A Mini Get Together

Courtney and I have been friends for a long time, so our biggest complaint is that we don't live in the same town. The idea is to one day end up in a city together, go over to each other's houses, knit and bitch and grow old. A simple request, except that Courtney keeps moving farther and farther away. She and her man recently moved to Salt Lake City, so we went out to ring in the new year. Not too surprisingly, the first thing we did was head to a cupcake place called Mini's. It is located in a neighborhood called...are you ready for this?...Sugarhouse. We got a small assortment of mini cupcakes with the coolest names ever. Breakfast at Tiffany's with the Tiffany blue color was a must have. We also got Twisted Sister (chocolate with a pretzel and caramel), Lemon Drop, and a chocolate peppermint one who's name I can't remember. We took them home and attempted to split them up into pieces for everyone to try. I usually lean towards chocolate, but I think my favorite was the Lemon Drop. It was refreshing and I couldn't get over the real lemon bits in there. This is a cupcakery that I would definitely return to. The icing to cupcake ratio was great, they were fresh, and they were unique. These cupcakes really did make me happy. I give it 4 1/2 sprinkles.

Home, Sweet Home

I moved away from my hometown of Cincinnati almost 6 years ago. Me and my man headed south, transplanted Yankees over 8 hours from home. I've adjusted to the culture shock and have come to appreciate many things about living here, but there's nothing like a trip home. On a recent visit, I discovered that two cupcake places have opened. I enlisted some of my young helpers and their mom and headed to The Sweeterie in Cincinnati. The kids all chose the chocolate marshmallow cupcake, which looked and tasted a lot like a Hostess cupcake. I thought that was a creative idea for a cupcake, but they were a little dry. That didn't seem to stop the kids from eating them. The winning cupcake of the day amongst the adult voters was the banana cupcake my man got. It had great flavor, and was moist- truly the most important things you look for in a cupcake. For that, I give this place 4 sprinkles.

Orange, and Tigers and Cupcakes, Oh My

My man recently graduated with his PhD in human geography, which is awesome. But with it came a one year job stint at a university almost 2 1/2 hours away from our house. Amongst the blaring school color of orange and Tiger mascots everywhere, we found him a small bachelor pad where he lives during the week. On one of my weekends up to visit, we ventured to a cupcake place called Iced, located right outside Greenville. The owner was inspired after a trip to a cupcakery in Chicago. I got a six pack sample of mini cupcakes....strawberry with chocolate ganache, caramel, spice, tuxedo... to name a few. The cupcakes were fair, nothing memorable or worth going a second time. I'd say my favorite was the strawberry with ganache, it tasted like a chocolate covered strawberry. I'll give the place an average 3 sprinkles.

You had me at cupcake

In October myself (Courtney) and my man returned to NYC for a long weekend trip. Of course the trip was not without cupcake. Before I knew it I found myself in Babycakes ordering a vanilla vanilla and a lemon. Once I had my detectible delights in hand did I realize I had just ordered vegan cupcakes. Not exactly what I was expecting. Both cupcakes had an unusual crunchy texture. The icing looked gritty but was surprisingly smooth. The taste was different and unfortunately did not satisfy my cupcake sweet tooth. So not my fav. I guess that means I will just have to return to NYC to continue to explore the NYC cupcake world. I will give Babycakes a 2 on the sprinkle scale.

Chicago Cupcake Tour

Sometimes I enlist the help of younger taste buds on my cupcake quest. On a trip to visit my sister's family in Chicago this summer, my 2 nieces and I (Anne) embarked on a cupcake tour. Not only did we get to taste some delicious delicacies, but we also got to see new parts of Chicago. That's my kind of tour!

Sweet Mandy B's was our first stop. Everyone took a turn choosing a cupcake on the tour, so I went first. This place didn't have too much to choose from, but that's okay because chocolate cake with buttercream icing is traditionally my favorite. We split the cupcake 3 ways and each had a taste. It was the best buttercream icing I've ever had- except for my own, of course. The cake was fresh too. A definite 5 on the sprinkle scale.

Molly's was the next cupcake place and it was my younger niece's turn to pick. She selected Boston cream pie. This was the first time I had a cupcake with a filling. I think it helped keep the cake part moist. It tasted just like a Boston cream pie and won the prize as best cupcake of the day. I'll give this a 4.5.

After a brief stop to refuel for lunch, we stopped at Phoebe's. It was my older niece's turn and she picked a mint chocolate Oreo cupcake. The cake was a little dry, but I thought the icing was very good. Subtle on the mint, but still very flavorful. Another 4.5.

Dinkel's, oh Dinkel's, why did you treat us so? Why did you close 30 minutes before our arrival? So many people on our cupcake tour recommended we go to you, but your locked doors refused us. Thumbs down to you Dinkels. Thumbs down.

After we found out that Dinkel's was closed, we happened upon a last minute recommendation to Lutz Bakery. It was close by, so we gave it a shot. It was not a good idea. We were running out of energy and my niece had a meltdown. It was her dad's turn to choose and he selected a raspberry chocolate cupcake. The only thing good I can say about this was that the raspberry part was good. It's only getting a 1 on the sprinkle scale.

