December Cupcake Specials

Check out this month's cupcake specials...

Sprinkles

December 1-24:

• Chocolate Peppermint: Belgian dark chocolate cake topped with bittersweet chocolate-peppermint frosting; sprinkled with crushed peppermint candies.
• Vanilla Peppermint: Madagascar Bourbon vanilla cake topped with vanilla-peppermint frosting and crushed peppermint candies.
• Eggnog Spice: spice cake topped with rich eggnog cream cheese frosting.

Crave

December 1-24:

• Maker's Mark: spice cake with a shot of warming Maker's Mark whiskey topped with spice cream cheese frosting. For adults only.
• Eggnog: eggnog cake with nutmeg buttercream frosting and sugar holly and berries.
• Gingerbread: gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting and sugar gingerbread man.

Sugarbaby's

New Seasonal Flavors:
Tue/Thu/Sat:

• Gingerbread: Traditional ginger spice cake topped with our extra creamy vanilla bean buttercream.
• Coconut Snowball: Coconut cake topped with coconut cream cheese frosting, sweet shredded coconut.
• Toffee Crunch: Butterscotch toffee cake topped with butterscotch caramel buttercream, a drizzle of caramel, and crunchy toffee bits.
• Spicy Mexican Chocolate: Chocolate cake infused with ancho chile, cayenne and cinnamon topped with Mexican vanilla cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Wed/Fri:

• Chocolate Peppermint Swirl: Chocolate cake topped with peppermint buttercream and flakes of crushed candy canes.
• Lemon Raspberry: Lemon cake with a swirl of raspberry puree, topped with sweet raspberry buttercream.
• Cinnamon Oatmeal: Old fashioned oatmeal spice cake with Mexican vanilla cinnamon cream cheese frosting and a sprinkle of homemade granola.

SWEET Houston

New Seasonal Flavors:

• Toffee (Mon/Thu/Fri/Sat)
• Banana Creme Pie (Sun/Thu/Fri)
• Berry Cheesecake (Sun/Tue/Sat)
• Peanut Butter (Sun/Tue/Thu)
• Espresso Truffle (Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat)

Nog Noshing

In between a long weekend of moving, a much needed sugar break was in order. So, we went to Crave. We mostly had our favorites, but I tried one of the December flavors...Eggnog. It's eggnog cake with nutmeg buttercream frosting and sugar holly and berries.

I wasn't sure what to expect as I never tried eggnog before. The taste of the cake part is difficult to describe. I guess it was almost like an egg spiced cake. The predominant flavor was the nutmeg frosting. Overall, it was alright. It's an acquired taste. Not my favorite cupcake, but edible.

Sprinkles Holiday Deal

Order a Sprinkles gift card of $25 or more by December 25 and they will email you two free cupcakes!

Sweet Falling

We stopped by SWEET this weekend and picked up a six-pack using a Google Offer I bought a few months ago.

My first cupcake was pumpkin. Since they don't have ingredient descriptions on their website, I'm taking a guess as to what's in it. Obviously, it's a pumpkin spice cake. It appeared to be topped with two types of frosting; the bottom layer was sort of cinnamon flavor and the top was like a whipped cream frosting. It was also topped with some cake crumbles. It tasted alright; had proper moistness. I've had better from places like Crave.

The second cupcake I had was toffee. It seemed to be ALL toffe from the cake to the frosting to the little pieces on top. I liked this better than the pumpkin, but it's not as good as Gigi's toffee cupcake.

And last was the cookies n' creme. It was a standard yellow cake with Oreo pieces baked in and I think had cream cheese frosting topped with Oreo crumbles and a half cookie. Even though this cupcake had a slightly drier consistency, I liked the overall taste the best of all three eaten today.

While SWEET's prices are comparable to the other cupcakeries, their cupcake sizes pale in comparison. The cupcakes are still good, but smaller and lighter weight.

Willams-Sonoma Takes on Sprinkles

Recently, I bought a few store-branded Williams-Sonoma cupcake mixes. Last weekend, I took a stab at making the Vanilla Bean version. It's made with organic flour and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla. I had to add eggs, butter and milk. I baked it for 15 minutes (about 1 minute less than the minimum recommended time). This one also makes a dozen, but I was able to squeeze out one more to make it 13. Again, I cheated on the frosting until I figure out a way to make it the right consistency.

