Sprinkle, Sprinkle Little Cupcake

Usually, we don't cupcake binge two weeks in a row, but I noticed that Sprinkles has a salty caramel cupcake featured this month, so I didn't want to miss it. I've had a hankering for caramel (especially salty) lately. Plus, it’s been awhile since I've eaten Sprinkles.

The biggest draw for Sprinkles is its chic Beverly Hills origin and the founder is a judge on Cupcake Wars. They are somewhat comparable to Crave in terms of presentation (i.e. frosting application, use of fondant, etc) and similar in taste. Sprinkles and Crave vary slightly in flavor options, size and price. Sprinkles cupcakes are a bit smaller and about 25 cents more than most cupcakeries. But if you follow them on Twitter, they often feature a free cupcake flavor each day to the first 50 or so customers who whisper a secret phrase when placing their order. I got myself a free strawberry cupcake by doing this over the weekend.

Now, to the good stuff...my flavor selection included: salty caramel (top middle), strawberry (bottom left) and cinnamon sugar (bottom middle). Boyfriend got pumpkin (top left), vanilla (top right) and dark chocolate (bottom right).

Boyfriend ate his vanilla and dark chocolate cupcakes before I got home from work, so I didn't have a chance to try them. With both of these flavors, you are given the option of having sprinkles on them or not. What's a Sprinkles cupcake without sprinkles? Never mind. Anyway, the vanilla is made with Madagascar vanilla and the dark chocolate is Belgian dark chocolate cake with bittersweet chocolate frosting. Boyfriend enjoyed them. I guess there isn’t much to say about these core flavors.

When I got home, I had the strawberry. Again, another standard flavor. I liked it. It had appropriate cake and frosting consistency.

The second cupcake I had was the cinnamon sugar. I had this cupcake a long time ago, so I needed a refresher. It's lightly spiced buttermilk cake dusted with cinnamon sugar. It was good enough. It reminded me of a cinnamon donut. I would have preferred frosting on it.

Finally, boyfriend and I had our specialty cupcakes. Boyfriend had his pumpkin with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and it tasted as he expected. I don’t care for pumpkin, but I tried it and thought it was good.

Saving my hotly anticipated cupcake for last, I had my salty caramel. It was buttery caramel cake with caramel cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with fleur de sel (aka salt). It was yummy. It had the perfect amount of caramel and salt. I prefer the chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel a little more, but this one satisfied my craving.

While not on the top of our cupcake list, Sprinkles is a good alternative once in awhile; especially when they have special featured flavors.

And so, the cupcake journey goes on...

Sweet Saturday Surprise

The weekend before last, we toned down the sweet factor a bit with some desserts from Whole Foods. I had a few small salted caramel cupcakes and chocolate chip cannolis. The salted caramel cupcakes were a bit heavy on the caramel filling, but overall, both desserts (or all four I should say, as I had two of each) were pretty good.

As planned, this past weekend was dedicated to Gigi's. I had Red Velvet (top left), Champagne (bottom left) and English toffee (bottom right). Boyfriend had grasshopper (top right), wedding cake (middle left) and white midnight magic (middle right).

A little apprehensive, I tried the English toffee first. For some reason, I always correlate toffee with a flavor combination of nuts and coffee (perhaps because it rhymes?), which is why I was hesitant to try this one. I don't drink coffee and as I've said before, don't really like sweet-salty mix. This cupcake is a toffee cake with toffee filling and frosting, and rimmed with chocolate toffee bits. Boy was I pleasantly surprised! It was excellent. And not too much toffee flavor like you'd expect. It was balanced perfectly and the toffee bits gave it a nice crispy crunch. Probably the best cupcake out of the three I had that day.

My second cupcake was the red velvet and third was champagne. As I've tried these before, I don't have anything new to say about them. They are both very delicious and as most Gigi's cupcakes, have nice little touches. I like the light sprinkle of sugar crystals on top of the red velvet and the champagne has edible pearls and white chocolate chips surrounding the frosting.

