A catch up with The Cupcake Lady

Yesterday, as I contemplated the queue at one of my favourite city cafés (Smith, the Grocer), I passed by the window of tempt. I always stop here to get some inspiration for my next cupcake baking project. Fortunately, I had my camera with me yesterday.

As I popped around the corner into the tempt retail space, I was delighted to find Tamara Jane (The Cupcake Lady) herself behind the counter. We had a quick catch up about what I've been doing since attending her cupcake decorating course in March. I assured her that I'd been baking up a storm ever since, including lots of cupcakes and some recipes from her recently published book, Divine Cupcakes: A Book of Temptation. She appeared genuinely pleased to hear that.

Tamara Jane is one of the most positive, enthusiastic, and energetic people I have come across in a long time. She didn't seem overly surprised that I have a list of volunteer tasters longer than my arm! We chatted about some of the recipes I'd tried, and I asked her about a few measurements and directions I wasn't sure about. It's not often you get to check out queries with chefs about their published recipes, so I relished the opportunity. Alas, we couldn't work out why my raspberry and white chocolate mud cake turned out to be 23 cm when "I just made one this morning and it was 16 cm plus a few cupcakes". Never mind, she assured me. Wasn't I "lucky" to get such a big cake that day? My family would certainly agree.

Apparently book sales are going well, and her retail business is seemingly recession-proof. (I recall something about cupcakes and lipsticks surviving even the toughest of times - small treats and all.) Her classes are now fully booked until January 2010 - gosh, I'm glad I got in when I did to be part of her first-ever course!