Gingerbread Wednesday

I was still in the mood for Christmasy flavors on this Wednesday before New Year's,
so I decided there was no better time to try my Heavenly Delight Gingerbread cupcake.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this one; I like gingerbread cookies, but I'd never had gingerbread cake. The HD version was, well ... OK. The cake itself was a bit dry and lacking the bold gingerbread flavor I was expecting, although the garnish of gingerbread cookie crumbles helped on that front. The frosting tasted like cream cheese, and it was without a doubt the high point of the cupcake, which was good but not among my favorites from HD.

I just couldn't get excited about this one. I'm glad I waited until after Christmas to try it, because, although it was way better than a lump of coal, it didn't make me particularly jolly.

Sugar Cookie Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve, and I've accepted that there's going to be a certain amount of gluttony today and tomorrow.  So I figured why not sample another cupcake from the freezer?

Heavenly Delight's Sugar Cookie was tempting me, so I defrosted that one and dug in.

Moist yellow cake served as a base for HD's vanilla buttercream frosting, with a garnish of festive white glitter and, of course, a sugar cookie wedge -- a soft, fresh-tasting sugar cookie wedge, at that.

This one was simple, but all the elements were on target -- the frosting wasn't overly sweet, and the cake was the perfect texture. All in all, a worthy yuletide treat. I think Santa would love a few of these for his global voyage.

Warm wishes for a merry and blessed Christmas, cupcake lovers!

Midnight indulgence

All the holiday goodies the past couple days at work had me longing for the weekend so I could grab another cupcake out of the freezer.

I was in the mood for chocolate, so I chose Sugar Mama's Chocolate-Covered Strawberry.

Mmmmmmm.

What a great cupcake! It's the first time I've had the combination of strawberry cake and light but creamy chocolate frosting, which worked together to perfectly capture the flavor of a chocolate-covered strawberry -- which topped the cupcake as a garnish. I could see these cupcakes at a wedding reception. Delicious AND elegant. I could have easily gobbled down a couple more!

Cupcake-palooza

I've been juggling cupcakes from three bakers for the past several days, and I have to say I don't mind one bit. My freezer was already holding a half-dozen from Heavenly Delight and Sugar Mama's this morning when I received my spur-of-the-moment three-flavor order from Tracy of TLCuppycakes in Petersburg. She had posted on her Facebook page two nights prior that she would be bringing a delivery of her Holiday Red Velvet, Cranberry Bliss and Snickerdoodle cupcakes into town along with some extras for anyone with a craving.

Since I discovered Tracy's cupcakes a month or so ago, I've become as hooked on her confections as my beloved Heavenly Delight, so I couldn't resist adding to my backlog. In light of the sheer number of cupcakes and the other sweets and holiday foods lurking around the office, I decided to up my usual indulgence by eating two full cupcakes and just part of two others. (Sugar Mama's peanut butter cupcake was calling my name from the freezer, so I plucked it out and brought it to work with me. Thankfully, SM's cakes are a bit smaller than some of the others bakers', so I didn't feel quite so bad about eating it in whole.)

OK, the whole truth? I ate way too much cake today, and to be honest I have a bellyache as I type this. But there's always tomorrow to hop back on the bandwagon of health.

But back to the cupcakes. I started my carb-fabulous day with that peanut butter goodie from Sugar Mama's, and it was quite a satisfying lead-in to the Wednesday sugar rush. The chocolate cake was pleasantly moist with some chunkiness that I think was either chocolate chunks or Reese's Peanut Butter Cup chunks baked in. The frosting, which was topped with a small peanut butter cup wedge, was unlike other peanut butter frostings I've tried in that it was stronger on the salty peanut butter flavor. There definitely wasn't as much sugar as in the others. I didn't mind it, though; not every frosting needs to be loaded with sugar, and I liked how the boldness and authenticity of the peanut butter's flavor came through. It struck just the right balance with the sweetness of the cake and the candy wedge on top. 

Next up was the much-anticipated TLCuppycakes Holiday Red Velvet. After my recent bad experience with a bone-dry Cafe Moxo red velvet, I was ready for something a little more promising. Based on my previous TLCuppycakes cakes, I had every reason to believe this red velvet would be the real deal. 

Presentation-wise, the cupcake was an eye-catcher: deep-red cake, fluffy tower of frosting and a dusting of white-chocolate shavings reminiscent of snowflakes. Biting into it, I knew I had found a red velvet to remember. Moist cake. Light, creamy cream cheese frosting. A touch of smooth, light vanilla cream in the center -- a delightful surprise. This was red velvet fit for royalty. I've tried quite a few red velvets from various bakeries during my cupcake journey, and this one ranks at the top.

By the time I got home from work, I was ready for a bite or two from the remaining TLCuppycakes varieties -- Cranberry Bliss and Snickerdoodle. 

Cranberry is a flavor I'd normally pass over in most foods or beverages, simply because the tart flavor is a bit strong for my palate. I'm glad I gave TL's Cranberry Bliss a chance, though. The orange-cranberry cake surrounded a light cranberry filling and was topped with white-chocolate buttercream and a garnish of toasted almonds. Despite cranberry not being my first choice, I enjoyed the flavor combination and the sheer quality of the cupcake as a whole. My observation, based on the TL cakes I've tried so far, is that the quality will be dependable even if not every cupcake variety is my taste per se. 

