…But were afraid to ask.
“Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music.” -Julia Child
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Me, 2012
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To start… no, Cupcake Rehab is not like Celebrity Rehab.
There are no washed-up whiny celebrities on this blog. There are no celebrities at all actually, except me (yes, I am quite the celeb), and I do not have a substance abuse problem. A flour and refined sugar problem, sure. Second of all… this blog is about so much more than cupcakes. It’s about independence, individuality, self-reliance, not needing to live 100% off the crap preservative-filled boxed food & pre-packaged baked goods you over pay for in stores. It’s about absorbing as much as you can and loving every aspect of your life, including the messy clean-up. It’s about realizing that feeding your family, making the food from scratch, & growing some of it yourself is so gratifying you’ll wonder why it ever went out of style. It’s not about being preachy, getting on a soapbox, making everyone else feel inadequate for using a Duncan Hines brownie mix or for eating anything other than grass-fed or organic foods (I do eat McDonald’s & nope, I will not apologize, sometimes you just need some salty fries & non-chicken chicken nuggets). It’s not about 100% sustainability. I don’t own a farm & slaughter my own meat. I live in New York & enjoy food- all kinds. So what it is about is learning, trying new things, not being afraid to experiment and like I said, being an all around bad-ass. But then again, that’s a given- I don’t know how to be any other way!
“It’s like Heavy Metal meets House & Garden!” – Jim Carrey as The Riddler
I’m a newcomer to my “thirties” (gasp; I can’t believe it!), a New Yorker born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days… oh shit, that’s not me, that was the Fresh Prince. Damn it. Sorry. Anyway, I have an attitude, I’m little more than mildly anti-social, I curse, I hate people & I wear mostly black. I guess that makes me sound like Lisbeth Salander, but trust me she’s way cooler than me. ‘Cause on the other hand, while I am perhaps a bad-ass… I love animals, baking, sewing, anything pink (& leopard print) …& of course cupcakes. I’m clearly not a disciple of Charles Manson. So I use the f-word a bit freely, so I might mock a few things most people hold near & dear. So what? My anarchist/government & authority-hating/anti-everything days are over. I’m not a threat anymore; I read Harry Potter books & fashion magazines & spend my spare time baking delicious goodies & blogging about them, canoodling with my iPhone, gardening, eating, collecting vintage things, indulging in naps, taking pictures of my pets when they’re sleeping, sewing hems & buttons back on NYPD uniforms, & making pickles/jams/jellies. True story.
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Speaking of the NYPD, I’ve been in a relationship with my police officer/guitar player/bassist in a band boyfriend Jay for almost 9 years now, know him for 11 years, & despite our differing musical tastes (he likes death metal & southern rock…? What is that about!? *gag*), I still love him to bits. I know him since we were both still teens(!). He’s a good egg, he’s my best friend, and he’s the one responsible for this website existing in the first place (more on that later). I’m not one of these overly sappy, gushy chicks, but he’s one of the coolest people I’ve ever met, & I’m really thankful I have him to bounce ideas off of. He’s an amazing support system to me, and it’s fun to force him to eat all these sweets I make, too. His favorites? Anything maple, applesauce cake with brandy icing & anything Irish cream/whiskey-related. I have a gorgeous black cat named Arwyn (who admittedly is more my mother’s cat than mine) & Jay & I have a ruggedly handsome puppy 100 lb. dog named Indy, a Labrador Retriever/Staffordshire Bull Terrier/English Coonhound mix, who we adopted in January of 2009 & treat like our child. He’s a rescue; I encourage anyone who wants to get a pet to please rescue a shelter pet. Don’t shop, adopt.
“She’s a rebel, she’s a saint, she’s the salt of the earth & she’s dangerous.”
I love baking and cooking, it relaxes me and gives me something constructive to do (and keeps me out of trouble). I’m also just really into anything creative so its an excuse for me to play with food and take pictures of it! I’m not a pro, I never went to school for it, and I’m not making anything groundbreaking, but I hope at least someone will get something out of this. I started an informal private friends-only blog in September of 2007, and created a blog at wordpress.com in December of 2007 after everyone telling me it’d be a big hit. By February 2008 I’d gotten over 3,000 hits at that blog, which encouraged me to take it a few steps further. The domain name was purchased for me courtesy of Jay and here we are! The rest is history. I’ve added some Cupcake Rehab© clothing and other miscellaneous items, so if you’re interested in that visit my store! *(By the way… If you buy something, send me a picture of you wearing it… or using it… and I’ll post it on the C.R.my page!) And just so you know… I do not make diet food. I make real food, for real men & women, with real butter, real eggs & real sugar. The only “fake” stuff I’d even think of doing would be sugar substitutes for my diabetic friends/family or gluten-free materials for acquaintances with Celiac disease. No Smart Balance butter here, folks.
