caramel | The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection

Tag: caramel
- Whidbey Cupcakes, Langley, WA
  
  Posted at 3:01 pm by MLea
  
  May 22nd
  
  My friend Mrs Smith was in town from the South last week. On her list of “things to do in Seattle” was “take a ferry somewhere”, so we went to Whidbey Island. The day was absolutely beautiful: sunny and hot for Seattle (mid 70’s). We wandered around Langley for a bit and had lunch at Useless Bay Coffee Company, which turned out to be very vegetarian friendly (for me) and gluten free friendly (for Mrs Smith). At the Whidbey Island visitor’s center, we picked up a flyer for Whidbey Cupcakes, so with high hopes of gluten free goodness, we went there for dessert.
  
  Unfortunately for Mrs Smith, the cupcake cafe had run out of their Choochokam cupcake, a gluten free Ghiardelli chocolate cake topped with Madagascar vanilla and organic chocolate butter cream, so she ate some M&M’s while I had my cupcake.
  
  Unfortunately for me, I might have chosen the wrong cupcake. I decided on the Double Bluff: a Ghiardelli chocolate butter cake topped with a caramel butter cream frosting and garnished with black Hawaiian sea salt, caramel drizzle, and a Dove caramel candy. The frosting was quite delicious. It had the silky texture of a meringue butter cream and the sea salt added a nice salty contrast and a little crunch. The cake, however, was not so delicious: it was very dry and crumbly. I was disappointed. I’ll try a different flavor if I’m ever in the area again…
  
  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged caramel, chocolate, sea salt, Whidbey Cupcakes
- Salted Caramel from Yellow Leaf
  
  Posted at 11:12 am by MLea
  
  Jul 3rd
  
  I was very excited when Mr Shuck told me he got a present for me last week. I knew he was downtown and was hoping for a Yellow Leaf cupcake. I got 2! One was the Chocolate Joy, an old favorite. The other was a new flavor for me, Salted Caramel. Yellow Leaf rarely disappoints me and this cupcake was no exception.
  
  Salted Caramel from Yellow Leaf: click to enlarge
  
  Moist chocolate cake filled with gooey caramel and topped with a caramel butter cream. YUM! My rating: ♥♥♥
  
  Posted in The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company | Tagged almond, caramel, chocolate, salted
- The Phoenix Cake at Bakery Nouveau
  
  Posted at 7:28 pm by MLea
  
  Mar 28th
  
  From Bakery Nouveau’s website:
  
  Phoenix
  This cake scored the highest points in the National Pastry Championship, 2005. It is a triple layer mousse cake with a delicate balance of pear mousse, 70% chocolate mousse, caramel mousse, pecan dacquoise and chocolate sponge cake. All covered with a caramel glaze
  
  I’ll be honest. I had to go to Wikipedia to get the definition of dacquoise, which is apparently a nut meringue.
  
  This was wonderful. This would have been wonderful after a nice meal at a nice restaurant. It’s even more wonderful to be able to dash out (see previous post) to your neighborhood bakery (if you happen to live near the Junction in West Seattle) and just pick one up on the spur of the moment. It was creamy and delicate. There was nice crunch at the bottom from the dacquoise. And just to clarify that it was Cupcake Addict appropriate….it was about the size of a jumbo cupcake AND there was a tiny approximately 1/4 inch thick layer of sponge cake in there just under the pecan layer. (Cup shaped and cake containing = cupcake, no matter how posh it may be.) I honestly didn’t notice the pear mousse. Perhaps that was all part of the “delicate balance”…leaving the pear mousse as a subtle accent flavor not a central one. This was a bit rich, perhaps from the caramel glaze, but not overly sweet. (You should all know how I feel about caramel by now.) Mr Shuck had about 2 bite portion (which he thought was “good stuff”). I had the rest. It was worth the $5.50 that I paid for it. It would have been worth the $5.50 AND the 2 mile round trip walk that would have gotten me there and back if it hadn’t been raining. (Raining in Seattle? Who’d have thunk it?!)
  
  Phoenix Cake image stolen from Bakery Nouveau
  
  Phoenix Cake Interior: click to enlarge
  
  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged caramel, pear, pecan. chocolate, Phoenix cake
- Stroop Waffle at Trophy
  
  Posted at 7:26 pm by MLea
  
  Mar 6th
  
  First of all, the weather was AMAZING in Seattle today. Sunny. High 50’s. Perfect day for cupcakes, right? (Okay, so almost any day is a good day for cupcakes….)
  
  After the lunch buffet at Chutney’s, Mr Shuck and I wandered upstairs to Trophy for a peek at their offerings. Specials today were Stroop Waffle, Chocolate Guiness Stout, and Chocolate Hazelnut. I chose the Stroop Waffle, which I thought was going to be waffle flavored, so I was expecting some maple syrup or something. What I got was a vanilla cupcake topped with caramel buttercream, caramel drizzle and a bit of waffle cone. After I got home and Googled “Stroop Waffle” and discovered that it is a waffle shapped cookie filled with caramel, the flavorings made more sense. I also recalled eating almost a whole bag of these delicious cookies which someone from work had given me.
  
  Photo stolen from Daelman's Stroopwafel: click to enlarge.
  
  I digress….back to Trophy….
  
  Stroop Waffle from Trophy: Click to enlarge
  
  The vanilla cake of this cupcake was delicious. Normally, I’m not that crazy about Trophy’s cake, but this was wonderful. It had an especially big “muffin top”, so the edges were really crispy where it touched the baking pan. Delightful.
  
  Then there was the icing… Trophy’s icing is typically too sweet for me. When you add CARAMEL to their already too sweet butter cream, it becomes deadly. Mr Shuck only had a tiny taste and stated that it reminded him of eating a sugar cube. If there is any doubt how I felt about the icing, the below photo is of my plate before I put it into the bus pan.
  
  Trophy's Caramel Buttercream: click to enlarge if you dare!
  
  My rating: Cake ♥♥♥♥(the best cake I’ve ever had at Trophy). Icing: ♥. Overall Rating: ♥♥. I probably wouldn’t purchase this again. I’d eat it if it were free, but I’d leave the icing on the plate again.
  
  Posted in Trophy Cupcakes | Tagged caramel, stroop waffle
- Chocolate Caramel Cashew from Yellow Leaf
  
  Posted at 6:13 pm by MLea
  
  Jan 6th
  
  Mr Shuck surprised me with a cupcake today and supported the pups at the same time. Yellow Leaf’s Charity Cupcake for January and February is Chocolate Caramel Cashew and $1 of each sale goes to the Seattle Humane Society.
  
  Chocolate Caramel Cashew, top: click to enlarge
  
  Chocolate Caramel Cashew layers: click to enlarge
  
  My thoughts: The cake was much drier than usual for Yellow Leaf. The chocolate layer was adequate, but the flavor in the other layer was indiscernible. The icing was just as generic. The little chocolate covered cashew on top was the highlight of the cake: sweet and salty and crunchy. My rating: ♥♥ 1/2. I’d buy it again if at Yellow Leaf, but only because part of the price goes to the Humane Society. It was miles above their previous “charity cupcakes”.
  
  Posted in The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company | Tagged caramel, cashew, chocolate
- 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
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