On our recent Portland trip, we made a stop at JaCiva’s Bakery. We tried the first of their cupcakes when we stumbled upon them at a Portland grocery store last year.
We made it to the bakery just seconds before a bus from an assisted living center unloaded into the building, so I didn’t get to spend as much time inside as I would have liked. It got very crowded very quickly. They had some amazing looking chocolates I wish I had been able to photograph: a chocolate toothbrush, a big chocolate cupcake that you could fill with cookies, and chocolate tennis rackets.
There were only 2 cupcakes available: The 7th Heaven cupcake, which we tried before, and a peanut butter chocolate cupcake.
I apologize to the Hotel Modera for dropping chocolate bits all over the floor when I unpeeled this monstrous cupcake. It was very similar to the 7th Heaven cupcake: chocolate cake topped with peanut butter mousse then dipped into melted chocolate. The mousse was wonderful: fluffy and nutty. The cake was a little dry, but it had a nice texture otherwise. The cupcake was WAY too big and I grazed on it for the rest of the evening. The hard chocolate coating was very messy since it came down over the edge of the liner. (No, I did not get any chocolate on the white comforter on the bed….just all over the floor… and on the bottom of my socks… and on my jeans…)
I would love to try some chocolates from JaCiva’s. Hopefully we will have better timing the next time we’re in Portland.