Cups is family friendly fun

Cups has been written up SD Family friendly blog, sandiegofamily.com.

Check it out!

http://www.sandiegofamily.com/dining-and-recipes/restaurant-reviews/679-cups

http://cupslj.commailto:info@cupslj.com

I haven't desserted you...

Sorry there's been no post here in a bit - we're in the process of moving our blog to our new web site, coming out next week! Of course, these things always take longer than expected (due in large part to me, I suspect), so sorry. We will be back - I've been holding back in anticipation of the move!

Lots of new an exciting things coming in the updated web site...mostly inresponse to customers.

First, we make it easier to see the full class schedules for the upcoming months at Cups Culinary, and sign up online for maximum efficiency. We are also offering a free Cups App at the same time - so our friends can see not only what flavors are being offered that day (and every day that week), but also what specials are going on in the lounge and what classes are on the horizon. People always seem so disappointed when their favorite flavor isn't being offered the day they come in. We always tell them it's on the web site, but that's not as easy as checking your phone!

There's generally a lot more content and photos of our Cups, parties, events, and lots more. We get so much fan mail and photos, we wanted a way to share that.

We are constantly striving to make the Cups experience as good as possible, not only by serving the best cupcakes in San Diego, but also by making the experience as seamless as possible. If there's anything we do you think we could do better, please let me know. Our goal is 100% satisfaction, and we know we've got work to do.

But we're not even one year old! In fact, we're coming up on on our one-year anniversary Thanksgiving weekend. Stay tuned for more info on exciting anniversary offers and events.

If you're in town this weekend, and in costume, stop by Cups and other participating vendors on Girard for "Pillage the Village," free trick-or-treat goodies from 4-6 pm, after which we'll have our Scary-oke!

That's it for now. More substantive posts once this #@%*^&^$%$#^^ web redux rolls out!

http://cupslj.commailto:info@cupslj.com

LATTE OF THE DAY SPECIALS

MONDAY: "BRAZILIAN" Latte - 2 spoonfuls of Brazilian sugar with espresso, streamed milk and foam.

TUESDAY: "VIENNESE" Cappuccino - cinnamon and honey with espresso, steamed milk and foam.

WEDNESDAY: "MATCHA GREEN TEA" Latte - Matcha green tea, agave, steamed milk and foam.

THURSDAY: "VANILLA CHAI" Latte - Our house-made Chai latte with vanilla flavoring.

FRIDAY: "RASPBERRY WHITE MOCHA" Latte - Organic Raspberry Syrup with our house White Chocolate, house-made chocolate sauce, espresso, steamed milk and foam.

SATURDAY: "VIENNESE" Cappuccino - cinnamon and honey with espresso, steamed milk and foam.

SUNDAY: "MATCHA GREEN TEA" Latte - Matcha green tea, agave, steamed milk and foam.

***BE SURE TO BECOME A FAN ON FACEBOOK***

Cups Culinary Specials of the weekend and Daily Specials

Extra special deals on Cups Culinary Classes this weekend!

Tomorrow's Table Decor - Seaside Soiree Class featuring Olga Krasnoff and the cuisine of our very own Jesus Gonzalez (formerly of Rancho La Puerta fame), 2:30-5:30 pm - special - half-off, only $30!!!

Sunday's Market-To-Table class featuring Jesus Gonzalez - this Sunday only - reduced to $50.

E-mail vanessa@cupslj.com to reserve your spot before they're all gone!

But every day at Cups is special so why not have a daily special. See the list below and remember to mark your calendars!

• Mon - MANIC MONDAY! Buy a dozen mixed flavors of the day and save 25%!
• Tues - TWO for TUESDAY - Buy one full size "Flavor of the Day" CUP and receive one free!
• Wed - STUDENT HUMPDAY - 25% off any food or drink purchase with valid student ID!
  
