The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection

Category: Miscellaneous Bakeries

• HoneyMoon Bakery, Rome, GA

  Posted at 10:03 am by MLea

  Nov 30th

  While we were home for Thanksgiving, we visited the Honeymoon Bakery in Rome, GA.  (Twice!)

  Our selections:

  

  Chocolate Velvet Mini from Honeymoon Bakery: Click to enlarge

  The Chocolate Velvet was described as Red Velvet cake (without the red dye) with chocolate icing.   The icing was very creamy and had a rich chocolate flavor, but was a little too sweet.  The cake was moist, but didn’t have a definite chocolate flavor and was a bit crumbly.   I typically taste the icing and cake separately, then have a bite with both.   This one was definitely better all at once.   Rating: Cake ♥♥♥   Icing ♥♥.  Overall: ♥♥½

  

  Spice Mini from Honeymoon Bakery: click to enlarge

  Spice Cake Mini:  The cake was nice: moist and not crumbly, with light cinnamon/nutmeg(?) flavor.  The icing seemed to have the same flavoring as the cake.  The colored sugar added to the cupcake aesthetically, but added a grainy texture and more sweetness, which definitely wasn’t needed.   The icing to cake ratio seemed a little high also: when tasted together, the icing overpowered the cake.  I’m not sure what flavor icing would have been better (maybe cream cheese), but a contrasting flavor icing would have made it more interesting.  Rating:  Cake ♥♥♥, Icing ♥, Overall ♥♥

  

  Caramel Mini from Honeymoon Bakery: Click to enlarge

  Caramel Mini Cupcake:  Like the spice cake, this cupcake seemed to have the same flavor cake and icing.   I tasted the icing first, so I may not have had a clean palate when I tasted the cake.  The cake was moist and not crumbly.  The icing had nice flavor, not the “burnt” sugar caramel taste that I don’t like.  Overall it just tasted sweet, though.  Not very interesting.  Rating:  ♥♥

  

  Italian Cream cupcake from Honeymoon Bakery: Click to enlarge.

  Italian Cream: coconut and walnut studded white cake topped with cream cheese icing, coated with more nuts and coconut.  Mr Shuck and I both really liked this cupcake.  We ended up going back another day for second one.  The first cupcake was really moist and had a nice texture from the walnuts.  The second one, however, was a little dry and crumbly.  The icing was tangy from the cream cheese and there was just the right amount of it.  The coconut and walnuts on the icing added interest.   If we hadn’t gotten the second cupcake, the rating probably would have been a bit higher, but the dry cake the 2nd time around lowered the rating a bit.  Cake: ♥♥♥, Icing ♥♥♥♥; Overall ♥♥♥½.

  

  Carrot Cupcake from Honeymoon Bakery: click to enlarge

  The carrot cake was very moist and had large shreds of carrot visible, but without an abundance of carrot flavor.   However, it was a bit underdone in the center and a bit wet.  The icing was smooth and creamy and had the right balance of sweet and tangy.  It was also very cute.  I assume the brown crumbs were chocolate cookie crumbs, but they didn’t add chocolate flavor, just a bit of texture.  Overall rating: ♥♥♥.

  All in all, I was impressed with the cupcakes at Honeymoon Bakery.   The staff was very friendly and cheerfully answered my questions about ingredients.  I would definitely go back if we are in the area.

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged caramel, Carrot, chocolate velvet, Honeymoon Bakery, Italian Cream, Rome, spice

• No Godiva Cupcakes, so New York Cupcakes

  Posted at 8:03 pm by MLea

  Nov 21st
  

  Godiva cupcakes, image stolen from their website since I didn't find any.

  Our original goal today was to get a cupcake at the Godiva store, mainly because we have a Godiva gift card.  Free cupcakes are sometimes the best cupcakes.  However, we apparently misunderstood Godiva’s website.  Even though the icon that means “Godiva Stores offering baked goods” was next to the Bellevue Square location, we didn’t see any baked goods at the store.   DARNIT!    Maybe one day I’ll be willing to order Godiva cupcakes from their website but (surprisingly enough) I am not enough of an addict to pay $51.95 for 6 cupcakes ($28 for cupcakes and $21.95 for overnight shipping).    Update 11/23: Cupcakes are only available from the website, so I guess I don’t be trying them any time soon.

