The Debut of "The Austin" cupcake

My friend and co-worker Shireetha is having a baby boy in the very near future, and a few of us at work decided to throw her a surprise baby shower! Now, choosing desserts for a surprise party is harder than I expected. Shireetha had been saying she was craving cupcakes, so that part was easy, but I had no idea what kind to make. I wanted her to like them (obviously), but I couldn't just ask her what she wanted, because then it would ruin the surprise. You're thinking, "Emily, there must be a stealthy maneuver you can use to ascertain Shireetha's favorite cupcake flavors." Well, clearly you don't know me that well, because I am the worst sneaky person you'll ever meet. I am a horrible liar, and only slightly better at keeping secrets, so this was a challenge. But I had to do my best. I ever so subtley started a conversation at work designed to lead to the information I needed. I pretended I was taking some kind of survey for business purposes about people's favorite cupcake flavors and hoped that my face didn't look too guilty as I collected data. She said that she likes vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting best, but if she makes them at home she likes vanilla with chocolate frosting, and actually her favorite might be german chocolate. Oh geez. This was too much information. Which to go with?

So I invented a special cupcake just for Shireetha and named it after her new baby-to-be, Austin (who I actually helped name, by the way). A vanilla cupcake with chocolate fudge filling and german chocolate topping (that gooey, coconutty goodness) and mini chocolate chips on top. I have to say it was pretty delicious. If you'd like to try this cupcake yourself, just tell me you want to try "The Austin" and this tasty treat could be all yours!