• Thurs - GEAR UP FOR THE WEEKEND - 10% off all Cups Merchandise.
• Fri - Stop in tonight for our local "Sweet Beats and Eats" featuring local DJs 6:30-9:30pm! - INDUSTRY HAPPY HOUR 6-10pm - 25% off all food and drinks for those in the restaurant "biz" (bring copy of paycheck stub to verify).
• Sat - Stop in tonight for our local "Sweet Beats and Eats" featuring local DJs 6:30-9:30pm! (Friday & Saturday nights)
• Sun - SUNDAY FUNDAY: Join us every Sunday at the ever popular La Jolla Farmers Market from 9am-1pm.

Plus, the more cupcakes you buy the more you save! By five cupcakes get the sixth free!

Look forward to seeing you at our place.

The Cups Team

CHECK OUT OUR UPCOMING COOKING CLASSES

Cups Culinary, Cups' teaching kitchen located at 7857 Girard Avenue, will open for public classes, starting June 5, with a kid- friendly baking class, featuring the recipes from two of Jill O'Connor's award-winning cookbooks, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth and Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids. Come in and get your hands messy with some of Jill's most popular recipes, modified for this class only with all organic ingredients. Her luscious desserts have been enjoyed the world over; now is your chance to come in and try them yourself, under her expert supervision. The hands-on class is open to both kids and adults. $100 for parent and child, $25 for each additional child; $70 for solo adult. Max 24. Class will be held on June 5, 4:30-7:30 pm, with book-signing afterwards. Warwicks will provide both books for sale after the class.

CUPS CULINARY CLASS SCHEDULE

June 6, 13, 20, 27 - Market-to-Table featuring Chef Jesus Gonzalez, Former creative Chef for Rancho La Puerta and Golden Door Spas

Have you ever wondered what some of the beautiful produce you see in the market is, or if you know what it is, what to do with it? Do you know what a Buddhas Hand is? Or what to do with those beautiful, fragrant squash blossoms? Join Jesus on a tour of the La Jolla Farmer's Market, as he identifies and describes the summer bounty available at the market that day. The class will then collectively choose items to purchase from the market for Jesus to cook in Cups Culinary demo kitchen. Recipes will be provided to all participants in this instructional class with an expert in using the freshest local, seasonal ingredients. Lunch prepared and provided from the market's bounty. $65. 11 am-2pm. Wear comfortable walking shoes. Max 24. This class will be offered every Sunday through the summer.

June 10 - Vegan Cupcake Baking*

Have you crossed over to the vegan life? Are you getting tired of the same old recipes? Come see how to jazz up your healthy lifestyle with cupcakes! Learn vegan baking techniques with Cups pastry chefs. Hands-on class will prepare batters and frostings for three different vegan cupcakes, bake and decorate. 4 Cups per guest, take-home carriers provided. Suitable for all skill levels. $70. 6-9 pm. Max 24.

June 12 - Ricotta Cheese-making with Cups Chefs Michelle Ciccarelli and Jesus Gonzalez

Learn the easy steps to making wonderful, fresh ricotta cheese, which you can easily do at home, in the demo portion of this class. Then, join in the fun in the hands-on portion in preparing a 4-course meal with the fresh ricotta, including appetizer, salad, fresh ravioli, and Limone Ricotta Cups. Recipes provided. $70. 2:30-5:30 pm. Max 24.

June 17 - Chocolate Art with Cups Pastry Chef Jeff Bonilla

Wake up your inner dessert artist! Learn how to temper chocolate, master chocolate decorating techniques, and prepare an assortment of chocolate sweets, including truffles and cupcakes, and an assortment of chocolate-dipped treats in this part demo/part- hands-on class! Suitable for all skill levels. $50. 6-8pm. Max 30.

June 24 - Gluten-free Cupcake Baking*

Yes you CAN have delectable desserts on a gluten-free diet! Learn gluten-free baking techniques with Cups pastry chefs. Hands-on class will prepare batters and frostings for three different gluten- free cupcakes, bake and decorate. 4 Cups per guest, take-home carriers provided. $70. 6-9 pm. Max 24.

