Welcome to spring! The weather is all over the place, and mint is in the air, so I’m finally bringing you the March newsletter! Plus some fun romps through memory lane to boot!
My focus this March was on making Poke-treats that were either relatively simple, or personally exciting! I guess “indulgent” is the operative word - and I loved everything here (minus all the mint, that is).
I always make some kind of Pokemon pie for Pi Day on 3.14, but I kinda just wanted to make something simple, and I was craving chocolate chip cookies. I was curious whether cookie pies were a real thing, and…if you count giant cookies baked in pie tins to be “pies,” then like, totally!
This was the first bake of 2024 where I made a Pokemon I’ve already made before, but c’mon, it’s Rowlet! As a giant cookie! With buttercream details! What’s not to love?!
Impressions: Holy cow, this is amazing. There are so many recipes for giant cookies in cast iron skillets, and I always felt like I was missing out because I don’t have one. Turns out all you need is a pie dish! I’m a bit sad all the chocolate chips sank, but the taste more than makes up for it.
Cupcakedex Tip: Nuke a slice in the microwave, and top it with ice cream! It’s okay if the buttercream melts off a little, it’s all part of the charm.
Recipe: Chocolate chip cookie pie by Serious Eats
Pokeball Waffles
I’d wanted to make these for a few months, and I’m glad I did! My friend had gotten me the Pokeball waffle maker (not sponsored) and I’ve just loved it, and for March Mint Madness we had to make some of the green Pokeballs! I never did finish decorating the Friend Ball or get more “professional” photos, but hey!
We also added mint buttercream on stream. This was a bad addition.
Impressions: Who doesn’t love waffles! I’m really excited to have these with chicken katsu again. My only regret is I need to buy some squeeze bottles to make piping waffle batter easier, especially with all the colours. The piping bags worked well enough, especially with practice - those Safari Balls are pretty perfect! It’s a minor miracle I didn’t burn myself even once.
Cupcakedex Tip: Dying waffle batter does risk over-mixing it, so be careful! Also, use squeeze bottles, seriously!
Recipe: I used the recipe that came in the instruction booklet!
My first cupcakes of the year! (Actually, when was the last time I made cupcakes?!) But definitely not the last!
I managed to catch a shiny flower crown Cottonee in Pokemon Go, and I was so taken by her that I had to make cupcakes - and I’m glad I did! Miss_Editor suggested mojito cupcakes for March Mint Madness, and they were delicious (at least until chat got me to add mint buttercream frosting). The piping took some trial and error, and I waited until the next day to make the buttercream flowers, but I just love the results!
…I did scrape off the icing to eat them, though.
Impressions: These are so cute and spring-y, and were a great reminder of why my name is Cupcakedex! I’d mostly been avoiding making cupcakes because they take up so much fridge space, but this was so worth it! I’ve been giving these away to friends and family, and they’ve been an undeniable hit.
Cupcakedex Tip: Piping frosting can be tricky, so feel free to practice! You can totally scrape the frosting off and re-use it if you don’t wait too long (buttercream will crust when exposed to air for too long).
Recipe: Mojito cupcakes by Barley and Sage
Togepi Sugar Cookies
I’ve been waiting for an excuse to use the Pokemon Center cookie cutters I received (#freeproduct), and I’d been dreaming of making some cute Easter egg Togepi cookies! My week wound up being super busy, so I decorated/photographed/posted them at the last minute off-stream for Easter, but I’m so glad I did!
Impressions: These were pretty darn good for a first try! I think I did an okay job doing the wet-on-wet royal icing technique (to try and get the shells looking flat and not have any lines visibly raised), but my icing was a bit too thick. This is definitely the kind of project I’d really like to revisit in the future!
Cupcakedex Tip: When working with royal icing, it’s important to have the right consistency depending on what techniques you want to use. If you start decorating and the icing is too thick or too runny, it’s better to take it out of the bag and add water to thin it or powdered sugar to thicken it. It’s a total pain and I don’t do it myself half the time, but it saves so much hassle!
Recipe: Royal icing by Allrecipes
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What a way to celebrate March Mint Madness/Easter/Transgender Day of Visibility! This chocolate mint cake was super moist, so it was a real challenge to cut it into Azumarill’s shape and put on that first layer of icing. By the end of the livestream we had finished the base crumb coat of icing and added a few of the stripes, and it took most of the next afternoon to finish it. But look at her! Bask in her trans springtime glory!
We chose Azumarill for this cake because it’s egg-shaped and basically a rabbit - I didn’t know we’d be making this cake on TDOV, but the fact that Azurill’s gender can change during evolution in gen 3 made it perfectly thematic!
Impressions: I forgot that making shapes cakes like this is high effort (but high reward). Frosting all the different sides of this cake, trying not to break any delicate pieces, it’s all exhausting! But holy cow, she’s beautiful! I think the stripes came out perfect, I love the different coloured ears, her face came out perfect on the first try without a stencil (but I redrew the zigzag tail half a dozen times), and the tail sphere is the icing on the cake!
Cupcakedex Tip: Don’t make shaped cakes unless you have a lot of time (and patience)! Also, use a triangular offset spatula (like this middle one) for smoothing icing in hard-to-reach places.
Recipe: Moist Mint Chocolate Chip Cake by Butternut Bakery
On Stream
4-year Twitch anniversary
We celebrate the anniversary of our first official Twitch stream on March 26th! I can’t remember whose idea it was to rewatch said first stream, but Miss_Editor and I had a blast with it!
Background: We got into streaming thanks to StephofAnime, who I randomly found on Twitter in 2020 asking if any female Pokemon content creators wanted to participate in a Twitch marathon. We’d never streamed before, but Steph encouraged us to be a part of The Lass Project anyway! We’d had a poll to decide what Pokemon to turn into a cake, and as a result made this Snom dome cake live!
It was a ton of fun introducing this Cupcakedex stream lore, and sharing details of all the behind-the-scenes work that went into it! My on-camera presence has changed and evolved so much since then, it’s almost like looking at a whole different person. Our set-up really got a glow-up, but I think the core of the Cupcakedex has remained the same.
If you’d told me back then we’d still be streaming 4 years later, I think it would have blown my mind!
March Mint Madness
To “celebrate” the mintiest of months, we has sub goals to incorporate mint into our stream creations, and the Connoisseurs crushed every goal with (somewhat terrifying) ease! From adding mint whipped cream to the waffles (ugh), to mint buttercream on the cupcakes (also ugh), to forcing me to taste and rank 13 minty foods, it was a lot!
On our final stream of the month, March 31, while making our mint chocolate Azumarill cake, as we hit each sub goal, I had to search through this bowl of numbered gashapon balls that Miss_Editor put together, and taste whatever was inside. These were indeed the 13 circles of mint hell.
Most of these were little snacks, but it all culminated in this triple-mint hot chocolate Miss_Editor made…which was actually pretty good. I guess the milk cancelled out all the mint?
Miss_Editor also made collectible cards for each mint food, so I could rank all 13 terrors. This was the final ranking, with the left side being the best and the right being the bottom of the barrel.
Thank goodness that now, March Mint Madness lives purely in our hearts. At least until the next one…
(of the non-mint variety)
We went out of town for a wedding, and it was lovely! I forgot to photograph the main course (the most succulent short rib ever), but I was intrigued by how they served the soup! They brought out plates with just some veggies and things, and then poured the soup for each person. Dessert was a lemon tart, very yummy.
After eating mochi donuts for the first time with CeeJay in Seattle, we were so excited to get our hands on these! We chose coconut-ube, creme brulé, and s’mores, and they were super good.
The night before the wedding, we stopped at a Japanese restaurant and both had delicious dishes! My seafood yakisoba was soooo good, Miss_Editor loved her curry rice, and we shared a delicious ginger beer with flavoured sake.
Can you believe these are both desserts?! The boba is a white chocolate shell, with chiffon cake, a cookie, oolong custard, and real boba on top, and the cheese is a lime passionfruit cheesecake with citrus ganache truffle mouse.
When we got back home, I went out for Korean BBQ for a friend’s birthday (while Miss_Editor unfortunately stayed home sick). Everything was so good, and I had tteokbokki for the first time (and am now in love)!
I was reading Sushi Day’s Substack, and she mentioned sushi bakes, - something I’d wanted wanted to try for months! We made her crab sushi bake recipe, and I loved it - but Miss_Editor didn’t like all the cream cheese and mayo. So the next time we made it, we did half crab, and half salmon as seen above - it was perfect!
I made my sibling a soot sprite birthday cake! My concept was that the outside of the cake was bacl and white, but you’d break open a cloud-shaped chocolate filled with sprinkles (you can see one in the background) to create a dazzling sprinkle rain. Unfortunately, it was definitely more of a sprinkle dump! I still love the concept, but gotta work on the execution.
The Jewish holiday of Purim was this month, and I made hamantaschen with a friend! She actually made the vegan dough in advance, and we filled and baked them together. We used chocolate, apricot jam and mixed berry jam, and they were all yummy, even if not very pretty!
Saturdays are our date nights, and Miss_Editor makes us co*cktails! These were so good - she used unique peach and pear sodas we found at an Asian grocery store as the base!
I went out for lunch with my grandma, and had this delicious breakfast Benedict bagel sandwich. It was a very nice time!
For my friend P’s birthday this year, I made a cake featuring his two new kittens! I used the icing transfer method, with help from Miss_Editor to simplify a photo to just a few colours and make this manageable. My hand hurt like heck afterwards, so I’m not so sure I’d do this again, but gosh it’s beautiful!
Our Easter dinner was a fresh pasta with scallops and parsley, very delicious!
What we watched
Studio Laika makes amazing stop-motion films, and decided to give this one a watch while staying with my dad and sibling while Miss_Editor was sick. It’s a fun, clever movie, and when my family walked in during the last 15 minutes, they were immediately hooked!
My sibling and I wanted to watch something together, and Starship Troopers was a great conversation starter that we both really enjoyed. The film is best understood as an in-universe propaganda film, and the ways it portrays fascism are insightful and terrifying.
Sometimes you roll the dice on a movie, and you roll bad. Having been a Tall Girl myself growing up. I figured this film would explore how so many people grow up feeling like they don’t fit in for one reason or other. Maybe we’d see Jodi seeing herself as being cartoonishly tall like that TSwift song, to represent her feeling of alienation. But nope, the film seems to believe she’s really being bullied for being tall! Add to that her quirky best friend who puts up with her for no discernible reason (and should be the real star imo), a guy who hits on her but won’t take a “no” (yikes on bikes) and tries to sabotage her budding relationship with the tall foreign exchange student who’s obsessed with all the female attention he’s getting (the only realistic element of this whole thing). There’s an interesting premise here, and I’m just mad at how much it’s been squandered.
Speaking of squandered potential, this has been a hate-watch! I appreciate that they wanted to create a vast, lived-in world, but not even the aesthetics work! The sets all feel too big and untouched, the costumes are beautiful but always too clean (even when hit with fire or water). The characters have all been scrubbed of all their flaws, they speak only to communicate exposition, and they all have these modern North American sensibilities - even Fire Nation characters who grew up in a strict military society lack any formality or discipline! Don’t even bother with this one.
I’m trying to watch more horror movies, but this wound up being a bit too scary for me! The concept is fascinating, and I absolutely love the set design and the use of flora. Can we have more movies with all-female research teams please?
The No Bad Food podcast is all things food, and the people who love to make and eat it! It discusses food history, interesting ways of using food, is generally wholesome (but can have mature themes/language), and lives by the idea that no foods are “bad.”
…I was on that podcast!
Every March on NBF is Munch Madness, where 16 foods go head-to-head in match-ups decided by guest judges, and I got to participate in two excellent match-ups! Check it out to see who I voted for!
Listen to Munch Madness: Ice Cream vs Chocolate; Potatoes vs Rice ft. Cupcakedex & Kadi Diop
What else…
We attended a wedding!
It was so nice attending a wedding that wasn’t our own! Now being on the other side, it was really interesting comparing it to our own wedding - mostly because this was so much more formal! It really cemented our feeling that what we did felt right for us.
A gift from a friend
The amazing Bonafidebumblebee sent me this incredibly thoughtful care package of items, including a collectible that has literally been a “holy grail” of mine for at least 7 years!