I'm a sucker for cinnamon, so I was pretty sure I'd be a fan of TL's Snickerdoodle. Sure enough, this was the cupcake I wish I'd gotten when I ordered the Cinnamon Sugar cupcake at Sprinkles Cupcakes on the Chicago cupcake crawl this past July. That cupcake, from a cupcake chain that originated in Los Angeles and has since opened shops on the East Coast as well as in Chi-town, was merely a cinnamon poundcake --  no frosting and not even a light glaze, which at the time I felt would have elevated the Cinnamon Sugar to greatness. TL's Snickerdoodle, with it's cinnamon-vanilla cake, light cinnamon filling, cinnamon-vanilla buttercream frosting and dusting of cinnamon sugar, had all the elements missing from that Sprinkles cupcake. The founder of Sprinkles is a judge on The Food Channel's "Cupcake Wars," and she could take a lesson from TLCuppycakes on this particular cupcake.

Heck, what's a little stomachache when it comes from a day of phenomenal cupcakes? 

Two-cupcake Saturday

I was ready for some sugar by the time I finished a challenging Saturday morning workout, and I got it in spades -- a friend at the gym introduced me to some cupcakes by a friend of hers, with a baking business known as Sugar Mama's Cupcakes. Lauren and Sugar Mama's treated me to four flavors -- Lime Margarita, Cherry Limeade, Peanut Butter and Chocolate-Covered Strawberry. Lauren had raved about the Lime Margarita, so I decided to try that one first.

What a great cupcake! The lime cake was moist and flavorful, and the frosting was creamy with a subtle hint of lime. The cherry on top was a delightful touch. I agreed with Lauren's description -- that it was like eating a margarita.

In addition to the Sugar Mama's cupcakes, I picked up four cupcakes I had ordered from Heavenly Delight at the holiday farmers market on the state fairgrounds. The Christmasy HD lineup included Sugar Cookie, Gingerbread, Hot Chocolate and Pistachio. I love pistachios, so I was excited to make that one my first sample from the HD bunch.

The pistachio, with its pistachio cake and vanilla frosting, was tasty, but I thought the frosting was a tad too sweet -- sweeter than it's been on other HD cupcakes. It didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it was still good to taste some HD again and to have three more new HD creations to try on upcoming cupcake days.

Between those and the rest of the Sugar Mama's confections, the freezer is awesomely stocked.

Anything but velvet

Today was the day for eating excess at work, with our office potluck falling on the same day I stopped at Cafe Moxo for my weekly cupcake (it's worth noting that today is National Cupcake Day). Somehow, I  managed to find room in my stomach for a ridiculous amount of food.

But on to the matter at hand -- Cafe Moxo's Red Velvet cupcake.

Simply stated, the cake was horribly dry, possibly the worst of all the Moxo cupcakes I’ve tried so far. Terribly disappointing. Not even Moxo’s luscious cream cheese frosting could save this one. For one thing, there was much less frosting than on a typical Moxo cupcake -- not nearly enough to smother the heavy, almost crusty cake. How dry was that Moxo cupcake, REALLY? you may ask. Well, it was so dry that, an hour after eating it, the crumbs RATTLED inside the styrofoam bowl to which I had transferred it for sampling. I mean, we're talking little red velvet pebbles. It was so dry that it was more like cornbread than a cupcake. It was more desert than dessert.

OK, you get the point.

If this had been my first experience with a Moxo cupcake, I'm fairly certain that I would not return for a second. However, I have three reasons for continuing my quest of trying Moxo's whole menu: 1. The awesome frosting; 2. I finish what I start; and 3. I've had good cupcakes at Moxo.

Nevertheless, I may take a break from Moxo for a week or two. The holiday farmers market runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Artisans Building on the state fairgrounds, and Heavenly Delight is going to have a booth there. Just to be sure I'll be able to get the cupcakes I want, I called ahead this week and reserved four of the seasonal flavors that will be available: Gingerbread, Hot Chocolate, Sugar Cookie and Pistachio. Knowing I can freeze HD cupcakes, I'm looking forward to being able to savor them for a week or two, and maybe for a couple Cupcake Wednesdays -- if I can leave them alone that long! 

From a sandwich to a cupcake: The PB&J

I never ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when I was a kid -- I just never liked the combination of flavors. I love peanut butter and jelly separately, but in this case, opposites don't attract for me.

Thus, I felt some trepidation about trying Cafe Moxo's PB&J cupcake. I knew I'd love the peanut butter frosting because I tried it several years ago on Moxo's peanut butter cupcake with chocolate cake. I just wasn't sure how I'd feel about the raspberry jelly filling in the white cake or the jelly garnish on the frosting.

Well, let's just say I lived through the tasting experience. I tried the cake by itself first to get a sense of texture -- dry or moist? -- since Moxo has a tendency toward dry cake. The white cake was pretty dry -- no suprise there. It wasn't terrible, but the entire cupcake would have been so much better with a moister cake.

Next, I boldly took a bite of all three elements together -- cake, filling and frosting. My first taste of jelly and peanut butter together wasn't as traumatic as I expected. It actually wasn't so bad. Even so, I don't think I would seek out this cupcake again. Moxo's peanut butter frosting is so good that I'd rather enjoy it uncomplicated by another type of bold flavor. (Although I have to give credit where it's due -- the jelly was quite tasty on its own and did its part to boost the dry cake.) Once I'd taken the plunge and tried the peanut butter and jelly together, I toppled the cupcake and finished it from the bottom, cake and filling together, then frosting. (There wasn't a significant portion of jelly garnishing the frosting, so I was, for the most part, able to enjoy the frosting on its own merits.)

I think I've grown from this experience trying a flavor combination I've always avoided. Well, I've grown as a cupcake reviewer, anyway. I won't be eating any peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Do-overs

With the extravagance of Thanksgiving week behind me, I felt my old, familiar craving for cupcakes return on this cold but sunny late-November Wednesday. It was the right time to head back to Cafe Moxo and give a second chance to one of the several cupcakes I tried freezing a few weeks ago with subpar results. I was in the mood for Moxo's vanilla frosting, so I chose the Black and White, with chocolate cake and chocolate sprinkles atop the mound of light, fluffy icing.

