Hello, Heavenly Delight!

My summer adventure with the cupcakes of Heavenly Delight, a bakery in Neoga, Ill., started on the second week of the Old State Capitol Farmers Market. I had read SJ-R food editor Kathryn Rem's column about the bakery, which was going to be bringing a stand to the market on a weekly basis throughout the market's five-month run. Once I read about the myriad flavors HD offers and perused its website, I was hooked.

Cookie Dough

And so I wandered into the market on that first day and found the booth. Among about a dozen varieties of cupcakes on display at the stand was a cookie dough cupcake. Cookie dough cupcake? Really? I was fascinated by the concept. It was surrounded by so many amazing-looking flavors that I couldn't narrow it down to just one, so I chose the cookie dough and a raspberry swirl. With those cupcakes, I started my summer of sampling and evaluating cupcakes in preparation for the eventual start of this blog. Below are descriptions of each cupcake and my rankings of the ones I've tried so far:

May 25: Cookie Dough, Raspberry Swirl

Cookie Dough: white cake with chocolate chunks baked in, vanilla frosting, mini-Chips Ahoy cookie  and chocolate chips as garnish; Raspberry Swirl: white cake with raspberry jelly swirled throughout, raspberry frosting

June 1: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup
Chocolate cake (possibly with peanut butter baked in; it was hard to tell), peanut butter frosting with Reese’s Pieces and chocolate syrup garnish

June 8: Chocolate Mint, Carmel Heath Chip

Chocolate Mint: chocolate cake, mint frosting with chocolate chips and Andes mint bits as garnish; Caramel Heath Chip: white cake, caramel/vanilla frosting with toffee bits, caramel syrup and chocolate chips for garnish

June 29: Key Lime

Lime cake with lime frosting and green-colored sugar garnish

July 6: Cookies & Cream

White cake with Oreos baked in, vanilla frosting with mini-Oreo cookie garnish

July 13: Chocolate Dream

Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse frosting and chocolate chip garnish

July 20: Red Velvet

Red velvet cake with round bits of chocolate baked in, cream-cheese frosting

July 27: Orange Cream

White cake with orange frosting and orange-colored sugar garnish

Aug. 3: White, Peanut Butter Cookie, Strawberry Swirl

White: White cake and vanilla frosting with mini M&Ms for a garnish; Peanut Butter Cookie (shown above): peanut butter cake and peanut butter frosting with peanut butter chips and sugar for a garnish; Strawberry Swirl: White cake with strawberry jelly swirled throughout, vanilla frosting with red-dyed sugar garnish (had to eat Strawberry Swirl several days after purchase, after freezing/thawing)

Aug. 10: Pecan Praline

Caramel-flavored white cake with pecans baked in and caramel frosting with a garnish of pecan pieces and little balls of caramel

RANKINGS

1. Chocolate Mint: Perfect, delectable flavor — not too rich. Outstanding. Bring on another!

2. Peanut Butter Cookie: This one’s all peanut butter all the time — peanut butter cake and frosting, with a delectable topper of peanut butter chips and sugar. It really did taste like a peanut butter cookie, and though it was rich, I just wanted more. This one ranks above Reese’s Pieces because I liked the top-to-bottom peanut butter just a tad better than peanut butter frosting with chocolate cake. If I have the chance, I will definitely get this one again.

3. Reese’s Pieces: Rich, but loved PB frosting. I could eat this one again.

4. Key Lime: Refreshing and lighter than varieties with chocolate. Would love to eat this one again.

5. (Tie) Raspberry Swirl: Delightfully fruity and light. I’d buy it and freeze it for later even if I couldn’t eat it that day. Strawberry Swirl: Same as Raspberry Swirl but with strawberry jelly swirled through cake. Filling added to moistness of cake for both flavors.

7. Cookies and Cream: Frosting actually tastes like Oreo cream filling, although mini-Oreo garnish had grown stale and lost its crispness. I could handle this one again, once I’ve tried all the other flavors.

8. White: Cake was moist and feather-light; creamy vanilla frosting left me wishing there were a bowl to lick. If I had to use two words to describe this cupcake, they would be: delicious simplicity. After the many fancy flavors I’ve tasted, it’s great to get back to an uncomplicated classic.

9. Red Velvet: Luscious, cream-cheese frosting and an unexpected chunkiness to the cake due to the little round pieces of chocolate — this was a pleasant chunkiness, not like biting into a nut. Tasty as it was, I think I’d rather try new flavors than repeat it.

10. Cookie Dough: Tasty, with actual cookie dough and chocolate chunks as filling. I love the idea of a cookie dough filling, but the dough seemed to bake along with the rest of the cake, so it didn’t stand out as much as if it had been more, well, doughy. Points for effort, though. Also, mini-Chips Ahoy garnish had grown stale and lost its crispness. 

11. Orange Cream: Light with a good flavor, although the name had me expecting some kind of filling, which wasn’t there. I liked it, but I wouldn’t need to buy it again.

12. Chocolate Dream: Very rich and bordering on dark-chocolate flavor rather than milk chocolate, which I would prefer; would have liked it better with vanilla frosting. I wouldn’t repeat this one.

13. (Tie) Carmel Toffee Chip: Though I love toffee, this was way too sweet and rich; I would pass up the cupcake stand if this were the only one they were offering. Pecan Praline: This one, much like Carmel Toffee Chip, was a bit too sweet for my taste. It was actually quite similar to Carmel Toffee Chip in flavor and over-sweetness. I’d avoid this one in the future, too, although I’d recommend it to Dad, who loves pralines.

Due to the state fair, Heavenly Delight was absent from the farmers  market this week, but will return next Wednesday. Please stay tuned!