Red, White and Blue Velvet, But Wait...There's More!

Yes, I know it's been awhile since my last update. I have excuses, but let's just get down to it; shall we?

We'll begin with my son's first birthday. We had an official birthday party the weekend prior, but went to Crave on his actual birth-day. I had flavors that I reviewed before, so we'll skip those and get into the cupcake my son had. Crave has a few new "limited time" summer flavors that we were very interested in trying. Unfortunately, they were out of several of them. But they did have Crave Cupcake Sundae, which was vanilla bean cake filled with a chocolate ganache, topped with vanilla bean frosting, chopped peanuts, chocolate sprinkles and a cherry. This cupcake was pretty much like their regular vanilla cupcake except for the little bit of chocolate inside and some of the toppings. Still good though.

The following weekend, I experimented with another cookie mix. This time it was from a company called The Mason Jar Cookie Company. This one was a festive red, white and blue M&M cookie mix with oats and sprinkles. They were pretty tasty.

It called for the usual ingredients like butter and eggs. And about 10 minutes later, this was the finished product...

Next adventure was with a new Gigi's Cupcakes that opened closer to my house (yay!). I decided to try out some different flavors since it was in the middle of the week and we usually don't have that opportunity.

My first cupcake was the Lemon Icebox, which was lemon cake filled with cream cheese, topped with a lemon cream cheese frosting and crushed vanilla wafers. Nice, lemon-y taste.

Next, I had Blackberry Cobbler, which was blackberry cake with white chocolate chips baked in, blackberry frosting, topped with sugar crystals and rimmed in streusel crumbs. There was a lot of berry flavor! However, I couldn't taste the white chocolate chips. Still yummy nonetheless.

I also had a bite of hubby's Hot Fudge Sundae, which was devil’s food cake with dark chocolate chips, filled with ganache, topped with a buttercream frosting drizzled in chocolate, with nuts and a cherry on top. This was actually quite different than Crave's version, but also delish.

And finally, last weekend, we experimented with a blue velvet cake mix from good ol' Duncan Hines.

It called for your usual ingredients like water, eggs and butter. Here they are without frosting so you can see how blue they turned out...

And then with frosting (yes, from a jar) and sugar crystals...

They were as good as you'd expect from your typical box cake mix. It was basically vanilla cake with blue coloring; not like red velvet.

Whew! Those were a lot of desserts!

Savoring Summer

While it's not officially summer, the 90+ degree temperatures tell me it is. So let the sizzling summer savoring begin.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated a coworkers birthday with Sprinkles cupcakes. I've had their banana cupcake before, but never with bittersweet chocolate frosting, so I wanted to try it. It was pretty good, but I prefer it with vanilla frosting instead.

Last weekend, we tried a pink lemonade cupcake mix from World Market called "In the Mix." It was lemon cake and pink lemonade frosting. It called for the usual type of ingredients like butter and eggs. I was hesitant to make the frosting since I've had so many unsuccessful attempts, but I tried again. This time, the frosting was better; still a bit thin though.

All in all, the cupcakes turned out fruity and sweet.

And finally, we ventured over to the Dessert Gallery. They had cupcake versions of some of their cakes, so I had to try them.

First, I had their French vanilla cupcake. Unfortunately, there is no description of the ingredients, but I'm sure you can reasonably assume what it is. Anyway, it was comparable to their French vanilla cake except the cake part was kind of dry. I love the little crunchy candy pieces on top though.

Last, I had their Old Fashioned Diner cupcake. This was also like their cake with the same name, but also was dry. I'm not sure what the deal is with some of the bakeries lately not getting the cupcakes right.

Savor on!

It's My Birthday...Let Me Eat Cupcakes!

There have been several experiments and cupcake adventures since my last update. So without further adieu...

The first experiment was with a store-bought cake mix with a little spring/summer flair. It's blue raspberry flavor from Pillsbury.

It called for the usual ingredients like eggs, water and oil. I didn't buy the blue raspberry frosting because I thought it would be blue raspberry overload, so I went with a jar of vanilla. It had a summery, fruity, raspberry flavor. And so voila...

Next, we go to a birthday lunch, followed by a cupcake treat from Crave. I went with a cupcake I never had before; and a bit out of my realm of flavors...Chocolate Coconut. It was a dark chocolate cake with coconut cream cheese frosting. I was pleasantly surprised. The only coconut I tasted was from the flakes on top, which was decent.

Onto my next experiment, I tried a brownie mix purchased from Zulily. It was a creme brulee brownie mix from a brand called Rabbit Creek. It had a few packets of powder mixes and toffee pieces.

It didn't taste like creme brulee, but it was moist and yummy anyway.

