Sorry, it's been awhile since reporting any new cupcake adventures. The weekend after Gigi's, I made brownies with white chocolate chips. The weekend after that, we had Crave Cupcakes again. Since they were pretty much the same flavors as last time, I didn't have anything new to disclose. And last weekend, I made red velvet cupcakes courtesy of Duncan Hines. Yeah, I know, it's a box mix and jar frosting, but hey, it serves its sweet purpose. I could make my own from scratch if I wanted to, but my domestic side usually isn’t that domestic. Come on! It's my weekend too!
Usually when I bake cupcakes, I don't use the liners. Not using the liners often means coating the pan with cooking spray and sometimes, baking powder. Removing the cupcakes can get tricky, so I usually slide a butter knife around the edges to loosen it up and pop them out. Then, the cleaning afterward is always a joy. LESSON LEARNED...USE THE CUPCAKE LINERS!!! They are so much easier! This was the first time I used them. Why did I suffer all these years? You don't need to use spray; they're easy to remove from the pan and there's less cleaning involved. It's worth the few bucks to buy the liners versus the time and effort you spend.
Having made about two dozen cupcakes, there was no way the boyfriend and I could consume all of them in one weekend. They are smaller than the ones at the cupcakeries, but there's only so much one can eat. So, I brought the leftovers to work. I used a fancy frosting gun, which worked out ok. I'm not a skilled cake decorator, so the bakeries won't be beating down my door to offer me a job. By the time I arrived to the office, the frosting on two cupcakes slipped off and by mid-morning, two more took a tumble and landed upside down. I think they were too top heavy, but part of me thinks it could have been sabotage. I brought them in Florida Gator containers and there are a few SEC rivals in my office, so you tell me...
On Tuesday, it was the boyfriend's birthday. We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. And yup, you guessed it, we ate cheesecake. Boyfriend had the white chocolate caramel macadamia nut (say that five times fast) and I had chocolate chip cookie dough. Yum! But oh so filling after bread, an appetizer and the meal. I've come to the conclusion that I won't be able to maintain my weight through the end of the year with these habits and the holidays approaching.
I have no clue what's in store for this weekend. The boyfriend has made an early special request already to get Gigi's Cupcakes again next weekend. We're hoping they throw in a few alternate "off the menu" flavors as they did last time. Because our cupcake trips almost always occur on Saturdays, the cupcakeries have their set "day of the week" menus, so we don’t get to try other flavors. If any cupcake bakers are out there, this it my request...please rotate your day of the week flavor menus!
Until next time...sayonara sweet supporters!
Friday, October 28, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Back to Our Original Objective
Late last week was the long-awaited grand opening of Gigi's Cupcakes in Sugar Land. Of which, we were waiting with baited breath as this is the boyfriend's favorite cupcakery. Our first Gigi's experience took place in The Woodlands and again in Tampa, Florida. The reason this is the boyfriend's fave? Frosting; lots and lots of frosting. With most cupcakeries, boyfriend adds frosting to the cupcakes from our own tub supply. At Gigi's, he doesn’t need to. Their cupcakes are tall and nowhere near small.
Since we had been to Gigi's before, we already had a punch card. There are a few options to get free cupcakes. The first is based on buying dozens. If you buy 12 dozen, you get a dozen free. The second, if you buy 12 individual cupcakes, you get one free. We had six punches from our last visit and then adding six to this trip, we were entitled to a free cupcake, which the boyfriend felt was necessary to have today. So, we ended up with seven behemoth cupcakes.
My flavors du jour were (top row, left to right): strawberry champagne, banana cream pie and chocolate salted caramel. Boyfriend's flavors were (bottom row, left to right): red velvet, champagne, white midnight magic and midnight magic. These top heavy frosted mammoths took a little tumble during the ride home, so some have a slanted appearance in the pic.
After returning home, the boyfriend immediately dove into the midnight magic cupcake. Midnight magic is devil's food cake with a milk chocolate butter cream frosting and chocolate chips on top. Even though I'm not a huge fan of rich chocolate overkill desserts, I took a few bites. It was very good. It seems the milk chocolate frosting balances out the devil's food cake. It was not as excessive chocolate as I expected.
