Trinidad, CA

So we sold $500 dollars worth of vegan cupcakes and drove to Texas. Our first stop? Trinidad, California. We stayed with Carol, a witty school teacher who lives in this amazing town with a population of 300. I found her on couchsurfing (Couchsurfing is the best thing about the internet. I'm not kidding). Carol was on Day 1 of an Eat Local Challenge, so she prepared all of the food in her refrigerator that wasn't local and made us eat it. It was great to feast on pesto potatoes, rice pudding, mozarella stuffed chili peppers, and a green salad after a long day in the car. Carol showed us the virgin Redwoods in her backyard and talked to us about her life as a teacher. We sat around the table for a couple hours and then Carol went to bed. She gave us directions to the beach, a short walk away. We sat on a log and watched the tide come in. Here's a photo of the beach in the morning...


And below is the GREATEST coffee shop that I have ever been to, The Beachcomber Cafe. If you look carefully, you'll see that the words above the counter read: We have no paper cups. The Beachcomber appears to be the only coffee shop in downtown Trinidad, so they can probably get away with this without losing any business. I wish there were more coffee shops following their lead. Everyone who came into the shop had their own mug, and a couple people used the cafe's cups. This place felt like how you would want home to feel. Everyone knew everyone else, and they were extremely friendly to us tourists. We met a woman sitting on a couch in the back of the cafe who was happy to put down her book and chat with us about the best spots to see in The Redwoods. Little kids ran around with pear scones up to their mouths while their moms invited each other to birthday parties and potlucks. On top of the fact that there is no waste coming out of this cafe and everyone there was so nice, they make amazing coffee and delicious vegan goods. We kept going back to the counter for more scones.


And just to illustrate how small (and charming) Trinidad is, here is a photo of their police department...


More highlights of the trip will be coming soon.

street treats

I just got back from my very first road trip. Three friends and I took two weeks to drive to Austin, TX and back. Where did we find the money for gas? We sold vegan cupcakes outside of bars in downtown Bellingham for the month leading up to our departure!

I wish I had photos of the fabulous outfits we wore while selling cupcakes, or of the Birthday Boys and Girls who were excited to find that we were carrying candles on us. But it's normal to forget to take pictures during some of the best nights of your life, right?

I did do a little bit of documenting, though. Here is Forrest decorating his Marbled Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes using the Professional Frosting Decorating Shot that I picked up at a thrift store recently. I feel like a cupcake doctor every time I use it, and it makes frosting look fabulous.



We carted the cupcakes downtown on our bikes. This proved to be difficult at times, but was really fun and quite a crowd-pleaser.



And here is my favorite of the cupcakes that we sold. Chocolate with Oreo Frosting! I based the recipe off of the one that I found here.


We made about $500 off of cupcakes in Bellingham, and sold some in Austin as well, which brought our grand total to $550.

This kind of success will definitely make one think about going into the cupcake business.