Cookie Dough, Champagne, Strawberry, OMG!

This week was another farmers market missing Heavenly Delight. Knowing it would be in the mid-90s again and the stand likely would be absent, I took advantage of a half personal day off work and made the trip to Petersburg on Monday for some cupcakes from OMGosh Bakery and Desserts. 

My main goal was to pick up OMG's Champagne cupcake, so I called a week in advance to be sure they would be able to make some. They kindly obliged, and I arrived mid-morning Monday to find them part of the offerings in the well-stocked display case. As long as I was there, I figured I might as well stock up, so I bought a Champagne, a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, a Strawberry-Filled and an Oreo. (Not long after I left the store, I realized that I had already tried OMG's Oreo, and I regretted getting it instead of Lemonade, a flavor I hadn't tried.) 

I wanted to wait until Cupcake Wednesday to try them, so I stowed them in the freezer at home. Come Wednesday, I eagerly defrosted them, ready to try that Champagne for which I had longed. As much as I wanted to try that one, though, the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough grabbed me with its cookie-dough frosting (I've attempted eggless "dough" that lacked the flavor of real dough, so I was excited to try OMG's version). 

All I can say is "OMG..." The cookie-dough frosting was nearly perfect (it was a bit heavy on the dark-chocolate chunks, but it was easy enough to eat around those). Even the cake was just about right -- it was soft, moist vanilla with the same overload of chocolate chunks as the frosting, but I was pleased with the freshness in light of previous OMG cupcakes that have been on the drier side. I didn't want to stop eating this one, but I knew I had to so I'd be able to try the others. 

It was time for Champagne. Unsure what to expect but excited to find out, I pushed my fork through the light, fluffy pink frosting with candy pearls and matching pink-dyed cake. I took that first bite ... and encountered a flavor that was OMG in a not-so-good way. This cupcake tasted like Champagne, alright -- extremely dry Champagne. The bitterness overpowered the sweetness. For someone who likes their bubbly dry, this might be the ideal cupcake, but I prefer a sweeter Champagne. Cupcakes, furthermore, are SUPPOSED to be sweet. The frosting seemed to have a touch more sugar than the cake, but any sweetness was offset by the offending presence of shortening. I hate to say that I wasn't able to eat most of this one. I hate wasting cupcakes, but considering how many cupcakes I try, if I don't like it, it's not worth the calories. 

I pushed my Champagne letdown aside and moved on to the Strawberry-Filled. I was already suspicious of this one because the frosting was obviously the same shortening-based substance that had helped bring down the Champagne. One bite confirmed what I already knew, and I pushed the heap of worthless fat and calories off to the side so I could focus on the vanilla cake. The bottom half of the cupcake was a pleasant surprise. Much like the Cookie Dough, the Strawberry-Filled cake was light and moist. And  just like the name implied, a pocket of strawberry jam awaited inside, adding a pleasant fruity flavor to the delicious cake. I was happy to eat this one without that greasy frosting. 

As I said at the beginning, I mistakenly bought the Oreo instead of a fourth new flavor (find my OMG Oreo review at http://extremecupcaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/cupcake-commute.html), and I wished I had chosen the Lemonade instead. Upon later trying the Strawberry-Filled and Champagne, though, I realized that leaving the Lemonade was a blessing in disguise because I had noticed that it had the same type of undesirable icing. Everything happens for a reason, even with cupcakes!

Here's hoping next week brings Heavenly Delight back to the market!!

Peanut butter paradise

This morning's trip to the farmers market was fruitless in the sense that I found it lacking Heavenly Delight's stand. I had been anticipating cupcakes all week after going sweets-less for three straight days, so when I got to the end of the three-block row of stands and found no giant Heavenly banner proclaiming the presence of my favorite treat, the increasingly boiling temperature felt that much more like hell.

Fortunately, I had a back-up plan. At home in the freezer was an HD Reese's Peanut Butter cupcake from a couple weeks ago, and on the daily menu at nearby Cafe Moxo was that eatery's Peanut Butter cupcake. The time had come for another of my side-by-side cupcake comparisons. (Slow HD weeks are always good for these extracurricular cupcake activities.)

 Left: Heavenly Delight's Reese's Peanut Butter. 

Right: Cafe Moxo's Peanut Butter

This was my favorite side-by-side comparison to date. Peanut butter is high on my list of irresistible cupcake flavors, and I had tried both of these at least twice prior to today -- never together, though. The first thing I noticed, alternating bites, was that the salty peanut flavor stood out in Moxo's peanut buttercream frosting, compared to the more dominant sweetness of HD's. No right or wrong here -- both were rich and creamy with luscious flavor. I can't say I liked one more than the other, although I did appreciate the emphasis on peanuts in Moxo's. 

