Last night, I discovered what I can say when someone asks me why I moved to Seattle. And that, my friends, is Cupcake Royale. It is a little cafe that sells only--sit down for this one--CUPCAKES!!! I could scarcely believe it. There are even two locations. That alone could be enough to draw most of the people I know to this fair city.
Cupcakes are the perfect treat. They have their own little, neat packaging and when done correctly, as they are at CR, you are left hoping that they could somehow contain the nutritional value of quinoa, so you could eat them guilt-free for every meal and have all of your nutritional needs met. Additionally, cupcakes can offer endless variety in flavoring, color, and decoration, and CR comes through on that too. There are your standards: chocolate or vanilla cake frosted with either chocolate or vanilla buttercream. The vanilla buttercream comes in pretty colors: lavender, pink, and baby blue, with or without decorations. Then, there are the the specialty flavors, chocolate or vanilla cake with peppermint icing, lemon cake with lemon icing (complete with a lemon drop for decoration), or chocolate cake with orange icing. Variety without being too overwhelming that is the key, if only our lives and loves could be this way....
Lovers should be like the cupcakes at Cupcake Royale and our love affairs like the process of eating them. We spot our coveted one in the glass display case where we see a cautionary note: 'please don't scare the cupcakes by banging on the glass'. Of course we choose it for it's inticing beauty and imagined goodness. We begin to peel away the paper and decide how we will partake of this delectable treat. Will we bite into the pint-sized cake with wild abandon? Or maybe we will rip off the bottom, eating it first and saving the creamy, sweet icing and slightly crunchy top for last, savoring every bite. Maybe we'll go straight for the icing and forget the cake altogether, but in the end, how could you forget the cake? The combination of the two compliment each other so perfectly.
Could the folks at CR, like Roland Barthes write a lover's discourse* of sorts? Well, maybe not a discourse, but at least a friendly how-to guide. The Cupcake Royale Guide to Love, or something like that. Of course, the details would need to be worked out, and I'm no philosopher, but it could be a great success. The proposed title is not too original I know, but the important part would be this cupcake philosophy of love (or life, it could be utilitarian and applied to multiple situations), would be simple and straightforward and could help guide it's adherants to the ultimate payoff--a meaningful love affair, satisfying every step of the way, much like the sweet little morsels of goodness themselves...
I am so obsessed with love these days because I am attempting to fall out of it. The realization came suddenly after many years of lying in wait, only to overtake me at the wrong time. But was it the wrong time? When love entered the already complex equation of my personal quest, a level-headed German friend, a fabulous girl, told me in the lilted accent of her English, "It's all so exciting, just realize, it might not happen now...maybe one month, maybe one year, maybe not ever, but you have to see..." She was right, of course. But I didn't have Cupcake Royale then, I didn't have this new philosophy to flesh out to guide me in my next foray into matters of the heart.....
*don't be confused, this is not the entire Lover's Discourse as the author of this site implies.
