Icing on the Cupcake - Folsom, CA

You Had Me at Cupcake!  (don't you just love that slogan?)

I took a little road trip today and visited Icing on the Cupcake in Folsom, CA (near Sacramento). There are three locations in the Sacramento area so I chose the one closest down the mountain from Lake Tahoe.

The location was convenient and the storefront very appealing. There were quite a few customers inside but I got to order first because the others had not made up their minds yet. The staff was very friendly and helpful. The packaging is beautiful and the cupcakes survived the two-hour trip home without dropping a single crumb. 

I bought four cupcakes:  chocolate with chocolate buttercream, vanilla with vanilla buttercream, red velvet with cream cheese icing and lemon with lemon curd and lemon buttercream.  The cakes were moist but very dense (a little too dense for me).  The chocolate cake had a lot of chocolate flavor but the vanilla and red velvet cakes fell short on flavor.  The lemon cake was nicely lemony and the lemon curd was very good.  The chocolate buttercream was excellent and very rich in chocolate. The vanilla buttercream was quite tasty too. The lemon buttercream was smooth and creamy and added to the lemon cake without overpowering the cake flavor.  The cream cheese icing on the red velvet cupcake was....you already know I am going to say it needs more cream cheese.

Overall I had a nice cupcake experience! 

Icing on the Cupcake

2779 Bidwell Street

Folsom, CA 

(ph) 916-303-4333

Carpe Cupcakes! goes to New York

If you are reading this on Sunday, October 24th, I am on a plane somewhere between Salt Lake City and New York.  As soon as I land I will whip out my list of cupcake bakeries and start eating my way from one end of Manhattan to another!

Stay tuned this week for cupcake bakery reviews and much more....but what happens in NYC stays in NYC (allegedly). 

Melinda's Fantasy Cupcakes  via  Flickr

Trophy Cupcakes - Seattle

OH - EM - GEE!!  I have just eaten the most perfect lemon cupcake with lemon buttercream EVER! 
Trophy Cupcakes was also on my list of must visit cupcake bakeries because I had heard so many good things on other cupcake blogs.  I just had to see for myself. 

I bought two cupcakes....lemon with lemon buttercream and a Snowball (chocolate cake with coconut buttercream).  My head is still spinning with dee-lish-us-ness!  The lemon was subtle in the cake and the buttercream was so good I could almost take each tiny piece of lemon zest.  Perfection!  The Snowball was incredible.  The chocolate cake was moist and dense and the coconut buttercream is a 10 on my sweetness scale...and you know how I like a sweet buttercream. 

These cupcakes are so good I am tempted to move to Seattle!

Trophy Cupcake Box

the Trophy Cupcake selection

Snowball & Lemon cupcakes

Big City Cupcakes - Vancouver, B.C.

We almost missed Big City Cupcakes and that would have been our loss.  We were on a city bus headed to the Granville Island Market, and as the bus made a turn I saw cupcakes painted on a window.  I looked up quickly to see the street name so we could hike back and find it later.  It was well worth the hike. BTW...they have a great web site.

Big City Cupcakes has an elegant silver sign and logo but the cupcakes are the stars of the show!  The selection is huge and the cupcakes are nicely displayed.  They even have a printed guide with pictures of the types of cakes and frostings.  After much deliberation, we decided on the lemon and the coconut and headed down the street to a coffee shop where we could enjoy our purchases.

The lemon cupcake was very moist cake with delicate a crumb.  It was filled with lemon curd and topped with lemon butter cream….perfection is the only word to describe it.  The coconut cake was also moist with delicious butter cream frosting topped with a generous portion of coconut. 

There was only one thing my visit to Big City Cupcakes needed….a bigger appetite so I could eat more cupcakes!

 

 

Buttercream (the traveling cupcake) with a

Big City Cupcakes lemon cupcake 

Ooh La La Cupcakes - Victoria, B.C.

We hiked 3 miles to Ooh La La Cupcakes in Vancouver, B.C. and I would have hiked 10 more! What a wonderful experience. The cupcake shop sits on top of a hill and is in a quiet neighborhood…just the spot to enjoy a cupcake. I apologize for not remembering the name of the person who was working yesterday, but she made the trip to the bakery well worth the hike. She explained about the ingredients in each cupcake and the types of frosting. She made a fresh pot of coffee for us and served the cupcakes we ordered on little white plates to match our black and white polka dotted mugs. She also gave us tourist information and restaurant recommendations. It felt like we were having cupcakes and coffee in a good friend's kitchen. 

