Kisses With and Without Sugar

With the Valentine's frenzy at the dessert shops, we had to try something. And so Gigi's Cupcakes it was...

Top left is Hot Kiss, top middle is Creme Brulee and top right is Wedding Cake. Bottom middle another Creme Brulee and bottom right is Red Velvet.

My order also included a sugar-free White Magic, but there was a mistake, so they substituted four mini sugar-free White Magic cupcakes.

Since I feared a bland taste that would need to be followed up with sugar, my first taste was the sugar-free White Magic. It's sugar-free yellow cake with sugar-free white chocolate frosting, topped with sugar-free chocolate chips, drizzled with sugar-free chocolate ganache. Gigi’s sugar free cupcakes are sweetened with SPLENDA and topped with frosting sweetened with sugar substitute Malitol.

Thinking it would be like the difference between regular and diet soda, I was quite surprised at how good it tasted.

Next, I had Cream Brulee, which was creme brulee cake with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. Both cake and frosting filled with vanilla pudding, sprinkled with a mixture of turbinado raw sugar and crystal sugar and topped with a fondant heart.

It wasn't how I expected it to taste. Not quite like creme brulee and the cake was kind of dry.

To avoid sugar overload, I decided to postpone Hot Kiss to the following day. It's Devil’s food cake topped with hot pink buttercream frosting, dipped in ganache, sprinkled with mixture of crystal sugar and mini heart sprinkles.

The cake was also dry; although I'm not sure if it was due to eating it a day later. The frosting was very tasty though.

After this experience, I'll be on the lookout for more sugar-free desserts to try in the future.

Long Time No See

One Monday, I got a wild hair (I won't finish the sentence for obvious reasons) to return to Celebrity Cupcakes and try a few flavors I never had before.

Starting with Bananas Foster: organic banana cake filled with brown sugar caramel and topped with rum buttercream. A delightful balance of banana and frosting. And you could definitely taste the rum...woo, I'm getting tipsy just typing this!

Next up, Pina Colada: vanilla and pineapple cake with rum buttercream. No, I don't like getting caught in the rain... Anyway, this one was OK. I don't care much for pineapple in a cupcake.

And last, Lemon Blueberry Pie: lemon cake studded with blueberries, graham cracker crust, topped with cream cheese frosting. It was certainly pie-like with the graham cracker crust at the bottom. Another OK cupcake (probably a bit better than the pina colada); not typically a top flavor preference of mine, but I wanted to try it.

As an added bonus to this spectacular blog entry, but unrelated to Celebrity Cupcakes, I made more cookies from a jar of ingredients bought at Target. This was a Valentine's sugar cookie mix with white chocolate chips and red heart sprinkles. As always, it called for your usual egg and butter add-ins.

So, here is how they turned out...

If you like a softer cookie, these were best eaten the same day. Over the next two days, they progressively became drier even in a sealed container.

Stay tuned for more ya'll!

Sending Out an SOS

Or should I say, "sending out an SAS?" Shipped cupcakes? Yup, apparently it's possible. My husband brought home some cupcakes that were sent to his office from SAS Cupcakes (Sweet-N-Sassy) in North Carolina.

Their process is freshly bake and frost the cupcakes, flash freeze, package them with ice packs and send via UPS 2-day.

And the price for these frosted flyers? $49.95 for a dozen cupcakes and $30 to ship. Yes, that means $80 for a dozen cupcakes.

Here are the flavors I tried (they only look squashed because my husband transported them in a plastic container)...

Starting with red velvet, which was light red velvet cake topped with a tangy cream cheese frosting; adorned with a mini red sugar flower. I liked the frosting, but the cake was dry.

Next, was vanilla/vanilla. Moist buttery vanilla cake topped with sweet vanilla buttercream, adorned with a red sugar flower. The description of "moist" was not accurate as this one was also dry and crumbly. The frosting had a good vanilla bean flavor.

Last, was chocolate/vanilla (not pictured because it basically looked the same as the others). It was rich dark chocolate cake topped with sweet vanilla buttercream, adorned with a red sugar flower. This one was probably the least dry of all of them, but still dry. The frosting was the same as the vanilla cupcake.

