Kupcakz

Delectable impressions

Specialty treats transcend their roles

Maybe you've heard a cupcake boutique just opened in Tulsa.

Sounds cute, doesn't it? Kupcakz is cute, but it's more than that.

With just one bite, you know this isn't any ordinary cupcake, and once you talk to the owner, Doreen Durano, you'll understand why.

"If you start with the best ingredients," she said, "you will have the best product."

Durano imports Valrhona chocolate. Roasts the peanuts to make her own peanut butter. Toasts the coconut. Candies the pecans. Makes her own caramel. Buys high-butterfat Plugra butter 1,000 pounds at a time.

They may be cute, but these are serious cupcakes.

Her dark chocolate cupcake is hand-dipped in chocolate ganache. The lemon is filled with lemon curd and topped with lemon cream cheese. The red velvet is smothered with mascarpone cream cheese frosting.

All of those touches come from Durano's culinary background. She's a classically trained chef who studied in San Francisco and went on to work under "Top Chef" judge Tom Colicchio as he opened Craft Steak in Las Vegas. She then worked in the kitchen at the Ritz Carlton, where she poached 90 eggs a day and cut slices of foie gras as if it were butter.

Durano came to Oklahoma when her ex-husband moved to Glenpool with their two daughters. She too resides in Glenpool, living a life that's a world away from Las Vegas.

"But really, I feel like I've lived here all my life," she said. "I was ready to leave Las Vegas."

And so this hard-hitting Las Vegas chef is now in Oklahoma, where she spends her days awash in buttercream, making people smile with every cupcake.

Published December 8th, 2008 by Tulsa World Newspaper