We ordered a coconut cupcake with meringue frosting and a lemon cupcake with lemon butter cream. Both cakes were moist and the flavors were just right (not overpowering). The coconut was baked into the cake, not just sprinkled on the top. The lemon flavor was definitely fresh lemons - not lemon flavoring. The lemon butter cream frosting did not overpower the cake, which as you know is a major requirement for me to really enjoy a cupcake. You know my soap box…the frosting should complement the cake, not overpower the cake.

The shop pays attention to every detail.  Your order will be beautifully packaged.  They have regular sized cupcakes and minis...and all are decorated simply but to perfection. 

If you are visiting Victoria, please make the trip to Ooh La La. If you choose not to walk there, it is only a short bus ride from downtown.

The Divine Cupcake - Eugene, OR

Yesterday I was reading my favorite cupcake blog (Cupcakes Take the Cake) and I noticed a flyer for a grand opening of The Divine Cupcake in Eugene, OR.  My brother Robert lives in Eugene so I quickly emailed him and sent him on an assignment...visit the cupcakery and try the cupcakes. 

Here is his review - with photos!

The place was a zoo! People--and lots of kids, of course--were lined up to get in for the free cupcakes. Quite the festive atmosphere.  Once I got close to the counter, I got to taste one of the freebies--a small chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing. Great chocolate flavor, but a bit dry, probably due to the small size.

My real order was an 8 oz. house coffee (Wandering Goat Coffee Company, a local Eugene roaster--nice!) and not one, not two, but three cupcakes. I had, in the following order:

(1) Lavender, with lavender icing. Yum! This was a real treat. I go loco for lavender of any sort, so I was especially pleased to see this recipe. The cake was perfect, not too sweet, with a very faint lavender flavor. The icing had a stronger lavender flavor, and perfect for food--sometimes lavender food products come across as too medicinal. If I closed my eyes, I was in a summer field of purple in Provence.

(2) Lemon. The cake was nice and moist, but the lemon flavor was minimal. I was surprised, since lemon cakes are a dime a dozen, and it's an easy flavor to do well in a cake. The icing was stronger, but a bit too sweet for me. Overall, a nice cup, very nice crumb to the cake.

(3) Carrot, with cream cheese icing and walnut morsels on top. It was a nice cake, and nicely presented, but the cake was too oily (I assume they are using a typical oil cake recipe) and so tender that it was impossible to hold together once the paper wrapper was removed. It crumbled at once, and my fingers were covered in sticky cake goo. The cake was not offensively spiced, as some places tend to do; the overall flavor was good, and the cream cheese icing was nice, but again, a little on the sweet side for me.

Overall, the pattern seems to be a relatively plain cake with the punch being in the icing. I'd like to go back and try the full-size chocolate to see if that blast of cocoa is maintained in the big boy.

Presentation was a pleasure: all the cakes were attractive and not overly decorated. The opening-day hullabaloo is probably not indicative of the atmosphere the owners are going for; the large plastic tubs of cakes coming from the kitchen were not so gourmet-looking, but the cakes kept coming, and the staff was doing a good job of keeping up with the mob. The five people behind the counter were cheerful and seemed to be learning on the job how to handle the crowd.

All in all, a very nice experience. These are not your granny's cupcakes--no eggs, no dairy, no gluten in most of them (maybe all of them). But they don't taste like the usual vegan bombs. A mother in front of me in line, whose son has food allergies, has bought cakes from Divine before they opened this shop, and she verified that the bakers maintain a strict kitchen with no mixing of nuts, dairy, and other products that could provoke allergies. So yummie cakes for all!

On a future visit I want to taste the ginger cup, which looked deep and dark and rich, as well as the classic vanilla and the peanut butter. They were already out of the red velvet cupcakes, which definitely deserve a return trip!

the crowd waiting to get cupcakes...and doing some shopping

glass cupcake magnets from Jamie Burress

(available on Etsy)

Lavender, Lemon & Carrot cupcakes...plus a

good cup of Wandering Goat java

Batch Cupcakery (Reno, NV)

I visited the Batch Cupcakery in Reno yesterday.  There are numerous bakeries in Reno but this is the only one totally dedicated to cupcakes.  I had been reading about it for several months and was in the neighborhood. 