By the time I got to the champagne cupcake, I thought I was going to pass out. Eating occurred in slow motion and everything sounded like those slow, digitally altered voices similar to when Will Ferrell got shot in the neck by that dart in the movie Old School. I've started to pace my cupcake consumption by spacing the eating of each one at about one hour intervals. It's worked well for the most part. I just think Gigi's cupcakes are so filling that even the hour between the second and third cupcakes wasn’t enough this time around.

Not sure yet what's next on the schedule of sweet eats, but stay tuned!

Cupcake Hiatus...or Not

Sorry, it's been awhile since reporting any new cupcake adventures. The weekend after Gigi's, I made brownies with white chocolate chips. The weekend after that, we had Crave Cupcakes again. Since they were pretty much the same flavors as last time, I didn't have anything new to disclose. And last weekend, I made red velvet cupcakes courtesy of Duncan Hines. Yeah, I know, it's a box mix and jar frosting, but hey, it serves its sweet purpose. I could make my own from scratch if I wanted to, but my domestic side usually isn’t that domestic. Come on! It's my weekend too!

Usually when I bake cupcakes, I don't use the liners. Not using the liners often means coating the pan with cooking spray and sometimes, baking powder. Removing the cupcakes can get tricky, so I usually slide a butter knife around the edges to loosen it up and pop them out. Then, the cleaning afterward is always a joy. LESSON LEARNED...USE THE CUPCAKE LINERS!!! They are so much easier! This was the first time I used them. Why did I suffer all these years? You don't need to use spray; they're easy to remove from the pan and there's less cleaning involved. It's worth the few bucks to buy the liners versus the time and effort you spend.

Having made about two dozen cupcakes, there was no way the boyfriend and I could consume all of them in one weekend. They are smaller than the ones at the cupcakeries, but there's only so much one can eat. So, I brought the leftovers to work. I used a fancy frosting gun, which worked out ok. I'm not a skilled cake decorator, so the bakeries won't be beating down my door to offer me a job. By the time I arrived to the office, the frosting on two cupcakes slipped off and by mid-morning, two more took a tumble and landed upside down. I think they were too top heavy, but part of me thinks it could have been sabotage. I brought them in Florida Gator containers and there are a few SEC rivals in my office, so you tell me...

On Tuesday, it was the boyfriend's birthday. We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. And yup, you guessed it, we ate cheesecake. Boyfriend had the white chocolate caramel macadamia nut (say that five times fast) and I had chocolate chip cookie dough. Yum! But oh so filling after bread, an appetizer and the meal. I've come to the conclusion that I won't be able to maintain my weight through the end of the year with these habits and the holidays approaching.

I have no clue what's in store for this weekend. The boyfriend has made an early special request already to get Gigi's Cupcakes again next weekend. We're hoping they throw in a few alternate "off the menu" flavors as they did last time. Because our cupcake trips almost always occur on Saturdays, the cupcakeries have their set "day of the week" menus, so we don’t get to try other flavors. If any cupcake bakers are out there, this it my request...please rotate your day of the week flavor menus!

Until next time...sayonara sweet supporters!

Back to Our Original Objective

Late last week was the long-awaited grand opening of Gigi's Cupcakes in Sugar Land. Of which, we were waiting with baited breath as this is the boyfriend's favorite cupcakery. Our first Gigi's experience took place in The Woodlands and again in Tampa, Florida. The reason this is the boyfriend's fave? Frosting; lots and lots of frosting. With most cupcakeries, boyfriend adds frosting to the cupcakes from our own tub supply. At Gigi's, he doesn’t need to. Their cupcakes are tall and nowhere near small.

Since we had been to Gigi's before, we already had a punch card. There are a few options to get free cupcakes. The first is based on buying dozens. If you buy 12 dozen, you get a dozen free. The second, if you buy 12 individual cupcakes, you get one free. We had six punches from our last visit and then adding six to this trip, we were entitled to a free cupcake, which the boyfriend felt was necessary to have today. So, we ended up with seven behemoth cupcakes.

My flavors du jour were (top row, left to right): strawberry champagne, banana cream pie and chocolate salted caramel. Boyfriend's flavors were (bottom row, left to right): red velvet, champagne, white midnight magic and midnight magic. These top heavy frosted mammoths took a little tumble during the ride home, so some have a slanted appearance in the pic.

