfait ice cream truck, now a second mobile dessert company is in the making. Street Treats, a biodiesel truck that will be stocked with pies from High Five Pie and scoops of Half Pint Ice Cream—both local companies—will be on the move by spring 2010.

Owner Diane Skwiercz will also sell her homemade cookies, cakes, and bars.

Where will you find this sugar rush on wheels? From the website: “We’re looking at spots in lower Queen Anne, First Hill, South Lake Union, SoDo, Beacon Hill, Belltown, and Rainier Valley.”

High Five pies are currently available at Fuel Coffee, Half Pint ice cream is sold at various farmers markets in the summer, and you can order it for parties and whatnot on the website. For Skwiercz’s sweets, you’ll just have to wait until spring.

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Tags: Desserts, Street Eats

Tastes of the Town: Trophy Cupcakes’ Jennifer Shea

The local cupcake genius talks french fries, caramel, and favorite cookbooks.

Posted by: Caitlin King on Feb 11, 2010 at 08:05AM 1 Comments

Jennifer Shea and her beloved Martha. She made cupcakes on the show in March 2008.

Her childhood sounds as idyllic as her Tiffany blue-hued cupcakeries.

Jennifer Shea—owner of Trophy Cupcakes and Party —grew up in Southern Oregon and spent summers along the Rogue River picking blackberries with her mom. Blackberries with which they made pies.

“I was an avid 4-H and Home Economics geek. I won a blue ribbon at the County Fair when I was eight for my grandmother’s pumpkin roll recipe and the Best in Home Economics award in the 8th grade. Despite my love of baking and party-making, I didn’t realize I could (or wanted to) make a career out of it until I visited the Cupcake Café in NYC about 12 years ago. At that moment, I knew that opening a cupcake shop was exactly what I wanted to do.”

Here is some Seattle stuff that Jennifer Shea likes.

What is your favorite coffee in Seattle?

Lighthouse Roasters. My husband grew up with Eddie [Leebrick, the owner] and luckily when we were sampling coffee to use at Trophy we fell in love with his.

What is your favorite ingredient right now?
Caramel! I am obsessed with making caramel right now. It is so amazing that you can heat sugar and water and end up with a smooth, gooey confection that is so incredibly versatile and so good! Our house-made caramel is showing up in our newest cupcake flavors…Stroop Waffle, Samoas and soon…Salted Caramel!

What is your guilty food pleasure?

I love really good fries. I had never had fries the way they were intended until I worked at the Palace Kitchen. It was all over when I tried those and realized the skill that it takes to make perfectly crunchy, not-too-greasy fries. Now if I am having drinks at Sambar or dinner at Café Presse I can’t help but order a side of frites…ideally with mayo or aioli.

What is your favorite cookbook?
I love Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook. This is my go-to party food cookbook. The white bean and sage dip with olive oil and garlic is amazing. Honestly I love the photographs too….I never get my presentation as perfect as Martha, but it is fun to try.

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Tags: Celebrity Chefs, Desserts

Full Tilt Rocks

Ice cream, beer, pinball, and utter happiness…now in three locations!

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 10, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Full Tilt Ice Cream: Happiest Place on Earth

Popped into the Columbia City Full Tilt Ice Cream the other night and had a hard time popping back out.

First: The arcade games, great ones, a quarter apiece, which instantly addicted the 11-year-old and her roving posse to pursuits like Ms. PacMan and, yes, pinball.

Second: The fact that everyone was here. Everyone. Full Tilt opened in the southern fringe of downtown Columbia City right before the Big Heatwave of Summer ‘09, cultivating a devoted neighborhood following just as it had done before in downtown White Center. Then just last month a new outpost brought the same love to the *UW’s 50th and Brooklyn* corner. Every one of ’em attracts the kind of fizzy, alt-flavored family energy that builds community and makes Friday nights out in the ’hood really, really fun.

Third: BEER!!! The coolest thing about this ice cream parlor is that it embraces a grown-up’s need to bring the kids out for ice cream and enjoy a little naughtiness of her own.

Fourth: Astonishingly enough… there is ice cream. Really fine, creamy, and affordable ice cream in flavors like Mexican chocolate and a superlative salted caramel. I tried the newer salted caramel variant, enhanced with a fair amount of Sailor Jerry spiced rum, and found it every bit as compelling as the pinball machine.