KIDS ONLY CLASSES

June 8, 15, 22, 29 - Fun with Cupcakes

This class is for kids only, age 5 and up, who want to try their hand at cupcake decorating. Frost and sprinkle, pipe buttercream, play with fondant, and dip in chocolate to your heart's content. 4 full size cupcakes per child; take- out boxes provided for kids to bring home their masterpieces. Suitable for any skill level, and so much fun, parents will want to stay and play too! Drinks provided. $30. 12:30-2. Max 30. This class will be offered every Tuesday through the summer.

June 11, 25 - Parent's Night Off - Cupcakes and a Movie

Come and decorate cupcakes while watching a kid-friendly, G-rated movie. Kids-only decorating class, 2 cupcakes per child, with lots of buttercream and sprinkles to experiment with during the movie. Drinks and snacks provided. Kids age 5-9. $25. 6:30- 9pm. Max 30. This class will be offered every other Friday through the summer.

* Hands-on cupcake baking classes will be offered every other Thursday.

TO SIGN UP FOR ALL CLASSES PLEASE CONTACT VANESSA AT:

VANESSA@CUPSLJ.COM OR (619) 609-3082

Cups Wedding Catering

To add a decidedly unique and unforgettable flavor to your next special occasion, call Cups Wedding Catering. Whether it be a wedding or an elegantly themed bridal shower, there's no better way to elevate your special day than with an assortment of freshly baked, delectable cupcakes made from the finest organic ingredients. Cups will tailor the flavor combinations to match your theme, cuisine and wine pairings. Whatever the occasion calls for, we'll do it with a distinct style perfectly suited to your event and taste. All-natural and organic have never been so deliciously indulgent.

Give each of your guests more than just a slice of the celebration by unwrapping the unlimited possibilities of cupcakes. It's your wedding. You deserve your own special flavor, as individual and unique as your love for one another.

And it's more than just icing on the cake, so to speak. All organic, baked fresh on your wedding day. Customized flavors to suit your discriminating taste. Virtually unlimited design - if you can dream it, we can create it. With such innovation, isn't it time to break old tradition? Let them eat cake at every other wedding. At your wedding....cupcakes. Cups Wedding Catering will help make your special day unforgettable.

To speak with your personal pastry chef/wedding Cups designer, give us a call 858.459.2877 or stop by Cups Lounge in the village of La Jolla. We look forward to being apart of your special day!

The Cups Team

Vegging Out

I am writing this, nestled in on my couch, in my favorite tank, which reads "I veg to differ." It's from an organic farm and winery in Sonoma County owned by Lou Preston, a man I came to know during my month-long goat farm internship last year at Pugs Leap Farm, not too far from Lou's. Lou would stop by once a week to pick up the fresh whey (from the last few days cheesemaking production) to feed his pigs. We talked a bit about food, farming & politics, when Eric and Pascal - the goat farmer and cheesemaker, respectively - said we should have a picnic there some afternoon (except when Pascal says "picnic" there's an extra syllable, making him sound a bit like Smokey the Bear). Turn down wine and good food? Never!

Lou's winery is a find like few others. Organic produce, pigs and chicken, and fresh baked bread - and, oh yeah, amazing wines. Plus, his land is open to the public to have a picnic any time - so long as you don't arrive in a tour bus. Eric and Pascal arranged our picnic table with antique English china and crystal over freshly starched linens, much to the envy of the other picnickers. Fresh baguettes, the most amazing creamy fresh goat chese from their farm, washed down with Lou's "Grape Wine," a fruity, yet complex blend of rousanne, marsanne and viognier grapes all grown organically there.

I returned home insistent on adding a few goats and chickens to my current stable of 5 dogs. Eric & Pascal had even chosen the lady Edith for me to take away from their family - a goat who was probably a bit more uptown than their simple farm. But when I brought this up to my husband, he said it was out of the question. Why? The goats would eat all of our plants, and the dogs would eat the chickens! Still seemed surmoutable, but then I realized that so many of the edible fruit trees we have are actually toxic to animals, and that poor Edith might literally eat herself to death (which task, at the moment, is relegated to my parents' 16-year-old Dalmatian Patch). So Edith still reigns supreme at Pugs Leap, and the chicken battle is ongoing. But our garden has survived. In fact, thrived. And since some of you have asked about my garden, I thought I would point you to this little video of my berry patch, with music by my good friend Calman Hart's band Berkley Hart.

