Frosting in progress for untitled sweet potato experiment. This is how we do Thanksgiving, folks.

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.

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 the largest collection of its kind, and it is awesome. You may have seen their recording booth in downtown Manhattan, or heard their broadcasts Friday mornings on NPR. If you haven’t, spend a little time here: storycorps.org/listen.

To help raise awareness for StoryCorps OutLoud, an initiative to record and preserve LGBT histories across the country, they threw a wicked garden party and invited us to make the cupcakes. We brought over red velvet with vanilla buttercream and candied pecans, and chocolate with salted caramel.

Thanks to StoryCorps for letting us party with them for such a good cause. If you live in New York, bring a friend or family member to their booth and record your own story.

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.

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 Kate “Buttercream” Brown’s award-winning cupcakes as a pregame snack.

“The cupcakes have beer in them,” said Brown.

Not mentioned: the frosting had whiskey. Also please note that we hardly ever lose, this is a total anomaly. Crucial Taunt <3

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 eat these. But when we’re chowing down, we’ll totally be thinking about them. Happy Mother’s Day!

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.

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 (obviously). This is serious stuff.

Once, inspired by Paul Simon, I skirted a term paper about religious pilgrimage by writing about Elvis Week. What I got was a lingering obsession with Graceland. One staple of the house was his grocery list— food that had to be stocked in the kitchen at all times. At the top was peanut butter, bananas and white bread. You know where this is going.

Here’s a picture (via cupcakestakethecake) from last year’s Brooklyn Cupcake Cookoff.

Banana cake with peanut butter filling, Southern Comfort frosting, honey roasted peanuts, and deep-friend banana slices. It’s the least I could do. Tickets for Elvis Week go on sale soon—plan your trip at www.elvisweek.com.

Important advances in cupcake-eating technology: we’ve been informed that some folks remove the bottom of the cake and smush it on top of the frosting, as demonstrated above with our chocolate cake. Behold, the poor man’s whoopie pie.

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 be awkward because we were all taking a leak. Anyway, I think we all ate too many cupcakes.

Gonzo dessert journalism. Thanks for the shout-out. Over at the Voice’s Sound of the City blog, Zach Baron wonders whether Brown Paper Bag cupcakes are yet another reason to pretend-hate but secretly enjoy Vampire Weekend:

When the outraged masses finally rise up and slaughter Vampire Weekend for the sins of their Ivy League educations and crisply pressed pants, this room might well be Exhibit A—chocolate salted caramel buttercream, Bordeaux, Perrier, pineapple, and blood.

Um, thanks? Whatever. At least he was easier on us than that Titus Andronicus show.