  After wandering around Bel Square for a bit, we headed out to Trader Joes.  On the way, we were sidetracked by New York Cupcakes. We chose the following 4 cupcakes.  (I really didn’t want 4, but there was a discount with 4 which netted us 4 cupcakes for $10.)   The descriptions in italics are from the NY Cupcake website. My reviews follow.

  

  Boston Cream Pie from NY Cupcakes- click to enlarge

  Boston Cream Cutie Pie
  Classic white cake filled with creamy vanilla custard, topped with decadent dark chocolate frosting and finished with a dollop of whipped buttercream on top.
  

  The vanilla cake was very moist and had distinct vanilla flavor.  The custard was indeed creamy, but I didn’t find the chocolate frosting to be all that decadent: it was a little grainy and too sweet for me.  The cupcake was cute .  Rating: ♥♥ ½

  

  Grand Central S'mores from NY Cupcakes- click to enlarge

  Grand Central Smores
  Get on board with our classic chocolate cake topped with sweet marshmallow buttercream frosting and finished off with golden graham cracker crumbs and a mini Hershey Bar .

  This cupcake is incredibly cute.  I love the mini Hershey® bar on top.  It makes it seem more home-made and less “snooty”.  Review to come.  I’m full right now. The cake was really nice…might have been the same cake batter as the Milky Way, but my palate isn’t that advanced: moist with deep chocolate flavor.  It had a sticky marshmallow fluff sort of filling that I really liked and a graham cracker crust at the bottom…or the crumbs might have sunk before baking.  I couldn’t finish the frosting:  way too sweet.  I guess if the bakery is calling it “sweet…frosting” rather than just “frosting”, it’s got to be overloaded with sugar.    Rating: ♥♥.  It would have been ♥♥½ or ♥♥ if it had the marshmallow fluff on top instead of the frosting.

  

  Midtown Milky Way by NY Cupcakes: Click to enlarge

  Midtown Milky Way
  Our best flavors have come together! Classic chocolate cake filled with white fluffy buttercream and topped with a swirl of creamy caramel and fudge frosting.

  The caramel frosting was the best caramel frosting I’ve had lately.  Maybe it wasn’t “authentic” caramel: it didn’t taste like burnt sugar to me, so I liked it.  The chocolate part of the swirl seemed to be the same chocolate frosting that was on the Boston Cream, but it seemed better when diluted a bit by the caramel frosting.  The cake was moist and chocolate-y, but I didn’t think the butter cream filling added anything to the mix.  Rating: ♥♥ ½

  

  I Love PB&J by NY Cupcakes- click to enlarge

  I Love PB&J
  Not your ordinary lunch treat! Classic white cake filled with raspberry jelly buttercream and topped with a swirl of creamy peanut butter frosting.

  Disclaimer:  I don’t like raspberries, so that may taint my rating somewhat.   Mr Shuck thought it didn’t have a distinct enough jelly flavor compared to the peanut butter and mused that it might be better with jelly in the center rather than flavored frosting inside.  The peanut butter taste was very strong in the icing, but the icing was creamy instead of grainy so that was a plus.  The cake was moist and I have no complaints about it.   (Mr Shuck said the cake was delightful.)  My rating: ♥ ½.  Mr Shuck’s rating: ♥♥♥.

  New York Cupcakes overall is worth a trip back, despite it being 17.63 miles from my house according to Mapquest.  I’d probably not make a special trip out to Bellevue, but would go out of my way if in the Bellevue area.

  
  

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged boston cream, Godiva cupcakes, Milky Way, New York Cupcakes, peanut butter and jelly, S'mores

• S’mores Cupcake from Whole Foods

  Posted at 5:48 pm by MLea

  Nov 14th

  So today whilst we were out looking for healthy snacks for my lunch, we came across this lovely cupcake at the Interbay Whole Foods (also known to West Seattle residents as Hole Foods)

  

  S'mores Cupcake from Whole Foods-Click to enlarge

  This was a lovely cupcake.  I was expecting it to be more than a grocery store cupcake, but it didn’t live up to my expectations.  The homemade looking marshmallows weren’t as tasty as generic marshmallows from the bag.  The cake was chocolatey, but dry and crumbly.  There was enough icing to hold on the graham cracker crumbs, but no excess.  A cupcake deserves excess.

  Mr Shuck also thought the frosting to cake ratio was a bit low.  He liked the taste, though.

  Rating: ♥♥

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged S'mores, Whole Foods

• Dulce de Leche from Sugar Bakery

  Posted at 6:08 pm by MLea

  Nov 13th

  I thought I’d give Sugar Bakery another chance.  Actually, coworker Scott brought 2 back after lunch, so really HE gave them a second chance.