Our last stop was Bleeding Heart. I was very full of cupcakes by then, but ready and willing to try one more. While my sister carefully made her selection for us, I noticed that there were Food Network awards around the place, which meant we had to be at a good place. All the ingredients were organic and had interesting names. My sister had to play it safe with the nieces, so she went with red velvet. It was good. Just good. Nothing stands out, but it certainly wasn't bad. I'll give it a 3.5.

It was a great day not only because I got to eat cupcakes all day, but because I spent it with my 2 favorite little ladies!

Little Cupcakes on the Prairie

While living two years in Nebraska I satisfied my cupcake sweet tooth by frequenting the Cupcake Island. There they had regular flavors and flavors of the day. Of course that meant I had to go multiple times in order to try all the flavors! A few I tried:

The Classic (vanilla vanilla), The Celebration (vanilla vanilla with sprinkles), For the Love of Chocolate (chocolate icing vanilla cake)- always a good stand by, nice icing and always moist.

The Tuxedo (chocolate cake vanilla frosting)

Twirl For Me (marble cake vanilla frosting)

Just Say "I Do" (almond cake vanilla frosting)- a nice light cake with a unique taste

Red Velvet- great cream cheese icing but cake didn't have too much flavor

Not Your Mother's Brownies (brownies chocolate ganache)- super rich!

Lemon Drop- a nice light lemon taste with lemon icing, not to crazy about the candy lemon on top

24 Carrot Cake- one of my favs, nice and moist with their wonderful cream cheese frosting

Pink Champagne

Key Lime

Pina Colada- not much flavor besides the coconut in the icing

The Cupcake Island satisfied my need and on the sprinkle scale I would give it them an over all sprinkle score of 4.

Local flavors

The big news in my (Anne's) town this summer was the opening of its first cupcake place. This is 2 years too late in my opinion, but welcomed news nonetheless. The place is called Cupcake. The cake to icing ratio is heavy on the icing. It's a little too much icing for me, but it does taste good. I've tried several so far including red velvet, black and white, turtle, carrot, Oreo and chocolate chip cheesecake (I know I've eaten a lot and I haven't even mentioned them all!). I give this place a solid 4 on the sprinkle scale. My assistants (my niece and nephews below) agree.

International House of Cupcakes- July 2009

We don't limit our cupcake search to the United States. This past summer we took this quest global- one went south, the other went north. Anne found Charly's Bakery in Cape Town, South Africa. Courtney went to Cupcakes in Vancouver, Canada. She also went to The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. in Seattle during the same trip, so we'll post that picture and review here too.

I tried the blueberry cupcake and the key lime cupcake at Cupcakes in Vancouver. After a long day of traveling nothings better than a cupcake....but I was disappointed. The blueberry cupcake was a weird green color and the butter cream icing left a funny taste in my mouth. The key lime cupcake had a nice light lime taste. Both cakes were moist and dense like pound cake. On the sprinkle scale I would give it 2 sprinkles.

At the Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. in Seattle, I tried the strawberry lemonade cupcake. Two words-DEE-LISH! The icing was light and refreshing. There was actually strawberries in the cupcake batter and there was a nice carmelized crust on top of the cupcake. I give this 5 sprinkles on the sprinkle scale!!!

While Courtney was in Vancouver and Seattle, I was in Namibia and South Africa. Finding Charly's Bakery in Cape Town was a group effort between us. I went to an internet cafe to look up cupcake places, but when I checked my email, she had already emailed me the place. It turned out that it was only blocks away from where I was! I got a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache icing. The cupcake was dry, but the flower on top was a vibrant hot pink like the color you see on the building. The other cupcake was vanilla with buttercream icing. It had a nice flavor, but the coolest part was the topper. It was a real chrysanthemum dipped in silver glitter. Overall, I'd give this a 3.5 on the sprinkle scale.

In the beginning...November 2008

We're not sure where our love of cupcakes started, or where we got the idea to try as many cupcakes as we could, but it all began with a bucket list trip to New York City to see the Macy's Day Parade in 2008. Anne had dreamt of seeing the parade for years, so Courtney and her man agreed to meet her and her man there for the holiday weekend. We planned for months and swapped lists several times. Yes, we saw the parade and it was awesome. Yes, we saw some sites and they were great too. But really, it was all about the cupcakes. In 4 days, we visited 4 bakeries. Here are some pics and quick reviews:

These are our choices from Magnolia Bakery. Chocolate vanilla for Anne and vanilla vanilla for Courtney. They were both moist with lots of icing for icing lovers! On a sprinkle scale of 1-5, we give it a 4!

Finding an open cupcake store on Thanksgiving was a complete surprise for us. We didn't even have Crumbs on the list. We're so glad we happened upon the place. We don't remember what we ordered anymore, but we do remember that it was the first time we saw a wide variety of gourmet cupcake choices. Courtney says it was her favorite. We'll go ahead and give it a sprinkles score of 4.5.

Cupcake Cafe had some beautiful flowers on top of the cupcakes and some great dancing cupcakes in the store, but that's where the good review stops. The cake was stale, the icing was greasy and the flavor was not mouth watering. To top it off, the employees were not the greatest. It was not up to our cupcake standards. We give it a sprinkles score of 1/2 a sprinkle.

Eleni's had cupcakes, but they looked like the kind in grocery store delis. We decided to instead try the cookies because they looked absolutely beautiful, but they were disappointing. We got some small leaf cookies that looked cute, but were hard to bite into. One was even borderline burnt. We know it's been on the Food Network, but we give this store a sprinkle score of 1.