Here is the finished product...

It was comparable to Sprinkles version. I liked seeing the little vanilla bean flecks. It makes me feel like it has good quality ingredients.

Verdict...it's a hung jury. Sprinkles and Williams-Sonoma are tied.

November Cupcake Specials

Check out this month's cupcake specials...

Sprinkles

October 19-November 11:

• S'more: graham cracker-lined Belgian dark chocolate cake filled with bittersweet chocolate ganache and topped with toasted marshmallow frosting.

October 31-November 30:

• Pumpkin: laced with fragrant ginger, clove, nutmeg and cinnamon and topped with sweet cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

November 2-25:

• Salty Caramel: fleur de sel granules the sweet, buttery caramel which flavors both the cake and frosting. One of my favorites. You gotta try this if you haven't already.

November 16-25:

• Orange Cranberry: a blend of orange cake studded with ripe, juicy cranberries and topped with white chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Crave

October 15-November 21:

• Pumpkin: Pumpkin spiced cake with pecans and topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
• Cranberry Orange: Orange zest and cranberry cake with orange zest frosting.

Sugarbaby's

New Seasonal Flavors:

• Pumpkin Spice: spice cake infused with pumpkin and topped with extra creamy vanilla bean buttercream.
• Mocha Java Chocolate: moist chocolate cake with a hint of espresso, topped with delicious mocha java buttercream frosting and a pinch of chocolate curls.

Gigi's

November:

• Pumpkin Cheesecake

No Tricks; Just Treats

On Saturday, we made another trip to Gigi's. We had a combination of our favorites and some new flavors. Lucky for me, they had Chocolate Salted Caramel. It's been awhile since I had this from Gigi's.

For Halloween, Gigi's had some cute holiday decorated versions of some of their basic cupcakes. Not exactly sure what the graveyard one was, but it appeared to be standard yellow cake with vanilla frosting and oreo crumbs. It was a tasty basic cupcake. The husband had red velvet, which had orange and black sprinkles added.

The husband also had (and I had a bite of) Chocolate Chip Cheesecake. It's devil's food cake with dark chocolate chips, champagne cream cheese frosting, chocolate chips and chocolate ganache. This one had a lot of chocolate, but very good.

And finally, I had their new seasonal Chocolate Hazelnut consisting of chocolate cake with hazelnuts baked in, filled with Nutella, chocolate hazelnut buttercream frosting and rimmed in hazelnuts. I didn't care for all the hazelnuts inside and out. The cupcake and frosting were good though. I liked some of the other cupcakeries' hazelnut cupcakes better.

Pumpkin Cravin'

We made an unplanned stop by Crave on Saturday and got a few cupcakes. It was not our usual half dozen devouring or anything like that. Even though it's not typically my first choice, I had to try their seasonal pumpkin cupcake. It's pumpkin spiced cake with pecans and topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and a fondant leaf.

The cake was moist as usual. I could have done without the pecans though. And the frosting was delicious. Pumpkin and pecan lovers will appreciate this one.

A Sprinkle of Vanilla

Last weekend, I baked with another cupcake mix from Sprinkles. This time, it was purchased at Williams-Sonoma using a coupon, so it ended up being about $13.

The container included a cake mix, Sprinkles signature candy dots and a frosting recipe. As with the banana cupcake mix, it called for the usual suspect ingredients like butter, milk and eggs. Again, I reduced the bake time by about 10 minutes and got 14 cupcakes out of the batter instead of the 12 it claims to make. And I cheated on the frosting by using the tub since I can never seem to get the "from scratch" ones right.

Ta-da! Another positive outcome with the Sprinkles mixes. The cake is much more dense than the standard store-bought mixes, so they fill you up faster. The vanilla flavor was not as prominent as I expected, but if I recall, it's actually the same as the ones at the Sprinkles cupcakeries.