After returning home, the boyfriend immediately dove into the midnight magic cupcake. Midnight magic is devil's food cake with a milk chocolate butter cream frosting and chocolate chips on top. Even though I'm not a huge fan of rich chocolate overkill desserts, I took a few bites. It was very good. It seems the milk chocolate frosting balances out the devil's food cake. It was not as excessive chocolate as I expected.

Later, boyfriend sipped into his champagne cupcake while I ate the strawberry champagne. Strawberry champagne is not featured on the website's menu, but is similar to their standard champagne cupcake except the cake part was strawberry. The frosting is has a light touch of champagne flavor, which was fluffy and delicious.

Next, I had the banana cream pie. I was a little gun shy on this one because of my prior bad banana pudding cupcake experience at What's Up Cupcake? But there was no reason for my doubt. Gigi's did it right. Banana cream pie has a regular yellow cake with a little bit of vanilla cream in the middle. The frosting was banana butter cream and had vanilla wafer cookies around and on top.

Then the boyfriend went for the other midnight magic...white style. This one also has a devil's food cake base and chocolate chips on top, but with cream cheese frosting. Another fine cupcake from Gigi's.

After all that, we had a sugar crash and postponed the eating of the last two cupcakes to the next day. So on Sunday, my last cupcake was the chocolate salted caramel. I know I often say that I don't like the salty-sweet combination, but I had this type of cupcake before and it was quite yummy. This one was no different in yum factor; just better. It had dark chocolate cake, caramel frosting with a bit of chocolate ganache and a sprinkle of salt.

And last for the boyfriend was red velvet. Typical red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and red sugar sprinkled on top. Another tasty hit.

It goes without saying, I recommend Gigi's Cupcakes; especially if you like a lot of frosting on your cupcakes. This new Sugar Land location is closer to me than The Woodlands, but I wish there was one in town. However, it's definitely worth the occasional trek to the burbs.

Petite Desserts at a Grand Price

This was another weekend we opted for something other than a visit to a cupcakery. However, cupcakes were not excluded from this weekend's edibles. After learning about this place from a coworker, my curiosity was peaked.

So, I ventured over to Petite Sweets for some treats. Ha! That would be a good jingle for them. Anyway, Petite Sweets is a little dessert/frozen custard/coffee shop that opened this month between River Oaks and the Upper Kirby District. It has a cute, simple decor with a fair amount of customers in attendance while I was there on Saturday.

Our dessert selections included: two mini strawberry cupcakes; two mini vanilla cupcakes; two mini red velvet cupcakes; a carrot cake ball; a strawberry cake ball; a red velvet cake ball; a red velvet whoopie pie; a chocolate chip cookie; a snickerdoodle cookie; and a bag of homemade vanilla marshmallows. Yes, it sounds like a lot, but most of these items are quite small. Hence the name of the business…petite… Since we usually eat half dozen big cupcakes combined, I assumed this quantity of small desserts would equate to that. Well, the price certainly didn't equate to a half dozen cupcakes. Petite Sweets desserts are in the $1-$2 range, which is good if you are portion controlling, but not in the way the boyfriend and I eat desserts. I walked out of there with a $27 charge. Even though the cupcakeries are a bit pricey, I usually walk out with a half dozen cupcakes for just under $20. Petite Sweets $1.75 mini cupcakes are one to two bites. Two of their mini cupcakes cost as much as a regular cupcake, but pale in comparison to the size. Strike one for the deceptive "small" pricing and two for the not-so-equal size equivalent.

After I returned home, the boyfriend and I split the chocolate chip cookie. It had a bunch of mini chocolate chips in it, which was interesting. The taste was decent; nothing to write home about, but acceptable. Later, I ate the mini strawberry cupcake. The cake was too dry and the frosting was jelly-like. It was only slightly edible. Second, I had the mini red velvet cupcake. It was better than the strawberry. Good frosting, but the cake was a tad dry. Third, I had the mini vanilla cupcake. It was also too dry and the frosting wasn't the creamy vanilla-type I was expecting. It was also almost jelly-like. I didn't think you could mess up a basic vanilla cupcake. Strike three for dry jelly cupcakes.