  

  Dulce de Leche from Sugar Bakery: Click to enlarge

  Sugar is not about to be added to the favorites list.  Apparently, I don’t like home-made caramel.  I like the top of creme brulee, the stuff in a Snickers® or Milky Way® and the jar of ice cream topping, but I otherwise I don’t like the taste of burnt sugar.  So perhaps this won’t be a very objective review.  The icing seemed to be a meringue butter cream, very silky.  The cake didn’t have a lot of flavor: I couldn’t tell if it was vanilla or caramel.  It wasn’t dry.  It was filled with dulce de leche.  My coworker thought this cupcake was great.  I thought it was only ♥.  I ate 1/4 of a cupcake and it was a struggle, done only to have a review.

  I had a taste of the frosting of another cupcake purchased that day:

  

  Chocolate Cupcake from Sugar Bakery: Click to enlarge

  The frosting was a fudgey butter cream.  My tiny taste was very tasty.  I’ll update eventually with the eater’s opinion of the cupcake. Coworker Michael says,  “If cupcakes had fingers, I’d buy this cupcake an engagement ring.”

  Appearance note:  I’m not sure if Sugar uses cupcake liners that don’t fit the cupcake pan or if the cupcakes just rise above the liner, but the cupcakes always appear awkward.  They remind me of a person whose clothes are too big for them: a little sloppy.

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged dulce de leche

• Black Bottom Cupcake at Simply Desserts

  Posted at 11:10 am by MLea

  Nov 12th

  This was the only cupcake option available at Simply Desserts, so that’s what I had.  Chocolate cupcake with cream cheese and chocolate chips baked in on top.  The top was extremely tasty: tangy cream cheese mixed with sweet chocolate chips.  The rest of the cupcake was just okay:  the cake was moist and had nice chocolate flavor, but nothing spectacular.  I did eat the entire cupcake and scrape the crumbs off the liner with my fork, so I really have no complaints.

  Photo to come later…..

  

  Black Bottom Cupcake from Simply Desserts- Click to enlarge

  Overall rating: ♥♥♥

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged black bottom

• 1st trip to Dahlia Bakery will not be the last

  Posted at 8:52 pm by MLea

  Nov 4th

  We visited Dahlia Bakery today after a wonderful lunch at Dahlia Lounge. They only had 2 different cupcake flavors so deciding was easy!  I took one of each!

  Malted Cupcake with Chocolate Flake Butter cream: Silky (meringue?) butter cream with flakes of bittersweet chocolate topping a moist dark chocolate cupcake.   Neither the cake nor the icing was overly sweet and a definite malted milk flavor to the icing.  Very good.  Rating:  ♥♥ 1/2

  Caramel Popcorn Cupcake: This has knocked something off the top 5 list….I’m going to have to ponder for a bit to decide my new favorites.  Incredible!  The silky icing tasted exactly like caramel-covered popcorn; it was sweet and a bit salty.  There was a bit of texture to it which seemed like maybe ground up popcorn.  The cupcake itself was a sweet cornmeal cupcake with rich corn flavor.   I wish I had bought more than one.  Rating: ♥♥♥♥  Update 11/23:  Confirmed from Dahlia bakery that there is indeed pureed caramel corn in the frosting.  The caramel corn is made in house.

  

  Caramel Popcorn from Dahlia Bakery- Click to enlarge

  

  

  Malted Cupcake from Dahlia Bakery- click to enlarge

  
  
  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged caramel popcorn, chocolate malt, Dahlia Bakery

• Cheesecake Factory Cupcake @ Barnes and Noble

  Posted at 4:49 pm by MLea

  Nov 3rd

  Betsy at work gave me a coupon for a free cupcake (with purchase) from the Barnes and Noble cafe, so I ventured to University Village today to check it out.  Apparently they are provided by the Cheesecake Factory.  I was having a skinny vanilla latte, so I decided to take the all vanilla route and ordered a vanilla cupcake.  (The other options were Chocolate Fudge and Red Velvet.)