Pumpkin and Spice is Somewhat Nice

Last weekend, we returned to Nothing Bundt Cakes. We had most of the same bundlet flavors as before since they have a standard selection that doesn't change much. However, we did try the featured flavor for this month; pumpkin spice. Pumpkin is not typically one of my top flavors, but this was fairly tasty. They don't have ingredient descriptions on the website, but aside from pumpkin, you could taste nutmeg and cinnamon. And as all of their cakes; they are drizzled with cream cheese frosting. Nutmeg seemed to be the most predominant flavor. Their cakes are always moist and the frosting is quite delish.

October Cupcake Specials

Check out this month's cupcake specials...

Sprinkles

September 28-October 14:

• Triple Cinnamon: Lightly spiced buttermilk cupcake topped with smooth cinnamon cream cheese frosting and dusted with cinnamon sugar. This varies from their regular cinnamon sugar cupcake, which doesn't have frosting.

October 8-31:

• Caramel Apple: Spiced apple cake studded with granny smith apples and topped with a buttery caramel cream cheese frosting.

Crave

October 15-November 21:

• Pumpkin: Pumpkin spiced cake with pecans and topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
• Cranberry Orange: Orange zest and cranberry cake with orange zest frosting.

Sugarbaby's

New Seasonal Flavors:

• French Toast with Bacon: Cinnamon french toast inspired cake, topped with maple cream buttercream and garnished with chopped maple bacon.
• Buttered Pecan: Butter pecan cake, light and creamy butter frosting and topped with butter toasted pecans.
• Cookie Dough I Love You So: Vanilla chocolate chip cake topped with cookie dough inspired buttercream (eggless cookie dough frosting). I've had this one before and LOVED it! Glad they brought it back.
• Black Forest: Dark chocolate cake filled with tart cherries and topped with a swirl of vanilla buttercream.
• Orange Cream: Orange essence cake with creamy orange vanilla buttercream frosting.

Celebrity Cupcakes

New Seasonal Flavor:

• Pumpkin: Fresh organic pumpkin cake, cream cheese frosting with a touch of ginger.

Nothing Bundt Cakes

• Pumpkin Spice

Also, SWEET Houston now offers gluten-free cupcakes in chocolate and red velvet everyday!

Cupcake and the Cookies

Before I get into my dessert reviews, the title of this blog entry is a play on a band I recently heard about from the 1950's named Cookie and the Cupcakes. Switching the name around for my blog entry actually fits my most recent dessert experiences.

Now back to the desserts. We had another birthday for my coworker Nicole this week and went with Crave Cupcakes as usual. My cupcake pick was Pistachio. I only tried Gigi's version of pistachio, so I wanted to try Crave's. The cake is made up of pureed pistachios with citrus and spice, topped with white chocolate cream cheese frosting and a few pieces of pistachio nuts on top. The cupcake didn't taste like pistachio. It was more like a lemon spice cake. I loved the frosting. Even though it didn't quite taste like pistachio, it was good for a fruity-type cupcake. It was VERY different in comparison to Gigi's pistachio.

Earlier in the week, I bought some dessert mixes from Williams-Sonoma and tried the toffee chocolate chunk cookie this weekend. The kit came with a pouch of brown sugar and a cookie mix. All I needed was some butter and an egg. Since we like a softer, slightly under-cooked cookie, I reduced the bake time about two to three minutes less than the directions stated. 

And a dozen big cookies later, here is how they turned out...

Overall, they were tasty. I think the edges were a bit too crunchy, but my husband disagreed. I think I may have overmixed the batter a tad bit. The toffee wasn't the predominant flavor; it was more of a hint of toffee here and there. We enjoyed them nonetheless. I would buy this kit again, but they are a bit pricey at $18.95, so I wouldn't buy it very often. I got a buy two deal and used a coupon to bring the price down to about $14 each.

Gigi's Fall/Winter Menu Announced

Gigi's Cupcakes announced 11 new cupcakes for the fall/winter season. The new cupcakes will debut Monday, September 24.