I was eager to dig in after lunch and find out if this particular cupcake was better fresh. I was pleasantly surprised to find the cake suitably light and moist and the frosting the same texture I remembered from previous vanilla-topped cupcakes I'd tried at Moxo. Freezing the two Moxo cupcakes I'd stocked up on at the beginning of November -- Black and White and Bistro (yellow cake with chocolate frosting) -- I had discovered, upon thawing them, that the cake had lost its moisture and the frosting had thickened somehow. They just weren't as light as previous Moxo cupcakes I'd tried fresh. Despite some misgivings about the overall quality of Moxo cupcakes, I knew I had to give those varieties a "fresh" chance, and I decided not to let the bad experience color my overall opinion of Moxo's offerings.

So the Black and White notches a rebound win today, and I look forward to a renewed vigor in my exploration of Moxo's menu. Bring on next week!

Tastebuds all aflutter

Though I was sad I had to miss my colleage Jayette's cupcake-tasting party on Saturday, I had the chance, after watching my alma mater's football team lose at Memorial Stadium, to try a bakery in Champaign called Cream and Flutter (http://creamandflutter.com/ -- if you're a Springfieldian, the website alone will make you want to attempt dangerous speeds on I-72 East).

Our stop was brief due to desperate parking in a permit-only lot across the street (the bakery is in the heart of Champaign's bustling downtown), but I was able to take some pictures while we debated over the beautifully decorated cupcakes behind glass at the end of the counter inside the spacious, high-ceilinged bakery.

I knew in advance what my selections would be, since I had pored over the website, and at the checkout a friendly, young girl presented me with a brown box labeled with a sticker bearing the bakery's logo.

But what was inside the box, you might ask? Well, there were seven flavors to choose from, three of them the shop's "signature" cupcakes -- vanilla, chocolate and red velvet -- and the other four seasonal varieties -- fig, eggnog nutmeg, peppermint and peanut butter. The description of the vanilla on the website -- Madagascar bourbon vanilla cake -- intrigued me, and I can rarely resist peanut butter, so those were my choices.

In order to avoid the cupcake overload I wrote about in my previous post, I decided to cut both cupcakes in half so I could try each flavor fresh and freeze the rest for later. (Here's hoping Cream and Flutter cupcakes freeze better than Cafe Moxo cupcakes.)

The vanilla was absolutely outstanding. The white cake was very good, but what floored me was the frosting: thick and obviously made with confectioner's sugar, which is my weakness when it comes to frosting. This cupcake was the closest in taste that I've found to my all-time favorite cupcakes (and frosting), at Magnolia Bakery in New York (and now Chicago). I'm not sure what role the Madagascar bourbon flavoring played because the vanilla didn't taste any different from any other vanilla I've had, but if it had a hand in making the frosting so spectacular, I'll be keeping a lookout for it in the future.

The peanut butter cupcake was also delicious, although the frosting was a completely different texture from that of the vanilla -- light, delicate and more reminiscent of the Italian buttercream used on cupcakes we ate at Swirlz Cupcakes on the Chicago cupcake crawl this past summer. I much prefer a thicker, more traditional buttercream to the lighter variety, but I also found that the lighter consistency complemented the richness of the peanut butter flavor, as well as the garnish of chopped peanuts. A heavier frosting may have put the chocolate cake-and-PB combo into bellyache territory.

Cream and Flutter seems to change its seasonal flavors often, and I want to try the chocolate and the red velvet -- not to mention the myriad of other sweets the shop sells. When I saw the whoopie pies for sale, I almost bought one in addition to my two cupcakes, but I managed to resist and promised myself to try one next time I'm in Champaign. As a U of I grad who adores and misses campus, I'll be back in the winter for at least one basketball game. Maybe on that trip, I'll be celebrating a win with a cupcake instead of consoling myself over a loss.

Cupcake Windfall Friday!

I usually try to refrain from sweets on Fridays, in light of Cupcake Wednesdays and weekend indulgences, but this week I had to make an exception. In my previous post, I mentioned making contact with Tracy Cowee, owner of TLCuppycakes, who works out of a licensed kitchen in Petersburg and often makes deliveries to Springfield. She had offered to stop at The State Journal-Register, where I work, and deliver "extras" she had brought along. That was an offer I couldn't refuse. (Want to order from her? Check out

	http://www.tlcuppycakes.com.)

In a parallel storylines, two of my colleages, Jayette Bolinski and Kathryn Rem (the SJ-R's food editor) were also dealing in cupcakes. Jayette, who is president of the PTO at her son's school, was preparing to host a cupcake-tasting experience that she had assembled as an item for a PTO auction. She had secured six dozen cupcakes -- a dozen from each of six bakeries -- for the event, and TLCuppycakes was one of the vendors she chose.

Meanwhile, Kathryn (whom Jayette invited to be a tasting expert of sorts at the "cupcake party") had, by chance, spent part of the day in the Petersburg area researching a story. While she was there, she stopped at two bakeries -- Mama's Bakery in Salisbury and OMGosh Bakery and Desserts in Petersburg. When she returned to the office Friday afternoon, she didn't come emtpy-handed -- she brought back two cupcakes from OMGosh and one from Mama's.

It was late afternoon when Tracy arrived at the SJ-R with two cupackes for me (an Ultimate Hot Cocoa and a Pumpkin Cream Cheese) and a dozen for Jayette (those flavors, plus Grandma's Apple Pie). I had asked Kathryn and Jayette to split my two cupcakes with me, and Kathyrn had generously offered to share her cupcakes with us, so we took a break, holed up in the office dining room and sampled the five cupcakes. Here are our evaluations:

We started with OMGosh's Snicker, which, as Kathryn noted, was "heavy!" OMGosh makes oversized cupcakes that appear to be nearly twice the size of your average, residential-kitchen cupcake. The Snicker, overall, was one of our favorites. The cake was lusciously moist, with a creamy caramel-peanut butter filling throughout the cake and moussy chocolate frosting that was flavorful but not too rich.We also loved the bite-size Snickers candy garnish.

Next up was Pumpkin from Mama's Bakery. It looked pretty good, but when we tasted it, two of us found the cake was dry, possibly a result of overbaking. The cream-cheese frosting, however, was a wonderful texture and flavor, likely made with confectioner's sugar, that I felt saved the cupcake.

We followed up Mama's Pumpkin with our other Thanksgiving-inspired cake, TLCuppycakes' Pumpkin Cream Cheese. This one blew us away, and I think we all agreed it was our favorite of the bunch. The cake, lusciously moist and perfectly spiced, embraced a creamy, spicy vanilla filling. We all agreed that the cake actually tasted like pumpkin pie. The buttery cream-cheese frosting was just the right complement to everything, and a candy-corn pumpkin topped the festive confection. There's no doubt that TLCuppycakes' Pumpkin Cream Cheese has made my Thanksgiving list of things to be thankful for!

Though we parted with pumpkin, we stuck with TLCuppycakes, moving on to Tracy's Ultimate Hot Cocoa cupcake. Tracy had told me that she used actual hot cocoa, made on the stove the old-fashioned way, in the batter for the Ultimate's light, springy chocolate cake. I give her extra points for taking that step, as well as for the whipped chocolate filling that was waiting to greet us from within. To further demonstrate the theme, she topped the cake with a vanilla frosting that tasted of real whipped cream. Garnishing the cocoa cake was a sprinkling of hot cooca mix.

Finally, we tackled OMGosh's massive Peppermint cake. This one was top-to-bottom peppermint, and we felt the flavor was a bit too strong -- and the peppermint extract had a "fake" taste to it that lingered longer on our palates than we liked. The cake was white, which I found interesting, since most other peppermint cucpakes I've seen have featured chocolate cake. The white wasn't a bad choice, but it was laced with the peppermint extract, as was the light, Cool Whip-like frosting. We felt the frosting may have contained shortening, which was a turnoff to two of us. I have to say, though, that I thought the light consistency of the frosting was a smart choice for the frosting. With a flavor as strong as peppermint, a heavier frosting might have been too overwhelming. I just wished it had been made with butter instead of shortening.

We love these occasional cupcake sampling sessions, and I joked that we need to do them quarterly. Who knows if we actually will, but one thing's for sure: It's hard to imagine a better afternoon workday break.



Pumpkin Spice and everything nice? Um, not exactly ...

Hump Day Wednesday dawned sunny but cold, and it seemed the only thing to look forward to, as I dragged myself out of bed, was the cupcake to come. The week's selection? Cafe Moxo's Pumpkin Spice.

Let me start by saying that Pumpkin Spice had big shoes to fill. Heavenly Delight's Pumpkin cupcake was outstanding when I tried it at the end of August. With cake so moist it stuck to my fingers and luscious cream-cheese frosting, HD's Pumpkin ranked among my favorite cupcakes.

I was eager to try my first fresh Moxo cupcake in a few weeks. I had frozen and refrigerated several with less-than-desirable results -- namely, changes in frosting texture.

The frosting was not an issue for Pumpkin Spice. Though it wasn't piled as generously high as on other Moxo cupcakes, it was smooth and creamy, yet light. And very flavorful.

The cake, too, had flavor on its side -- it was spicy (true to its name) and bold. The problem? Dry! Since Pumpkin Spice is the only flavor Moxo doesn't list on its cupcake menu, therefore there is no description, I have no way of knowing if they're aiming for a denser, more crumbly coffee-cake consistency. I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt, but it just came across as dry. I've realized, over the past several months of cupcake sampling, that moistness is a crucial quality to me in cake, and I tend to judge harshly. What's bone-dry to me might be perfectly acceptable to someone else. But my feeling upon eating the Pumpkin Spice was that it would have benefited from more frosting -- or, even better, some type of filling -- for hydration.

On a side note, I've made a contact with Tracy, the owner of TLCuppycakes, a bakery she runs out of her licensed kitchen in Petersburg. After I emailed her to find out if she has a shop that's open to the public (she doesn't), she offered to meet me when she's in Springfield for a delivery or special event and let me buy individual cupcakes if I wished. Did I wish? Heck yeah! My first cupcake rendezvous with her will be tomorrow. She's bringing me an Ultimate Hot Cocoa cupcake and -- guess what? -- a Pumpkin Cream Cheese. There are more than two dozen  mouth-watering flavors listed on her website, so I'm looking foward to this new endeavor. Check out TLCuppycakes' fabulous list of flavors at http://www.tlcuppycakes.com/Flavor-Menu-and-Ordering.html.

Peppermint Swirl

Going back to work Friday after a week off was a letdown, so I decided to stop at Cafe Moxo and pick up a cupcake to look foward to on Saturday. There were a few that I hadn't tried, but Peppermint Swirl had been calling out to me.

Recalling the Moxo freezer debacle of the previous two weeks, I decided to risk overnight refrigeration. The results were better, but the cupcake didn't blow me away, so I'm going to try to stick with eating Moxo cupcakes on the same day I buy them.

That said, the Peppermint Swirl was chocolate cake with peppermint-flavored frosting and a hard-candy mint garnish. For the first time, I felt like a cupcake had too much frosting. The problem might have been the large, extremely rich brownie I devoured earlier in the day -- maybe I reached my sugar quota before I consumed the cupcake. But the Peppermint Swirl didn't wow me. I suspect if I tried it again at another time, I would like it better. Sometimes I need to be in the mood for a particular flavor to truly enjoy it. The frosting had a suble peppermint flavor -- maybe too subtle. And the cake, which was still a little firm from being refrigerated, wasn't overly moist.

I'm ready to get back to trying the Moxo cupcakes fresh. They've been so much better that way. It's too bad they won't freeze well because it would be so much more convenient to buy several at a time -- especially with winter's cold and snowy weather coming soon.

Oh well -- the cupcake connoisseur in me will just have to make it work!

It's all in Black and White

Today's cupcake, courtesy of the freezer, was Moxo's Black and White -- chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. In my last post, I surmised that Moxo's cupcakes might not be best frozen, based on the slight dryness of the cake. Today's tasting confirmed that for me. The Black and White wasn't bad, by any means, but I could tell by the texture of the frosting that fresh would have been better. I've mentioned several times that Moxo's vanilla frosting reminds me of a thicker version Mel-O-Cream's vanilla filling. The frozen version of the frosting barely resembled that of the fresh, which was disappointing. Like last weekend's Bistro (yellow cake with chocolate frosting), I'll need to try this one fresh to accurately evaluate it. It was good for sure, but I had the feeling its time in the freezer was masking its greatness. Fortunately, both of these are regularly part the Moxo rotation, regardless of season, because they're basic flavors.

I'm ready for a trip to Moxo next week. From now on, I'm keepin' it fresh.

The Bistro

I dipped into my frozen cupcake stash this afternoon and pulled out one I've been anticipating -- Cafe Moxo's The Bistro -- yellow cake with chocolate frosting and white-chocolate chips as a garnish. Maybe it was the fact that the cupcake had been frozen and I didn't let it thaw out quite long enough, but it wasn't as awesome as I had expected. It was good, don't get me wrong, but the cake wasn't as moist as the yellow cake made by Heavenly Delight for its Golden Chocolate cupcake. Again, that might have been because I didn't let it thaw enough. This was the first Moxo cupcake I've had after freezing, and I have one more to go. It's possible that Moxo's don't freeze as well as HD's. Or maybe the cake was just a bit dry. The moussy-chocolate frosting was great, and I liked the white chocolate chips with this one.

I'll definitely be trying this one again -- fresh next time!

Caramel apple in a cupcake

Today was the transition from Heavenly Delight to Cafe Moxo, and I must say it was seamless. It's just as easy to get excited about Moxo cupcakes as HD, and months of new flavors lie ahead. Today I picked Moxo's Caramel Apple. It seemed like an ideal choice for an early November day, and it would be a dream for an apple pie lover. Apple pie isn't my favorite dessert, but I enjoyed the cupcake anyway.

With apple buttercream frosting, apple cake, a "caramel" filling that actually tasted like apple pie filling (little chunks of apple and all) and a drizzle of Ghirardelli caramel on top, it was quite a treat. The cake was moist, especially with the filling, but the frosting was what stood out for me. I love Moxo's vanilla frosting (I didn't detect any apple flavor, but no matter) because it reminds me of the filling Mel-O-Cream uses in its doughnuts. The Caramel Apple's tower of frosting was nearly equal to the depth of the cupcake itself, and I delighted in scooping frosting off the top before even touching the rest of the cupcake. If I were an employee of Moxo, I'd be in constant violation of the health code because I'd be licking the frosting bowl every day!

An unexpected favorite

After buying six cupcakes at the final farmers market last Wednesday and putting several of them in the freezer, I pulled the Lemon Drop out on Sunday night. I wasn't expecting to be blown away because lemon generally isn't my favorite type of cake, and I figured Heavenly Delight's version would be too strong for my taste.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

I LOVED the Lemon Drop. The cake was moist, the lemon-flavored buttercream frosting was subtle and creamy, and the white-chocolate chips on top -- for once -- didn't add an overpowering sweetness to the overall creation. Instead, they balanced the cake's tartness perfectly. After forcing myself to slow down a little and enjoy it rather than gulp it down in under 30 seconds, I decided that Lemon Drop ranks somewhere in the Top 10 of the nearly 30 HD cupcakes I've had.

THAT was certainly unexpected. The Lemon Drop showed up most weeks of the farmers market as a choice, but I put it off until the very last week because I figured I wouldn't be that impressed. I've had lemon cupcakes from other places that were too strong. For instance, Jilly's Bee Sting, of which I managed one bite before I gratefully handed the rest over to Camille to finish. Thankfully, Camille wasn't in the mood for a cupcake when I pulled out the Lemon Drop, because I wasn't sharing!

Farmers market finale

It was a rainy, gloomy end to the Old Capitol Farmers Market today, and the end of my access to Heavenly Delight cupcakes for the season. Time to move on to Cafe Moxo for the winter.

I made the most of my last Heavenly Delight Wednesday, springing for a half-dozen cupcakes, half new and half repeats of some favorites. The new: Chocolate Carmel, Banana Flip and Lemon Drop. The repeats: White, Reese's and Pumpkin.

Lemon Drop is in the freezer with the repeats, but I splurged on my other two newbies. First up: Chocolate Carmel. This one is the sibling to one I really want to try, Chocolate Carmel Surprise.

