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.