Cupcakes falling from the sky!

I can't think of a much sweeter surprise than an unexpected cupcake. Well, except maybe TWO unexpected cupcakes. It turned out to be that kind of Friday after I received a surprise text from Tracy of TL Cuppycakes, offering to bring Jayette and I a pair of selections from her menu -- Yes, I Like Pina Coladas and Cupcake in Paradise. Yep, pina colada and margarita. 

I recently mentioned to Tracy that I wanted to try more of the flavors off of her menu, as well as the new flavors she often creates. She must have been recalling that when she set aside these two while making up an order for someone down the street at the Capitol, and I'm so glad she did. These were both outstanding!

Cupcake in Paradise and Yes, I Like Pina Coladas; 

photo courtesy of Jayette Bolinski

We tried Cupcake in Paradise, the margarita cupcake, first. We were dazzled by the moist, lime-infused white cake, which we felt had just the right amount of lime so as to be flavorful but not overwhelming. (Tracy said she used a lime-flavored drink mixer in the batter.) The vanilla fluff filling was light and cool, and the lime buttercream frosting was outstanding. The lime wedge was the perfect topper. One standout quality to the cupcake was the fact that it truly tasted like the drink -- all the way down to the hint of saltiness, like you'd find around the rim of a traditional margarita. So cool!

Yes, I Like Pina Coladas was superb as well. Tracy mixed bits of pineapple and coconut into the yellow cake batter, which made it extra-moist. She also filled it with a light coconut cream and topped it with vanilla buttercream and toasted coconut shavings. Her garnish was a drink umbrella, which definitely added to the charm factor. This cupcake also tasted like the drink after which it was modeled. All we needed was our towels, bathing suits and a nice, sandy beach!

We agreed that we would love to repeat these sometime. I wouldn't mind trying them along with their namesake drinks. Hmm, I think I need to work on that!

Pumpkins in the springtime

Pumpkin cake may not be the first thing most of us think to eat in the spring, but I'll recommend the pumpkin cupcakes at Java Express, 1827 N. Peoria Road, any time of year. I had heard multiple raves about them, so I was thrilled to be able to buy one freshly frosted this morning at the north-end coffee shop and eatery.

Yum. Yu-UM! I knew this cupcake was going to be spot-on when I noticed the lining falling away from the edges of the cake. I've learned, over my months of cupcake tasting, that loose linings tend to be a sign of fresh cake. This was the closest to homemade of any pumpkin cupcake I've tried. The cake was melt-in-your-mouth moist. The cream cheese frosting was creamy and thick. One bite and I was sitting with my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins around the dining room table at Grandma's house on an autumn Sunday, savoring a "Ladage-size" slab of my mom's pumpkin sheet cake with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. 

Bravo, Java Express, bravo!

Pretty cupcakes can be deceiving ...

Cupcakes, by their nature, aren't the healthiest food choice -- obviously. Most people don't eat them for nutrients. But when I found out that Food Fantasies, Springfield's popular health-food grocery store, sells its own version, I knew I needed to sample them. I was curious how vegan cupcakes would differ from their mainstream cousins. 

From the five flavors the store offered on Thursday, I chose chocolate chai and lemon. The cupcakes came two to a pack, in a cute pink box cleverly designed to hold the cupcakes in place with handy finger holes for pulling them out. The cakes were pretty, with frosting piped into a luscious-looking mound. 

My coworkers Kathy Rem, Jayette Bolinski and Marilyn Lynch joined me for the twin tasting, and we were excited to try organic cupcakes. Intrigued by the name, we first cut into the chocolate chai, which had greeted us with a pleasant chai scent when we opened the box. Immediately, we were alarmed by the hardness of the cake. We each took one bite and recoiled in displeasure -- the chocolate cake was completely devoid of moisture. We assumed it was because the vegan ingredients aren't as conducive to moist cake as ingredients used in traditional cake. (To peruse Food Fantasies' cupcake menu and see ingredients in each, visit http://www.foodfantasies.info/bakery/.)

The chocolate chai's frosting had a light, creamy texture and tasted good, and I was grateful for the high cake-to-frosting ratio as I gamely finished my entire half (a couple of us stopped after the first bite or two). One observation about the chocolate chai cake was that it was like "unflavored pumpernickel."