Chocolate Carmel

The difference between the two is that "Surprise" has a caramel filling. That filling, I believe, would have helped to set Chocolate Carmel apart from HD's yellow cake with chocolate frosting, which I love and would choose over Chocolate Carmel. CC was good, don't get me wrong -- the cake was caramel-flavored and the frosting was HD's luscious moussy chocolate -- but the cake flavor didn't knock me off my feet, and I could have lived without the little caramel balls that HD typically uses to garnish its caramel-flavored cupcakes. I wouldn't buy it again unless I could try the "Surprise."

Banana Flip

Next up: Banana Flip. I fell in love with the name and was excited to finally try a banana cupcake from HD. I had a scrumptious banana cupcake with a stellar butter frosting at Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique on the Chicago cupcake crawl, and I was eager to see how HD would measure up. Along with its banana cake, the Flip sported vanilla frosting with marshmallows as a garnish. Whether or not the frosting had marshmallow flavoring added, I was never able to pinpoint. It did seem a bit sweeter than HD's regular vanilla frosting, but that could have been due to the marshmallows. I liked it, but not as much as the Sugar Bliss cake. I remember that cupcake being moister, and the butter frosting was definitely better suited to the banana cake. All in all, it was a good cupcake, but not one that I'll probably repeat in the near future. Maybe midway through next summer, after I've had a second chance at getting some of the selections I missed this year.

Next week: Moxo!

Feeling special

I happened to be in Specialty Cakes' neck of the woods after work Thursday, and I couldn't resist stopping to see if they had a new flavor (or two) to try. As it turned out, they had four flavors left in the mostly empty display case, and two of them were flavors I wanted to try -- strawberry and carrot cake

Strawberry, left, and carrot cake

Based on the other two Specialty Cakes cupcakes I sampled with my coworkers Kathy and Jayette a few weeks ago -- chocolate with vanilla frosting and white cake with vanilla frosting and raspberry filling -- I knew I'd like these two. Specialty has great frosting -- sweet, thick and creamy. And the cake is moist and light. The strawberry and carrot cake were, not surprisingly, no exception. Bold best describes the flavor of the strawberry cake, topped with a generous swirl of vanilla frosting. And the carrot, which was blissfully free of nuts, found its perfect partner in cream cheese frosting. These are modestly sized cupcakes, so it's not at all hard to eat more than one in a sitting. I controlled myself, though, and ate only half of each cupcake so there would be some left for Camille.

I don't make it to Specialty often because its Wabash Avenue location isn't particularly convenient to home or work, but when I happen to be driving by, it's definitely worth the stop. The other perk to Specialty's cupcakes (besides their deliciousness)? The price -- $1 per cupcake. To someone who's paid as much as $6 for a cupcake (at More Cupcakes in Chicago), that price is worth of a double take -- and a second cupcake.

Workday S'more

A cold rain was coming down when I left the house this morning, and yet, somehow, in my cupcake-induced rush to get downtown to the farmers market, I failed to consider that the wet weather might put a damper on attendance -- customers AND vendors -- at the market.

It was a cold, wet realization when I parked the car and scrambled the half-block to Adams Street, looked to my left, where Heavenly Delight's stand usually resides, and saw the empty space. No HD cupcake this week.

Fortunately, just behind me was Cafe Moxo, where my fall/winter cupcaking stint starts in two weeks, after the market's season wraps. I had a Moxo cupcake in August, the week HD put its stand at the Illinois State Fair instead of the farmers market. That time, I chose the Shortcake cupcake, with white cake, a filling of chopped strawberries, and vanilla frosting. I adored the cupcake, with frosting that I thought resembled the cream in Mel-O-Cream doughnuts.

This time, the selections were fall-flavored, and the one I chose was the S'more.

The S'more scores high on presntation, with a graham cracker resting on top of a thick layer of marshmallow cream frosting covering the foundation of chocolate cake. Crowning the creation was an extra dollop of frosting serving as base for a square of Hershey's milk chocolate. The cake is moist and light, and the marshmallow frosting had a hint of marshmallows' stretchy texture. (I wondered how they would accomplish marshmallow frosting, and they did it quite well.) My only complaint was that the graham cracker had softened from being sandwiched between two layers of frosting. The staleness didn't keep me from eating the cracker; I simply broke off the bottom half of the cake so I could fit the rest of the cupcake in my mouth without taking the cracker off. The flavor of the graham cracker blended with the cake and frosting, and the cracker's texture became, for the most part, a nonissue.

Moxo's more heavily decorated cupcakes aren't the easiest to eat, but this particular one was worth the effort. I'd certainly order it again, once I get through the rest of the fall flavors. Moxo has 25 cupcakes on its menu, and it features certain flavors during different seasons. Some, like S'more, Caramel Apple and Pumpkin Spice, obviously fit with a particular season, but others, such as the Black & White (chocolate cake with vanilla frosting) and the Bistro (yellow cake with chocolate frosting) are basic enough to fit any season and pop up on the restaurant's display year-round.

I'll probably wait a couple weeks, until after next week's final farmers market, to return to Moxo, but when I do I think I'll try the Caramel Apple. I love fall for its colorful leaves and sweatshirt-wearing weather, but I hate what it ushers in. At least I have a tempting fall selection of cupcakes to anticipate. Bring 'em on!

Mmmmm, cinnamon!

It's the third-to-last week of the farmers market, and it's looking like Heavenly Delight will continue selling its cupcakes here in town -- at Andiamo, according to Les, the husband of the woman who makes the Heavenly Delight magic happen in a Neoga kitchen.

In the meantime, I sampled two new cupcakes this week -- the Snickerdoodle and the Raspberry Zinger.

The Snickerdoodle

The Snickerdoodle was a shout-out to cinnamon -- moist, almost gooey, cinnamon-infused vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting and cinnamon chips for a garnish, as well as a sprinkling of cinnamon. Let me just say this cupcake blew me away. I wasn't expecting cream cheese frosting as much as reglar vanilla buttercream, and my tastebuds were delighted to discover the perfect partnership between the cake and cream cheese. This HD creation is my second-favorite of this cupcake-sampling experiment. Every bite was pure joy.