With all three cupcakes being dry, I'm not sure whether it was due to the freezing process and shipping; that they just weren't fresh anymore after two days in transport; or how they were kept at my husband's office throughout the day (or all the above). Either way, they were NOT worth the $80. We have so many fantastic cupcakeries locally that deliver fresh and less expensively, that having them shipped seems unnecessary.

Spice Spice Baby

Alright stop, collaborate and listen. Spice is back with a brand new invention.

OK, sorry, I know that was cheesy, but I couldn't help myself. Anyway, I tried a few fall "spice" cookie mixes over the last few weeks, which I have mixed reviews on.

First, was a pumpkin spice mix from Williams-Sonoma.

The instructions were a bit odd where it said to refrigerate the mixed dough for at least several hours before baking. I ignored that and they turned out fine. However, since I'm not really a pumpkin fan, I thought these cookies were just OK. After doctoring them up with frosting and sugar crystals, they were much better.

Then, from Target, next up is a caramel spice cookie mix.

It was pretty simple; no unusual ingredients or baking instructions. And they turned out very delish. I liked them better and they were cheaper than the pumpkin spice cookies.

Here's wishing you a delicious holiday!

New for Fall, but That's Not All

Nothing like using your Groupon on the last day...we did that with Gigi's Cupcakes this weekend. I'll just cut to the chase.

Starting with white chocolate raspberry. It was white cake with fresh raspberries baked in, swirled with raspberry buttercream and cream cheese frosting and topped with raspberry pie filling, sugar crystals and sprinkles.

Quite tasty; especially if you like raspberry, but it wasn't overpowering. Also had good moisture consistency.

Next was the apple pie, which was apple cake filled with apple pie filling, topped with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting and another dollop of pie filling.

Let me start by saying that I am not really an apple pie fan. I know, I know...I must not be American. Anyway, this cupcake wasn't bad for a non-apple pie eater. It was moist, but I think I could have done without the apple pie chunks in the middle.

Last, was chocolate covered strawberry. It's devil’s food cake with strawberry frosting and dipped in ganache.

Also very moist and overall, a good balance of strawberry and chocolate flavor.

New flavors to review are getting harder to come by. But don't lose hope on me! I will continue the crusade!

Sugar Ain't Always Sweet

Last weekend was another at-home baking experiment; a vanilla sugar cookie mix from Williams-Sonoma.

As usual, it called for your typical ingredients, but after all the mixing, it said to roll the dough into a log shape and keep it in the fridge for at least three hours! At the time I was baking this, I didn't want to wait the three hours, so I skipped those steps altogether. Instead, I took golf ball-sized pieces of dough, rolled them into a ball and patted them on the baking sheet.

They emerged from the oven like this...

Eh, they were OK; not as sweet as I expected with the big bag of sugar in the kit. Adding frosting and sugar crystals turned them into this...

Mucho better. I'm not sure whether skipping the log rolling and refrigerating made any difference, but at about $10, I don't think I'd buy this kit again.

Rainbow Brite and Something Like Sprite

A few weeks ago, I conducted an experiment with another mix from famed pastry chef, Duff Goldman. This one was Confetti Bites. It called for the usual suspects (ingredients).

And ta-da...

The bars were moist, but the taste wasn't as gourmet as I expected. It was just a tad bit better than your run-of-the-mill rainbow chip cake mix.

And then last weekend, we visited Ooh La La Sweets. My husband opted for their flavor of the month, Lemon Lime, which I taste tested. It was lemon and lime cake swirled together, topped with lemon and lime buttercream frosting, lime green and yellow sugar sprinkles.

Wow, the lime flavor was very dominant in this cupcake. Not bad, but also not one of my favorites.

What is Pink, Pink and Dry All Over?

Answer: strawberry lemonade, bubble gum and gluten-free salty caramel.

