Yum? Yuck!

Now that my little donkey is almost 2 years old and fully appreciates sweet stuff, it was time to initiate her into the world of cupcakes.  Too bad our first choice was not a good one.  We stopped at one of many cupcake shops in Cincinnati, Ohio, a place called Yum.  She has not yet developed a distinguished taste for chocolate, and devoured her sub-par chocolate/chocolate mini cupcake.  I had an ice cream sundae (flavored) cupcake that I ate maybe two bites of and my man had a chocolate peanut butter cupcake.  His was the best of the bunch, but still nowhere near as good as it should have been.  Overall, Yum disappoints.  I give it 1 sprinkle, and that's only because the shop was cute.

Cupcake Delivered

I must say I have my man well trained.  This past weekend he went to Seattle for an Aquathon and instead of being completely focused on his race he was focused on cupcakes!  During his adventure he found Cupcake Royale.  Not only did he find it but he took pictures and brought home a cupcake for me to taste test.  Yes I think he's a keeper.  But anyway back to cupcakes... he brought home the Blueberry Brown Betty which happens to be their featured flavor of the month.  I have to say even with travel time it was quite good.  The cake was a moist dense cake with blueberries scattered in it.  The frosting was cinnamon with crumble on top.  It was all very good.  I do think there could have been more blueberries in the cake and a few of them were chewy which could have been due to the cupcake's travel adventure but still very good.  I will give it a solid three sprinkles.

California Cupcakes

My man and I took a trip to California to drive up the coast.  We flew into Los Angeles, drove up the coast and flew out of San Francisco.  And of course made time for some taste testing!

Forget the sight seeing of the city, this girl had priorities, and you know my first stop was Sprinkles in Beverly Hills.  I was quite eager to give this place a try since it is touted as the world's first cupcake bakery and the creator is of course one of the judges on Cupcake Wars.

I got carrot cake and my man got cinnamon sugar.  The place was very busy and the store front was cute and tiny.  My carrot cake was pretty good but I was disappointed because the carrots were long shreds and there were lots of them!  I felt a bit like I was eating a salad rather than a cupcake.  But it was moist and had a nice flavor.  The cinnamon sugar was more of a muffin with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top.   But it was moist and also had a nice flavor.  Sadly, the cupcake ATM at the store seemed to be having a few malfunctions so was not able to try it out.  On a sprinkle scale I will have to give them an average score of 3 sprinkles.

Next up Crush Cupcakery in Santa Barbara.  This cute little spot was half cupcake bakery and have cafe. I tried out Strawberry Blush.  As I was ordering and taking pictures I soon found out that this little spot was on Cupcake Wars two different times.   Each time they placed 2nd.  Kind of cool to begin with a Cupcake War judge and follow up with a contestant.  Strawberry Blush had a nice strawberry flavor.  You could see bits of strawberry in the icing.  Another score of 3 sprinkles.

 Up next was San Francisco.   My man and I spent two days there which allowed for two more stops.  Our first stop was Kara's Cupcakes located in Ghirardelli Square.  Of course I had to go for the Ghirardelli Chocolate.  The chocolate cake was the best I have ever eaten.  Amazing flavor and incredibly moist.  The icing was rich and had a bit of a pudding consistency.  On the sprinkle scale I will give it a 3 1/2 for the amazing cake.

 

Last stop was American Cupcake.  This spot was also half bakery and half cafe.  The cafe specialized in carnival food.  They had so many unique flavors like pixie stick and cotton candy I opted for animal cracker.  It consisted of red velvet cake, lemon icing, and an animal cracker, of course.  The red velvet cake was not good at all.  It had an unusual flavor and was dry.  The lemon icing was nice and had a light lemon flavor.  Apart the cake and icing were not very good, but when you paired them together they actually tasted like an animal cracker.  For that, and their creativity, I will give them 3 sprinkles.

 That concludes my most recent taste testing trip.  In June Anne and I meet up again.  Stay tuned for more cupcake tasting adventures!