http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/dining/23cake.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
photo credit to Mrs Cram
Mr Shuck and I were browsing the new QFC near our house and spotted the cupcakes in the bakery. Very cute, but still a grocery store cupcake. I might be put off if I looked at the ingredients in Trophy or Yellow Leaf cupcakes. I don’t think cupcakes need partially hydrogenated oils and diglycerides. The cake was okay. The icing was terrible. I’m sure it was “Crisco”cream, not butter cream. Rating: ♥
QFC Cupcake
Mr Shuck was nice enough to call me at work today to inquire about my cupcake needs while he was in the immediate Yellow Leaf area. I called the store and discovered that a new flavor (Cinnamon) was being debuted today. I sent speedy text back to my beloved indicating my chosen flavor and he stopped by to obtain one for me. The baker at Yellow Leaf hadn’t even gotten the Cinnamon Cupcakes out of the kitchen, so I ended up with the first one purchased. Michael of Yellow Leaf informed Mr Shuck that the Cinnamon was similar to their French Toast, so Mr Shuck thought I would be pleased.
The details: Vanilla cake with lots of cinnamon chips topped with vanilla Italian butter cream sprinkled with cinnamon.
The verdict: YUM! You can’t go wrong with Yellow Leaf’s vanilla cake. The cinnamon chips are probably my favorite ingredient in the French toast cupcake and there are more in the new version. The cinnamon sprinkled on top of the icing greatly improved the texture and flavor.
The rating: ♥♥♥
Yellow Leaf's Cinnamon
Yellow Leaf's Simply Vanilla
Trophy's Vanilla Vanilla
Cupcake Catastrophy
For Mr Shuck’s birthday, I made Mocha Truffle Cupcakes: Mocha cupcake with whipped chocolate ganache filling and ganache icing. Yum, if I say so myself! My rating: ♥♥♥♥
Mocha Truffle by Mrs Shuck
Today’s sample: Green Tea/Berry, Cherry Pomegranate, and Chai
Green Tea Berry: Bland. Neither the icing nor the cake tasted of green tea, unless green tea is totally lacking flavor. (I don’t normally drink green tea. Mr Shuck just informed me that green tea is virtually tasteless, so the cupcake is accurate, I guess.) The blueberry glaze wasn’t strongly flavored either. Rating: ♥
Green Tea Berry from Yellow Leaf
Green Tea Berry Interior
Cherry Pomegranate: The black cherry cake was okay; a few flecks of cherry in a vanilla cake. The icing was horrible. I tasted a sample of this icing at the shop a few weeks ago and liked it: light pink with a slight fruity flavor. Now it’s bright pink and perhaps just tastes like pomegranate, which I also think is horrible. This is Yellow Leaf’s charity cupcake for the next 2 months. $1 from the sale of each cupcake goes to the Fred Hutchison Cancer Resarch Center. I’m glad for that benefit from my purchase. I’ve only had 2 of Yellow Leaf’s charity cupcakes so far and disliked them both. Maybe they don’t really want to donate, so they are offering cupcakes that won’t have repeat sales? Raing: ♥
Cherry Pomegranate from Yellow Leaf
Chai: Beautiful cupcake with golden sprinkles. Very flavorful cake with usual chai tea spices of cinnamon and ginger. The icing, surprisingly, also had chai flavor. This one was definitely the best of the Yellow Leaf bunch today, but still only ♥♥.
Chai from Yellow Leaf, top view
Chai from Yellow Leaf, side view
Banana pudding is a Southern delicacy. I guess it’s like a trifle: layers of Nilla® wafers, sliced banana, and vanilla custard (or pudding). My grandmother normally topped it with meringue. For the record, I do not like meringue.
Today, I attempted a banana pudding cupcake. It started with a vanilla wafer (Fred Meyer brand…not nearly as good as the brand, but $3 a box cheaper) placed in the bottom of the cupcake liner. On top of that, I layered banana cake batter, then vanilla custard (homemade), then more batter. Before popping them in the oven, I sprinkled on some crushed vanilla wafers. After baking and cooling, I topped them with a dab of meringue and a dried banana.
The verdict from home: Cupcake is good. The custard stayed separate and resulted in a filled cupcake. Neither James nor I like the meringue. I don’t know if it’s because neither of us like meringue or because I can’t make a decent meringue. We’ll see what the public thinks tomorrow….
My rating: ♥♥♥(without the meringue)
Since I just read in The Stranger that the cupcake bubble is about to burst, I thought I should diversify my portfolio; so Mr Shuck and I ventured out to Frost Doughnuts in Mill Creek.
Our selections:
Banana Split Fritter: Yum! Banana fritter with pineapple and strawberry added and drizzled with chocolate ganache. What’s better than a cupcake? A fried cupcake!
Wedding Cake doughnut: Yes, it was just as boring as wedding cake. Plain cake doughnut with plain buttercream. It lived up to it’s name.
Salted Caramel doughnut: Another cake doughnut, but glazed with salted caramel and sprinkled with rock sugar and salt.
All in all, worth the drive to Mill Creek.
I guess in response to my bringing a cupcake and NOT sharing, the Boss brought back 2 cupcakes after lunch for the 5 of us to taste. Said cupcakes were from Sugar Bakery and Cafe a few blocks from work. Since I had the equipment available, these frumpy cupcakes entered the photo studio:
Red Velvet from Sugar Bakery
Hostess wanna-be from Sugar Bakery
I don’t think I’d walk a few blocks for these cupcakes. Granted, I am probably biased since I experience cupcakes made by bakeries that specialize in cupcakes. (And to my aunt, cupcakes are NOT just little cakes.) I tried the red velvet just to make 100% sure that I don’t like red velvet cake. It tasted like red dye as I expected. The cream cheese icing was good: nice and creamy with a sour, citrus note. The cupcake was touted as “filled with truffle”, but the filling seemed to be a spread on top below the icing. Granted, I only had 1/4 of a cupcake, but got only a trace of chocolatey goodness. My feelings about red velvet are unchanged.
The second cupcake was a Hostess® wanna-be. I wanted to like it, I really did. It was like a homely dog in need of love. Unfortunately, this dog had fleas. The chocolate cake was dry and there was a only a dime-sized dollop of cream inside. Once again, not enough to be considered “filled”. The icing was good; it reminded me of the cooked chocolate icing my grandmother used to make. Fudgy. I almost think I would have rather had an honest to goodness, extremely processed Hostess® cupcake.
Imposter interior
The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection 