Cupcakes for Courage

Who knew?

One day, back in April, my twitter feed exploded with retweets about some big hullabaloo regarding Chicago food trucks.

I'm like, "Oh yeah. I remember seeing one or two last year. Holy crap! Didn't realize there were so many. Sounds kinda cool. I should check one out."

Not long after, armed with intel from a food truck map and ready with my twitter feed, a coworker and I set out to get some tamales a few blocks from work. Convincing her to get tamales from a spaceship wasn't easy, but convince her I did. Nearing our destination, we turned the corner, all excited to visit our very first food truck, and..."Wait? Where's the truck?"

Unbeknownst to me, I was looking at yesterday's info. Damn!

Still determined, the next day I saw a tweet from Cupcakes for Courage. Cupcakes? Hmm, not a fan, sorry. But, it was conveniently going to be right around the corner from the Metra station on my way home from work. The kids were going to be over that night for dinner, so what the hell, why not?

I was greeted with a big smile and a slew of choices. My son is a big fan of red velvet, so the Pink Velvet for him. Lime in the Coconut? Kids just got back from a Florida cruise, key lime juice and all, so my daughter would probably dig that. What's that one? Spicy Sriracha Turtle? Yes, please!

Cupcakes in hand, I was told the truck would be there every week. "Great," says I, hopefully capturing the proper level of enthusiasm of someone who actually planned on coming back. Because I'll tell you right now, I did not.

Back at the ranch, dinner behind us, it was time to check out these cupcakes. Bella, my daughter, was super excited. She's a cupcake freak and bakes them often. My son Zach had some last-minute plans and was a no-show. That's fine. His cupcake can go home with Belle.

That fateful first bite rocked my world.

These are not your garden-variety cupcakes. They're moist! The frosting is just like how I make it for legit cakes! The flavors are complex and delicious! Well, we demolished those babies. And no, Zach's cupcake did not go home with my daughter. We split that one. No worries though. It was decided on the spot that this would become a new every-other-Friday tradition. After all, Cupcakes for Courage would be at my Metra stop every week!

In fact, these cupcakes are so insane, I have added a side quest: to taste all 45 flavors from the Green Machine before summer's up. That's right...stay tuned!