Blackberry Cobbler: Blackberry cake with white chocolate chips baked in, blackberry frosting, topped with sugar crystals and rimmed in streusel crumbs. Available on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Chocolate Hazelnut: Chocolate cake with hazelnuts baked in, filled with Nutella, chocolate hazelnut buttercream frosting and rimmed in hazelnuts. Available on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Coconut Macaroon: Devil's food cake with dark chocolate chips, coconut cream filling, topped with coconut cream cheese frosting and a coconut macaroon. Available on Fridays.

Mochachino: Coffee and Kahlua flavored cake with mocha filling and white chocolate cream cheese frosting, sprinkled with cocoa and chocolate sprinkles. Available Wednesdays and Fridays.

Orange Cranberry Walnut: Orange cake with cranberries and walnuts baked in, orange cream cheese frosting, rimmed in crystal sugar. Available on Fridays.

Peanut Butter Cup: Milk chocolate cake with peanut butter cups baked in, peanut butter buttercream, drizzled with ganache and topped with a mini peanut butter cup. Available Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Peppermint Patty: Dark chocolate cake filled with peppermint cream filling, topped with peppermint buttercream, ganache and a peppermint patty. Available Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Pumpkin White Chocolate: Pumpkin cake with white chocolate chips, white chocolate cream cheese frosting, dusted with pumpkin pie spice. Available Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Snickerdoodle: Cinnamon swirl cake with cookie dough frosting, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and topped with a snickerdoodle cookie. Available Mondays and Wednesdays.

Sticky Bun: French toast cake topped with a caramel praline frosting, sprinkled with pecans, drizzled with caramel and sweet glaze. Available on Fridays.

Sweet Potato Pie: Sweet potato pie cake with bourbon cream cheese frosting, sprinkled with crystal sugar. Available on Wednesdays.

Cheesy Gigi

Without further adieu, we ventured out to try Gigi's new cheesecakes. We added a few cupcakes into the mix as well.

Starting with the cupcakes, I had Strawberry Margarita (top left) and hubby had Key Lime Pie (top right) and Italian Cream (bottom left).

Gigi's seems to have different variations of a margarita cupcake. I couldn't find a description of what's in the Strawberry Margarita, but by logical deduction, it was a lime cake with strawberry frosting and topped with sugar crystals and a candied lime slice. Typical Gigi's cupcake with a nice fluffy cake, piled high with sweet frosting. There was a good blend of lime and strawberry mixed together; a nice summer flavor.

Now onto the cheesecakes that hubby and I split...Chocolate Chocolate Chip (top left), Cookies and Cream (top right) and Raspberry Swirl (bottom left).

We started with Chocolate Chocolate Chip, which was a chocolate cheesecake topped with chocolate buttercream, sprinkled with dark and semi-sweet chocolate chips and a drizzle of ganache. This was a chocolate lovers dessert for sure. I thought it was good, but sometimes I don't want that much chocolate.

The next cheesecake we had was the Cookies and Cream made with cookies and cream cheesecake, chocolate buttercream frosting, lightly sprinkles with crushed Oreos and a mini Oreo on top, and a glaze. This was better than the Chocolate Chocolate Chip cheesecake. Out of all three, this was my favorite.

After too many desserts, we had the Raspberry Swirl after dinner the next night. It was a regular cheesecake with buttercream florets, drizzled with raspberry sauce and sprinkled with white chocolate chips. I liked the standard cheesecake with the light raspberry flavor; a subtle balance of different tastes.

Gigi's does a pretty good job on the cheesecakes; they're dense, yet moist. They are a little more than the cupcakes at $3.95 each, but filling enough to satisfy.

September Cupcake Specials

Check out this month's cupcake specials...

Sprinkles

August 24-September 9:

• Vanilla Hazelnut Chocolate: Madagascar Bourbon vanilla cake topped with rich, creamy hazelnut chocolate frosting.

September 14-30:

• Almond Dark Chocolate: Almond cake studded with sliced California almonds and topped with bittersweet chocolate frosting.
• German Chocolate: Light chocolate cake topped with rich, golden caramel laced with fresh coconut and crunchy pecans.

Crave

September 1-15:

• National childhood cancer awareness month: $1 for every cupcake sold with a fondant topper designed by pediatric cancer patients will be donated to the Arts in Medicine program at MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital.

