June Cupcake Specials

Here are this month's specials...

Sprinkles

May 24-June 23:

• Key Lime: Made with the tangy juice and zest of fresh key limes in both the cake and frosting.

June 21-July 7:

• Lemon Blueberry: This fragrant lemon cake is bursting with wild blueberries and topped with lemon cream cheese frosting.

Crave

May 24-June 16:

• Margarita: Sweet and tart lime cake topped with smooth Tequila blended frosting rimmed in sugar crystals.

Ooh La La Dessert Boutique

• Strawberry Lemonade: Moist lemon cake with strawberry buttercream frosting..

One Big Cupcake Update

Whew! It's been busy the last month. Sorry for the lack of updates; it's been crazy lately. So without further adieu, I'm going to give a mash-up of everything that has happened since my last post...

Trader Joe's and Silicone Liners Don't Mix

In my last cupcake experiment, I used a vanilla cake mix from Trader Joe's. It contained Madagascar Bourbon vanilla and called for the usual suspect ingredients like eggs and butter. 

I also tried silicone cupcake liners this time, thinking I'd save on buying the paper ones. Well, not only were they a bit of a pain to clean, but I think it affected the way the cupcakes baked. While it still tasted OK, a bit of an explosion occurred. Check out the pic...

A Lime Twist from Crave

Last week, my coworkers had a birthday lunch for me, which included cupcakes from Crave. Even though I don't typically eat citrus-y cupcakes, I bit the bullet and tried key lime. It was key lime cake with key lime zest frosting and cake crumbles on top that mimicked key lime pie crust. As usual, Crave's cupcakes are always moist and delicious. The lime flavor wasn't overpowering; it had a nice, light and refreshing taste.

Sugarbaby's Sweet Send-off

The end of an era...Sugarbaby's Cupcake Boutique has officially closed their doors and turned off their ovens on May 18 due to family obligations that resulted in a failed attempt to sell the bakery. They were my first gourmet cupcake that contributed to my addiction. A sweet (not bitter) goodbye!

May Cupcake Specials

Realizing it's late in the month, yet Memorial weekend is coming up, so I still wanted to mention the specials...

Sprinkles

May 3-23:

• Magarita: Tequila-key lime cake topped with key lime frosting and a rim of fleur de sel. 

May 10-26:

• Salty Caramel: Fleur de sel granules are a delightful complement to the sweet, buttery caramel which flavors both the cake and frosting.

May 24-June 23:

• Key Lime: Made with the tangy juice and zest of fresh key limes in both the cake and frosting.

Ooh La La Dessert Boutique

• Key Lime Pie: Moist lime cake with graham cracker crust, topped with white chocolate buttercream icing and sprinkled with white chocolate shavings.

Smallcakes; Big Taste

Last weekend, we ventured out to a new cupcakery called Smallcakes. They opened a few months ago in the Houston suburbs and another location opened up this weekend. Thanks to hubby for finding this little gem! The sizes are smaller than Gigi's and Crave and cost $3.25 each. The main website shows other desserts like doughnuts, cookies, cakes, etc., but I didn't see that at this location.

Now onto the important stuff. Our 6-pack consisted of Vanilla-n-Chocolate (top left), Decadent Fudge (top middle), Caramel Crunch (top right), Pink Vanilla (bottom left), Hot Fudge Sundae (bottom middle) and Red Velvet (bottom right).

First cupcake I had was the Vanilla-n-Chocolate, which was vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream topped with valrhona chocolate sprinkles. Valrhona fine French chocolate (I had to look this up). This was a fairly basic cupcake, yet tasty. Good flavors and consistency.

The second cupcake was Red Velvet, which is described as grandma's red velvet cake with their signature cream cheese frosting. This was definitely the epitome of a real red velvet cake. The cream cheese frosting was truly creamy cream cheese. Also a good pick.

Last was Caramel Crunch, which is chocolate cake with caramel frosting topped with sea salt and chocolate pretzels. I took off the pretzels; that's just not my style. This was by far the best cupcake I tried from Smallcakes. The frosting was more like gooey caramel than that whipped frosting you usually get.

I also had bites of hubby's cupcakes and I want to mention his Decadent Fudge cupcake was similar to my Caramel Crunch in that the frosting was like gooey fudge that you'd get on a sundae.

The only thing that was a little odd was that the cupcakes looked like they got a little swallowed up in the cupcake liners even though they were average size. I was mostly impressed by the cupcakes that didn't use traditional whipped frostings. I'd like to try some of their other flavors, so Smallcakes stays on the rotation.

