Food is a safe gift for a foodie

My birthday was last week and one of my old college roommates, Caroline, always manages to find a new bakery to send me something from.  Last year it was cupcakes from Crumbs Bakery in New York which were to die for.  This year, she sent me mini cupcakes from another New York Bakery, Baked by Melissa.  I'll have to ask her how she finds all these great bakeries that ship from online orders. For some reason, I never think of it when I have to give gifts.

This year's cupcake treats came in a large box, surrounded by a dry ice container labeled with all sorts of dire warnings about not touching with bare hands and opening in a well-ventilated place.  Once you get past those skull and crossbones, you get to the cupcake package inside.  Both packages were simply and beautifully presented, with a legend on what flavors the cupcakes were.

The best part is they were an assortment of mini cupcakes, meaning you could have 1 (or um, 3) and not feel like a complete pig since they were literally bite-sized.  When giving someone a sampler pack, it's always nice for the samples to be small enough that you can do quite a bit of sampling without feeling sick :).

The chocolate-covered mini cupcakes were enjoyable too although I think the chocolate couverture tended to overwhelm the minis a bit so the individual cupcake flavors weren't as pronounced as the non-chocolate coated ones.  They were almost like high-end Ding Dongs but better tasting.  Still, it was a thoughtful and delicious gift for a foodie - thanks, Caroline!