Later, when I got home from work and the gym, I split the Raspberry Zinger with Camille.

Raspberry Zinger

This one was basically Raspberry Swirl with coconut on top -- white cake with raspberry throughout the cake and vanilla buttercream frosting. I love Raspberry Swirl, but I found the coconut to be a mere distraction on my savoring journey. Next time, I'll take the Zinger's coconut-free cousin.

My plan for next week's market is to put in an order for a dozen of the HD cupcakes I've either wanted to try but haven't or have loved and want to repeat. I'll freeze them, and many of them will become future "Cupcake Wednesday" selections. I'm not sure how many varieties Andiamo will stock each week, so I want to make sure I order while Les is still manning a booth. (I assume Andiamo employees will sell the cupcakes once they get the partnership going.)

Party on, HD cupcakes!

Pink Velvet Sunday

Our anniversary officially wrapped yestereday -- I ate the last of the Jilly's cupakes. Camille had started the Pink Velvet on Saturday, and I broke down and finished it off yesterday. I have to say, I preferred it when we tried it on the buffet at Jilly's -- they had made it as a cake, and the caramel filling was throughout the cake, as opposed to a small pocket as it was in the cupcake. The "cake" version was much moister, and I was blown away by how good it was. The cupcake was just OK in comparison. I wouldn't feel the need to repeat it. The caramel cream cheese frosting was tasty to be sure, though. To be fair, Camille was of the opinion that the cupcake was just as good as the cake.

A star-quality cupcake

I started the day intending to abstain from sweets, since I've had a cupcake every day since Sunday. But when Camille asked after dinner if I wanted to dig in to the Space Monkey from Jilly's, I couldn't turn him down. The Space Monkey is one of the cupcakes that won Jilly's the competition on an episode of the Food Network's "Cupcake Wars."

And dig in we did. The Space Monkey's combination of banana and toffee was something I'd never encountered, and when Camille and I noticed, in the shop, that the cupcake's filling was Dulce de Leche, that sealed the deal for us. We both fell in love with Dulce de Leche ice cream during our trip to Paris this past summer. 

I'm not surprised the Space Monkey won on "Cupcake Wars": The banana-toffee combo was dynamite, as were the Dulce de Leche filling and the caramel cream cheese frosting. I have to say, the Missy-licious, in its vanilla simplicity, is still my favorite Jilly's pick. But I'd definitely repeat the Space Monkey.



 Space Monkey

On a side note, I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison to show the size of Jilly's cupcakes, so I put the Space Monkey beside Heavenly Delight's Chocolate Dream. Heavenly Delight's cupcakes aren't small by any means. They're average-sized cupcakes, the size you'd bake in your own kitchen. They fill the cup to the brim, though, and they're not chintzy with the frosting. Another point to consider: The Space Monkey cost more than twice the Chocolate Dream -- $6-something versus $2.50. (The Space Monkey was Jilly's highest-priced cupcake, and I'm sure its winning title was a big factor.)



Bottom line: Keep the Heavenly Delight cupcake all to yourself, but consider sharing the Jilly's cake if you don't want a bellyache.

Cupcake excess (wait, is that possible?)

It's been quite a week for cupcakes. Between our visit to Jilly's on Sunday and my weekly Heavenly Delight stop yesterday, you might think I've run the risk of being cupcaked out. You'd be wrong.

This week's stop at the farmers market sweet stand yielded two new varieties -- Snickers and a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Actually, the yellow cake was a stripped-down version (and I mean that in the best way possible) of the Butterfinger of a few weeks ago, which was luscious, so I knew I'd adore its more basic cousin.

I'm calling this one "Golden Chocolate" because I can't remember what H.D. had printed on the cupcake's little label at the stand. It was yellow cake with chocolate frosting and a garnish of chocolate sprinkles.

Here's the 411: The cake was melt-in-your-mouth moist, and the chocolate frosting was perfectly light and fluffy – milky, not fudgy. Another of HD’s fall-apart fresh cupcakes, its beauty was in its simplicity. No need for frills here. Although I loved its Butterfinger-garnished cousin a few weeks ago, this classic combo doesn’t need dressing-up.

The Snickers, which I actually tried first, didn't thrill me quite as much. It featured chocolate cake with caramel-flavored frosting and a garnish of chopped peanuts and little balls of caramel.

I was a tad underwhelmed by this one. The chocolate cake was good and the caramel frosting was decent, but I wished it had been richer and more flavorful, like the caramel icing Mel-O-Cream spreads on its doughnuts. That is the caramel frosting by which to compare all others, as far as I’m concerned. I wanted to scrape off the little balls of caramel that garnished the cupcake because I’m not a fan of chewy caramel. I think I would have liked it better without the caramel balls, but it still would have lacked the richness and depth of flavor of some of HD's other creations. At least it wasn’t cloyingly sweet like their other caramel cupcakes I’ve tried. This wasn't a bad cupcake. It's just that I can think of many others I'd spend my $2.50 on instead.

All in all, another not-so-shabby day of cupcake tasting!