I'd be lying if I said we had high hopes for the lemon, but we weren't able to back down from a cupcake-tasting challenge, so we forged ahead. Again, the knife balked against the dense cake ("Unyielding," according to Marilyn), which, oddly, was vanilla rather than lemon-flavored. We did find a lemon-curd filling, which I felt had an artificial taste, like that of Lemonheads candy. (Marilyn disagreed -- she liked the flavor and later said it left a pleasant aftertaste.)

The frosting, which I liked slightly less than the chai frosting only because I didn't care for the flavor of the lemon, retained the nice consistency of the first cupcake. In fact, we decided that Food Fantasies should abandon the cupcakes and focus on selling just the frosting, ready-made.

Ultimately, we decided we're done testing Food Fantasies cupcakes. We're pretty sure there are ways to make vegan cupcakes taste better, and, frankly, we're disappointed in the store for charging customers for such poor-quality cupcakes.

One high point of the dry Food Fantasies cupcakes, though: After drinking quarts of water to wash them down, we were well-hydrated.

Spring fever (and frosting)

When I stepped out my front door this morning and realized it was so warm at 8 a.m. that I didn't need a coat, I knew it was going to be the perfect day to sample a set of spring-themed cupcakes from TLCuppycakes. I had made arrangements for owner Tracy Cowee to drop them off, and she arrived mid-morning with the five springy cupcakes, including two brand-new creations for the Easter season.

Tracy's presentation never disappoints. This quintet was such a treat for the eyes that I hated to destroy them by eating them. 

Since I had ordered a quintet, I recruited my coworkers and fellow tasters Kathy Rem, Jayette Bolinski and Robin Desai to help me sample them. 

First up was the What's Up Doc. (You might be able to guess that it was carrot cake.) This one wasn't our favorite of the bunch. We thought the cake was on the dry side, although the spicy flavoring was just right. We loved the delicate cream cheese filling and the cream cheese buttercream frosting crowned with a cheery swirl of orange. Had the cake been moister, this one would have been a hit. 

The Sunshine Superman, a sweet-and-sour concoction topped by a fresh lemon slice, perked us up. The light lemon filling perfectly complemented the tangy lemon cake, and we loved that the flavor was obviously natural -- no artificial lemon in this cupcake. The subtle vanilla-lemon buttercream frosting was, literally, the icing on the cake.

My favorite of the day was also the simplest -- White Wedding Day, a white cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and little white candy "pearls" as a garnish. The cake was incredibly moist, and the addition of a light vanilla filling earned it extra points on our yum meter. The buttercream frosting was luscious. (A great comparison cupcake for the White Wedding Day is Cafe Moxo's I Do!, which I tried a couple weeks ago. I loved everything about it except the oversize, overly crunchy "pearls" used as a garnish. The smaller, softer "pearls" on the White Wedding Cake were so much better.) Overall, we felt this one was perfect, with just the right amount of vanilla flavor throughout, and would be the ideal choice for a tower of wedding cupcakes. When I finished my quarter, I wanted to steal Kathy's just to prolong my taste buds' delight a bit more.

We had decided to save the fanciest cupcakes for last, but we couldn't resist the Cadbury Cream Egg any longer, so we attacked that one next. (Robin had been looking forward to it all day.) We loved the idea and appearance of this one, but the taste experience didn't quite match up to the vision for us. The chocolate cake and vanilla cream frosting were good, and we liked the egg-white-and-yolk effect of the frosting and the mini-Cadbury egg perched on top. The problem was that the Cadbury egg baked into the cake remained hard and didn't blend well with the cake and creamy filling. The effect of the baked-in chocolate egg reminded us of the Rolo cupcake we tried from TL earlier this winter. The chewy Rolo inside the cake didn't soften and made biting into the cupcake a bit awkward. We did, however, love the creativity of both the Cadbury and the Rolo, and we salute Tracy for her adventurous baking spirit. 

The final cupcake turned out to be the grand finale: The Coconut Creme Bird Nest. This one charmed us immediately with its green-tinted coconut and pastel candy eggs. In this case the taste exceeded our expectations. The white cake and vanilla frosting each delivered a subtle taste of coconut, and the thorough placement of flavor left us thoroughly impressed. Some of us crowned this one the winner among the five, although it was second place for me, after White Wedding Cake. 

Our TL Cuppycakes group tastings are becoming a tradition, and it's one that I hope we can continue until we make our way through the TL menu. To browse the choices, visit http://www.tlcuppycakes.com/Flavor-Menu-and-Ordering.html.

