The Cupcake Addict's Cupcake Collection

Tag: vanilla

• Katie’s Cupcakes, Bellingham, WA

  Posted at 5:36 pm by MLea

  Aug 16th

  This was my first trip to Bellingham and I would love to go back.  The downtown area is extremely cute and it would have been nice to walk around and look in the other shops.  However, we were in a hurry.  Mrs Chen, the little Chens, and I were enroute to Vancouver, BC to meet Mr Chen and Mr Shuck, who were riding their bicycles from Seattle to Vancouver, BC as part of Cascade Bicycle Club’s RSVP.

  

  We did take the time to visit Katie’s Cupcakes, one of 2 cupcake stops on this trip.

  I was very optimistic when walking up to the storefront and seeing such a cute window display.  Apparently their logo is by a fellow WordPress blogger, Frantic Pants.and then we walked in and the interior was happy and welcoming

  

  A place for the kiddies to play with lots of natural light...

  

  and colorful children's artwork on the walls...

  

  and cupcake related merchandise to buy...

  

  like T-shirts...

  

  even the bathroom walls were cute...

  There was a comfy chair in the bathroom so moms could nurse babies…or wait on their child to finish up….

  And, of course, there were cupcakes!

  

  Raspberry Truffle and Pina Colada

  

  Black Bottom and Red Velvet

  

  German Chocolate and Carrot Cake

  Also available that day:

  • Very Very Vanilla: white cake topped with vanilla butter cream
  • Classy Cupcake: white cake topped with chocolate butter cream
  • Black and White: chocolate cake topped with vanilla butter cream
  • Chocoholic: chocolate cake with dark chocolate butter cream

  All of the flavors were available in minis (called Maciecakes), so I chose 6

  

  MacieCake assortment

  All of the cakes were extremely moist and the icings were not overly sweet.  I didn’t even get to taste until late that evening and the cupcakes hadn’t suffered a bit.  I ate half of each of them that night and shared the other halves the next day.  All of the cupcake halves were still moist and delicious (although not very attractive as I dropped the box TWICE).

  • German chocolate (top left): This was a light chocolate cake topped with a coconut/nut frosting.  Excellent texture from the coconut and nuts.   I would definitely get this again.
  • Pina Colada (top right): Unfortunately the mini didn’t come with an umbrella!  This lack made it pretty unremarkable to look at.  Pineapple flavored cake topped with white coconut icing.  This bite of cake was just okay.  We had a much tastier Pina Colada cake at PinkaBella.
  • Black Bottom (middle left):  This was an amazing bite!  I must confess that I was unable to leave the other half until the next day.  I was unwilling to share this one!  Rich dark chocolate cake filled with a tiny dab of cheesecake filling, topped with a delicate chocolate butter cream, and garnished with a swirl of cream cheese icing.  Tangy chocolate goodness.  The best Black Bottom cupcake I’ve had.
  • Carrot Cake (middle right): Visible strips of carrot in a soft, lightly spiced cake.  The cream cheese icing was tart and lightly sweet.  No pineapple chunks or raisins!
  • Chocoholic (bottom left): The same dark chocolate cake as the Black Bottom, but topped with a bittersweet chocolate icing that was so dark it was almost black.  This one was also delightful.
  • Very Very Vanilla (bottom right):  I didn’t have a taste of this one, but was told that it was “very good” even the next day.

  If I lived in Bellingham, I’d have a hard time staying away from Katie’s.  I wish they weren’t almost 2 hours away!  I will definitely check them out again if ever I am nearby.

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged bellingham, black bottom, Carrot, chocolate, katie's, pina colada, vanilla

• M= Moosetracks

  Posted at 7:59 pm by MLea

  Aug 11th

  For those of you that don’t know, Moose Tracks® is an ice cream by Denali® Flavors.   It is made into various store brand ice creams and other small dairies like Mayfield and Turkey Hill.  Moose Tracks® has a vanilla ice cream base and is accented with peanut butter cups and Moose Tracks® fudge.

  

  Trader Joe's Mini Peanut Butter Cups

  I started off my cup cake interpretation with a standard vanilla cupcake batter.  I creamed together 2 sticks room temperature butter and 2 cups sugar.  I then added 4 eggs and 2 teaspoonfuls of vanilla and mixed well.  In a separate bowl, I mixed 3 cups flour, 3 teaspoonfuls baking powder and a bit of salt.  I added it in thirds to the butter mixture, alternating with 2/3 cup warmed milk.   When the flour was incorporated, I stirred in a box of Trader Joe’s Mini Peanut Butter cups.  I scooped into 24 cupcake liners and baked for around 20 minutes at 350.

