Tuesday, August 28, 2012

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.


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

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.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

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.

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.
August 13-31:
  • Stracciatella: vanilla bean cupcake streaked with rich Italian Perugina chocolate.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

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.