vanilla is so....vanilla

This is not the first time I have gotten all geeky over photographing cupcakes. (Remember these?) I don't know what my thing is? Maybe I shoulda been a food stylist, or one of those photographers that goes on assignment to capture a picnic/party/bbq for some Martha Stewart Living feature. 

But no, I'd pass on taking the pictures of the bbq'd chicken or the paella. Not interested in the protein dishes. Must be the frosting I am drawn to?

We had just finished a birthday dinner for my "nephew" and while the real dessert was being organized these two little cupcakes sat and waited for my "niece". She is the vanilla-cupcake-with-vanilla-frosting girl. She favors it because she does not like chocolate. Like she spits it out if she accidentally finds it in her mouth. Spits. I've seen her do it. (My mouth dropped in horror.)

There were two little cupcakes set aside for her because her brother, the sane one, was celebrating his birthday and had requested this...

Soft, moist chocolate cake with a thick layer of dense, rich, chocolate fudge frosting. 

People.

People, people, people. I ate my slice and then the other half of my husband's. I did that thing where you scrape the crumbs and frosting off the plate with your fork. Those two little vanilla things were nothing to me. Nothing.

There is no space in my head, no corner, no ounce of understanding as to how someone could not like chocolate. I try hard to understand, but really I can't.

Maybe it has something to do with some recessive gene that pops up without warning, like when you birth a red headed baby and no one in your family is a red head. It's a little shocking.

My little niece's mother was my roommate for four years in our younger days. I know her taste buds favor a good red wine and chocolate in any form. We always go for the chocolate dessert option when dining out together and I know my chocolate chip cookies were her drug of choice in our college days. 

And I know my niece's father as well. Many times over the years I have piled many scoops of ice cream on a fudge brownie for him. I know he loves seconds, would even eat my uneaten portions. (People who like chocolate do that.)

In other words, my niece came from a very thick chocolate gene pool and came out holding the vanilla bean instead of the cocoa one. A fluke? 

A mutation? JK.

But seriously. Why on earth would you eat two cute vanilla cupcakes when you could have a thick slice of chocolate birthday cake?