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.

Uncoffee, Untoffe Pie and Brownies Oh My!

Last month, Gigi's Cupcakes announced some new flavors added to their daily menu. Of course, I had to test some of them out.

I started with Chocolate Caramel Macchiato, which was dark chocolate pudding cake with a creamy mocha filling, topped with Dulce de Leche cream cheese frosting-drizzled with caramel and topped with a chocolate-covered coffee bean. Even though I don't like coffee, I was prepared for this cupcake to taste a lot like coffee. Boy, was I wrong and quite surprised. It was predominantly chocolate flavored. Aside from the coffee bean on top, the mocha filling inside was probably the closest to coffee flavor throughout the whole cupcake. This was definitely very different than the caramel macchiato cupcake from I Heart Cupcakes.

Next, I had the Banana Toffee Pie consisting of banana cake with an English toffee filling, topped with marshmallow buttercream frosting and sprinkled with crunchy toffee candy pieces. I thought this cupcake would be similar to Gigi's toffee cupcake, but with a touch of banana. Nope, I was wrong with my expectations again. It was mostly banana flavored. I didn't taste much toffee. It was good; just not what I anticipated.

Then, this past weekend, I tried the Billion Dollar brownie mix from Sisters Gourmet. It called for eggs, butter and vanilla. About 23 minutes later, brownies were ready. While they tasted a bit better than your typical box brownie mix, they were still brownies. There isn't too much variation of your standard brownie.

Chip Off the Menu Block

The title of this entry is a combination of my dessert encounters over the last few weeks. We recently went to Sprinkles and tried some of their "off the menu" flavors. And last weekend, I experimented with a triple chip cookie mix (a play on the idiom, "chip off the old block").

Starting with Sprinkles, my first cupcake was an off the menu flavor, so I don't know exactly what the ingredients were, but it was a strawberry cupcake with orange frosting, topped with a fondant flower. This might have been a better summer flavor, but it was nice and fruity.

My next cupcake was a regular menu flavor, but I had never tried nor blogged about it. Hubby and I split the milk chocolate, which was Belgian dark chocolate cake with fudgy milk chocolate cream cheese frosting and chocolate sprinkles. A good balance of chocolate; not too rich and not overpowering chocolate taste.

And last was another off the menu flavor...ginger with cream cheese frosting. It almost looked like carrot cake, but it was not. The employee who helped me described this cupcake as, "like a gingerbread cookie." He was right. It was similar to some of the snickerdoodle cupcakes I've had before.

I like the off the menu surprise. Although I wouldn't consider any of these recent cupcakes, "off the charts."

After a recent online shopping spree of dessert mixes, we decided to give one of them a shot last weekend. We tried triple chocolate chip from Sisters Gourmet. The jar contained all the dry ingredients and I had to add butter and eggs, mix and bake.

Well, the visual results don't give you the impression that I knew what I was doing. They came out flatter than IHOP's all-you-can-eat pancakes. I even took the three best cookies from the batch for this photo op. Rest assured, they tasted better than they looked. I think I made the mistake of pressing down the dough a bit on the cookie sheet rather than leaving it in a ball.

This isn't the end of the cookie mixers. I have four more plus a brownie mix. I know you can't wait!

I Heart Cupcakes Too

There's a new cupcakery in town...iheartcupcakes recently opened up in Houston's energy corridor. Even though it wasn't very close, we had to try them. Especially since the pics on their website were eerily similar to Crave's cupcakes. The girl who helped me said they had no affiliation with Crave, but I'm wondering if the baker and/or owner used to work there? Who knows.

Our six-pack consisted of Caramel Macchiato (top left), Cookies n' Cream (top right), Vanilla Vanilla (middle left), Snickerdoodle (middle right), Red Velvet (bottom left) and Chocolate with Strawberry (bottom right).

Starting with Chocolate with Strawberry, it's chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream frosting. It was moist, chocolatey and the frosting was creamy strawberry.

Next, hubby and I shared the Cookies 'n Cream, which was vanilla bean/cookie infused cake with vanilla bean buttercream topped with cookie crumbs. Definitely tasted like cookies and cream; also moist and delish.

