Friday, July 27, 2012

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.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

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.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

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.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

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...

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Trump the Mid-week Holiday Slump

Independence Day fell on a Wednesday this year, which makes it difficult to do a lot of celebrating when you have to go back to work the next day. So, our form of celebrating was with none other than cupcakes! The fiance and I grabbed a four-pack of Crave for a sugar-filled fourth.

Fiance had German Chocolate (top left) and vanilla decorated with a star (bottom left). My selections were Candy Bar (top right) and Nutella (bottom right).

Nutella was my first cupcake, which is vanilla swirled with chocolate and hazelnut cake with chocolate hazelnut frosting. I've mentioned this before, but I'm not really a Nutella fan. Since I tried a Nutella cupake from SWEET before and it was pretty good, I figured I'd try Crave's. I could taste a hint of the hazelnut mixed with the vanilla and chocolate flavors; a nice blend. I'd vote Crave's version a bit better than SWEET.
In between, I tried a bite of the fiance's German Chocolate, which is light chocolate cake topped with a coconut-pecan frosting. I typically don't care for coconut and pecans in my desserts, but this wasn't bad.

Finally, I had the Candy Bar cupcake. Crave's description of it isn't really detailed except that it's a candy bar cake with milk chocolate frosting. The cake itself appears to be milk chocolate with caramel in the middle. I've had this one before, but never reviewed it on the blog. I like this one because it does kind of taste like a candy bar.

Monday, July 2, 2012

July Cupcake Specials

Check out this month's specials...

June 22-July 8:
  • Lemon Blueberry: lemon cake with wild blueberries, topped with lemon cream cheese frosting.
July 6-29:
  • Salty Caramel: fleur de sel granules atop sweet, buttery caramel cake and frosting.
July 13-29:
  • Summer Cherry: made with loads of sweet, pureed cherries in both the cake and frosting.
Crave
New menu flavor starting July 6:
  • Tequila Avion Margarita: sweet and tart lime cake topped with smooth Avion Anejo tequila blended frosting rimmed in sugar crystals. For adults only!
Through July 31:
  • Buy 3 bundlets, get 1 free!
Crave and Sprinkles are also featuring Independence Day decorations on some of their standard flavor cupcakes and they will be open on July 4th.