  

  Baked up Moosetracks

  While the cakes were cooling, I started the icing.  I thought about using the Drumsticks fudge as an icing, but its too thick to pipe when cool and too thin to pipe when warm… I also thought about using my grandmother’s boiled chocolate icing which I remember as being “fudgy”… but she always poured it onto a sheet cake still in the pan.  I didn’t know how that would pipe either… I ended up using a recipe that I found on Chowhound.  I don’t know who to credit….

  I heated 1 cup of cream with a couple of tablespoonfuls of corn syrup and a pinch of salt.  When it was simmering, I poured it over 20 ounces of chopped chocolate.  (I used a bag of Ghiardelli semi sweet chips that I had on hand and 8 ounces of Callebaut bittersweet).  I mixed this until the chocolate was melted, then added 1 cup of powdered sugar, then 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter a little at a time and blended until smooth.  After it cooled completely in the frig (I was short on time!) I whipped it a bit to make it fluffy.

  

  I ended up with 2 pans in the oven when I baked the cupcakes.  Both pans were the same TYPE of pan (non-stick), but not the same BRAND (one was Wilton and one was CakeMate, I think).  When I initially took the cakes out of the oven, one of the pans seemed to be a little underdone.  When I touched the top to see if it bounced back, it was still wet, so I put that pan back in the oven for an extra 2 minutes.   When Mr Shuck and I ate a cupcake later on that night, mine was still a little raw in the middle.  Mr Shuck’s was fine.  We both thought the cupcakes were good, but the icing was a little sweeter than I like.   The next day at work, I got mixed reviews:  some people thought the cupcakes were “a little dense” and “dry” and others thought they were good.  I think it probably depended on which pan they had come out of.  There is also the possibility that some of my friends are honest and some don’t want to complain about a free cupcake!  I think I might try to get another Wilton pan for consistency.  I also think I need to spend an entire weekend testing vanilla cake recipes.   If anyone out there wants to share…..

  Posted in Mrs Shuck's Creations | Tagged chocolate, Moosetracks, peanut butter, vanilla

• A cupcake from Hello Cupcake in Tacoma, Wa

  Posted at 9:13 am by MLea

  May 7th

  Hello, Cupcake! has a very cute shop tucked in between an arty shop (BKB) and Hot Rod Hot Dogs on Pacific Ave in Tacoma.   They have cute cupcake ornaments, Cakespy artwork, licorice pigs and lots of Hammond’s candies for sale.  They also have cupcakes!

  The flavors available were pretty standard: vanilla/vanilla, chocolate/chocolate with sprinkles, mocha with coffee icing, red velvet, carrot, and vanilla/chocolate (both ways).   I chose the chocolate with vanilla icing which was extremely cute and topped with a little sugar flower.  You’ll have to trust me on this.  I apparently deleted all my photos.  Oops!  (Their website has lots, so check them out.)

  I was worried about the moistness of the cupcake when it started crumbling when I pulled off the liner.  The icing was standard (American, I assume) butter cream: very sweet with not much flavor other than “sugary”.  The cake was dry and not very heavy on chocolate-y-ness.  The combination resulted in a slight bitterness.  I needed a chaser to get the taste out of my mouth.  Darnit!  My soda was dry!

  My rating: ♥.   I might try again if I’m in the area if I were hungry.  I’d probably end up getting a veggie dog next door instead.

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged chocolate, Hello Cupcake, Tacoma, vanilla

• New Cupcakes from Dahlia Bakery

  Posted at 6:10 am by MLea

  Apr 15th

  So after a useless doctor’s appointment, I felt a little “cupcake-y”.  I had to pick up Mr Shuck downtown and Dahlia Bakery was on the way…

  

  Orange Vanilla Cupcake from Dahlia Bakery

  The Orange Vanilla cupcake looked much better at the bakery.  I obviously didn’t exercise enough care in the car and my cupcake turned over in the Chinese takeout container.   The cake was a little dense and chewy, but still moist with mild orange flavor.  The icing, I think an Italian meringue butter cream, had stronger orange flavor from flecks of zest.  The cake was garnished with a strip of candied orange zest and curls of white chocolate.   My rating: ♥♥♥.  I’d gladly pay for this again, but I probably wouldn’t drive out of the way.  I like the way they coordinate their flavor with the liner.  I’m not willing to pay extra to dress my cupcakes in pretty liners since I they are definitely a labor of love not profit.  White liners are cheaper.

