While some people might like to party or go into Boston on a Friday night, most logical people can agree that the perfect way to spend an evening is by making delicious cupcakes. This is what Cupcake Obsession does. It is a club where people can come together and share their love of cupcakes, which makes it a group that almost anyone can enjoy.
Cupcake Obsession’s president Joseph Tinianow ’17 found out about the club through a friend. “One of my close friends that I met my first year at Brandeis was the president of Brandeis Cupcake Obsession. I didn’t really get involved until spring semester of that year. After that, I went to almost every meeting and really got to know how things worked in the club,” Tinianow said.
Katie Decker-Jacoby ’19 discovered baking long before she came to Brandeis.
“I took a baking class at my high school the summer before I started high school,” Decker-Jacoby said. “I thought it was incredible how my class could make all of these delicious creations in just a couple of hours. After the baking class ended, I tried to bake on my own. I loved bringing homemade treats to my friends throughout high school and baking for my family’s annual holiday party, Stop by for Pie.”
When Decker-Jacoby arrived at Brandeis, she took notice of Cupcake Obsession. “As a freshman, I didn’t really know where I could bake, nor did I have easy access to ingredients and equipment, so I thought the cupcake club would be the perfect way to continue my passion. I went to some of their meetings and everyone was very friendly, welcoming, easygoing and patient,” she explained.
If potential members are afraid that they will not measure up to more experienced bakers, they are mistaken. According to Tinianow, the club is very laid-back.
“The club definitely has a relaxed atmosphere. As the E-board tells everyone who asks, we bake cupcakes, we decorate them and then we eat them. Since we have a large group at each meeting, the work is done very quickly, and we all chat while the cupcakes are baking.”
The only competitive thing about Cupcake Obsession is signing up for meetings. “Anyone looking to get involved in the club can add themselves to the listserv or message our Facebook page,” Tinianow said. “Because we have to meet in a kitchen, we have to put a limit on how many people can come to each meeting, so we send out an email saying what we’ll be making next and include a sign-up for 12 or so people.”
Even though the the meetings are hard to get into, they are still rewarding.
“My favorite memory would have to be when we made ice cream cone cupcakes, which is baking them in sugar cones instead of regular cupcake liners,” Tinianow explained. “It was a very unique experience, and we could frost them so that they actually looked like ice cream. We use ice cream scoops to help get batter into the liners, but for this some people used the scoops to frost them too. One had such a big scoop of frosting on it that it tipped over and splattered all over the floor. Cleaning it up might not be the happiest memory, but it was still a lot of fun.”