Counting cupcake calories

In the process of running some errands over the weekend, I managed to pick up cupcakes from a couple spots, one of them new to this blog -- D'Lynn's Delights.

Debra Swihart, the woman behind D'Lynn's, which sells lower-fat lunch items as well as a variety of "everyday" cupcakes available for individual purchase that she says have 60 to 65 calories. The State Journal-Register's food editor, Kathy Rem, wrote a story about Swihart in March 2011 (http://www.sj-r.com/features/x855935956/Cupcake-baker-and-local-restaurateur-loses-387-pounds?zc_p=0) detailing how Swihart lost 387 pounds and opened a restaurant, D'Lynn's Delights,  in downtown Springfield. Eventually she closed the downtown location and moved her lunch and cupcake operation to Grand Avenue Deli at 330 South Grand Ave. E. I decided on Saturday that it was time to start trying Swihart's low-cal creations for this blog. Her "everyday" selections include Vanilla Bean, Orange Creamsicle, Strawberry Cream, Caramel Spice and Chocolate Fudge. I chose the latter.

I wondered how fresh a cupcake bought on a Saturday, 10 minutes before closing time, would be, and I found out when I got home: Not very. The cake, which, according to Kathy's story above, is made with applesauce and yogurt, was crusty. The frosting, made with spun sugar and tofu, was thick and a pleasing consistency, but it was a bit too sweet when I first tasted it. I have to say, though, that the flavor grew on me with every bite. Maybe it was the knowledge that I was only consuming 65 calories at most. I've heard from other people who have tried Swihart's cupcakes that the cake tends to be dry, but I still want to go back sometime during the week, when they're more likely to be fresh, and try more for myself. For 65 calories, why the heck not?

I happened to detour down Wabash during my errands, so I stopped in at Specialty Cakes to troll for new flavors. I came upon red velvet and banana, neither of which I'd tried, so I scooped up one of each.

Both were freshly made. The red velvet was tasty and attractive, with bright-red cake and red, glittery sprinkles topping a thin layer of cream cheese frosting. The frosting was the only complaint I had about the red velvet: It was quite skimpy. In fact, it's been a long time since I've seen such a thin layer of frosting on a cupcake. For many people, this would be just fine. But I'm a frosting girl, so I was a bit disappointed. Taste-wise, though, this ranked in the upper echelon of red velvet cupcakes I've tried.

And then there was the banana. The first bite of the bright-yellow concoction brought a burst of banana that took me by surprise. There clearly was some artificial flavoring present in the cake and possibly even the frosting. Upon examining the cake, I found some bits that appeared to indicate real banana was mixed into the batter, but true banana cake doesn't have such a strong aroma. It wasn't a bad cupcake; I'm just not sure why Specialty's bakers would feel the need to inject banana flavoring (and coloring, it seemed) into a cake made from an ingredient that's readily available and quite flavorful in its own right. Banana cake shouldn't need help from a bottle.

Leap Day cupcake

This week's cupcake day just happened to fall on Feb. 29, Leap Day. I would leap great distances for cupcakes, and although I was only required to step through Cafe Moxo's front door to purchase the Bistro, I gladly would have bounded several feet to get my hands on that simple but scrumptious yellow cake with a mountain of chocolate buttercream frosting.

The Bistro has no fancy fillings or extravagant garnishes, but the falling-apart fresh yellow cake and airy chocolate buttercream frosting topped with a fistful of white chocolate chips combined for the type of taste sensation that makes you want more even if your stomach is protesting. When Moxo's cupcakes are fresh, they're divine. The last several I've tried have been so outstanding that I'm tempted to retry the few I bought near the holidays that disappointed me with the dryness or staleness of their cake -- namely the red velvet and the pumpkin spice. I'm unsure of Moxo's baking schedule, but I've often wondered if those particular cupcakes had been baked a day prior to when I bought them.

While I'm waiting for Moxo to unveil its spring menu, I plan to look elsewhere around town for some new cupcakes to try. D'Lynn's Delights, which originally resided at the southwest corner of Fourth and Monroe streets, has relocated to inside Grand Avenue Deli, 330 South Grand Ave. E. D'Lynn's makes five varieties of cupcakes available individually on a daily basis -- Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Fudge, Caramel Spice, Orange Creamsicle and Strawberry Cream, as well as an array of specialty flavors available by the dozen when ordered in advance. For the full listing of flavors, visit http://dlynnsdelightscafe.comcastbiz.net/14701.html.