Pairing Cupcakes & Wine

Last week, Meghan and I went to a cupcake and wine tasting event.  Let’s think about this for a moment:

Cupcakes…

and wine…

and a good friend.

Sounds like a perfect evening, right? It was.

The cupcakes were made by a local bakery, Camino (the one I blogged about a few days ago), Miss WineOH chose wines to pair with the cupcakes, and City Beverage hosted the event. City Beverage is a really cool place…I always kind of forget about it but I don’t think I will now!

There were some pretty unusual cupcakes but I loved them all. Read the flavors. You might be a little shocked.

I loved the vanilla bean cake with strawberry balsamic frosting. (Did I or did I not tell you that strawberries and balsamic vinegar are great together? )

There were even real pieces of fresh strawberry in the icing!

This was the roasted garlic cake with gouda icing and little pieces of gouda cheese on top. Um, YEAH. It was kind of crazy but I liked it. It just caught me off guard after all the sweet stuff but it paired really nicely with the Pinot Noir.

The Dante Pinot Noir wasn’t my favorite pinot noir ever but it really worked well with the garlic cake.

(Isn’t it always nice to have a partner in photographing crime?)

I also really liked the saffron cake with the cardamom icing. The cake was bright yellow inside from the saffron. Pretty!

I also liked the rosé with the saffron cake. I might just have to try a rosé the next time I have Indian food!

The dark chocolate cake with currant icing was so rich but good. I’m not generally a Merlot fan but I liked the one they served with it. Plus, it was perfect with the cupcake flavors.

The chocolate spice cake with cinnamon icing was vegan, but the cake was really dry and dense, which was disappointing since my previous experience with vegan cupcakes was out of this world.

Here’s Miss WineOH herself. Check out her website. I want her job…you will too.

There were a lot of really fun people at the event, including this cute couple from Greensboro. Tyler and Wil were so nice and fun! It’s always great when you go to an event and are seated by people that turn out to be very cool.

The aftermath!

Thanks for the fun night Meghan and for inviting me! Tell Matt and Buddy thanks for sharing you for a girls’ night out!

All in all, it was an absolutely delicious and fun night! In case you’re wondering (I bet you weren’t), my favorite wine of the night was the 2010 Bourgeois Cuvee Stephi Chardonnay. It’s aged in stainless steel barrels, not oak like Chardonnay usually is, so it was really clean tasting and didn’t have that oaky-ness that some people don’t like. I usually like Chardonnays anyway but I really liked this one.

To be honest, this was the first time where I really could tell how food and wine work so well together when paired correctly. I knew that wine could enhance flavors of food and know some general “rules” but I finally really got it that night. Great job Miss WineOH! I guess that’s why she’s the professional.

I’d definitely recommend attending one of Miss WineOH’s events if there is one in your area!

If you could only choose one thing, would you want a cupcake or a class of wine? I’d go with a class of wine!

Tagged as: wine