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Tags: Bargain Bites, reviews, University District, Beer, Desserts, kids stuff, Columbia City, White Center

Valentine’s Day Desserts

Still don’t know what to get yours truly? Act fast and order these delicious sweet-nothings.

Posted by: Kaitlin Nunn on Feb 09, 2010 at 07:00AM 0 Comments

The Porcupine Chocolate Heart at Essential Bakery Cafe. Photo courtesy the establishment.

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The Porcupine Chocolate Heart at Essential Bakery Cafe. Photo courtesy the establishment.

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Cupcake Royale’s Deathcake Royale. Photo courtesy the establishment.

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Cara Mia at Essential Bakery Cafe. Photo courtesy the establishment.

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Shoofly Pies. Photo courtesy Kimmy Hsieh Tomlinson.

If you can supply the sweetheart, we’ve got all sorts of local goods to really sweeten up your Valentine’s Day. Five bakeries and pastry shops point us to their best-selling treats this time of year.

Bella Dolce
This wee storefront has been perfecting their deservedly famous red velvet cake for over seven years. If you’ve already been there, done that, try a rich hazelnut raspberry linzer tart. The price for a 10-inch torte is $35, although you can get the four-inch version—perfect for two—for $7.98. Order ASAP.

Cupcake Royale
For the fourth year in a row owner Jody Hall whips up a lethal combination of local ingredients—Theo Chocolate, Stumptown-derived espresso ganache, Royale’s signature chocolate cake—to create Deathcake Royale. One costs $6.65 (“Just a penny shy of evil!” says Hall) and is meant to be shared. Ordering several days in advance is highly recommended. Call 206-883-7656 or go online to do so.

Essential Bakery Cafe
The must-try seasonal sweetbread is the Cara Mia, $9, a heart-shaped chocolate French bread stuffed with chunks of chocolate and cherries. Also of note is the Porcupine Chocolate Heart, a chocolate chiffon cake laced with Grand Marnier, Belgian dark chocolate mousse, and sprinkled with shards of white and dark chocolate. It sells for $10.50. Place your order by noon 48 hours in advance of pick up.

Hoffman’s Fine Cakes and Pastries
At this Eastside establishment the cake of the month is Strawberry Kisses: devil’s food cake draped with strawberry mousse, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings. $22.25. Order ASAP.

Shoofly Pie Co.
Their dry-bottomed shoofly really is the standout item, but for Valentine’s the hottest-selling pies are cherry (nicknamed Bleeding Hearts) and chocolate cream. A nine-inch pie goes for $20, five-inch minis are $6.50, and slices are $3.50. Call at least 48 hours in advance to make sure your pie of choice is available.

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Tags: Valentine's Day, Desserts

Friday is World Nutella Day

Get your fill of the Euro chocolaty treat.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Feb 03, 2010 at 12:50PM 1 Comments

Who needs a knife? Just use your finger!

Apparently Friday is World Nutella Day, and people are stoked. Check out this poster from Faire. A disco ball and jar of Nutella, together. Not really sure what the correlation is, but if anything screams party time, it’s a disco ball.

Faire plans to host “the most chocolaty party of the year," and as such will lather the choco-hazelnut spread on everything—croissants, toast, bruschetta (really?)—and in everything—mochas, martinis, etc.

If you’re seeking something more traditional, there are plenty of creperies around town serving face-splattering, finger-lickin’ Nutella nibbles. Try it with bananas at Anita’s in Fremont, or hit up cozy Cap Hill hangout Joe Bar, where the ambience is almost as delicious as the pancakes. Then there’s up-and-coming Queen Anne darling Citizen.

Volunteer Park Café assembles a sinful (and, watch out, messy) Nutella panini stuffed with strawberries, and it makes for a fine topping at The Crumpet Shop, especially when you let the chocolate sit and soak for a minute or two. Divine. Want it in ice cream? Then try the Nutella milkshake at Lunchbox Laboratory. Want it on a pastry? Head to Trophy (although the Nutella cupcake is only offered Wednesdays and Saturdays).

The options are basically endless. Tells us what else you discover.

Happy Nutella noshing, and may you all feel European for a day.

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Tags: Holiday Events, Desserts, Quirky Holidays