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!