The gray cupcake

I am almost getting bored of all the cupcake places opening on every corner. New Yorkers love to find the the best of something; the best hot chocolate, the best hot dog, the best pizza (yes I know Michele, you think it's Gonzo) and the best cupcakes are a favorite to expound on. So when one of our students said she was going to work on a cupcake place, we were somewhat dubious.

Crystal Bruner realized how many cutesy cupcake places there were out there, a pretty pretty land where sprinkles and brightly colored flowers abound. And she knew that she had to differentiate if her brand was going to stand out. Naming her cupcake shop Miscakes, her concept was that her cupcakes were not perfect, and not pretty. They celebrated the different, the rejects, the mistakes.

She designed a range of different cakes, but my favorite is definitely the gray cake. A mistake because it is all the colors blended together instead of a perfect yellow or chocolate, but an undoubtedly vanilla flavor, that doesn't match up to its aesthetic persona. It is gray inside and out, from its fluffy innards to its frosty icing, yet as vanilla as the yellowest vanilla cake. It may mess with your mind, but it supports her carefully thought-out tagline "it still tastes good".

Thanks to Crystal for letting me photograph (and eat) her comp!