Along with a beautoful note, she knew I was sad that Canada missed out on the cute McDonald’s Pikachu boxes so saved some specially for me, and sent both vintage and modern Pokemon party supplies to add to my collection. But most exciting is the box on the bottom right, for a chocolate-making kit from the Black/White era! This toy was actually the reason we first became friends some years back, and I’m so honoured that she would gift it to me! We’ve gotta use it on stream sometime!
A witchy night
My friend, Jupe, invited me to a clothing swap with her witchy coven, and it was lovely! I gave away a ton of old clothes and got some fun shirts and dresses in return. The host made us champurrado, a chocolate atole drink thickened with corn flour that I am now officially obsessed with. I need every hot chocolate to be that thick!
Afterwards, we did tarot card readings, and it wound up being a surprisingly emotional experience for me! I was very honest about my burn-out, my drive to let myself get creative, and my grief with losing my mom in 2021. They made is a really beautiful safe space for me, and it was a very special experience.
Also here is the host’s precious doggo, Kala, who is sometimes bathed in rainbows.
I’ve otherwise just been trying to take it easy through this burnout, trying to get out of the apartment, see friends, but also not push myself too much. I’m still figuring out the balance!
I’ve been making Pokemon-themed foods for over a decade at this point, but I haven’t really shared some of my oldest creations!
Now that Photodex.io is working again, I've been talking more about how much I want to make treats of as many Pokemon as I can, and track them via the website. When asked on-stream recently if I'd ever made a Dunsparce treat, I realized I’d never posted that to my Photodex…and in fact, you wouldn’t find that particular creation unless you dug through my most ancient social media pages.
And I did it so you don’t have to!
Nobody starts off amazing at anything. While it's lovely hearing compliments on my creations in 2024, some folks are afraid to try art for themselves for fear that they won't be perfect. But we all have to start somewhere, so maybe revisiting my OG creations can help!
In March 2014, I was just a couple years into occasionally making birthday treats for friends, but I hadn’t made anything Pokemon-related…until my friend P’s birthday! I asked his favourite Pokemon, and I traced the artwork from Pokemon Shuffle using the icing transfer method that I still utilize to this day. I had a blast making these, and he loved them!
I had some leftover cupcakes and icing, so I made some of my favourite Pokemon and took a few requests from online friends. Some of them really suffer from noodle face - an unfortunate result of my icing technique!
After sharing these online, someone in my community at the time jokingly suggested I turn every Pokemon into cupcakes…and that’s how Project Cupcakedex was born!
In hindsight, I can’t remember who this user was, and I’m sure they don’t remember this interaction 10 years later. But it’s really what put me on the trajectory that led me to where I am now, under the Cupcakedex name!
You can read more about my first attempt at Project Cupcakedex in the first newsletter, but I did make 48/151 at the time!
(Side note, but after I put Project Cupcakedex on hiatus yet kept making other Pokemon treats, I toyed with changing my name, but just couldn’t think of another. What do you think would have been a good alternative?)
I didn’t really expand past cupcakes until October of 2016. I had joined a small community called Fandom Foodies, where each month, we would bake treats related to a different theme, from Zelda, to Game of Thrones, to fictional cats. Well, I had to participate in the PokeNOM month hosted by The Gluttonous Geek, so I made my first attempt at candy melt creations! These were Candies from the then newly-released Pokemon GO, filled with mini M&M’s and little paper cutouts of the Pokemon.
Note from the future: don’t put paper in food!
This last one is such a fond memory! In late 2016, my friends invited me to their place to decorate sugar cookies. I didn’t grow up making Christmas cookies - cookie decorating was new to me, but I obviously had to try my hand at Pokemon cookies! Frankly, I’m really impressed! Litten is probably my favourite, but it’s funny just how many Swablu treats I’ve made in that one pose!
So I’ve finally added some of these old projects to my Photodex - plus one bonus project of one of my least favourite Pokemon. See if you can find ‘em!
Lastly, we’ve been doing a TON of prepping for our Japan honeymoon, and we’ve got almost all of it planned out! We’re staying in 8 cities over 21 days, and now that all the flights and hotels are booked, we’re figuring out shopping, reservations, and all kinds of activities!
But that’s for the April newsletter! I will leave you instead with Miss_Editor’s mother’s cat, Chaucer, all curled up for a lap nap.
Thanks for reading!
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