NO, these carbohydrates are not from Tricia’s Tiny Things List, they are Iwako Pastry Erasers from JetPens ($5.50 for the 6 erasers & tray). As soon as I received them, I wrote the following email to my co-editor Tricia:
“tricia they sent me this and i can’t get anything done: i keep pulling off the top of the cream puff and putting it back on and then pretending to eat them and picking them up and putting them down and then moving the tray away from me so I’ll stop and then putting it back on the corner of my laptop. SERIOUSLY.”
Having now owned these delectable dishes for a full 10 hours, I am obsessed. They are the most realistic looking erasers I’ve ever seen - I believe they contend with plastic dollhouse food. You can TAKE OFF the top of the cream puff and there is a strawberry in there or you can take off the layers of the pizza. This obviously means hours of fun. At age 10, my dolls would’ve opened a pastry shop in the bottom floor of their wooden house. Now that I’m more than double that age, I’ve packaged them in a ziploc bag to bring to work (true story).
I have to admit, though I loved these little foods on first sight, I feared I was going to have to lump them into the same category as those dark pink erasers on the top of cheap pencils (you know, the kind that leave eraser smudges across the paper, which makes it worse than the mistake in the first place), or those pencil-toppers in the shapes of bears & cats. They were always much worse than regular erasers. I DESPISE bad erasers.
Anyway, I didn’t want to ruin my food, so I just used the bottom corner of the croissant. In a very scientific test which involved erasing an incorrect math answer, it performed just as well as the pink eraser atop my favorite pencil (Dixon Ticonderoga #2). Both left a ghost of my nine, but no smudges or ghastly pink or granite lines.
This was a huge surprise. There has to be new eraser technology or else why wouldn’t all of those crappy pencil toppers work better? As JetPens said themselves, “Mistakes seem somehow brighter when you erase them with a piece of cake” — especially when that piece of cake actually erases. Anyway, erasure success means only one thing: you need to buy TWO SETS — one for erasing and one to bring to work & pretend to eat.
Iwako Postry on Try Novelty Eraser — 6 Piece Set ($5.50) Or, if carbs aren’t your style, you can try for other eraser sets including sushi, american food (we eat french fries & soda, btw), or these lovely japanese snacks.
Note from Tricia: I, too, received this delightful set from JetPens yesterday, and I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING MARIA MENTIONED. I am enamored with the cream puff, and the first act of my eraser exhibition to my coworkers involved me removing the top of the cream puff. Oohs and Aahs followed. (Of course.)
By now, you know I love cupcakes. Sometimes, I lay awake at night wondering if I should’ve named my blog Stickers & Cupcakes. I always get angry when my Ziploc-enclosed cupcake gets (a) smooshed, (b) icing all over the bag (yes, I turn the bag inside out and lick, is that gross?).
Anyway, despite Cup-A-Cake’s shameless use of Comic Sans on its web-page, I’m really exited about the no-smash containers they created. Apparently, you can turn these $3 suckers upside down and the icing still won’t get all over the place. Magic? I think so.
If you are much fancier than the Cup-A-Cake, don’t travel, and just found $60 under your couch, you can get a fabulously fancy cupcake stand from Fred Flare. Obviously, you will also need a fancy Alice-in-Wonderland-esque tea party dress to eat off of this plate.
I’ve been pretty obsessed with cupcakes lately, so I was thrilled to see these ice-cream-cone-filled cupcakes on New York Magazine’s “Grub Street” blog. (The inside scoop was originally from Blondie & Brownie’s food blog.) And the food itself? $3.50 at the Treats Truck, which I visited when I was at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn this past year.
Sometimes, you want the icing and the cupcakes… and an art project. If so, crazyaboutcupcakes.com has inspiration images that will make you drool!
If you want to torture yourself with more sweet snacks, check out Oh Joy’s recent post on magical looking icy pops from icypops.com.
In my most recent edition of Currently Obsessed , I mentioned that a recent thrill has come from eating vanilla frosting directly from the can, no cupcake or cake required (or none availible, as it may be). Upon seeing this post a friend recently mentioned that there is a new fad for frosting eaters — frosting shots. It is said that these little guys take the middleman out of frosting enjoyment.