Last week, we had another coworker birthday lunch. With some new summer flavors at Crave, I decided to try their Strawberry Lemonade. It was a tangy lemon cupcake topped with lemon zest studded strawberry butter cream frosting.

While I'm not a huge lemon fan, the cake was moist and the overall flavor was refreshing.

Then, over the weekend, hubby and I made a Gigi's run. Reluctant to try it, my first cupcake was another summer flavor, Bubble Gum. It's a bubble gum-flavored cake with a swirl of bubble gum frosting rimmed with rainbow nonpareils and topped with a gum ball.

It definitely tasted like bubble gum! Not exactly what I would normally choose, but it wasn't bad.

Next, I tried the gluten-free Salty Caramel, which was gluten-free white cake with caramel frosting and drizzled with ganache with a pinch of sea salt. I only wanted to try this because I love salted caramel and I've had Gigi's regular chocolate salted caramel cupcake.

This cupcake was as dry as dry gets, but I believe it's due to being gluten-free. Thank goodness for the yummy frosting that saved this dried out disaster.

See ya next time crusading cupcake comrades!

Testing 1,2,3 Testing

Test number 1 consisted of an at-home experiment with famous baker Duff Goldman's blondie mix; purchased at Target. It didn't call for anything unusual in the ingredient department. It was fairly simple and straight forward.

Test passed. It had a good taste. Here is the finished product:

Test 2 was a new cupcake from Gigi's summer flavors -- Cotton Candy. It's cotton candy flavored cake filled with cotton candy flavored cream filling, frosted with pink and blue cotton candy flavored frostings and delicately rimmed with crystal sugar.

With all that cotton candy flavoring, I expected this thing to be a county fair disaster where the cotton candy machine explodes throughout the fairgrounds, attacking every fair-goer. But I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't the cotton candy overkill I thought it would be. It was definitely VERY sweet, but pretty good overall. Test passed.

And test 3 was the new cookies at Sprinkles. We had chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, salted oatmeal conflake and double chocolate.

Chocolate chip:

Salted oatmeal cornflake:

Double chocolate:

Test partially passed and failed. The cookies were big and tasted decent, but not good enough to be worth $3 each. My favorite was probably the double chocolate and least favorite the salted oatmeal cornflake.

Cookies, Ice Cream and Cupcakes? Yes, Please...

Sprinkles Houston is now serving cookies and ice cream! And it's not just your regular chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream...

Cookie flavors: Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate, Peanut Butter Pretzel Chip, Salted Oatmeal Cornflake, Snickerdoodle and Fudge Brownie.

Here's a pic of the Double Chocolate (photos courtesy of Sprinkles):

There are lots of cool ice cream flavors like Cap'n Crunch, Malted Milk Chocolate, Red Velvet, Salted Caramel and Cherry Vanilla. There are many more including sorbets and they rotate flavors daily, as well as featuring additional flavors monthly.

Here's the kicker...the cookies and cupcakes can be combined with the ice cream! Such as the Sprinkles Sandwich is a single scoop of ice cream between two cupcake tops; or the Sprinkles Sundae is a single scoop of ice cream between cupcake top and bottom.

Here's the Sprinkles Sandwich:

And the Sprinkles Sundae:

And for those late night cupcake cravings...they now offer the 24-hour cupcake ATM!

I'll be checking these out soon and reporting back, so stay tuned!

Edible Shirt?

I wish...

Few and Far Between

Sorry again for the long hiatus. There hasn't been much cupcake activity lately. I might be starting to run out of new flavors. Anyway, here's the latest and greatest...

Starting with Gigi's Cupcakes, I tried the Super Mellow Cream, which is Devil's food cake filled with mellow cream, topped with a swirl of marshmallow buttercream, dipped in ganache and topped with a buttercream curly Q. It was quite tasty and not too chocolate-y.

Next was Gigi's White Hot Chocolate. There isn't an ingredient description on their website, so I'm improvising here. It's a yellow/vanilla cake topped with hot cocoa buttercream frosting and white nonpariels. This cupcake was just OK. The frosting was a bit different, I suppose because it wasn't your everyday milk chocolate.