  

  Rocky Road Cupcake from Dahlia Bakery: Click to enlarge

  The Rocky Road cupcake wasn’t very rocky.  I think I experienced only 2 or 3 nuts.  Not very much crunch there.  The cake was was moist and full of bittersweet chocolate flavor.  The marshmallow meringue was nice and fluffy, but a bit grainy, like the sugar hadn’t dissolved completely.  In spite of the lack of nuts and some graininess, I enjoyed this cupcake.  My rating: ♥♥ 1/2.  I might get it again if I was in the area.  It would depend on what else they had instead.

  On a side note…I drifted into Yellow Leaf because Mr Shuck was waiting for me next to their bakery.  I was hoping for something spectacularly yummy like Pancakes and Bacon, but they didn’t have anything new or exciting today.  Maybe next time!

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged Dahlia Bakery, orange, rocky road, vanilla

• H= Half Baked

  Posted at 10:11 pm by MLea

  Mar 31st

  Inspired yesterday by Main Street Cupcakes and educated by the Cake Mix Doctor cookbook that I thumbed through at Costco, I decided that “H” was going to be for “Half Baked” instead of “Hostess”.  Converting a cupcake to another cupcake isn’t that imaginative, right?  Half Baked is a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor that consists of a swirl of chocolate and vanilla ice cream laced with chunks of brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough.  In a word, it’s “YUM!”

  

  Ben and Jerry's Half Baked: Stolen from somewhere....

  For the chocolate and vanilla ice cream, I used Cooks Illustrated recipes for Dark Chocolate Cupcakes and Yellow Cupcakes.  For speed, I used 2 eggs instead of 1 egg and 2 egg yolks.  I didn’t think the yellow color was really necessary and figured there was enough going on in the cupcake that no one would notice the small bit of fat missing.  I scooped vanilla batter in half the cup and chocolate batter in the other half.

  

  Half and Half Batter: click to enlarge

  For the cookie dough filling, I cheated.  Maybe I should have made my own cookie dough, but I didn’t want a huge batch of cookie dough around the house in addition to a couple of pans of cupcakes, so I used frozen Nestle Toll House dough.  (Ok, so I still have half a pack of frozen dough in the freezer…but that’s beside the point.)

  

  Cheater Cookie Dough Filling

  I broke the frozen dough apart (as suggested by the Cake Doctor) and mushed it down into the batter.  It should be used completely frozen so it won’t cook all the way.  Otherwise, you’d end up with a cookie in a cupcake, not dough in a cupcake.

  

  Half and half batter with dough mushed in: Click to enlarge.

  I baked at 350 for 20 minutes and ended up with this:

  

  Hot cupcakes, fresh from the oven: click to enlarge

  After they cooled down a bit, the centers fell and I ended up with this:

  

  Half Baked after cooling: Click to enlarge

  While the cupcakes cooled completely, I made a Chocolate Italian Meringue Butter cream using Warren Brown’s recipe that I found here. My butter might have been closer to melted than room temperature, so I had to let the icing chill for a bit before I could scoop it out.

  Ben and Jerry’s also contains brownie bits.  I cheated again…since I didn’t need a whole pan of brownies… and used frozen brownie dough.

  

  Nestle Toll House Mini Brownie Bites

  I baked a few of the brownie bites, then cut them into little chunks to use as garnish.  If I make these again…and I will… I’ll try to make a brownie crust on the bottom. 

  

  Finished Half Baked Cupcake: Click to enlarge

  Mr Shuck and I both liked these a lot.  He liked the 2 different flavors of cake and thought the icing was silky and creamy and not too sweet.  I think the icing tastes like room temperature chocolate ice cream, if that could exist in a non-liquid form.  I would have liked to have gotten more brownie incorporated, but I think I’d need a baking assistant for that.   “H” is definitely an improvement over “G”.

  Posted in Mrs Shuck's Creations | Tagged brownies, chocolate, cookie dough, half baked, vanilla

• Rock of Love and Vanilla from Wink Cupcakes

  Posted at 9:30 pm by MLea

  Feb 13th

  So, after work today, before a pizza at Tutta Bella, we ventured up Queen Anne Hill to Wink Cupcakes to check them out.  It was cute.    You can watch them at least decorate the cupcakes while you have a cupcake at one of the little tables inside.  They also have ice cream if you are lactose tolerant.  They have a Red Velvet Mocha and a Buttercream Latte as fancy coffee choices.   You can buy cupcake bath fizzes and Bella Couture cupcake wrappers.  If I hadn’t been starving and anxious for my Salerno Salad and pizza, I might have had my cupcake while sitting at a little white cafe table (I brought along the camera) and tried the Buttercream Latte.  (I wonder if they put red dye in the Red Velvet Mocha.)  Instead I got my cupcakes to go, packaged in little Chinese food take out containers.

