The Best of What's Around

As I've probably mentioned before, Niknak is one of my closest friends in the whole wide world. We randomly met our second year of college (Spring 2007) in la clase de espanol, found out that we were both English majors and had about two other classes together that semester. We also randomly lived in the same apartment complex a few doors down from each other, and I had met her beau Al through mutual friends prior to even knowing about Niknak's existence in the world. We worked together for a summer at McGrady's Irish Pub while taking a Shakespeare course and well, we became such great friends that we lived together our last year of college. Now, we're both still in Charlottesvegas, working and actually getting to enjoy this wonderful little town without papers and reading assignments hanging over our heads. What's even cooler is that there's only about a 3-4 minute walk between our offices, so not only do we get to eat lunch together on a semi-regular basis, it's much easier to provide moral support for each another in moments of dire straits. For example, Niknak emailed me yesterday and told me that she had a hankering for some Cappellino's Crazy Cakes, to which I responded, I'll meet you there in 15 minutes. We have each other's backs like that. They make the best double chocolate chip cookies in town, in my opinion. They also have tons and tons of lovely cupcakes (with edible glitter too!), and the best part about their location is that they're right smack dab in between our workplaces, providing a perfect meeting point for us.

Normally, we each buy one double chocolate chip cookie , but yesterday Niknak was feeling like a cupcake also, and because I would like to support her endeavors, I too bought a cupcake. The first time I ever had Cappellino's cupcakes were on my 22nd birthday during my fourth year at UVa, and my office bought a big box of assorted cupcakes for a middle-of-the-business-day birthday party; my office rocks! Since that day, I have been hooked. I love Cappellino's Crazy Cakes.

Niknak got vanilla poundcake with chocolate buttercream frosting. Just look at the glitter!

Here's the cupcake that I bought yesterday: Chocolate cake with sweet cream cheese frosting, dusted with Oreo cookie crumbs.

While I was gobbling up this delectable cupcake, I was reminded of something somebody told me a long time ago (now that I think of it, I was probably in middle school) about Oreos, and for a moment, I was a little concerned. Google put my mind at ease when it reassured me that the Oreos-are-made-from-whale-blubber rumor is, in fact, not true. That made my cupcake taste even more delicious, and I was also relieved to find that others had been wondering the same thing because when I was in the middle of typing, "oreo wha," "oreo whale blubber" automatically popped up under the search box. And for goodness' sake, who started saying that whale blubber was an ingredient in Oreos anyways?