Michelle

Cups On Being Green

So, I'm working our Cups booth yesterday (where we sell not only our Cups and coffee, but also jars of freshly harvested chamomile tea from my garden, as well as strawberry milk - even better, the milk and Cups are available as free samples too!) at the farmer's market in La Jolla when a woman approaches me, says she has read about us in the local paper-most recently about our 3 Star Certified Green Restaurant®. Then she says that she noticed that we had a large white SUV sprinkled with Cups logos, and wonders how this jives with our green status. Interesting point.
So I explain to her that we actually have three delivery "vehicles" - a tricycle which we use for deliveries in the village, a vespa for deliveries outside that 10-block radius (which I was standing next to during our conversation), and finally, yes, a large old white SUV that once belonged to my husband (for his weekendly nursery runs), which, rather than trade-in or sell, I added flair to and added to the Cups fleet for when we needed to make large deliveries. I explained that we keep it parked near our store on Girard most of the time. That we only use it for big events, where we might need to bring 2-3 people, tents, tables, and an unlimited supply of Cups (like the farmer's market, e.g.). She nodded, not disapprovingly, but neither with approval either. Was she satisfied? Am I?
My good friend Jean (the "hall monitor of my life") recites this as her Green mantra: REDUSE, REUSE, RECYCLE. I suppose I could reduce the SUV - not to one of the new hybrid SUVs, which we have, because unfortunately they're not as big YET - to either a minivan or van. But is that really reducing? Isn't that really meant to apply where one has two vehicles and one would be enough? Because if I attempt to sell the old SUV, I may either not be able to sell it, because it's old and has a lot of mileage, in which case it heads to the dump; or I do sell it, to someone who needs it as a primary vehicle and does with it what I don't - drives it to the Starbucks drive-thru solo, instead of leaving it parked 90% of the time. Since this was already a car in our family, my taking it for Cups constitutes a reuse, but is that better than my purchasing a new minivan, with clearly superior mileage? I don't even know where to begin with recycle, as I'm not sure what we actually do with that never-ending supply of cars smashed on top of one another.
I guess the point is there are very few clear answers. I know we all try to do the best we can in any given situation. I once watched a TV program with a Green expert who was discussing the use of air conditioning in a car - to me an obvious no-no. But, of course, the answer was not that easy. Turns out, that up to certain speeds (I think the answer was 35 MPH, though I'm not positive anymore) use of air conditioning was worse than opening the windows. However, with speeds greater than that, opening the windows instead of using the air conditioning was actually worse, because it reduced the car's mileage!
So I confess to not knowing all of the answers - indeed, being probably ignorant of most. If anyone out there can offer some insight into this SUV situation I'd love to hear it - bad or good. Until then, I'll keep trying to stay on the best path I know.

Side note: The SUV's use at home was limited to the following: football games, where we would cart all 8 attendees in a single vehicle, and once-a-week trips to the nursery, where my husband and I would load up on plants for our garden. He wanted to trade in the SUV for a pick-up, which he now has, because we couldn't fit the more mature fruit trees in it. With the fruit trees and other plants we carried to our home on the weekends in the SUV, we now have enough citrus, berries, and herbs to feed ourselves, our friends and families, as well as supply my store.

Michelle


http://cupslj.com
mailto:info@cupslj.com

CUPS is only 3 Star Green Certified Restaurant in San Diego County!

We just received notice that we have been certified as a 3 Star Green Certified Restaurant by the Green Restaurant Association (www.dinegreen.com) - its highest rating. This 3 Star status makes Cups the only 3 Star bakery in all of California, and the only 3 Star restaurant of any kind in all of San Diego County.