And now, moving on to the cake: Both were chocolate, but one was much better. Moxo's was quite dry compared to HD's, which incorporated bits of peanut butter. My history with these two places has shown me that moist cupcakes are about as common at HD as dry or stale cupcakes are at Moxo. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been disappointed with the texture of an HD cupcake. That doesn't mean I love all of their varieties, but not many HD cupcakes, whether I've cared for the flavor or not, have disappointed me in the category of technical quality. That said, I've had Moxo's Peanut Butter when the cake was fresh and moist, and I could find no flaws. The quality of Moxo's cupcakes tends to vary depending on the day, which is why I've retried several flavors. I've found HD's quality to be consistently good.

I also liked each cupcake's garnishes -- the mini Reese's Pieces on HD's and the peanuts and drizzle of chocolate syrup topping Moxo's. Each establishment took a different approach with its peanut butter cupcake, and I can appreciate both. In the end, though, quality counts, and since Moxo's cake wasn't as moist this time as it has been in the past, I have to base my judgment on today's tasting. Therefore, I give HD the prize in this cupcake battle royale. 

Chai, chai again

I started out today with the intention of picking up a Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake from Cafe Moxo for a side-by-side comparison with Heavenly Delight's Reese's Peanut Butter, which I've had in the freezer since last week's market. But silly me got my days confused and forgot that Moxo offers Chocolate Peanut Butter on Wednesdays, not Thursdays. This means that I will most likely pit the peanut butters against each other next week instead.

Not all was lost, though. Moxo did have the final two spring/summer menu cupcakes I hadn't tried yet -- Pina Colada and Chai Tea -- and I decided to go with the Chai.

Fast forward to later in the day, when I stopped at the Qik-N-Ez by our house to check out the tip I'd gotten that the gas station and convenience store was carrying cupcakes from Java Express on Peoria Road, the coffee shop from which I've tried cupcakes several times. I've had my ups and downs with the cupcakes there, although I've mostly loved what I've had (there was a Chocolate Peppermint cupcake last winter that was so stale  with frosting so overloaded with shortening that I had to throw most of it away). Favorites I've had from Java include Lemon Raspberry, Cherry-Almond and Pumpkin. I'm on the lookout for a peanut butter that I've heard great things about from a coworker.

On this particular day, I found three flavors: Lemon Raspberry, Chocolate Toffee and ... Chai Latte! Who knew I'd stumble on two chai cupcakes at two different places in one day? Just like that, I had recovered my side-by-side experiment.

Cafe Moxo's Chai Tea  

Java Express' Chai Latte

Even though I wasn't able to try the two cupcakes at the same time (I had the Moxo Chai in the afternoon while at work and the Java Chai when I got home a couple hours later), my memory of Moxo's was still pretty clear when I tasted Java's. They were similar in cake and frosting: both featured a lightly spiced cake covered in vanilla frosting dusted with a bit of the spice. Moxo's was a bit more creative in appearance, with a mini straw emerging from the frosting. 

Neither cupcake was particularly moist, but Moxo had a bit of an edge in that category. When I asked the guy behind the counter at Qik-N-Ez how often Java delivers the cupcakes and when today's had arrived, he told me they come twice a week and this batch had been in the store since Tuesday. Two days seemed a bit iffy to me, but he insisted they'd kept the cupcakes fresh in the refrigerator until they put them on display in a plastic case at the registers. I have to admit I was skeptical when he said they keep the cupcakes in the refrigerator. I've had bad luck with cake hardening in the refrigerator, so I usually store it in the freezer. (My one exception so far is Moxo, whose cupcakes I only eat fresh the day I buy them since I had a series of cupcakes from there dry out and otherwise lose their freshness in the freezer.)

I also noticed that the Java Express Chai's icing had become slightly crusty, although that doesn't bother me with frosting as much as it does with cake. Moxo's frosting was the restaurant's usual light, fresh and fluffy vanilla, which nicely complemented the spice cake. I had never tried chai tea, so I wasn't sure how well the cupcake represented the drink. My coworker and co-sampler Marilyn, who loves chai tea, reported that, while the cupcake didn't taste exactly like the drink would, the spices were reminiscent of the drink. That was good enough for me. 

One major difference between the two cupcakes was size; Moxo makes traditional-size cupcakes while Java deals in the jumbo variety. But the biggest difference of all, and the one that put Java's Chai a nose above Moxo's in my opinion, was the cream cheese filling in the Chai Latte. Delicious and just the right complement to the rest of the cupcake. It also helped offset the cake's dryness, as did the generous topper of frosting. 