One of the places offering such deliciously calorie-filled snacks is Babycakes, a popular place for vegan cupcake eatery in lower Manhattan. According to The Arizona Republic, Babycakes tried to rid itself of the $1.50 frosting shots, but people just kept coming back for more. Now, they’re served in vintage shot glasses and people who want to add a twist to their evenings often stop by before going out to the bars
And, in case you are health conscious, even Oprah magazine thinks Babycakes, in all of their vegan, gluten-free glory, are pretty good for you, and pretty good tasting, too.
I was chatting with a friend the other day and claimed that my hypothetical wedding (in a galaxy far, far away) would include my unique candy buffet, set-up with colorful candies in jars like a candy store. I thought I was pretty brilliant.
Apparently, other people have already been this brilliant. My friend immediately directed me to Style Me Pretty (a wedding blog) and soon I was venturing through tons of candy jar pictures, including a delicious post about Wedding Cake Alternatives.
My favorite candy jar set-up is from this post, and is shown in the upper left-hand corner of my collage.
Shape + Color recently posted Liz Wolfe’s new photography: bright colors, sweet candy, cute objects, with a touch of morbidity. (That ceramic dear isn’t just covered in sugar dots, the image is called “Diseased Deer”.)
Liz’s old work is just as fun as her old — check out this “Hand Punctured with Candy Stick.” Cute…?
I am super-excited about the Donut of the Week from MarthaStewart.com’s section on Unique Wedding Cakes. If you really want to make this tower of yummy-ness visit the web-site for tips on how to make it perfect.
Chocolate (my favorite, btw)! In beta (what?!)! With cute packaging (yeah, I’m a sucker for that, too)!
I can’t wait to get my tongue all over this piece of crafty genius I saw at trendwatching.com. While Tollhouse or Hershey’s pride themselves on using really old recipes that have been around the block, Tcho has chosen a different route wfor creating their specialty chocolates (read: not the same as the stuff you by for 85 cents at Rite Aid).
Tcho crafts and re-crafts their chocolate with all the feedback they get along the way. They’ve been releasing “beta” versions of their chocolate bars (available for purchase online only) and eventually they’ll release the chocolate in version 1.0.
“From our first batch, we’ve improved every aspect of “Chocolatey” again and again, including the progression of taste over time (attack, sustain, and decay), the sweetness, and the mouthfeel” (Tcho).
They’re in version .99 right now, so the chocolate has got to be pretty awesome, plus you can send Tacho your feedback right away to help create version 1.0.
The chocolate is a little price-y ($10 for a two pack), but you’ve to remember this is specialty chocolate, and from all the reviews I’ve read online, it’s delicious.
Bonus: look at that pretty packaging! The earthy brown suggests natural flavors and the simple typography with a single splash of color indicates an elevated design-sense above and beyond that lowly pop chocolate I’ve been buying at the supermarket.
Oh-la-la! Hungry now?
I was recently catching up on a (very) old issue of In Style, and, being perpetually drawn to pretty colors and sugar, noticed the cupcake in Katie Holmes’ hand before I noticed Katie herself.
The article is so old that it’s from a time when Katie lived alone in NYC, and visited Billy’s Bakery, on 9th Ave between 21st and 22nd Streets, once a week.
I’ve never eaten there, but if their cupcakes look this yummy and all of the magazines are raving about them, I’m sure they’re good and will be sure to stop by soon.
Another plus? The shop has the charm of a 1940s kitchen. Sweet!
BKNY (stands for Bangkok New York) is a Thai place in far Flushing, Queens (the Auburndale / Bayside area). While the food is tasty and not too expensive, the atmosphere is what’s most impressive. The place looks like it could have popped right out of Manhattan, somehow accidentally misplaced in Queens.
The best part?
Pictures and logos on this page were collected from the BKNY web-site which offers more information on menus, pricing, location, etc.
To clarify my title: the top ten things currently available online in lime (neon, florescent, highlighter) green that are not a million dollars. (I love lime green. See my room.) Even though neon brights are popular this season, it’s harder than you’d think to find lime green merchandise outside of a costume, Halloween, or clown store (seriously). But with a little hunting I’ve come up with a pile of lime green merchandise that is sure to injure your retinas (yay)!
I love Esty, and I love these hand cut-out donut stickers with little faces on a splash of frosting. (more…)
Vavolo makes a bunch of “Freshly Baked USB” drives, including chocolate, strawberry, and green tea (um, what?) frosted donuts. (I think if you’re going to get a usb drive, it mightaswell be cute.)