Double Dose of Deliciousness

We doubled up on cupcaking this weekend. I wanted to make sure I got Crave's special Stracciatella cupcake before it was gone, so I went there on Friday and nabbed a five-pack. And I wanted to get my S'More cupcake from Sprinkles before it was gone, so we went there on Labor Day.

Starting with Crave, I had the Stracciatella first. It's a vanilla bean cupcake streaked with Italian Perugina chocolate. Perugina is a confectionery company based in Perugia, Italy. OK, now back to the cupcake. Oh, it was pure heaven! Such a nice blend of vanilla with chocolate bits inside. So moist, creamy and sweet.

The next cupcake was split was the hubby (yes, we are married now). It was vanilla, which has been pictured on the blog, but not reviewed. It's a vanilla bean cupcake with vanilla bean frosting. Simple and basic, but always a favorite.

The last cupcake I had was dark chocolate, which was dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting. I expected this to be too chocolatey, but it wasn't. It was a little rich, but not overpowering.

Now onto Sprinkles...hubby and I split every cupcake. We had a four-pack of Red Velvet (top left), S'More (top right), Vanilla Hazelnut Chocolate (bottom left) and Mocha (bottom right).

We started with S'More, a specialty cupcake ending today, but returning again in October. It's graham cracker lined Belgian dark chocolate cake filled with bittersweet chocolate ganache and topped with toasted marshmallow frosting. While I liked this cupcake, the graham cracker crust was a nice touch, but made it a tad dry. Something that surprised me about this cupcake was that it almost had a peanut butter taste in there.

Second cupcake was Mocha, which was Belgian dark chocolate cake topped with rich mocha frosting and sprinkles. This is the first mocha cupcake I've had and it was delightful. Coffee lovers would enjoy this one as you could taste that subtle coffee flavor.

Third cupcake was Vanilla Hazelnut Chocolate. This is another specialty cupcake available until September 9. It's Madagascar Bourbon vanilla cake topped with hazelnut chocolate frosting. This is Sprinkles version of the Nutella cupcake. You could taste all the yummy combined flavors from vanilla, chocolate and that slight nutty taste.

Wow, that was a lot of cupcakes and a lot of pics!

Cheesecake Cupcakes and a SWEET Deal

In my email today, Gigi's Cupcakes announced that they will begin offering cheesecakes! I can't wait to try them. Here's the link for more info: http://www.gigiscupcakesusa.com/cheesecakes and the tasty pic from my email...

And for you local Houston cupcake junkies, Google Offers has a half off deal at SWEET to get $8 worth of sweet stuff for $4 (you can purchase two offers). Here's the link to buy the deal: Google Offers - 50% Off at SWEET. It's available for purchase through Labor Day, Monday, September 3 and doesn't expire until November 25.

Is That a Banana in Your Cupcake?

On Saturday, I experimented with a banana cupcake mix I bought from Sprinkles recently. It included the cake mix and Sprinkles' signature candy dots. The kit also included a frosting recipe, but with my luck making frostings, I opted to cheat by using a store-bought tub.

The mix called for most of the standard cake mix ingredients like butter, milk and eggs. The consistency of the batter was kind of thick, so I was a bit skeptical as to whether it would turn out right. The package says it makes 12 cupcakes, but in order to not overfill the muffin cups, I added two more to make 14. I reduced the bake time from the directions by about 10 minutes. Voila! They came out perfect. Well, almost...

Aside from the fake frosting I used, the cupcake tasted EXACTLY like Sprinkles banana cupcakes. Even though the mix costs $14, I would definitely buy it again and recommend it. It's cheaper than buying a dozen cupcakes. Nothing beats the original Sprinkles, but this comes pretty close.

Gettin' Sweet in St. Pete

Just got back from visiting family in Florida this week, so I had to try another cupcakery while I was there. I found a place in St. Petersburg called Sweet! by the Cake Factory (not affiliated with SWEET in Houston). They have a variety of cupcake flavors for $3.00, but also a unique concept where you can customize a cupcake. You can choose a cake, frosting and toppings for an extra 50 cents. I thought about going the custom route, but didn't have much time and figured I would make a mess, so I just stuck with their predefined available flavors.