I'm a sucker for a good filling, so I have to give props to Java Express for going the extra mile in that regard. Both bakeries need to work on being consistent with moistness and freshness of cake, but overall these were both quite tasty.

Mounds of goodness

It was a one-cupcake day at the farmers market today, with the majority of Heavenly Delight's selection comprised of cupcakes I'd already tried. They were offering Mounds, however, and I'd passed that one over  on a couple occasions for flavors that looked more interesting.

I do believe I underestimated the Mounds.

It's a rather simple concept -- dark chocolate cake topped with creamy vanilla frosting and a sprinkling of coconut shavings, as well as a few bits of coconut inside the cake. But oftentimes the simplest cupcakes are the most satisfying, and this little beauty was perfection. I don't like cake to be smothered in coconut, but this cupcake had just enough to impart the flavor without forcing my jaw to work overtime chewing it all. My biggest issue with coconut is the texture.

My coworker, Kathy, split this one with me, and we both agreed it was yet another delectable selection from HD. One thing we did notice, however, was that the ingredients label listed cream cheese. The frosting was undoubtedly vanilla, so we couldn't figure out where the cream cheese was hiding.

I also realized, while eating this one, that HD has never had a traditional chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting. The bakery has several with that combination of cake and frosting, but they all have some sort of extra ingredient, like this one. A classic "tuxedo" cupcake seems like something every bakery should offer. HD's basic flavors are so strong that I think the bakers should offer them consistently. HD's farmers market stand sells White (vanilla cake with vanilla frosting) and Chocolate Dream (chocolate cake with chocolate frosting) cupcakes most weeks, but HD also makes an excellent yellow cake with chocolate frosting that I've only seen at the stand once. I wish I could buy all four of the basic combinations (including chocolate cake with vanilla frosting) any week if I wanted to.

Bacon strikes again

It's not often you hear the phrase, "Breakfast for dessert." It applied to my choice of cupcake yesterday, when I took a break from Heavenly Delight cupcakes just long enough to make a long-awaited return to Cafe Moxo. It was Saturday, and Moxo had a spring/summer menu cupcake that I hadn't tried yet -- the Wakin' Bacon.

I'm not gonna lie -- I wasn't exactly looking forward to trying another bacon cupcake. The last time I tried one, More Cupcakes' Bacon Bacon Bacon during the Chicago cupcake crawl last July, I took a few bites and had to throw away the rest. The combination of vanilla, bacon and maple syrup very nearly tested my gag reflex. I'm a fan of pancakes and bacon with maple syrup, but that's not exactly the same as mixing it all together in a cupcake.

So I was wary as I had my Wakin' Bacon packaged up to go. Presentation-wise, it was pretty cute -- two small strips of bacon criss-crossed over white and yellow frosting made to look like a sunny-side-up egg.

As I strategized how to eat it, I debated taking the bacon off and eating it first, then tackling the cupcake. But  then I realized that taking it apart would defeat the whole purpose of the cupcake. Alas, it was time to be brave and take an all-encompassing bite. I have to admit, with that first bite I liked the flavor combination more than I had expected. The saltiness of the bacon sort of complemented the sweetness of the vanilla frosting, and the bacon bits baked into the cake were subtle. As I continued to work my way toward the middle, I discovered maple syrup soaking the cake. I had gotten that far, so I was committed to finishing, but the combination of the vanilla frosting, bacon and maple syrup was starting to get to me. Thankfully, Moxo's cupcakes are a smaller, more traditional size compared to More's jumbo cupcakes, so it wasn't such an undertaking to finish the Wakin' Bacon.

All things considered, this cupcake was one I never need to try again. I'm glad I did, though, because one of my goals in writing this blog is forcing myself to try new things, even if they're not my taste (or I think they won't be my taste). I know there are lots of people out there who love bacon cupcakes (my friend and former colleague Jayette Bolinski one of them), and for those people I would highly recommend Moxo's Wakin' Bacon.

Breakfast for dessert, baby!

Nuts and berries ... and zucchini

I had some catching up to do on new cupcake flavors after my visit to Heavenly Delight's stand at the farmers market this week, so I once again recruited some help from a coworker. The trio of the day: Lemon Blueberry, Italian Cream and Zucchini.

Lemon Blueberry took the best-of-three award for both of us. This was pretty much a perfect cupcake. Moist lemon cake with a filling of fresh blueberries; creamy, zesty lemon frosting; and a little dollop of blueberry jam on top. We also loved the combination of flavors. HD's Lemon Drop is one of my favorite cupcakes, and it's hard to say which I love more between it and its blueberry cousin. I guess I'll just have to try them side by side sometime and find out. Oh, what a hardship!