Later, boyfriend sipped into his champagne cupcake while I ate the strawberry champagne. Strawberry champagne is not featured on the website's menu, but is similar to their standard champagne cupcake except the cake part was strawberry. The frosting is has a light touch of champagne flavor, which was fluffy and delicious.
Next, I had the banana cream pie. I was a little gun shy on this one because of my prior bad banana pudding cupcake experience at What's Up Cupcake? But there was no reason for my doubt. Gigi's did it right. Banana cream pie has a regular yellow cake with a little bit of vanilla cream in the middle. The frosting was banana butter cream and had vanilla wafer cookies around and on top.
Then the boyfriend went for the other midnight magic...white style. This one also has a devil's food cake base and chocolate chips on top, but with cream cheese frosting. Another fine cupcake from Gigi's.
After all that, we had a sugar crash and postponed the eating of the last two cupcakes to the next day. So on Sunday, my last cupcake was the chocolate salted caramel. I know I often say that I don't like the salty-sweet combination, but I had this type of cupcake before and it was quite yummy. This one was no different in yum factor; just better. It had dark chocolate cake, caramel frosting with a bit of chocolate ganache and a sprinkle of salt.
And last for the boyfriend was red velvet. Typical red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and red sugar sprinkled on top. Another tasty hit.
It goes without saying, I recommend Gigi's Cupcakes; especially if you like a lot of frosting on your cupcakes. This new Sugar Land location is closer to me than The Woodlands, but I wish there was one in town. However, it's definitely worth the occasional trek to the burbs.
Since we had been to Gigi's before, we already had a punch card. There are a few options to get free cupcakes. The first is based on buying dozens. If you buy 12 dozen, you get a dozen free. The second, if you buy 12 individual cupcakes, you get one free. We had six punches from our last visit and then adding six to this trip, we were entitled to a free cupcake, which the boyfriend felt was necessary to have today. So, we ended up with seven behemoth cupcakes.
My flavors du jour were (top row, left to right): strawberry champagne, banana cream pie and chocolate salted caramel. Boyfriend's flavors were (bottom row, left to right): red velvet, champagne, white midnight magic and midnight magic. These top heavy frosted mammoths took a little tumble during the ride home, so some have a slanted appearance in the pic.
After returning home, the boyfriend immediately dove into the midnight magic cupcake. Midnight magic is devil's food cake with a milk chocolate butter cream frosting and chocolate chips on top. Even though I'm not a huge fan of rich chocolate overkill desserts, I took a few bites. It was very good. It seems the milk chocolate frosting balances out the devil's food cake. It was not as excessive chocolate as I expected.
Later, boyfriend sipped into his champagne cupcake while I ate the strawberry champagne. Strawberry champagne is not featured on the website's menu, but is similar to their standard champagne cupcake except the cake part was strawberry. The frosting is has a light touch of champagne flavor, which was fluffy and delicious.
Next, I had the banana cream pie. I was a little gun shy on this one because of my prior bad banana pudding cupcake experience at What's Up Cupcake? But there was no reason for my doubt. Gigi's did it right. Banana cream pie has a regular yellow cake with a little bit of vanilla cream in the middle. The frosting was banana butter cream and had vanilla wafer cookies around and on top.
Then the boyfriend went for the other midnight magic...white style. This one also has a devil's food cake base and chocolate chips on top, but with cream cheese frosting. Another fine cupcake from Gigi's.
After all that, we had a sugar crash and postponed the eating of the last two cupcakes to the next day. So on Sunday, my last cupcake was the chocolate salted caramel. I know I often say that I don't like the salty-sweet combination, but I had this type of cupcake before and it was quite yummy. This one was no different in yum factor; just better. It had dark chocolate cake, caramel frosting with a bit of chocolate ganache and a sprinkle of salt.
And last for the boyfriend was red velvet. Typical red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and red sugar sprinkled on top. Another tasty hit.
It goes without saying, I recommend Gigi's Cupcakes; especially if you like a lot of frosting on your cupcakes. This new Sugar Land location is closer to me than The Woodlands, but I wish there was one in town. However, it's definitely worth the occasional trek to the burbs.
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