Live Long, Be Happy, Eat Cupcakes

This blog title is the motto on Ooh La La Dessert Boutique's cupcake boxes. After subscribing to be on Ooh La La's email list the last time we visited, they sent me a free cupcake, so we took advantage of it last weekend. Of course there wasn't just one cupcake consumed. They only offer mini or jumbo sized cupcakes, so I had one of each.

My first cupcake was Cookies and Cream, which is vanilla cake with Oreo cookie crumbs folded in, topped with vanilla buttercream and finely crushed Oreos. I debated on trying this cupcake versus the cupcake of the month, which is "Dirt." The Dirt cupcake is sort of similar to cookies and cream, so the deciding factor was the Oreos on top versus gummy worms. Anyway, it was very yummy. The blend of vanilla and Oreo was perfect, as was the consistency of both the cake and frosting.

My second cupcake was the mini Strawberry Amaretto. It's vanilla cake soaked in amaretto with a strawberry center, topped with amaretto buttercream and strawberry sauce. This cupcake was OK. No complaints about consistency; it just wasn't as good as it sounded. I liked the cookies and cream better.

I also had a bite of the hubby's flavors, which were The Ultimate Chocolate Cupcake and Nilla Nilla. Ultimate chocolate is chocolate cake with chocolate chunks folded in with a gooey ganache center, topped with chocolate buttercream and chocolate chips. This was definitely a lot of chocolate; a chocolate lover's dream. I enjoyed it, but this type of cupcake is too much chocolate for me personally. I know...what is wrong with me?

Nilla Nilla is vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. This was your typical vanilla cupcake. All around a decent cupcake, but nothing extraordinary.

There are still many things to try at Ooh La La, so we will back again in the future.

April Cupcake Specials

Aside from Gigi's launching their new Spring/Summer menu, there aren't many specials this month...

Sprinkles

March 20-April 14:

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

March 22-April 7:

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

April 5-28:

• S'more: graham cracker-lined Belgian dark chocolate cake filled with bittersweet chocolate ganache and topped with toasted marshmallow frosting.

April 12-28:

• Cuban Coffee: Belgian light chocolate cake topped with powerful dark roast coffee frosting and subtle notes of cinnamon and cocoa.

Ooh La La Dessert Boutique

• Dirt: Oreo crumb cupcake with Oreo buttercream center, topped with Oreo buttercream and sprinkled with crushed Oreo "dirt" and a yummy gummy worm.

Swirl of Happiness

The story behind this blog entry title comes from a silly comment my husband made over the weekend, but I felt it fitting with the tall swirl of frosting typical of a Gigi's cupcake.

With the Good Friday holiday, we made a trip over to Gigi's to try some of the new Spring/Summer menu items; plus take advantage of Friday flavors since we don't get a chance to try anything outside of the Saturday menu. We arrived a bit late in the afternoon and were disappointed that they ran out of a lot of flavors we wanted to try. I opted for a few flavors I haven't reviewed; albeit not my first choices.

I started with the new Tropical Spritzer flavor, which is lemon lime cake made with Sprite, filled with a pineapple coconut filling, lemon cream cheese frosting and sugar crystals. Surprisingly, this cupcake was better than I expected. However, the cake was a tad dry as was the outer edges of frosting. The taste of the cake itself was a nice, light fruity flavor. The pineapple coconut filling appeared to be only on the top, which I expected to be inside; hence it being a "filling." But I was kind of glad it wasn't inside because it was my least favorite part.

My second cupcake was Miss Princess, which is white cake baked with fresh strawberries, topped with a cream cheese frosting, pink sugar crystals and a pink fondant crown. This one was better than the Tropical Spritzer. The consistency was perfect and it had bits of strawberry baked in, which made it more authentic strawberry tasting.

It's a shame that Gigi's selection was so sparse when they were still scheduled to be open for several more hours. I understand it was a holiday, but for that reason, they should have been more prepared.

Battling Brooklyn

Awhile back during some of my Williams-Sonoma baking mix trips, I bought a kit called Baked Brookster Mix. They are essentially brownies with chocolate chip cookies on top. The recipe and kit originate from a popular bakery in Brooklyn named, "Baked."

We decided to make them last weekend. At $16.95, the mix makes about 18 "brookies" or "brooksters." I filled the muffin pan a bit more than I should, so I ended up with 14. It called for typical baking ingredients like butter and eggs. The process took a bit longer than a typical cookie or brownie mix as it required some additional steps to prep. As usual, I didn't follow the instructions exactly...instead of refrigerating the dough for an hour or more, I froze it to expedite the process. And the suggested bake time was 23-25 minutes, but I reduced it to about 18-20 minutes.

After a failed attempt with a similar project on my own using a brownie mix and tossing pre-cut refrigerated cookie dough on top, I was afraid this wouldn't work. To my surprise it turned out quite well!