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Christmas Wine & Cupcakes - Now & Later
updated: Dec 22, 2012, 11:00 AM
By Marc Liberts
The last 18 hours have been very good for me. While on a teleconference yesterday, there was a knock
at my front door. I excused myself from the teleconference and answered the door. It was my friendly
UPS driver needing a signature for a package tucked under his arm (usually a good sign). I signed for the
package, slipped back into the teleconference, and quietly opened the package. Lo and behold, out from
the box emerged one bottle of DOMAINE VACHERON-POUIZIN, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Le Clos du
Caillou, Réserve, 2010. This is a very rare, impossible to get, and 99 point rated wine! The only problem
is that the wine critics suggest cellaring this 99 point rated wine until 2015! So, I dutifully made space in
my wine cooler today, and wrote 2015 on the label.
I returned to the teleconference and was so bored that I decided to troll around Facebook to see if
anything interesting was going on. My friend Melissa Comito posted a picture of some delicious looking
cupcakes she had just baked. But, living in Santa Maria, I knew my chances of scoring one were remote.
I nonetheless posted the following comment "Excited - Excited - Excited!", hoping that it would give me
some luck. To my amazement, I got a text message this morning that she was indeed going to be in
Santa Barbara, and would I like one? Score!
Melissa dropped by, gave me my cupcake, and had to run. It was excellent. I called her after I devoured
it to interview her about it. It turns out that the cupcake itself was from a mix and she had applied a
secret tweak or two. The cupcake was moist and supple. I usually don't like cupcakes because they tend
to be too wet, too dry, or uneven. This one was perfect. I am also a big icing critic. I don't like the icing
that comes in a can from the store because I think it is too sweet. Most people who try to make their
own icing fail for any number of reasons. Melissa's home made icing was perfect! Not too sweet, perfect
creaminess, luscious, delicious! Finally, there was a piece of chocolate with the outline of a Christmas
tree on top. I also usually am critical of this type of adornment because there is usually little care or
effort taken to make the adornment good! It is usually dry, tasteless, or badly prepared. I decided to
give this one a fair appraisal, and it was great! Nice silky milk chocolate, appropriately moist, nicely
designed, delicious! Perfection! I asked her how she did it and she reported "It's actually just melted
down chocolate. I put it into a bag, let it get to a cool enough temp so that it doesn't run everywhere
and just piped designs onto wax paper. Then I let them cool in the fridge for a little bit to harden and
put them on the cupcakes."
Those of you who read my wine articles will appreciate the fact that I am giving these cupcakes a score
of 99 points. The only deduction was due to the fact that I was only given one cupcake to evaluate. I'm
sure that the baker can improve on that defect next year.
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