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.