We then switched to the cake balls. Boyfriend ate the carrot and we split the strawberry and red velvet flavors. They were much better than the cupcakes; moist inside and a good exterior coating. Then, I ate a vanilla marshmallow. It was also very good. OK, I'm beginning to think this is getting better that I may remove a strike.

Next, we went for the snickerdoodle cookie. This cookie was so dry, it was as hard as a rock that you could barely break it apart. I know Houston is in a drought, but come on! It must have been sitting in the cookie jar for over a week! Strike four for extreme drought cookie conditions.

Last, we split the red velvet whoopie pie. The taste and consistency were fine, but at this point, I'm not too thrilled at having paid nearly $30 for a grand disappointment from such petite treats.

Three strikes mean you're out. I gave them four. That would be a disqualification in my playbook.

Not a Cupcake, Bundt Worth Mentioning

After purchasing a Groupon for Nothing Bundt Cakes last week, we decided to change up our dessert feast this weekend for bundt cakes.

Nothing Bundt Cakes offers bundt cakes in a handful of flavors and sizes. They have the regular 10 inch cakes down to as small as a cupcake size referred to as a "bundtini." We selected five of the "bundlet" size (single serving personal cake) in carrot, red velvet, marble, chocolate chocolate chip and white white chocolate. The boyfriend scarfed down the carrot and chocolate chocolate chip. I ate the marble and boyfriend and I split the red velvet and white white chocolate. All cakes are drizzled with cream cheese frosting.

The marble cake was good (pictured below). The red velvet had little bits of chocolate chip, which was interesting. And the white white chocolate was probably my favorite of all three I tried. All the cakes get props for moistness. The frosting is good, but if you like a lot of it, you might be let down as these cakes are only drizzled with it. While I enjoyed the frosting, I would have liked to see more frosting options.

We would definitely go back to Nothing Bundt Cakes; especially if they add more cake and frosting flavors. I still prefer the good ol' cupcake, bundt this was a nice change of pace.

Cupcakes to Crave For

The most recent (and usually most frequent) cupcake eating frenzy transpired by way of Crave Cupcakes. The boyfriend selected white chocolate macadamia nut (top middle), carrot cake (top right) and vanilla (bottom right). My flavors were strawberry (top left), chocolate on vanilla (bottom left) and red velvet (bottom middle). As many times as I have eaten Crave, I never had a bad experience with their sweet concoctions. I have tried some flavors that were good, but not a favorite. Yet, their cupcakes are always the right consistency; have the right amount of frosting; and contain the right combination of ingredients.

The boyfriend's favorite Crave cupcake of all time is the white chocolate macadamia nut. It's a flavor you don't see offered at many cupcakeries. I'm not a fan of nuts, so I haven't tried it, but I'll take his word for it being as scrumptious as he says it is. Never cared for carrot cake, so I didn't try that one either. I've had their vanilla in the past and even though it sounds plain, it's very good. They use pure Madagascar vanilla and coat the frosting with sprinkles, making this cupcake anything but plain.

As always, I started with the strawberry cupcake. I don't know why, but I've made it a ritual now, so why change? The strawberry flavor throughout the cake and the frosting make the perfect balance. There are small bits of real strawberries inside the cake that give it an authentic strawberry taste.

Second was the red velvet. Another perfect combination of cake and frosting in this southern favorite. The cupcake has a moderate cocoa flavor with creamy cream cheese frosting. What more can I say?

After the second cupcake, that sugar coma kicked in, so I needed a break. A few hours later, the finale took place...chocolate on vanilla. It also sounds plain like the vanilla, but again, the ingredients Crave uses make these traditional cupcakes pop with flavor. The cake is vanilla bean and the frosting is milk chocolate with a drizzle of sprinkles on top. Sometimes the simplest flavors are the most delicious.

Crave is my favorite cupcakery. There are several others that come very close though. Crave uses the best, purest ingredients and make batches continuously throughout the day, so you know they are fresh. Even though he likes Crave a lot, the boyfriend has a different favorite that we'll feature later. Till then…the crusade continues!