  

  The other flavor choices that I noticed today: chocolate peanut butter, Red Velvet, and vanilla.  There might have been more, but I was on a speedy mission and didn’t take notes.

  The “Rock of Love” cupcake was described as a chocolate jalapeno cake topped with chili lime butter cream.  The cake definitely contained some jalapeno, but not enough chocolate.  I had a bit of a flashback to sharing nachos at the movies with one of my friends.  She always ate the jalapenos, but there was always some juice left on my part.  Were these jalapenos canned?  I really liked the butter cream, though.  It seemed like a meringue butter cream.  It wasn’t overly sweet and was very smooth.  The lime flavor was distinct, but I didn’t notice any chili.  The cake was better when eaten in tandem with the icing, not a bare sample as I tried initially.  Rating: ♥ 1/2.  I probably wouldn’t pay for this cupcake again; but if passed at a party, I’d lick the icing off before putting it back on the tray.

  The mini vanilla cupcake was okay.  The icing was nice.  The cake was moist and flavorful, but I didn’t like the texture- too spongy.  Rating: ♥♥.

  I think that Wink deserves a second look.  Their vanilla icing is better than Yellow Leaf, the cake might be better than Trophy.

  Posted in Wink Cupcakes | Tagged Chocolate Jalepeno, vanilla

• 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

• Head to Head Cupcake Death Match!

  Posted at 6:39 pm by MLea

  Sep 15th
  The contenders:  Trophy’s Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Icing vs Yellow Leaf’s Simply Vanilla Cupcake

  The judges:  Mrs Shuck and friend Mrs Cram

  The venue:  Trophy Cupcake in Wallingford.

  Huge aside:  Yes, I know it was somewhat disrespectful to take a Yellow Leaf Cupcake to Trophy’s flagship store, but it was a necessary rudeness.  Thankfully, I had a filed photo of Yellow Leaf’s Simply Vanilla as I dropped the box on the ground  en route to Trophy.  I already had to set up my primitive photo studio (red t-shirt on box + camera) at a table at Trophy.   It would have been more discourteous to photograph a competitor’s cupcake inside their establishment than to just eat it in there….

  The opinions:  Both judges agreed that Yellow Leaf has the best vanilla cake: moist and flavorful.   However, Yellow Leaf’s vanilla icing has a slick texture…similar to soft butter… and not much vanilla flavor.  Mrs Cram found the icing to be distracting and that it coated her tongue.   Trophy’s cake was fine, nothing spectacular, but their icing was superior and had more vanilla flavor.

  The result:   While Yellow Leaf had the best cake, their icing was inferior.  Trophy’s cake was good, but they had much better icing, so Trophy was declared the winner of the battle of vanillas.

  

  Yellow Leaf's Simply Vanilla

  

  Trophy's Vanilla Vanilla

  

  Cupcake Catastrophy

  Posted in The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company, Trophy Cupcakes | Tagged vanilla

• Sugar Rush by default

  Posted at 3:42 am by MLea

  Aug 13th

  So, I called Yellow Leaf today to see what flavors they had for the day.  Mr Shuck was 2 blocks away volunteering, so I called him to see if he’d pick me up a Mexican Chocolate cupcake.  He agreed.  I thought about it ALL DAY.  I got in the car at the end of the day and was told he forgot!   I still love him.  Since I was in the cupcake mood (when am I not?), we stopped off at Coffee to a Tea in West Seattle to see what Sugar Rush had to offer for the day.  I chose a vanilla cupcake filled with chocolate mousse and dipped in chocolate ganache.

  

  Sugar Rush mousse filling

  

  Vanilla filled with chocolate mousse dipped in chocolate ganache.

  
  

  My review:  Extremely cute cupcake. I loved the little flowers.  Very “Life is Good“.   The ganache frosting was lovely.  (I actually think the description said that it was truffle dipped.).  The chocolate mousse inside was creamy, but tasted a lot like J-ello chocolate pudding.  The cake was spongey.  I don’t think I like the texture of sponge cake.  I would eat it again if it was presented to me, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase one.

  Rating: ♥♥

  Posted in Miscellaneous Bakeries | Tagged chocolate, Sugar Rush, vanilla

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