Mom had Plain Vanilla Jeanette (2-pack box; right), Dad had Neopolitan (4-pack box; top right) and Tiramisu (4-pack box; bottom left) and I had Oreo (2-pack box; left), Dulce de Leche (4-pack box; top left) and Marble (4-pack box; bottom right).

My first cupcake was Oreo, which was a white cake with Oreo frosting, topped with a mini Oreo cookie. The cake was moist and the frosting was nice and sweet. However, the frosting tasted more like buttercream; not very Oreo. Still good nonetheless.

The second cupcake was Marble, which was chocolate and vanilla cake with chocolate and vanilla frosting. Also moist and a good balance of vanilla and chocolate flavor.

Last cupcake was Dulce de Leche, which was caramel cake with dulce de leche frosting, dulce de leche filling and topped with caramel candy and drizzle. This was a moist cake as well and had rich caramel flavor as I would have expected. I didn't taste the dulce de leche filling, but I may have missed it because I was on sugar overload.

Sweet by the Cake Factory's cupcakes are a bit smaller than some of the other cupcake bakeries that I'm used to in Texas, but still quite good and indeed sweet as their name implies. I'd be interested in trying their custom cupcake bar sometime, but I must partake from different cupcakeries on each trip. If you go to Sweet in St. Pete, try the custom cupcake bar and send me a pic of your creation. I'd love to see it.

August Cupcake Specials

Sorry about the delay. In addition to this month's specials, Celebrity Cupcakes has a new Lemon Blueberry Pie cupcake, but not sure how long it will be featured or any other details about it.

Sprinkles

August 3-19:

• Raspberry: sweet raspberry cake topped with luscious raspberry frosting.

August 3-September 3:

• S'more: graham cracker-lined Belgian dark chocolate cake filled wit bittersweet chocolate ganache and topped with toasted marshmallow frosting.

August 24-September 9:

• Vanilla Hazelnut Chocolate: Madagascar Bourbon vanilla cake topped with rich, creamy hazelnut chocolate frosting.

Crave

August 13-31:

• Stracciatella: vanilla bean cupcake streaked with rich Italian Perugina chocolate.

Return of the Huge Cupcakes

As promised, we went to Gigi's over the weekend. Lucky for me, they had some new flavors to try. Since their cupcakes are so massive, we went with a 5-pack. Fiance had Hello Dolly and Birthday Surprise. I had Pistachio and Caramel Sugar Mama. And we split Texas Milk Chocolate.

Before starting, I had a bite of Hello Dolly, which is like a Mississippi Mud cake; chocolate cake filled with pecans, coconut and marshmallow, topped with cream cheese frosting, chocolate chips and crumbled graham crackers. While I can't say that I've ever had a bad cupcake from Gigi's, this one was probably the first. Not because of the flavor. It was way too dry. At least the frosting helped to reduce the dryness. It's too bad because this cupcake had a lot of potential.

So, to my first cupcake...Pistachio. It's a pistachio cake with pistachio buttercream frosting rimmed with crunchy, salty pistachio nuts topped with coarse sea salt. I love pistachio nuts by themselves, but have always been afraid to try it as a cupcake. In a nutshell (no pun intended), it was good. I liked the creamy texture of the frosting with the sea salt. I think I would have preferred the cupcake without the pistachio pieces though.

My next cupcake was Caramel Sugar Mama, which is caramel cake topped with a caramel buttercream frosting, drizzled with caramel and Sugar Babies candy. I always like me a caramel cupcake and this one aimed to please. Only problem was the Sugar Babies candy really stuck to my teeth.

Last, we split the Texas Milk Chocolate. It's milk chocolate cake topped with milk chocolate frosting, chocolate sprinkles and a yellow fondant star. I like chocolate and this was definitely a chocolate-lovers delight. However, at that point, I was so full, I could barely eat it. It's hard to enjoy when you feel like you're forcing it down your throat.

