Fleur de sel cupcake

My office-mate David and I like to talk about food. Actually, we like to talk about tons of things and we probably spend more time talking to each other than actually doing work. Today's food topic of choice: cupcakes. It was Kat's birthday on Monday and he was going to bring her cupcakes from Kara's Cupcakes, which is just down the street from our school site, as a belated present. As he read off the different flavors--peanut butter, chocolate velvet, passion fruit--I was envious. I wished it was my birthday.

He headed off to Kara's Cupcakes and was then going to go to the other office; I assumed he was gone for the day. Not too long later, he came rushing back with a single cupcake in his hand. "It's fleur de sel," he said. "I'm double parked." And, just like that, he went off again. My eyes lit up and the students in my office looked a little confused. I set the cupcake aside on my desk and finished up with the students' financial aid reports.

When we were done and the students left, I laid out a piece of paper towel, loosened the paper wrapper from my cupcake, laid it on the napkin, took my fork out from my desk, and cut into the cupcake. It oozed a golden-y cream. I took a bite. It was so decadent. The chocolate ganache frosting was luscious and rich, the caramel was sweet and buttery, and the fleur de sel was a lovely contrast against all that sugar. Though it was all a little too much, it didn't stop me from scraping my fork against the wrapper to get every little bit of cake.