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.