Then, there was Ooh La La Dessert Boutique. First up was their flavor of the month; Dulce de Leche. It's yellow butter cake filled with dulce de leche, topped with dulce de leche buttercream and white chocolate shavings. Yum! Loved the dulce de leche filling inside. It made it all the sweeter!

Finally, from Ooh La La, Birthday Cake to celebrate my birthday. It's vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, confetti sprinkles and candy. This was a pretty standard vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting; nothing special.

Until we sweet again...

The Super Bowl Sprinkle

Appropriately named, the title of this entry is a play on the 1985 Chicago Bears, "Super Bowl Shuffle." Basically, we bought Sprinkles cupcakes on the day of the super bowl, but I might be showing my age by quoting something from the 80's.

Anyway, I started with raspberry chocolate chip, which was chocolate chip-studded Belgian dark chocolate cake topped with raspberry frosting. I was pleasantly surprised that this cupcake tasted pretty good. I thought it would be too rich with the dark chocolate and raspberry combination, but not at all.

Next, I had lemon, which consisted of California lemon cake, topped with a lemon-vanilla frosting flecked with zest. This is not a flavor I typically choose for cupcakes, but it was one I never tried or reviewed, so I took the chance! It was also better than I expected. I think the frosting having vanilla mixed in helped it to not be too lemon-y.

That's all for now! Have a sweet Valentine's Day!

New Year, New Cupcakes

Yes, I know...it's been over two months since my last post. A lot has happened and actually not as many cupcakes consumed until the last few weeks. Of course there were the holidays, but I was also out-of-town most of December due to a family emergency.

So now that we are back on track, let's get to it, shall we?

On New Year's Eve, we had some treats from Gigi's. I finally got to try the Hot Cocoa cupcake. It was chocolate cake with a chocolate and marshmallow buttercream frosting, topped with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips, and finished with a drizzle of rich chocolate ganache. It was a good blend of chocolate and marshmallow; what you'd expect from a hot cocoa cupcake!

Last weekend, our appetites lead to Three Brothers Bakery. I tried their Snickerdoodle cupcake. From my own assessment of the ingredients, it was a yellow cake filled with cinnamon frosting-type filling, topped with cinnamon frosting (possibly cream cheese) and a piece of snickerdoodle cookie. Definitely one of the better cupcakes I've had from Three Brothers. It was quite yummy.

And last, another birthday lunch with my coworkers brought us Crave Cupcakes. Another "finally got to try" scenario where the flavor I wanted wasn't out...Cookies and Cream. It was vanilla bean cake laced with crunchy Oreo cookies, topped with Oreo cookie swirled butter cream frosting. Now I know why this cupcake is always out when I get there! It was so delish! I probably could have eaten a half dozen by myself and not even feel guilty about it.

Have a wonderful new year and stay tuned for more cupcakes!

Fabulous Festive Fall Flavor Favorites

Say that five times really fast! Actually, I guess it's not that hard to do. Anyway, here's the latest in cupcake reviews...

Starting with Gigi's Pumpkin Spice Latte, which is pumpkin cake, topped with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with caramel drizzle and sugar crystals.

It was yum for sure. Had that nice cinnamon-y spice flavor.

Next up, is a store-bought cookie kit from Betty Crocker. It had cake and ice cream flavors. There were two separate mixes and it called for your typical ingredients like butter and then combine portions of each dough together. Sorry, I was not as creative as the cute designs shown on the box.

And presto! It kinda looked like one of those black and white cookies..."kinda." It tasted good. Not the best cookie in the world, but it was edible.

And finally, another Gigi's fall favorite is the Spiced Apple Cider, which is apple cake with apple butter filling, frosted with apple cider buttercream and finished with a cinnamon sugar pretzel and crunchy apple chip.

This cupcake was eh, ok. It looked better than it tasted. Frosting was good, but the cake was a bit dry.

I was hoping to try Gigi's fall Hot Cocoa cupcake too, but they were out. Booooo. Keep on the lookout though because I'm going to try and snag one eventually.