We also really liked Zucchini. I had had zucchini bread but never cake, and I really like HD's carrot and pumpkin cakes, so I was looking forward to trying this one. The cake was very spicy, and we could see the tiny bits of zucchini in it. I wondered if the frosting might be cream cheese, but it was vanilla. Although I love cream cheese frosting, I wasn't at all disappointed because HD makes an excellent vanilla and it complemented the cake quite well.

We wrapped things up with the Italian Cream. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this one, with all the nuts. I'm not a huge fan of pecans, and the cake was full of big chunks of them, as well as coconut. I like coconut better than nuts in cake, so that didn't bother me. I don't mind nuts in cake as much when they're ground up or chopped smaller. But the chunks bothered me with this cupcake. Nuts aside, though, it was a high-quality cupcake. The white cake was moist, and the vanilla frosting, of course, was great. Again, I wasn't crazy about the nuts on top. But Italian Cream apparently is all about coconut and pecans, so I have to give HD  props for doing the cupcake up right even though it wasn't my taste. (I have to note that Kathy loved it. She likes nuts in cake, though.) So to all my friends who love their nuts, I recommend the Italian Cream!

Independence Day cupcake

I love mid-week holidays, and I love them even more when they include cupcakes. I had picked up a Chocolate Butterscotch from Heavenly Delight at the farmers market last week, and I was saving it to try this week. (I also picked up several new flavors; more to come on that in my next post.)

Although the cupcake was good overall, the butterscotch promise came up a bit short. Mini butterscotch morsels covered the vanilla frosting (which had no butterscotch flavor I could taste) and the chocolate cake, while moist and delicious, also had no traces of butterscotch. I was hoping for the flavor to be more incorporated into the body of the cupcake. Alas, this was one that wouldn't stand out to me at future farmers markets, although if I were in the mood for a basic chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting, I'd certainly consider it.

Tasty trio

This week at the farmers market brought a variety of new flavors to try, so I recruited a few of my trusty tasters yet again -- in this case: Kathy, Natalie and Marilyn. The flavors of the week: Twisted M&M, Chocolate-Covered Almond and Neopolitan.

Chocolate-and-vanilla marble cake, as we discovered, was the Heavenly Delight flavor of the week. Two of the new flavors featured it, including Twisted M&M. This was a solid cupcake in terms of moist cake and creamy, flavorful vanilla frosting. However, we were a bit perplexed by the name. I had expected M&Ms to be somehow incorporated into the cake, but they were limited to the garnish. 

Neopolitan's name was fairly dead-on, except that the marble cake was a little light on chocolate. The strawberry frosting was dynamite, though, and the flavor combination did remind us of Neopolitan ice cream. A scoop of it would have been ideal next to this moist, tasty treat.

I was most excited to try Chocolate-Covered Almond. I love almond flavoring and was hoping it would come through in the cake. The flavor was lacking a bit in the vanilla cake, which wasn't as moist as the week's other selections. But the almond slivers baked into the cake elevated the cupcake in terms of innovation, in our opinion. I had never tasted cake with almonds in it, and although I normally dislike nuts in cake, the pieces were so thin and soft that the texture didn't bother me a bit. I loved HD's out-of-the-box thinking on this one. The four of us also agreed that the light, moussy chocolate frosting was perfect. 

All in all, this was a pretty good bunch, with only small complaints. I was able to grab a few old favorites at this week's market, as well -- Peanut Butter Cookie, Snickerdoodle and Chocolate Mint. I couldn't resist dipping into PB Cookie after we had divvied up the other three, and it was just as phenomenal as I remembered from last summer. It was clear why I ranked it No. 1 out of all the HD cupcakes I've tried, and why it's stayed at No. 1 for the past year. In fact, I hit the Thursday evening Illinois Products Farmers Market at the Illinois State Fairgrounds last night to buy one more for the freezer. While I was there, I noticed yet another new flavor -- Chocolate Butterscotch. I love butterscotch, so I can't wait to try that one next week. Gotta love cupcakes!

So-so selection

This week's farmers market coincided with another group taste-testing day at work. On our afternoon break,  four of us gathered to split six Heavenly Delight cupcakes -- three that I had been storing in the freezer at home, one that I bought this morning and two that my colleague, Kathy, also bought today.

The freezer trio consisted of Rocky Road, S'more and Root Beer Float. Today's purchases: Elvis, Cheesecake and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. We noted, as we gathered all the cupcakes for cutting, that there was a lot of brown, beige and white.

I had tried the Cheesecake and Cookie Dough before, although I noticed something this time with the Cheesecake that I hadn't noticed last time: the graham cracker crust on the bottom of the cupcake. Great idea, but I thought it blended so much with the cake that it lost its distinguishing texture. I liked the creativity, though.