“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steaks to cook.” – Julia Child
My mom is the reason I love being a cook and baker. From her I learned (almost) everything I know, and I still ask her advice and help for recipes when I’m a bit lost. From homemade sugar cookies and pfeffernüsse to regular day to day meals and cupcakes for my birthday at school, she was always making something. So its all because of her… and of course some inspiration from some other amazing cupcake and food blogs on the net that gave me the kick in the ass to create Cupcake Rehab. Thanks Mom ♥
The real star of the show here, though, is the ever elegant, ever classy, always beautiful Lola. Who is Lola? Well Lola is the name I gave my gorgeous pink KitchenAid Cook for the Cure Artisan standmixer. Jay bought her for me for my birthday a few years ago (I know, I know, he is awesome). She’s amazing, a powerhouse, and I adore her more than a human should adore a machine. Seriously. Besides, my meringue-making has greatly improved since I received her. My dream is to get a Professional KitchenAid mixer in Caviar and name it Don Corleone, and have the two of them sitting side by side on my counter. Ah, a girl can dream, can’t she?
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Anyway.. really, you don’t even have to keep reading. That’s just about all you need to know. But if you’re just dying to know more, then by all means, continue reading. But I warn you- I have trouble stopping once I start, as you can see… so this will be long.…
So yeah, I’m not a baker- by trade I’m an artist who went to school for fashion design & illustration, I also do webdesign and graphic design, that can be seen over at my “internet portfolio” at mariloca.com. I have an extensive art background. I’ve been drawing and painting since I was a child and about 10 years ago I got into digital art (drawn with Adobe Illustrator). When I was 17 years old I interned in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY- one of the most famous museums in the world. In addition to fashion design and illustration, which I was schooled for, I’ve done graphic design and taught myself webdesign. I’ve been doing webdesign for over 10 years now, and I’ve come a long way since my first free website on Angelfire.com. I also have a cooking group/blog with a few high school friends called Cooking the Books, and I did the design and HTML work for that as well. Check us out (but we haven’t updated in a while.. sorry, life got crazy, but we’re starting it up again, I promise!). I’m not the best baker in the world, I’m not a Master Preserver, and I’m no Mario Batali. But I love this & it makes me happy. Any complaints can be directed to the complaint department. Oh wait, there isn’t one.
The main thing I’ve learned in my fairly short life so far is that you really can’t care what anyone else thinks about you. I certainly don’t. For better or worse, this is who I am. Take it or leave it. I curse, I swear, I make light of things that may not be funny to you, I’m irreverent and sometimes a bit self-centered … but the beauty of all this is that you can click that little “x” up in the corner and never come back here again, and I can continue to be brash and abrasive and honest. A friend of mine had this to say about this blog:
“I love it … it’s like Martha Stewart and Sid Vicious had a blog love child.”
Just because everything here is pink or purple and cupcake-y doesn’t mean its all flowers and sunshine… but it doesn’t mean I make black cupcakes with mohawks and spikes coming out of them either (well not always, but sometimes). Maybe I’m not the typical “baker/cook/housewifey type”… maybe when you think of someone who’s good in the kitchen and gets excited over KitchenAid appliance attachments or a good sale on Ball® jars, you don’t envision someone like me. But there’s a lot of that going around (just check out my links over there to the left- you’ll see). No longer are women repressed by these things, no longer are these things looked at as “anti-feminist” or uncool. Now women are rockin’ out to Bad Religion while knitting, or while making 3 dozen cupcakes for their kids bake sale and mentally planning their next tattoo. So actually, maybe I am indicative of whats typical. And thats pretty awesome. I’d rather have a bunch of confident empowered women in their kitchens making good food for their families to eat as my peers, than a bunch of insecure little girls running around in heels with briefcases trying to impress people and break the glass ceiling, while neglecting their kids and wondering why they have dysfunctional lives. Not that women in the workforce is bad, not that working moms are bad, and not that you can’t be a cool working mom who bakes… I mean, I’ve been a 9-5′er myself… but homemakers have been put down for so long I’m happy to see things turning around.
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Beware.. my Twitter is completely uncensored… and I’m VERY opinionated. Follow at your own risk.
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The rest, as they say, is history…
Psst… usually you can find me in the kitchen; in my glasses with frosting smeared on my cheek, and batter all over my apron or clothes (or pajamas), reading books (always) or geeking out on my (pink of course) laptop or iPhone. But don’t be fooled: whether dressed up & painted up all pretty-like or in flannel cupcake pajamas, I can kick your ass either way.
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