May 2012
1 post
6 tags
April 2012
3 posts
4 tags
RETURN OF THE MAC
Macarons, the traditional French sandwich cookies made with almond meal and a variety of fillings, are one of our favorite treats to make. You might also have noticed that they’ve been enjoying a popular resurgence in the last couple years.
It’s no wonder - they’re bite-sized and delicate, but can carry a surprising amount of flavor. They’re also deceptively simple - the...
7 tags
IN THE KITCHEN
Catering a wedding, especially for people you know and love, is no easy feat, and it definitely doesn’t happen overnight. For Essie and Alexander’s wedding last month, planning meetings and recipe testing started early last year, with a late summer taste test for the bride, groom, and both sets of parents.
Once the menu was set, we took about two weeks to prep the cake and desserts...
10 tags
ESSIE + AKP
Our good friends Essie and Alexander got married last month at the Green Building in Brooklyn. Not only are these a couple of our favorite people, but they have excellent taste in desserts: they asked us to whip up a cake and a dessert table that would feed 150 of their closest friends and family; nod to their time living in New York, Seattle, and Paris; and use flavors from their favorite...
September 2011
2 posts
6 tags
CARAMEL CORN
It’s nearly October, but it’s still hot and muggy as ever in Brooklyn. The last of our CSA corn is at odds with our anxiousness to break out the nutmeg. OR IS IT?! A new creation:
Sweet corn and brown butter cake, with salted caramel buttercream and homemade spiced caramel corn.
With some candied peanuts thrown in, we’ll be ready for postseason baseball.
6 tags
GEOGRAPHY
I recently had the chance to bake for some folks who were working in New York, away from their homes in Atlanta and San Francisco. I used to have a job that required constant travel, and no matter how cool the city, it’s tough to stave off homesickness. (I also know some survival tips for lost baggage and living out of a mini fridge, but that is another thing). So I tried to stuff some SF...
July 2011
1 post
Embroidery
In the spirit of wedding season, here’s a sample of a decorating technique called brushed embroidery. I did this one in royal icing on fondant for a cake, but floral patterns in this style are great on cupcakes and cookies as well. It’s not all booze and buttercream around here, despite our best efforts.
Hope you’re all seeing (and eating) some beautiful wedding cakes this...
March 2011
1 post
HEART OF BROOKLYN
Heart of Brooklyn’s offices are tucked between a Greek diner and daycare center on Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights. From the street, you can’t even see the folks working upstairs in support of some of New York’s leading cultural institutions.
The places they represent are not so easy to miss. Heart of Brooklyn is a partnership of Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Museum, the...
February 2011
2 posts
VALENTINE
Let’s all agree it’s been a gross winter. Record-breaking levels of dirty snow and face-burning wind and I’m pretty sure we’re only getting 3 hours of sunlight a day at this point. All of New York City is like that part of “Groundhog Day” where Bill Murray is doomed to step ankle-deep in a pool of slush water, over and over.
Valentine’s Day is always a...
5 tags
SIDECAR
Positive: A Superbowl party this weekend gave us an excuse to cook with a new kind of booze. America! Football! Cupcakes!
Negative: We couldn’t find a single can of Iron City in this godforsaken borough, so Mike had to go without the beer of his hometown (black and yellow black and yellow). Maybe every bodega and bar in Brooklyn was still salty about the Jets.
Positive: When life gives you...
November 2010
1 post
Frosting in progress for untitled sweet potato experiment. This is how we do Thanksgiving, folks.
September 2010
1 post
Berry season
These things looked so fresh we had to take a picture: ginger cakes with sweet plum and raspberry frosting, topped with fresh raspberries. It’s like the candy aisle and the farmer’s market all mushed together in one. Except maybe the candy aisle is getting a little more representation than the farmer’s market, let’s be real.
August 2010
1 post
PRIDE
Things have been a little crazy the past few weeks— we moved to a bigger, badder kitchen with a way better sound system. Life is good.
But before the move, we had the chance to be part of the Pride Week party at StoryCorps, a non-profit oral history project in Brooklyn. StoryCorps records conversations between everyday people and archives them at the Library of Congress— it’s...
July 2010
1 post
Stay Cool
Not that you could ever be as cool as our buddy Leo, showing the correct approach to a carrot cake cupcake at his great-grandma’s birthday party.
Lessons from the master: stay inside, wear a hat, and keep your cupcakes air-conditioned.
May 2010
2 posts
Kickball
I’ve subjected my kickball team to a lot of baking experiments over our four summers together. They’re the best at eating with one hand and catching with the other.
A little shoutout from yesterday’s New York Post:
“Crucial Taunt members said they played in a “lackadaisical” manner all day, tying the New Frontiersmen in a 1-1 stalemate and dropping the nightcap, despite...
7 tags
Mother + Child
To celebrate Mother’s Day, we thought outside the cupcake pan and used honey, lavender and fresh berries for a mother/child experiment. Here’s the mom: honey cake with blackberry lavender compote and vanilla buttercream.
And the baby: a honey cupcake topped with blackberry lavender buttercream.
Of course, our mail order system is a little shaky, so our moms can’t actually...
April 2010
2 posts
Green
We were in the lab this week, doing some research (eating) and development (eating) of new flavors for Spring. First out of the gate, an homage to green: pistachio cake with citrus zest. We sent these to our pal Betsy’s birthday party, with vanilla bean and dark chocolate buttercream and candied pistachios.
Elvis Week
Someone told me it was “Elvis Week” on American Idol. Sure. Which got me thinking about the real (and totally incredible) Elvis Week in Tennessee. Every August, on the anniversary of his death, tens of thousands of fans gather in Memphis to commemorate The King. There are movie screenings, candlelight vigils, and the finals of the international Elvis Impersonator competition...
March 2010
6 posts
Reviews
The blogs (almost all of them) are weighing in on Monday night’s event. NYPL posted photos, definitely worth a look. Jason Lam at Me So Hungry called our cakes “beautiful” and added:
Afterwards in the men’s room, Ezra Koenig commented, “ughh, I ate two cupcakes.” Well it was either him or his friend next to him. I almost joined in on the conversation, but realized that would...
NYPL
Until last night, we’d made deliveries via car, bus, subway, and on foot. Now we know the best way to roll into a party is with pastry boxes stacked high on the shelves of an old wooden library cart. Obviously. Thanks to the New York Public Library, we got to push our cupcakes through the halls of the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman building on the way to a forum featuring novelist John Wray...
Synergy
Right now we’re getting a few batches ready for an event next Monday at the New York Public Library - Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig in conversation with author John Wray (sorry, private shindig). Meanwhile, we’ve been reading Wray’s Lowboy and enjoying it quite a bit. Here’s a passage we found particularly inspired:
…his left hand held a plain brown paper bag....
2 tags
February 2010
3 posts
CONTACT
Kate Brown, Head Baker
kate@paperbagbaking.com
Mike Dougherty, Assistant
mike@paperbagbaking.com
7 tags
FLAVORS
If you want it, we’ll bake it. But these are our favorites:
Chocolate with Salted Caramel
Chocolate cake made with Brooklyn Brown Ale. With homemade salted caramel buttercream and dark chocolate curls.
Winner, 2008 Brooklyn Cupcake Cookoff
Peanut Butter Banana
Banana cake with secret peanut butter frosting. (shh the secret is Maker’s Mark)
Winner, 2009 Brooklyn...
ABOUT
Brown Paper Bag will bake for you.
We bring cakes and desserts to birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvahs, Tuesday nights.
Nothing here is vegan, fat-free, or sugar-free. But if you want we can make it with booze.