But on to the new cupcakes. First up: Elvis.

Banana cake with peanut butter frosting and a garnish of banana chips and peanut butter morsels, the Elvis ranked highest for me of the cupcakes we tried today, but it didn't come close to touching my all-time favorite HD cupcakes. For one thing, the cake's banana flavoring was artificial. (And we weren't sure if there was peanut butter in the cake -- it's possible, but it was subtle if it was there.) I love HD's peanut butter frosting, and that was the highlight for me. I'd rather have it with chocolate or peanut butter cake than artificial banana. If the cake had been real banana, that likely would have bumped it up several notches. I liked the banana and peanut butter together. 

I was curious about the Root Beer Float, which Kathy had tried before and liked a lot. Root beer isn't the first flavor I'd crave, but I enjoy one once in a while. The yellow cake had a brownish tinge, as if some root beer had been mixed into the batter, but we couldn't detect the flavor. Kathy said she tasted it more in the last one she had, so maybe it was just an off batch. My quarter of the cupcake had the root beer barrel candy garnish, and it was a bit jarring to bite into the hard, crunchy candy along with the soft cake and creamy frosting, which was drizzled with a root beer syrup. HD's vanilla frosting is always good and the cake was moist, but overall this was a cupcake I could easily live without.

I've never had any particular interest in rocky road ice cream, so when I saw the Rocky Road cupcake at the HD stand, I knew I was trying it only for the sake of the blog. Normally I'd pass over that type of cupcake, but writing this blog has taught me to try things that fall outside of my favorites. I've found some things I never expected to like, but I've also had to force down more than a few flavors or flavor combinations that nearly tested my gag reflex. HD's Rocky Road was chocolate cake with walnuts baked in, topped with vanilla frosting, walnuts and marshmallows. I normally shy away from cake with nuts, and although I didn't think this was a bad cupcake, it's one I wouldn't need to try again. We felt that the cake was a tad dry and spongy, but not to a fault.

Finally, we tackled the S'more. I knew as I tried this one that I would compare it to Cafe Moxo's S'more, which is my second-favorite cupcake from that eatery. In this face-off, HD couldn't keep up. All the appropriate ingredients were there: chocolate cake, marshmallows and graham cracker cookies, plus vanilla frosting. But it was hard to tell if there was anything other than vanilla in the frosting; Moxo's S'more is topped with a luscious marshmallow creme frosting (and filled with more of the same) that makes the cupcake. I'd pass on HD's version. 

This quartet of new flavors makes me want to revisit some of my old HD favorites and put the obligatory samples on the back burner for a while. I'm thinking it's time for a Reese's ...

Strawberry letdown

I woke up with a sweet tooth this morning, so I decided to do something rare for me: Eat a cupcake for breakfast. I had been craving the Strawberry from Heavenly Delight with strawberry cake and strawberry frosting. So I eagerly pulled it out of the fridge.

My heart sank a little when I transferred it from container to plate and noticed the dark coloring around the edges of the cake. The first bite confirmed my suspicions -- overbaked cake. It wasn't the worst cake I've ever had, but it was dry enough to be disappointing. Had the cake been moist, I probably would have ranked the cupcake as a whole in my top 20 because the frosting was perfection. The sprinkling of sugar on top perfectly complemented the creaminess and the strawberry flavor. If I see this one at the stand again, I'll give it another chance because my cupcaking instincts indicate high potential. 

Strawberry Shortcake showdown

For months, I've been wanting to do a side-by-side comparison between similar cupcakes. The stars just never aligned quite right until yesterday, when I was able to bring together a Cafe Moxo Shortcake cupcake with Heavenly Delight's Strawberry Shortcake.

As you can see, these two cupcakes look nothing alike. Moxo and HD have different cupcake styles -- Moxo with its tower of frosting and HD with its overflowing cake cup. 

I had tried Moxo's Shortcake last summer and liked it a lot. The vanilla frosting, light but rich, left me in a sugar-happy haze, and I was also a fan of the white cake and chopped-strawberry stuffing. This time, however,  I didn't get the quality of cupcake I was expecting. This Shortcake's cake was dry and stale-tasting around the edges, though the middle was better. I still loved the frosting, but the lack of fresh cake put this one in the negative category for me. 

Meanwhile, HD's Strawberry Shortcake lived up to HD's typical standards for moist cake and thick, luscious buttercream frosting. The Strawberry Shortcake lacked a filling, but I liked the combination of vanilla and strawberry frosting (and the pink glitter sprinkles on top didn't hurt, either). 