The Reese's

Last night, I broke down and ate half of Jilly's The Reese's. I should have let it thaw a little more, but I couldn't help myself and dove right in. It was tasty -- chocolate cake with chocolate and peanut butter frosting accented by -- of course -- a generous topping of peanut butter cup crumbles. I have to say, it wasn't terribly different from Reese's cupcakes I've had from other bakeries. Bigger, certainly (I still have that other half in the freezer). One of the many things I liked about Jilly's was that they had the option of vanilla or chocolate cake for several of their cupcake selections. The Reese's was one of them. In retrospect, I wish I had chosen The Reese's with vanilla cake instead, for a change of pace from the other similar cupcakes I've had. But it was the only cupcake I was interested in that featured chocolate cake, and I wanted to make sure I was able to try their chocolate. Next time we stop by Jilly's, I'll just have to try the vanilla. What a hardship, right? ;-)

Anniversary cupcakes

Camille loves to surprise me on special occasions. On this, our second wedding anniversary, he caught me completely off-guard with a trip to St. Louis and St. Charles, Mo., that he began with a stop at Jilly's Cupcake Bar and Cafe, which competed on and won an episode of the Food Network's "Cupcake Wars" this year.

.

We missed out on Jilly's a month ago, when we went to St. Louis for my birthday, because the shop was closed for construction. It was up and running when we arrived this weekend, and I was impressed by the array of cupcakes on display in the freshly painted, partially decorated shop.

They. Were. Huge. Possibly the biggest cupcakes I've seen to date. Crumbs had oversized cupcakes when we stopped there on the Chicago cupcake crawl, but I'm pretty sure Jilly's would come out on top size-wise if we compared them side-by-side.

Jilly's was serving a brunch buffet when we got there, so we had some pre-cupcake food. As it turned out, the buffet included a cake version of Jilly's Pink Velvet cupcake. Camille and I both tried some and were blown away by the moist, rich cake, stuffed with caramel, and the light-yet-creamy frosting featuring cream cheese, caramel buttercream and pecan praline. When it was time to get in line to buy cupcakes, that one was on the list. Others we chose for the to-go box: Bee Sting (lemon and honey); Missy-licious (vanilla with vanilla whipped cream filling); The Reese's (self-explanatory!); and Space Monkey (banana-toffee, with Dulce de Leche filling), one of the cupakes that won on "Cupcake Wars."

Clockwise from top left: Space Monkey, The Reese's, Missy-licious, Pink Velvet.

The Bee Sting

By the time we got home Monday afternoon, I was ready to tackle one of Jilly's monster creations. Looking for the least-rich of the bunch, I went for the Missy-licious, the all-vanilla cake. It was about twice the size of your average, homemade cupcake, with probably three times the frosting. However, I somehow managed to make it nonexistent in less than five minutes. Let's get another look at this beauty, with frosting in Jilly's signature colors of pink and green:

The Missy-licious is the closest competitor I've yet to find for the vanilla cupcakes I hold in highest regard: the Magnolia Bakery vanilla cupcake. With the Magnolia cake, it's all about the thick, creamy, sugar coma-inducing frosting. The vanilla frosting on the white-cake Missy-licious was light, but still creamy, and I wish I knew how to describe exactly how perfect the sugar/butter/vanilla flavor/texture balance was. There are no words -- at least not for me, an inexperienced food critic. Let me just remind you that it was a monster cupcake, and I ate it in less than five minutes. That should suffice to get my point across about how irresistible this cupcake was. My best advice: Get thee to Jilly's and try one!

Camille's lone choice for his take-home was the Bee Sting, which Jilly's website describes as vanilla cake with honey lemon curd stuffing and topping consisting of "lemon cream cheese, toasted almonds and a lemon candy dust."

After finishing half of it (cupcake-eating amateur!) he pronouned it "really good." I went in for my own sample of the leftovers and found it to be a little strong for my taste. I've mentioned in past posts that I prefer my lemon flavoring subtle, and I'm finding out that most cupcake places don't believe in subtlety when it comes to lemon. I can see where a lemon lover would fall head over heels for the Bee Sting, though. The frosting, cake and filling were a tart and tangy trio, waking up my tongue (which I admit was a little sluggish after working overtime to consume the Missy-licious). I would never attempt an entire Bee Sting, but I'll give it props for eliciting a "really good" from Camille, who could easily live without sweets altogether.

Our freezer is currently holding three cuipcakes that I'll probably need at six sittings to finish (OK, let's stop kidding ourselves -- MAYBE two servings for The Reese's, which is piled so high with peanut butter cup clusters that it rivals Mt. St. Helens), and with a Heavenly Delight trip coming in a couple days, it might take me through next weekend to finish them. But I'll be back to review them as soon as they pass  my lips.

Don't wait for me, though -- get on I-55 South and burn some rubber to Jilly's!

Delightful strawberry

Another Cupcake Wednesday has come and gone, and I'm starting to notice there are fewer cupcakes each week that I haven't tried. Strawberry Delight was my choice yesterday. I ranked it 11 out of the 20 I've tried so far. It was quite good, although far from the most remarkable Heavenly Delight cupcake I've tried. The strawberry-flavored cake was moist with a good flavor, and the vanilla frosting was excellent, as HD's always is. The bright-pink sugar garnish added visual appeal. Otherwise, it just wasn't the most memorable cupcake I've had from them. There wasn't a thing wrong with it, and I'd definitely try it again, but HD's Strawberry Swirl/Raspberry Swirl cupcakes are hard to beat when it comes to their berry-flavored selections. The combination of the white cake and berry filling in the aforementioned cakes is something I'd never experienced in a cupcake before I tried them, and I've yet to find another berry cupcake that measures up. So, basically, HD beats itself on this one.

Baby (cup)cakes

Congratulations to my friend Beckie Johnston, whose baby shower I attended today. In about two months, she and her husband, Jason, will have an adorable baby boy. Cheers!

At the Star Wars-themed shower (Jason is a fan) were Star Wars-themed cupcakes. Pretty spiffy! And they were darn tasty, too!

Love and blessings to a wonderful couple!