Blogger Prom 2010 at Yamashiro

Faithful readers may be wondering where Kiki Maraschino has been lately. Just the usual really, living a life of glamour and intrigue. Last night we attended the Blogger Prom soiree at Yamashiro above the glittering lights of Hollywood. Yamashiro, set on the hill above The Magic Castle is so glam The L Word used it for Jenny's movie premiere, and we all know what a diva she was.

I wore a metallic knee-length dress and my favorite long burgundy smoking jacket. Bob told me I looked like movie theater curtains. I had my hair done in waves at Frenchy's salon. It was serendipitous that I had found a top hat at It's a Wrap the week before made with a fur felt, such a score. I returned for a cummerbund and white tux scarf later. Super dapper.

I chose to bring my little point-and-shoot and not to bring my heavy camera. It seems that there was a ghost following me around all night jumping into all of my pictures, so thank goodness for ace photographer Heather Kincaid, who took all of these gorgeous black and white pics. This is the Committee, who put on one hell of a party. Shout out Lindsay! Caroline! HC! Esther! And all the Superbloggers!

Passed hors d' ouvres and a taco station were provided by Yamashiro's Chef Brock, whose fish is just slammin'.

They offered our favorite, ahi sashimi on a tortilla chip as well as charred albacore on a crisp. Also passed were ribs, chicken skewers coated in crushed rice cakes, and salad on a skewer. Figure that one out. Too bad the ghost got in the way.

The tacos were Cabernet and soy-braised short rib, a very meaty Miso-sake black cod, Hoison smoked duck confit with black plum salsa, and the special, Klewno Farms with maple-black pepper aioli. smoked sausage.

But have we mentioned the drinks? We started out with Dalmore Whisky. The bar served up a variety of drinks, including Pinky Vodka's  Pinky Confidential created by Natalie (a.k.a The Liquid Muse).

Pinky Confidential

2 ounces Pinky vodka

1 ounce Chambord

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

½ ounce simple syrup

½ ounce egg white (optional & NOT used in the bloggerprom version)

Powdered sugar (for garnish)
Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Dry shake for 15 seconds. Add ice, shake again. Strain into a powder sugar-rimmed martini glass.Then there was Cabana Cachaca, used to make caprinhas, which is where I went astray.

The Cheese Godess, umm I mean, The Cheese Impresario (she is a goddess to meeee) was there, but I missed out on Cheese SEX!!!! Grrr. I chatted her up and may just follow her around one day. Seriously, this woman knows her cheese.

Coolhaus was on hand, and there is nothing more VIP than eating Coolhaus without waiting in line! I tried the green tea and went bonkers for the salted caramel.

There were also yummy Sprinkles cupcakes!

The set-up was well thought-out, with tables scattered around the space. It seemed like we were always in transit. There were a lot of people I wanted to chat with, but we were being pulled this way and that way as everyone alternately craved ice cream, tacos or more drinks. Fun to hang with Joz, trying to get her name projected on her face...

The ultracool Julie and ice man Michel

Real women aren't aghast at wearing similar dresses. They celebrate it!

What else? There was a table for Beer Chicks, Y Drive LA, an amazing idea finally here from Europe where sober drivers arrive on fold-up scooters, stick them in your trunk, and drive you home. Lots of people push it and don't call taxis because they don't want to leave their cars behind. Y Drive leaves your car safely at home and gets you safely to bed! There was also a raffle table and a display for the official charity, Operation Frontline, for which Blogger Prom raised over $2,000,

The official prom queen (ahem) leading lady was JozJozJoz, and the "leading man" was Neil of "Food Marathon".

I apologize to everyone who was obliterated by the ghost.

...AND it was a full moon! well, a waxing gibbous moon anyways...

Birthday Party Love!!!

So by the way, I LOVE SLAW DOGS! What a perfect place to hold my birthday party! I started thinking hot dogs - picnic! I had fun picking up flower and butterfly-themed decorations. Luckily I already had picnic tablecloths. Ray was so cool he had a special hot dog in my honor, based on the Japadog, but with a special Ray twist. He made up little baskets with a half-dog, onion ring, and half fries half sweet potato fries. Sooo cute! Thanks to Valentino Herrera of TrippyFood for the great pics!



Zach Behrens caught the soy bomb and birthday dog up close and personal.





As you may have seen in my other post, these are my intense centerpieces. I had YummyEarth organic lollipops and gummi bears.



Thanks to Polkatots right next door, we had dozens of mini cupcakes. The cupcakes are so moist. The red velvet cake was especially popular.







We couldn't resist getting into the cupcakes that we had arranged on a 3-tier tray before the pic, but Eddie Lin got a cool photo of me breathing fire:



Thanks to all my wonderful friends and to Slaw Dogs, Polkatots and YummyEarth!

Make it Irish the Easy Way

How do you make things Irish?

So far the easiest way has been to color it green.
Until now, when Betty Crocker brings you the easiest "Irish" treat ever invented.

1. Make cupcakes
2. Frost cupcakes
3. Stick Lucky Charms cereal on top.

Magically delicious!

Cupcake Challenge Winners!

Eat:Drink:Play has announced the winners of the cupcake challenge. Check out the beautiful pics in Emma's post over at Squid Ink.

Best Traditional
1st Place: Big Man Bakes "Red Velvet"
2nd Place: Blue Cupcake "Sweet and Salty Vanilla"
3rd Place: Southern Girl Desserts "Red Velvet"

Best Original
1st Place: My Delight Cupcaker "Breakfast Cake"
2nd Place: Jus Minis "Caramel Banana"
3rd Place: Two Parts Sugar "Chocolate Covered Strawberry"

Best Overall
1st Place: Jus Minis "Caramel Banana"
2nd Place: My Delight Cupcaker "Breakfast Cake"
3rd Place: Two Parts Sugar "Chocolate Covered Strawberry"

Photo from Yummy Cupcakes, not the Challenge

The Best Cupcakes in LA???