I have to point out that while Moxo cupcakes tend toward a more gourmet style, HD's are the kind of cupcakes you'd expect to come out of Grandma's kitchen, especially if Grandma likes to experiment with every flavor under the sun (as I can attest from having sampled nearly 40 HD cupcakes over the past year). Both of those approaches to cupcakes are stellar as far as I'm concerned, and a lot of times my taste depends on my mood. And I'm sure that if Moxo's cake had been fresher, it would have been a more serious contest. I can only judge what's in front of me, though. 

There's no doubt that, between these two, HD reigned. 

Just the right day for blueberry

There were too many great-looking new cupcake flavors to choose from at this past Wednesday's farmers market, so I just bought 'em all. Of course, most of them are in the freezer. But I did select one to try that day at work -- Blueberry.

This cupcake felt like an appropriate choice on a day when containers of fresh blueberries were available at several farmers market stands, and HD didn't disappoint. The vanilla cake was moist and accented with fresh blueberries. The blueberry buttercream frosting was scrumptious. And the ribbon of blueberry jam curled around the top was an attractive and tasty garnish. I've loved most of the fruit-flavored HD cupcakes I've tried, and this one was no exception. I'd definitely buy it again. I hope they'll put it in the rotation.

Other cupcakes I bought and have yet to try: Root Beer Float, Rocky Road and Strawberry. (HD has four strawberry varieties that I know of -- Strawberry Shortcake, Strawberry Delight and Strawberry Swirl in addition to the aforementioned. This particular one is strawberry cake with strawberry frosting.) I'm not sure when I'll get around to trying them, but stay tuned for a post about my new endeavor: Side-by-side cupcake comparisons. First up: HD's Strawberry Shortcake vs. Cafe Moxo's Shortcake.

A drink of cherry cola ... cupcake

I had a never-before-seen (at least, by me) choice at this past Wednesday's farmers market: Cherry Coke. I love Cherry Coke, especially the old-fashioned fountain variety, so I was intrigued.

It was hard to tell if the Cherry Coke cupcake had any cola flavoring. The cherry frosting dotted with cherry chips was quite scrumptious, but Heavenly Delight might as well take "Coke" out of the name. As for the yellow cake, it was a bit dry by HD standards, but the cupcake as a whole was pretty good all the same. HD's frosting almost always saves the day on the rare occasions the cake is dry.

My other weekly selection was Caramel Chaos, which was pretty much what it sounds like: Caramel cake and caramel frosting. With chewy little caramel balls on top, of course. This is going to sound strange, but this cupcake actually tasted better to me AFTER I had eaten it. Initially, the frosting was way too sweet (not to mention that the cake, once again, was a tad dry). Once the half I ate had passed my tonsils and was on its way to my digestive tract, and once the flavor had settled into my taste buds, the over-sweetness subsided and I noticed the buttery flavor left behind. I wished it had been more upfront. And even with the pleasant aftertaste, I'm not likely to seek this one out again. There are too many other great choices at the HD stand.

Nuts for Nutella

I love Wednesdays. It's so great to have the farmers market back and know I'm going to be able to indulge in Heavenly Delight every hump day. It's always a little easier to get out of bed 10-15 minutes earlier than usual when I know the result will be a sweet treat, and I love arriving at the HD booth to find out which new and unexpected flavor I get to try.

When my husband Camille and I went to Paris two years ago to visit his cousin, Alain, and his wife, Severine, we learned about the French penchant for the chocolate-hazelnut spread Nutella. I had never tried it until Severine served it one morning with croissants. It was quite tasty, and we ultimately bought some here at home to use as filling in homemade crepes, too.

You can probably figure out where this is headed: Upon arriving at HD's stand yesterday, what did I find? Yep! Nutella cupcakes. I had never seen that variety from HD, or from any other bakery, for that matter, and let's just say I snatched up that bad boy.

Was it really that good? In a word, yes. The cake and frosting were both flavored with chocolate and hazelnut, and the cake was gooey-moist. I had wondered, as I often do about HD cupcakes, if there would be a filling, but I wasn't even disappointed not to find one. It wasn't necessary in this cupcake. I would try this one again in a second. Out of 30-some HD cupcakes I've tried, this one cracked my top 10.

Later last night, I realized I wasn't going to be able to wait to try my other HD selection for the week, Chocolate Chip. Much like HD's traditional Heavenly White cupcake except with chocolate chips baked into the cake and sprinked over the vanilla frosting, the Chocolate Chip was an easy eat, much like a really great chocolate-chip cookie. Another quality cupcake.

It's good to be a cupcaker!

Cupcake BONANZA!

I got more cupcakes than I bargained for this past Wednesday, and I'm not complaining one bit! First things first: With opening day of the Old Capitol Farmers Market that morning, I was able to indulge in my second new Heavenly Delight cupcake of the season -- German Chocolate.