  

  Cheesecake Factory Vanilla

  Maybe my cupcake taste is becoming a little too snooty, but this is another one that I didn’t finish.  The butter cream icing was horrible: grainy, overly sweet and with an odd artificial taste.  The cake was fairly moist and vanilla-y, but also tasted a bit off.   I ate 2 bites probably and left the rest on my plate.  I’m glad I didn’t pay for this.  Rating: ♥

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged Cheesecake Factory, vanilla

• Columbia City Bakery

  Posted at 6:01 pm by MLea

  Oct 24th

  On the way home from Ikea, Mr Shuck and I were thinking about cupcakes.  I called Yellow Leaf (yes, I do have them in my cell phone) and was intrigued by the Boston Cream that was available today.  However, traffic on I-5 was starting to back up, so James suggested we try out the Columbia City Bakery.   So, we ended up avoiding traffic, broadening our cupcake horizons, and trying a new restaurant (Tutta Bella, also in Columbia City).

  Our cupcake selections:  Hazelnut (for me) and Carrot (for Mr Shuck)

  

  Coffee and cupcakes- click to enlarge

  Hazelnut:  The icing was good: very ganache-y and reminiscent of Nutella®.  The cake, on the other hand….very dry.  It had nice hazelnut flavor, but was crumbly.  Rating: ♥ and 1/2

  

  Hazelnut from Columbia City Bakery: Click to enlarge.

  Carrot:  Mr Shuck says, “It was fine.”  My little taste was dry: not as dry as the hazelnut cupcake, but still dry.   The cream cheese icing was not very flavorful either.  Rating: ♥♥

  

  Carrot Cupcake from Columbia City Bakery- Click to enlarge.

  The bakery was very crowded when we went by.   I liked the square cupcakes: different.  I also liked their cupcake carriers: upside down plastic cups.  I would probably give them another chance…if I’m in the area…which is likely since we LOVED Tutta Bella.

  

  Columbia City cupcake carrier

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged carrot cake, hazelnut

• South Seattle Community College= YUM!

  Posted at 8:26 pm by MLea

  Oct 13th

  Since I was off (still sick) Mr Shuck and I ventured over to the Alhadef Grill, a restaurant run by the Culinary Arts students at South Seattle Community College. (Great deal, by the way.  $20 for upscale lunch for both of us.)  Afterwards, we stopped by Bernie’s Pastry Shop, which is run by the Pastry Arts students.  We will be returning!

  

  Bernie's Pastry Shop- Click to enlarge.

  Selection #1:  Not exactly a cupcake, unless you consider it a cheese cupcake.  Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake.

  

  Pumpkin Spice Cheese Cake- Click to enlarge

  When I opened the container (compostble plastic from Cedar Grove), the scent of pumpkin pie was amazing and the pastry was  incredibly cute with the marzipan pumpkin sitting atop.  I’m not sure what the straw was made from…it didn’t have a distinctive flavor, but added a bit of texture to the creamy cheesecake.   Nutmeg was very apparent, but not overwhelming.   Rating: ♥♥♥♥.

  Selection #2: Pumpkin Cupcake layered with marshmallow and marscapone cheese, topped with caramel glaze and fleur de sel, and filled (we realized later) with caramel.   (Yes, we had a pumpkin extravaganza!)

  

  Pumpkin Cupcake- Click to enlarge

  After my experience yesterday with Cupcake Royale’s bitter, overly burnt tasting caramel, I was a bit hesitant to try the caramel on top of this cupcake.  The marshmallow layer was a bit rubbery and didn’t “stick” to the other layers, so the cupcake fell apart when I cut into it; this revealed the caramel center.

  

  Click for a better view of the caramel filling

  Because the cupcake broke in half, I ended up essentially having 2 different cupcakes: Pumpkin with salted caramel and marshmallow AND pumpkin with marscapone and caramel.    Both were delicious.  The caramel in this cupcake did not have the burnt flavor of Cupcake Royale’s icing.  The salt was AMAZING on the top of the cupcake and was such a contrast to the sweetness of the marshmallow and caramel.    As for the bottom of the cupcake:  the marscapone was creamy and light and worked well with the caramel, pumpkin and spices.  This cupcake just bounced Trophy’s Strawberry Lemonade off the top 5 list.  Rating:  ♥♥♥♥

  Mr Shuck has added this to his top 3 cupcakes, joining my Mocha Truffle cupcake and Cupcake Jones’ What’s Up Doc (carrot).   And surprisingly just suggested that we return to the pastry shop on Friday to see what they have!

  Extra special info:  Our total pastry bill:  $4.75.  What a bargain!

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged pumpkin

• Grocery Store Cupcake

  Posted at 10:35 am by MLea

  Sep 17th

  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

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged qfc, sunflower

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