Last Sunday Eat:Drink:Play hosted a Cupcake Challenge at the Montmartre Lounge. The event was sponsored by Fiji Water, K & L Wine Merchants and KozmoDeck> part of the proceeds were donated to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation. LAist's own Lindsay William-Ross and Caroline-on-Crack were on the official judging panel, as well as Sophie Gayot (who we all just watched frighten the finalists on Hell's Kitchen this week), Tara de Lis from Citysearch, and Sam Rubin from KTLA. Guests were also given ballots to vote in three categories.

Thank God they had cheese to cut the sugar and alcohol thanks to Tom Martinez of K&L who kept my glass filled with their sparkling wines. I took the high road while others gorged on cupcakes and got drunk instead.



The ballots worked on a points system 3 points for your 1st pick, 2 points for 2nd pick, 1 point for 3rd pick. 3 categories: Best Traditional, Original and Overall Best. The judges votes were counted as half the score, with the guests counting as the other half.



all guests received a KozmoDeck a cross between an entertainment book and ValuPak coupons. Handy you can carry a few in your wallet for favorites, or the area you are headed. 15-dollars off a bill of 50 dollars or more. drawback - alcohol doesnt count towards 50 bucka and some places, like the BBQ joints, a couple would be hard-pressed to spend 50 bucks. But marketing works, the pictures are appealing and will encourage me to try new places. I shuld have hung around and traded them like baseball cards to collect all the Ciudad coupons.

Drumroll, please...


Best Traditional

1st place: Vanilla Bake Shop Red Velvet (judges' choice)




2nd place: Yummy Cupcakes Red Velvet




3rd place: Hotcakes Red Velvet (public's choice)




Best Original

1st place: Sugar Jones "Paradise" (judges' choice)

Reminiscent of 1950s fad with layers of coconut, pistachio, mandarin orange and pineapple that did not really fall into any category, so they were just called "dessert". Mostly tasted like pineapple and coconut. Another crowd favorite - one of only two where I ate the entire cupcake.




2nd place: The Oinkster Peanut Butter and Jelly




3rd place: Essential Chocolate Desserts "Blood Orange Fudge"
a very sophisticated flavor combination with a nice ganache



**Public's choice was Leyna's Strawberrilicious

Best Overall:

1st place: Leyna's Kitchen "Strawberrilicious"(public's choice)



2nd place: Sugar Jones "Paradise" (judges' choice)




3rd place: The Oinkster Peanut Butter and Jelly



OK, so I always end up with a weird story and today this is it: I asked the lady at Paradise cupcakes if she had leftovers, and she was like, "Oh God, please take these off my hands!" As she reaches for the box of cupcakes to hand me, Sophie cuts inbetween us like Im not even talking to the woman and says she'd like to take a picture of an open box of cupcakes.

Sophie had such a commanding presence, the woman just opened MY box of cupcakes, thinking she'd take a quick pic and go. But no, Sophie had to pose with the cupcake lady in the photo too, holding the box of cupcakes strategically between them. and we all had to stand there while she told the sucker taking the photo where to stand. And we had to wait while people kept getting in the way. And I just want my frigging cupcakes so we can leave.

So Sophie says to me, "I don't want anyone in my picture." I thought she needed crowd control, and ever helpful, I shooed grazers away from between her and the camera. I was standing like 2 feet away from her and she says to me really nastily, "I don't want YOU in my shot either." I wanted to say, "Then get your grubby paws off my cupcakes, Frenchie."

Later when I told this story, Caroline said, "but she's so nice..." and Lindsay said, "You do realize that's Sophie Gayot of GAYOT don't you?" I don't care if she's Lord Zagat - a lady does not touch another ladie's cupcakes.

Except maybe when they are as tempting as Caroline's



Voting commences



That special smile that can only come from cupcakes - or alcohol



Plenty for everyone, folks




Recap:

Best Traditional
1st place: Vanilla Bake Shop Red Velvet (judges' choice)
2nd place: Yummy Cupcakes Red Velvet
3rd place: Hotcakes Red Velvet (public's choice)

Best Original:
1st place: Sugar Jones "Paradise" (judges' choice)
2nd place: The Oinkster Peanut Butter and Jelly
3rd place: Essential Chocolate Desserts "Blood Orange Fudge"

**Public's choice was Leyna's Strawberrilicious

Best Overall:
1st place: Leyna's Kitchen "Strawberrilicious"(public's choice) (picture attached)
2nd place: Sugar Jones "Paradise" (judges' choice)
3rd place: The Oinkster Peanut Butter and Jelly


Leyna's sister made the cupcake tree Letu Floral Designs and gifts





People were also impressed with the root beer cupcakes from Yummy



Lucky Devil's had a very original entry. But they absolutely worked.



Violet had some lovely entries as well. These ones had chunks of brownies inside



Not only did Vanilla have a beautiful display, the workers at the table were always aware that they were "onstage", always smiling and keeping photogenic poses - I have a lot of other pics of cupcakes with bent-over behinds in the backgrounds from a few of the other tables who forgot about the cameras. No, I won't post them. I do have some class, you know.



After awhile, the whole room started looking like this



But I still brought this entire tray home - I did have to mud-wrestle Sophie Gayot in a giant tub of pistachio frosting for it, though.