I highly recommend this cupcake. With moist, milk-chocolate cake; smooth, creamy caramel frosting; and a topping of coconut slivers and chopped pecans, this was a pretty accurate take on German chocolate cake. Rich but not too sweet, it was just the right balance of all the ingredients. I would definitely try this again down the road, after I've had the chance to try more new HDs and repeat some of my dearest favorites.

I was expecting the HD to be my only cupcake of the day, until I got an awesome surprise in the afternoon -- a Facebook message from a fellow CrossFitter, Josh Becker, letting  me know he had gone to St. Louis and was bringing me a cannoli cupcake from Jilly's. I was so excited! I had been drooling over that cupcake for a couple of weeks, since Jilly's posted it on Facebook as one of its May cupcakes. 

This one was just as amazing as it looked. The mini-cannoli on top was divine, and my favorite part of the cupcake, which was chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting trimmed in chocolate ganache and sprinkled with mini chocolate chips, was the ricotta filling that mimicked that of the filling inside the cannoli garnish. This creation, like many of Jilly's selections, is a good candidate for splitting with a friend or at least eating in two sittings. I split it with my niece, who also loved it. 

But that wasn't all. Josh had bought quite a few cupcakes while at Jilly's and was generous enough to insist that I take not even two, but three! I was beside myself to say the least. One was similar to a favorite of mine from Jilly's -- the Reese's Chunkage with vanilla cake (the one I've tried had chocolate cake). But the most unusual and unexpected of the three was the Chicken and Waffles. Yep, you read that right. Another May specialty, the Chicken and Waffles is made of vanilla-corn cake and is topped with maple buttercream frosting, a chunk of oven-fried chicken, a wedge of Belgian waffle and maple drizzle. 

I decided the best strategy to trying this trio would be to tuck away the Reese's for later, since it would freeze the best, and try the chicken cupcake fresh. 

My photo doesn't do justice to the craftsmanship of the Chicken and Waffles cupcake. It was quite a thing of beauty before I took off the chicken and waffle to eat separately. Yep, there was no way I was taking a mouthful of cake, frosting AND chicken. (I did eat the chicken and waffle together, and the chicken on its own was surprisingly tasty, considering that it wasn't heated.)

I could only manage a small portion of the cake and frosting, as I was sampling it in the same sitting as the cannoli. But the frosting was extremely sweet -- too sweet for my taste. I can handle maple syrup on pancakes, waffles or French toast, but I'm not a fan of it as part of a cupcake. I loved the vanilla-corn cake, though. It was a lighter, smoother and less dense version of cornbread and easy to eat plain.

Jilly's cupcakes tend to be the culinary equivalent of Donald Trump -- filthy rich and best in small doses. The ingredients are the highest quality and undoubtedly please the pickiest of palates. I've liked or loved most of the Jilly's varieties I've tried, but sometimes I wish they came just a little smaller. 

Thanks again, Josh, for your generosity with the sweet treats!

Banana no pudding

Thursday night was the long-awaited return of the farmers market to Springfield (the Illinois Products Farmers Market, that is -- the Old Capitol Farmers Market, which runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays, starts this week). It was also the long-awaited return of Heavenly Delight cupcakes. Anyone who's read my blog consistently knows that I spent last spring-fall sampling HD cupcakes on a weekly basis. The bakery, based in Windsor, has a pretty good lineup, and they usually bring about 10 flavors to the market each week.

The 2012 premiere brought one HD cupcake I hadn't tried -- Banana Pudding. My first thought upon seeing this one and reading the name: creamy filling!

Wrong.

Not only was there no creamy filling, there was no filling at all. I can't lie: I was a little disappointed, although the cupcake was quite tasty anyway. The cake was moist (though hard to tell if it was made with real banana or artificially flavored), and the frosting was thick, creamy and banana-y. The mini-vanilla wafer on top was a nice touch, although it was soft by the time I ate it. I don't know that I would get this one again if I had choices such as the Snickerdoodle (cinnamon divinity -- my second-favorite HD cupcake after the Peanut Butter Cookie).

Welcome back, farmers market!

Pick-me-up cupcakes

It's been a rough week at The State Journal-Register, where I've been employed as a copy editor for 12 years today. The copy desk, which edits copy, lays out pages and generally serves as the last line of defense for accuracy in the newspaper, will be eliminated as the majority of our jobs are shifted to a central design hub near Chicago. Since this is a cupcake blog, I'm going to refrain from rehashing all the details of the situation. I'll just say that it made Wednesday's cupcake sampling that much sweeter because I really needed a treat.