And last, another birthday cupcake endeavor came by way of Ooh La La Sweets. Thanks for the free cupcake Ohh La La! I decided to try their flavor of the month, Mexican Hot Chocolate. It was chocolate cake with cinnamon butter swirled in, topped with vanilla buttercream, a dash of cinnamon and a bite-sized churro on top.

I forgot what churros were like, but this one was a bit chewy. Except for the cake being a bit dry, the combination of chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon flavors were a nice blend. Hey, what can I say...it was free!

Summer Menu Slimmed Down on Flavors; Not on Calories

Usually, Gigi's changes their menu for Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter, but this time, they only changed out four flavors. And I had a chance to try three of them.

Starting with the Raspberry Peach cupcake, which was peach cake baked with peaches, peach schnapps, cinnamon and raspberry filling, topped with raspberry buttercream, a fresh raspberry and fondant blossoms. This was a very fruity cupcake; nice and light tasting. A good balance of frosting and moist cake.

The second cupcake was Champagne Bouquet. It was pink champagne cake topped with a champagne cream cheese frosting and buttercream roses with crystal sugar. I liked this one better than the raspberry peach. It had the champagne cake flavor and the frosting was creamy and delicious.

Hubby had the Triple Chocolate Torte. It's rich, dark chocolate cake with a brownie texture, baked without flour, topped with a chocolate ganache rose and powdered sugar. I only had a bite of this, but it certainly tasted like a brownie. My husband and I were a bit apprehensive at first because this cupcake seemed very hard cutting into it. But the inside was moist and tasted pretty good.

We also experimented once again with another cookie mix from Sisters Gourmet. This one was called, "Million Dollar Cookie Mix." As usual, it called for the typical ingredients like butter and eggs. The mix appeared to have oats and chocolate chips.

I was a little surprised that this was more of a chocolate cookie, which was fine. However, I liked some of the other mixes better than this one. I had high expectations for this mix with its title, but it didn't taste like nor did I feel like a million dollars eating it.

Local Bakery Expands and Home Bakery Expands Waistline

Recently, Three Brothers Bakery opened another location near my house off Washington Avenue. Since their cupcakes are humongous, we went with two each. I couldn't even finish my second cupcake.

Hubby had the two flavors I tried and featured in a previous post, so I won't get into those. I'll just jump right into mine.

Starting with Mocha; it's a yellow cake brushed with a coffee liqueur and iced in mocha buttercream, and garnished with chocolate sprinkles. This cupcake was definitely mocha tasting, but I liked it. I usually don't like coffee flavor, but since the cake was yellow, the coffee wasn't too strong.

Second, I had the M&M cupcake. It's filled with fudge, topped with white buttercream and rolled in M&Ms. First, this cupcake was VERY chocolate-y. The description says it's rolled in M&Ms, but that wasn't the case. There were just a few M&Ms inside. This cupcake was OK; not my favorite though.

And then we also experimented with another gourmet cookie mix from Sisters Gourmet. This one was plain old chocolate chip.

Similar to the first cookie experiment, these turned out flat too. The first time, I thought it was because I pressed the dough with the palm of my hand, but I didn't do that this time and it still ended up flat. I'm not sure why. Anyway, it still tasted good. Here's the finished product...

A Not So Fresh Take on Cupcakes

While visiting The Fresh Market, a new small gourmet grocery store, I spotted some cupcakes that peaked my interest. For a grocery store, they were a bit pricey at $2.99 each, but we tried a few out anyway...

First cupcake was strawberry white chocolate. It appeared to be a yellow cake with white chocolate and a touch of strawberry frosting, and white chocolate chips. White chocolate was the predominant taste; there was very little strawberry flavor. I don't know how fresh the cupcake was or if it was because it was in the cooler, but it was a bit dry. If it wasn't for the dryness, this would have been a good cupcake.

The next cupcake was cookies and cream. This too, was a bit dry. Even if it wasn't dry, I would have rated this one just OK. I've had better.

My last cupcake was Boston cream. This one wasn't as dry as the other two, but it wasn't very moist either. However, the frosting compensated for the slight dryness. So, overall, this one was fairly decent.

I also had a bit of hubby's black and white and red velvet cupcakes. While they both tasted good, the black and white cupcake was a bit dry as well. The red velvet was the only cupcake that was not dry.

Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed that these pricey pastries weren't as fresh as the name of the store implies.

Gourmet Cookie Experiment Part Two

Once again, we tested another cookie mix from Sisters Gourmet. This one was Cinnamon White Chip. As usual, it called for ingredients like butter, an egg and vanilla.

Last time, I made the dough into a ball and pressed them a bit onto the cookie sheet. They turned out flat. This time, I left them in the ball and did not flatten them. From one extreme to another, these came out thicker and smaller in circumference.

In a nutshell, they turned out well. However, I didn't taste cinnamon. The mix appeared to have oats in there, so it was more like an oatmeal chip cookie.

Lookout for cookie experiment part three in the near future.