March Cupcake Specials

Check out this month's specials...

Sprinkles

March 2-18:

• Irish Chocolate: Belgian dark chocolate cake topped with a Baileys Irish cream cheese frosting.

March 17:

• Green Velvet: light chocolate cake, tinted green and topped with cream cheese frosting.

March 23-April 8

• Brown Sugar Praline: rich caramel cake topped with brown sugar frosting and crunchy praline.

Crave

February 24-March 14:

• Various cupcakes decorated with cowboy hats, boots or the state of Texas in celebration of rodeo season.

Gigi's

Mid-March:

• Spring/Summer menu release.

Diner Inspired Cupcakes

Yes, we went to Gigi's again this past weekend. Lucky for me, I spotted two flavors I never tried before and jumped at the chance!

The first cupcake I had was French toast. I've never had French toast before because the idea of soggy egg-sopped bread never appealed to me, but was willing to try it in cupcake form. This cupcake had a cinnamon cake with maple buttercream frosting and dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon. I enjoyed this one; especially the frosting. I know this may sound obvious, but I felt it was more ideal at breakfast time.

Next cupcake was the chocolate malt, which was milk chocolate cake, chocolate malt buttercream frosting and crushed malt balls, along with a cute little straw inserted into the frosting to remind you of a malt shop milkshake. It's all about presentation, right? Anyway, I liked this one more than the French toast. It wasn't as rich as I anticipated, which I was pleased about.

After that, Fiance and I split a red velvet. We decided to cut back a little since the last visit to Gigi's where we became so uncomfortably full that we almost made ourselves sick.

Gigi's will be coming out with a new Spring/Summer menu in mid-March, so look out for it. I'm anxious to see what's new.

New Twist on a Southern Favorite

A few months ago while in Louisiana, I had the pleasure of trying red velvet cookies. They were excellent! So, I searched for a recipe online and came across a pretty easy one that uses a box cake mix. Last weekend was the experiment and it turned out quite well.

One would wonder how cake batter could be turned into a cookie...well, the recipe for the cookies calls for one less egg and no water from what the box directions indicate. Thereby, making the batter thicker and closer to cookie dough consistency. I also added white chocolate drops to the batter.

While I'm all for baking from scratch, it can be time consuming and doesn't always turn out like you'd expect. So, for a quick, delicious and unique red velvet cookie, give this a shot: Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cookie Recipe

Just a Little Cravin'

The weekend before last, we returned to Crave for a little cupcake craving and a chance to try their Valentine cupcake. My flavors were banana (top left), chocolate on vanilla (top middle) and "I Crave U" (top right). Fiance's selections were red velvet (bottom left), vanilla (bottom middle) and dark chocolate (bottom right).

My first cupcake was the limited time cupcake, "I Crave U," which is a chocolate cupcake with strawberry buttercream frosting some chocolate sprinkles.  It was as yummy as I expected.

Second cupcake was banana, consisting of banana cake with sweet cream cheese frosting a few nuts on top. Crave has the best banana cupcakes of all the cupcakeries.

Last cupcake was the chocolate on vanilla. This one's ingredients are self-explanatory and I've already reviewed this one in a previous Crave-related post. As usual, it’s a basic cupcake made well.

I've never had a bad cupcake from Crave; they do it right every time.

$50K Engagement Ring Cupcake

Valentine's Day is upon us and the cupcakeries are definitely upping the ante this year. Check out this article found on Yahoo about what a bakery in Pennsylvania is offering: $50K Engagement Ring Cupcake

February Cupcake Specials

Most cupcakeries have seasonal flavors or a new featured cupcake for the month. Here are some to check out this month...

Sprinkles 

February 3-26: 

• Raspberry Chocolate Chip: chocolate chip-studded Belgian dark chocolate cake topped with luscious raspberry frosting.
• Salty Caramel: fleur de sel granules complement the sweet, buttery caramel which flavors both the cake and frosting.

February 20-March 20 

• Cherry Blossom: loads of sweet, pureed cherries in both the cake and frosting.

Crave

February 10-14:

• Strawberry on Chocolate: dark chocolate cupcakes topped with sweet buttercream strawberry frosting.

Gigi's

Dates vary:

• Lots of Love Box: 4 cupcakes for $10.99 or 6 for $15.99. Looks like you can order whatever flavors in advance and they decorate them with Valentine toppings.

Time to Retreat from Excessive Sweet

Well, we did what we said we would and skipped a weekend of cupcakes. Instead, I made brownie cupcakes with white chocolate chips.

This past Saturday, the fiance wanted to go back to good ol' Gigi's again. I've been trying to expand my horizons a little by trying different flavors. Good thing Gigi's throws in a few special cupcakes each day because they don't alternate the daily flavor menu (nor does any cupcakery as I've complained in previous posts).

The fiance stuck with some of his standard flavors (wedding cake and white midnight magic), but we each got a new one we haven't had from Gigi's called Golden Brown. Golden brown is basically a yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting and some chocolate chips. We both liked it. However, I think I like the one from Crave better.

My second cupcake was maple sugar walnut, which was walnut cake topped with maple buttercream frosting and candied walnuts. I was interested in the maple, but not too keen on the walnuts. So, I picked off most of the walnuts. All in all, it was a decent cupcake. It reminded me of the maple donuts from Dunkin Donuts.

My last cupcake was raspberry champagne. It was champagne cake with raspberry frosting and sugar crystals. I liked it, but at that point, I was so uncomfortably full that I could only eat half. I even ate each cupcake between one and two hour intervals, but it didn’t help.

I don't mean to be a buzz kill, but we have decided to limit our future Gigi's selections to two cupcakes each. We’re not complaining; we just realize we can't eat that much in one sitting.