Gourmet Spin on a Grocery Store Snack

As usual, we had Crave for my coworker Melissa's birthday on Wednesday. And, I had the Crave Chocolate and Creme cupcake. I've tried it a few times before, but only reviewed Gigi's version on the blog. This is the gourmet version of the Hostess cupcake.

Crave Chocolate and Creme is dark chocolate and marshmallow creme cake with dark chocolate ganache. The cake was moist, very chocolate-y and I liked the marshmallow cream inside. It's not my favorite Crave cupcake, but a tasty treat nonetheless.

We're planning on a Gigi's weekend. Hopefully, I can try some new flavors to review.

Sugarbaby's Turns 5!

The free mini desserts lured us in. Sugarbaby's celebrated their 5th anniversary this weekend and gave out some yummy mini cakes. Their plan worked because we bought some cupcakes too.

Fiance had Va Va vanilla (top left), Italian Cream (top right) and Velvet Rouge (bottom right). Mine were Chocolate Dulce de Leche (middle left) and Berries & Cream (middle right).

I started with the Berries & Cream, which was light vanilla cream cake with blackberries and raspberries, topped with Sugarbaby's creamy "extra special" buttercream. It was a decent cupcake. I couldn't really taste the blackberries and I'm not sure what was so special about the frosting; it seemed like a standard buttercream frosting.

My second cupcake was the Chocolate Dulce de Leche, which was chocolate cake with dulce de leche, topped with whipped chocolate ganache. This cupcake really didn't taste like dulce de leche. It was more like a chocolate cupcake filled and topped with caramel. It was good, but not what I would have expected. Crave's dulce de leche cupcake beats Sugarbaby's.

I also had a bite of the fiance's italian cream cupcake. Italian cream isn't my favorite and this one had too many pecans for me.

Another coworker is having  birthday this week, so a review of Crave's Chocolate and Creme is to come.

Crave Craving

OK, I must confess...on my way home from work on Thursday, I stopped by Crave to satisfy a sweet craving. I also wanted to try their limited time margarita cupcake. Excuses! Anyway, my dinner consisted of two cupcakes. And, I was solo. I sound like a closet cupcakeaholic.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of the citrus-type desserts and have tooth enamel issues (go figure with all the sweets I consume) when eating or drinking certain citrus, I had to try the Tequila Avion Margarita cupcake. It's lime cake topped with Avion Anejo tequila blended frosting rimmed in sugar crystals. It was definitely an interesting flavor. The cake was moist and sweet while the frosting almost had a sour cream-like taste. It wasn't my favorite Crave flavor, but good.

The next cupcake I had was the Dulce de Leche. I've never tried it before, so it was a long-awaited, anticipation-filled opportunity. It was never offered on the days I visited Crave, so this was my chance. It's vanilla bean cake filled with homemade milk caramel and topped with dulce de leche frosting. I'm glad I saved this one for last. It was delightful! Of course I'm a huge caramel fan, so it started off on a positive note before I even tried it. Only complaint was that it was a tiny bit dry. I showed up late in the day, so that could have been why.

Dessert Week

There were a lot of desserts consumed last week. After lunch on Tuesday, my coworkers and I stopped by Sprinkles. I had my favorite Salty Caramel. You've seen and heard enough about it, so no need to elaborate any further.

On Friday, I found some gourmet-looking cupcakes labeled "Kimberley's Bakeshoppe" at the grocery store. They had three flavors: vanilla bean, chocolate and lemon. I've been eyeing the vanilla bean ones for awhile, so decided to bite the bullet (or cupcake) this time and give them a try.

It's a vanilla cupcake with vanilla bean frosting filled with vanilla cream. At $4.99 for a 4-pack, they weren't bad. Just not as delicious as they looked. Definitely not comparable to the cupcakeries.

On Saturday, I experimented with a cookie sandwich kit purchased at Marshall's. They're vanilla cookies with chocolate frosting for filling between two cookies to make the "sandwich." The kit included vanilla powder mix for the cookie batter and chocolate powder mix for the filling. Of course I needed the usual stuff like butter, eggs, etc. Surprisingly, it turned out better than I expected. The frosting even turned out perfect; not the runny mess I'm used to with the cake recipes.

Here's the finished product...