We worked very hard to achieve this status, and we are very proud to have obtained this highest level awarded to any restaurant in the country. As a restauranteur, it is neither easy nor inexpensive to secure this status; its positive impact, however, can't be quantified.

We are one of only 20 restaurants certified as 3 Star Green Certified Restaurants since the Green Restaurant Association began awarding this designation to green restaurants in 1990.

The Association looks at every aspect of a business, from the building materials used in the building or remodeling of the space, water and utility utilization, to the foods served and the containers they are served in.

We here at Cups are so honored to be part of such an environmental friendly assoication.

The Cups Team

"Back in the Saddle"

Enough travel for a while. Back to Cups, our bakery, our lounge, and now, our teaching kitchen and party room, Cups Culinary aka the "green room." THIS is the reason I opened Cups - to really share my passion for cooking and teaching with others. Just had the first few events here: 30 sorority sisters, 4-year-old princess party, bridal shower, baby shower, and next week - a Superman-themed deco party! Next step, classes for summer camp, and a full public class schedule. If you have thoughts or suggestions, e-mail me....

So you've probably seen some of the "not your mother's cupcake" shots here. Let me explain. When you say you make cupcakes, a lot of people come in with certain expectations, many of which are based on the box mix/canned frosting cupcakes of our youth and the contemporary grocery store equivalent. No disrespect intended - been there, eaten that! That's just not what we do.

I wanted to make varied, complex, often more dense, less sweet desserts - that happen to come in a cupcake form. We make dense, dark flourless Cups. Sugar-free Cups. Brioche and other yeast-dough Cups. Mixed sweet & savory Cups. Vegan, gluten-free....

SOOOOOO it became necessary to let people know what we do differently, so as to address head-on people's expectations. Love us, hate us, this is what you get. I can't imagine a single cupcake to please every palate - nor do I want to. One billion served to me doesn't say top quality, it says lowest common denominator. But let me get off my high horse (how easily I seem to get back in that saddle...).

Anyway, as I started this rant, am happy to be back at Cups, my new expansion of space inspiring my creative juices. So I will put down this computer and return to the kitchen, to eagerly play with some new concepts. So excited about the upcoming season - so much fresh fruit to incorporate into our Cups! Am harvesting a lot of chamomile from the garden right now, have been thinking this one through - love the idea of a sweet honey-vanilla chamomile Cup. Also picking a lot of fava beans, but not feeling that one yet. Planting my own vanilla and cinnamon plants (in a small greenhouse) but won't get much there for a while. Anxiously awaiting the arrival of the little blackberry buds starting to appear. Now this is the saddle I want to get back in....

Michelle Cicceralli Lerach
Founder


http://cupslj.com
mailto:info@cupslj.com

Cups Cupcakery and Lounge

Cups Lounge

Ever heard of organic decadence? Well, you have now. Introducing Cups Lounge, the all-new, all-natural cupcakery in the heart of downtown La Jolla, and the only organic cupcakery in all of San Diego. Every day of the week, we create ten flavors of pure cupcake enjoyment, from among more than fifty total flavor varieties we offer. Each is joyfully baked fresh in-house every morning with loving care, and using only the best local, organic, sustainable ingredients.

Kick back and relax in our retro-modern lounge, hook up to the free WiFi, and enjoy your Cup with our house specialty, fresh strawberry milk on tap or one of the many offerings from our traditional coffee bar where we pull “ristretto” style espresso shots. While you're at it, why not sample our newest creation, FrostNips, a delectable blend of butter cake and frosting, rolled and hand dipped in chocolate.

Stop by soon. All-natural and organic have never been so deliciously indulgent.

The Cups Team

"Not Your Mother's Cupcake of the Week"

What do we mean by "Not Your Mother's Cupcake"? Let me explain. When you say you make cupcakes, a lot of people come in with certain expectations, many of which are based on the box mix/canned frosting cupcakes of our youth and the contemporary grocery store equivalent. No disrespect intended - been there, eaten that! That's just not what we do. Enjoy!
~ Michelle