Red Velvet Revival

It’s 1956. Ties are skinny. Thelonious Monk records Brilliant Corners. Charles and Ray release the Eames Lounge Chair. And, somewhere in the South, Red Velvet Cake is reaching the peak of its popularity.

While we’re still waiting for a revival of 1956 cool, we can at least comfort ourselves with one very revived Red Velvet cupcake. Maybe two. We’re hungry. 

The inspiration for the Sweet Tempered Red Velvet cupcake comes from Jennifer and Christy’s childhood fave, The Red Oven bakery at Bowen and Park Row in Arlington, TX. The Red Oven is one of those places that doesn’t do trendy. They do what they do, and trendy occasionally comes around to meet them.

So, Jennifer and Christy both had a pretty good idea of what this cake was going to be about. Balance. Restraint. Deliciousness. There was to be no goopy frosting, no neon red, no overpowering chocolate. They worked for weeks. For months. And finally, they found it, topped with a special hybrid of buttercream and cream cheese frosting, the Red Velvet Cupcake was reborn in its former glory, right here in Austin. Available to all you hep cats out there every day but Sunday at our swingin’ South Austin pad.

Putting the Sweet in SXSW Film's Sweet 16

16 years ago, on the heels of Austin indie film classics like Slacker, SXSW went from the most insane music-everywhere-you-go-week in Austin, to the most insane music-and-film-everywhere-you-go-week in Austin.  This year:  33 films. On the first day. 

We’re loving it, and so is A&E Indie Films, the folks who sponsored this year’s kick-off party at Buffalo Billiards.

So, you’re planning a kick-off to something big and spectacularly cool. We figure you’re going to want a cake. A big cake. A spectacularly cool cake.  And that’s what A&E Indie Films thought too.  The result: Christy’s  4 tiers of rock and roll goodness for the festivities.

Happy Sweet Sixteen, SXSW film!

Spring Is In The Air

13 degrees in Boston. Flights into Atlanta canceled due to blizzard conditions. You'd barely know it was spring if it weren't for the current crop of Sweet Tempered cake creations. That's right folks, 'tis the season for butterflies and flowers.

Take Ella's birthday cake for example. A few weeks back, looking out at the budding trees and feeling the warm breeze, Ella decided what she wanted most of all was a butterfly birthday. And what better for a butterfly birthday than a Sweet Tempered butterfly birthday cake.

Invitations were mailed, the date was set, and Ella gave us her specs: Very Chocolate. Very Pink. And just like the butterflies on her invitation.

Needless to say, it was one happy just-turned-eight-year-old that came into the store that Saturday. And, judging from the pictures, one happy crowd of Ella's friends and their grown-ups once the candles were blown out and the slices of fudge-layered devils food cake were handed out.

Ella's already put her order in for next February: An Astronomy Party. In chocolate.