(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

…

…

…This blog is about so much more than cupcakes.

…

…

And it’s not JUST cupcake recipes. It might have started out that way, maybe way back when. But it’s grown into something far bigger. 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, or 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- and pizza, and fried chicken, and hot dogs! HORROR OF HORRORS… & nope, I will not apologize… sometimes you just need some salty fries, non-chicken chicken nuggets & a sodium coma). I never make people feel guilty for using frozen store-bought pie crust or Bisquick.

I will never make you feel horrible for your food choices.

…

THE GIRL:

What happens when a punk grows up? I’m in my early thirties, which is a hard pill to swallow seeing as how I truly wake up & feel like I’m sixteen most days (except for the pesky backaches). I’ve lived in New York my whole life, it’s in my blood. I enjoy punk rock/hardcore/metal music for the most part, but I also enjoy a lot of classical music & my iTunes has songs from a range of people like Elton John and Shakira to Dion & the Belmonts and NIN. My fiancé My now husband Jay, is a superhero by day and a bassist in a death metal band by night. Together, we’re the parents of a four-legged monster/rescue dog named Indy. He’s a stellar combination of Labrador Retriever, Staffordshire Bull Terrier & English Coonhound, and he keeps us laughing (& on our toes!). By trade, I’m an artist who went to the Fashion Institute of Technology for fashion design & illustration. I also do freelance graphic design. I have an extensive art background; I’ve been drawing and watercolor painting since I was a child and about 13 years ago I got into digital art (drawn with Adobe Illustrator) which is probably my favorite medium as of now. 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 taught myself webdesign. I’ve been doing webdesign for over 17 years now, and I’ve (hopefully) come a long way since my first free website on Angelfire.com. (Speaking of art- the two pieces behind me in the above photo are by the one & only Christine Comis-Villareal: http://ccomis.com)

“Like a hurricane in the heart of the devastation,

She’s a natural disaster,

she’s the last of the American girls.“

 

THE BLOG:

Cupcake Rehab is one rockin’, rollin’ & reelin’ kinda blog. It’s not the same old boring snoozefest that you’ll see on a million other blogs all over the web. I love baking and cooking- it relaxes me & excites me at the same time. I’m not a pro, I never went to school for it, and I’m not making anything groundbreaking, but I do hope at least someone will get something out of what I share in this little corner of the internet. I started cooking & doing domestic things when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in August of 2006. After cooking almost every night, I decided I’d start making dessert too. The first thing I ever baked from scratch that year was Amy Sedaris’ vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting tinted pink. It was such a success, and I got such great feedback from them, that I just began going cupcake crazy. By the next summer I was full-on baker mode.

I started an informal private friends-only blog on my personal MySpace page (wow I’m dating myself by saying that!) in September of 2007, and created a blog at wordpress.com in December of 2007 after everyone pushing me to do so, 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 the next spring and here we are! The rest is history. I’ve since added some Cupcake Rehab© clothing and other miscellaneous items, so if you’re interested in that visit my store!

Like I said, I’m not a pastry chef. 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 blog speaks for itself.

“It’s like Heavy Metal meets House & Garden!”

– Jim Carrey

(as The Riddler)

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 at times … 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. That’s part of what this blog is about- being yourself. So what, I like pink-frosted cupcakes. I also like Agnostic Front & I’ve had a mohawk.

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.”

If that appeals to you, then welcome. If not… I assure you, there are no Ozzy Osbourne bat-biting incidents here, no violence, no anarchist manifestos… it’s pretty tame. I MAKE CUPCAKES & PICKLES, FOR F*!CK’S SAKES. Sure, I use an F-bomb here or there. On the whole, though, I’m inspired by Anthropologie, Kinfolk, and food photography from Bon Appetit & Food52. But if you’re still turned off, there are plenty of other blogs to keep you amused.

…

…

THE INSPIRATION:

Jay purchased the domain for me, as I stated above. Having him around to bounce ideas off of has been awesome… and there’s always someone to eat all the pickle experiments I make! (I hate pickles.) The fact that there’s someone that loves talking about food as much as I do in my life makes me so happy. And not just talking, but eating too!

My nana Agnes was my biggest fan. There are a few others who’d want to fight her for that title, but believe me she’d put up a hell of a fight! Everything I did- no matter what it was- she was the first one to get excited about it. She thought my whole blogging thing was awesome, and although she might not have fully understood the concept, it didn’t matter. She was very pleased to taste-test recipes, too! I miss her a lot.

My dad, who along with Jay is one of my biggest taste-testers. And recipe suggesters. And prodder (“Hey… no baked goods?”)

And of course my mom, she’s the reason I love being a cook and baker, and not just because of what I said above. She baked all the time when I was growing up. From her I learned (almost) everything I know, and I still ask her advice and help for recipes when I’m a bit lost. Or when things go wrong, which, when you’re as “recipe rebellious” as I am, can be fairly frequently. From homemade sugar cookies and pfeffernüsse to regular day to day meals and cupcakes for my birthday at school, she was always making something. Not to mention the infamous last-minute late night chocolate chip cookie crusade or the “customized” Hostess cupcakes for the last minute bake sale that fooled everyone. So its all because of her… (and Jay, 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. But without those Christmases in the kitchen, I’d never know all those little tricks and fixes, and I wouldn’t have that confidence to turn a baking mistake into something spectacular. Thanks Mom ♥

…

…

THE STAR:

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 stand-mixer. 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 600 Series in Caviar Gloss 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?

(Pssst… have you SEEN the latest Raspberry Ice & Watermelon colors!? Be still my heart. Four mixers isn’t too over the top & crazy, right? RIGHT?)

..

…

…

…

………………

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 Macbook 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.

 

…

Questions? Comments? Complaints? I’m happy to help. See the FAQ page or the CONTACT page.

…