Then, we split the Caramel Macchiato. It was coffee infused cake with caramel buttercream. The coffee flavor was pretty strong for me and I'm not a coffee drinker, so I didn't really care for it. The frosting was the best part.

Last, I had Snickerdoodle, which was cinnamon cake topped with vanilla bean frosting and sanding sugar. This cupcake was similar to other cinnamon-type cupcakes I've had and very good.

Overall, they tasted a lot like Crave with the exception of certain flavors that Crave does not offer. I would get iheartcupcakes again if I were passing by or needed a special flavor fix.

Holiday Cupcake Crusades

Happy New Year!

Over the past month, the crusade continued with an at-home experiment, a local fave and a new out-of-town taste test.

I purchased another one of those Williams-Sonoma cupcake kits. The pumpkin ones were on sale after Thanksgiving, so I figured I would give it a shot even though I'm not really a pumpkin fan. It was pumpkin spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla.

Using typical ingredients like butter and eggs, it was fairly simple to make. I didn't bother making a frosting from scratch since I usually have trouble with that. So, I used a jar frosting that said the flavor was "fall vanilla." It also had some fall sprinkles, which I used, but otherwise, fall vanilla wasn't any different than regular vanilla. It turned out surprisingly good!

Next, after we had a birthday lunch for a coworker, we stopped by Sprinkles. I ventured out of my comfort zone to try another flavor I wouldn't normally pick, Eggnog Spice. It was spice cake topped with eggnog cream cheese frosting. While not my favorite flavor, I would definitely get it again. I enjoyed it and thought it was better than the eggnog cupcake I tried a year ago from Crave.

Last, while traveling for the holidays, we decided to try Frosted Cupcakes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Hubby and I got a four-pack. His flavors were top left, Cookie Deaux and bottom right, Rouge Royale. My selections were top right, Dalmatian and bottom left, Gingerbread. Unfortunately, their website does not give a description of the cupcakes.

My first cupcake was the Gingerbread. It tasted like a gingerbread cookie; moist and flavorful frosting. I was pleased with my choice.

My second cupcake was Dalmatian, which was essentially an Oreo or cookies and cream cupcake. This one was very good. Also moist and delicious frosting. I'll take a 101 Dalmatian cupcakes please...woof!

I tried a bite of hubby's cookie deaux and rouge royale, which were also quite yummy. I would definitely recommend Frosted and go back again.

Until next time...the crusade continues...

Life Just Keeps Getting Busier

As the title of this entry says, such is my life with an infant these days! So, to cut to the chase, here are the latest cupcake encounters over the past few months...

Starting with Crave, I decided to try their apple cupcake recently. It's a Granny Smith apple cake with cinnamon frosting. Simple ingredients; simple, sweet flavor. This was better than I anticipated.

Next cupcake test came courtesy of Dessert Gallery. Without a detailed description of ingredients, the triple chocolate cupcake is just that...triple the chocolate. It was a chocolate cake with white chocolate frosting, topped with a chocolate cookie and drizzled with chocolate sauce. The chocolate combination was a good balance and was a tasty cupcake, although not the best I've had.

Onto our next adventure by way of Sprinkles...There was a limited edition cupcake recently featured in connection with the television show, "2 Broke Girls." It sounded delicious, so I had to try it since it was only being offered for a few weeks. It was a graham cracker-lined vanilla chocolate chip cake with dark chocolate frosting and fleur de sel. I really loved the flavors in this cupcake. I wish it was a little more moist though. I think a little bit of salt on almost any cupcake really brings out the flavor.

And the last victims of my devouring were from Ooh La La Sweets. First, I had Pretty in Pink, which was strawberry cake with cream cheese icing, topped with pink sprinkles. As always, Ooh La La's cupcakes are massive! This cupcake had a light strawberry taste and was balanced well with the frosting. And, it was moist!

The second cupcake was their November special, French toast. It was a maple cupcake with a swirl of cinnamon streusel, topped with cinnamon sugar cream cheese icing. The maple flavor of the cupcake was very prominent. I'm not sure what the little bread pieces were on top. They kind of tasted sweet and sort of like bread; I don't know. Anyway, this was a fairly decent cupcake.

That's all for now folks! Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!