I bought four cupcakes...but only two made it home.  The Sweetheart (red velvet with cream cheese frosting) was gone before I made it to the interstate.  This is the best cream cheese frosting I have had from a bakery and it tasted just like my mother's recipe.  I would put this frosting up against any southern recipe.  I had planned to wait and eat the Lemon Drop (moist lemon cake with lemon curd filling and lemon buttercream) after dinner, but I have no willpower so it disappeared somewhere between Reno and Carson City. 

The Batch Cupcakery web site lists business hours, flavors, maps/directions and contact information and you can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.  I will definitely be buying cupcakes there again.  The cupcakes are $1.75 each and very generous in size of cake and amount of frosting.  A great bargain in these tough economic times!

These photos tell the story of my visit. 

Nothing left but crumbs! 

Gigi's Cupcakes - Nashville

I was planning to pass through Nashville this past weekend and did a cupcake search before I left Lake Tahoe. There were several cupcake bakeries listed and I decided to try Gigi's Cupcakes because they offered many convenient locations that were right on my route.

I stopped at the Cool Springs location and bought 4 cupcakes: Scarlett Velvet (red velvet with cream cheese icing), Chocolate Malt (chocolate cake with buttercream icing and crushed malted milk balls around the edge), Tiger Tails (yellow cake with raspberry filling & buttercream icing topped with raspberry coconut) and Bailey's Irish Cream (Bailey's flavored cake with buttercream icing and chopped almonds around the edge).

The cupcakes were packaged beautifully in a "gift box" with a Gigi's sticker to seal it. The box had a cupcake holder inside to keep the cupcakes in place for transport.

Now for my cupcake critique! The cupcakes were not just pretty to look at...they were tasty as well. The cake was flavorful and the amount of icing on each one was very generous. The toppings complimented the cupcake flavors well. For me, the Bailey's cupcake could use more Bailey's, but that is just my personal preference. I loved the crushed malted milk balls on the chocolate cupcake...brilliant! The raspberry filling in the Tiger Tails cupcake was dee-lish. I would prefer cream cheese filling in the red velvet cake instead of the vanilla filling, but again, that is my personal preference. If I had a choice, I would put cream cheese icing on everything!

Gigi's web site is what sealed the deal for me to stop by, but the friendly staff and good cupcakes will bring me back again. They have a fantastic printed menu and an online menu that is updated to include weekly specials. Gigi produces a monthly newsletter (available online) and I have also subscribed to the RSS feed.

What else can I say...check out Gigi's Cupcakes in Nashville or any of their other locations.

Cups and Cakes Bakery - San Francisco

I came across a new cupcake bakery web site a few days ago and I just have to share it! They are opening their store in September at 415 9th St. in San Francisco and I will be making the 180 mile trip from Lake Tahoe as soon as they open. Save me a sampler pack!

I have a doctorate in online learning environments and part of my degree involves web site critique. Their web designer deserves free cupcakes for life! The Cups and Cakes Bakery web site is excellent. The site is colorful & informative and the goal of the site is simple...cupcakes. The graphics support the site's purpose and complement the information presented. The navigation is easy, and I especially like the "flavors" page. The site is not too large to get lost in, and everything you need to order cupcakes is there: phone number, email and links to access them via Twitter, Yelp, Facebook & Flickr.

Cups and Cakes Bakery has the best slogan ever!

If cupcakes are wrong, we don't wanna be right...

Cupcakes Bakery - Fresno, CA

I was recently in the Fresno area and decided to drop by the Cupcakes Bakery. I read about the opening of this bakery in an article posted by Cupcakes Take the Cake and since I am always in the mood for cupcakes, I wanted to give it a try.

I bought six regular-sized cupcakes (did not try the minis), choosing coconut, lemon, chocolate, carrot, raspberry & red velvet. I liked the cake part of all of these, but I like a sweet icing and the buttercream was not very sweet. The cream cheese icing could use more cream cheese. Many of the icings had colored sugar sprinkled on top and I did not care for the "crunch" this added. I am a creamy icing fan.

The pricing was $1.95 for regular-size and $0.75 for minis. The decorations complemented the cupcakes and were simple and attractive - as decorations should be. The flavors were labeled and the cupcakes were nicely displayed. I liked that each cupcake was packaged in its own Chinese-takeout type container.

This bakery is just getting started and is in a good location. I will definitely give it another try when I am in town. Overall, I think they will do well in Fresno.