My cake for the day was the Heavenly Delight Hot Chocolate cupcake that had been in the freezer since I picked it up with several others at the holiday farmers market Dec. 17 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. With most bakeries, I'd be concerned about leaving a cupcake in the freezer for that long. Not so with HD. Time and again, I've frozen HD cupcakes and pulled them out and thawed them to find a cake as moist and fresh-tasting as the day I bought it. The Hot Chocolate was no different. With chocolate cake and vanilla frosting covered in marshmallows, this one was spongy and delicious. It was basic -- no filling or flashy garnish other than the marshmallows -- but it was reminiscent of a mug of hot cocoa. I especially liked the cake, which was a milky chocolate as opposed to a fudgy chocolate. While it may not have been the most memorable HD cupcake I've had, it was a strong cupcake in terms of taste and freshness, and that counts for a lot when you realize how many dry, stale cupcakes are for sale out there.

The Hot Chocolate wasn't the end of my cupcake tasting that day. My coworker, Kathy, had visited Lisa's Bakery in Riverton (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lisas-Bakery/132255686885783) for a story, and she brought back four cupcakes to sample with our other colleague, Jayette. (The three of us have built a fun and frequent sampling habit, and it's one of countless things I'll miss when my time at the SJ-R ends.)

The offerings Kathy brought back from Lisa's included cherry, chocolate, lemon and apple spice. At first glance, we thought the cupcakes were pretty (the frosting on the cherry and lemon was dyed with food coloring in shades of day-glo pink and yellow), but as we dug in we realized that the artificial hues were a bit of a turnoff. I would have preferred untinged frosting topped simply with flavor-appropriate garnishes. (The cherry-flavored cupcake did sport a maraschino cherry.) Our favorites were the apple spice and lemon, although we felt the cake was dry in most cases and the frosting on the cherry and chocolate had a bit of a bitter aftertaste, not to mention a grainy texture. Overall, we felt Lisa's cupcakes would be fine for an event such as a child's birthday party, but if you're looking for gourmet cupcakes -- the type that the average person wouldn't necessarily be able to make in their own kitchen -- we suggest looking elsewhere.

Next week I'll be back to the Cafe Moxo winter lineup, although I'm not sure which of the remaining flavors I'll try. So many things are up in the air right now, but I'm hoping my cupcake tastings will help me focus on the positive while I enter this transition in my life. There's not much a little buttercream frosting can't cure, right?

Cupcake road trip!

It was worth waking up before dawn yesterday morning to get to work early so I could take an extended lunch to visit Petersburg with my coworker Kathy and hit OMGosh Bakery and Desserts for this week's cupcake day. (In other news, Kathy, Jayette and I received four cupcake flavors to sample -- three of them new -- from Tracy of TLCuppycakes.)

Kathy and I were faced with a difficult decision at OMGosh. (Jayette was unable to road-trip with us due to a scheduling conflict.) The display case was filled with tempting choices. Kathy chose Carrot, and after much deliberation I chose Chocolate Mint and Butterfinger. (There was an amazing-looking Champagne cupcake that I'm going to have to go back for one of these days.)

Earlier in the day, Tracy had brought us her four cupcakes: Chocolate Peanut Butter (this one's an original from her menu), Oh Oreo!, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Rolo.

Clockwise from left: Oh Oreo!, Chocolate Peanut Butter, 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Rolo

Our favorite of this bunch was the Oh Oreo! Vanilla cake speckled with Oreo bits, sitting on a base of Oreo crust (still crispy by the time we tried it -- amazing!) and topped by a fluffy cream cheese buttercream (that reminded us of Oreo cream filling), a sprinkling of Oreo crumbs and a wedge of cookie. I hope this one makes it onto the TL menu.

Notice the Oreo cookie crust on the wedge of Oh Oreo! 

cupcake at right. Its crispyness was a high point of the cupcake.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough 

cupcake contained a generous filling of 

-- what else? -- cookie dough!

We also enjoyed the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, which featured chocolate cake with a cookie dough filling (well done -- this is hard to do because the dough tends to become one with the cake, but Tracy did a nice job of contrasting the textures), a luscious vanilla buttercream frosting and a garnish of mini-chocolate chips and a homemade mini chocolate chip cookie. The homemade cookie was a great touch -- no shortcuts in this kitchen. We all agreed as we sampled this bunch of cupcakes that Tracy's thoughfulness with each flavor is what makes them stand out from cupcakes done by other bakeries in the area. 

The Rolo was our least favorite of the new crop. The caramel frosting was too sweet for my taste, although I was the only one of the three of us who felt that way -- Kathy and Jayette both liked the icing. Tracy had baked a Rolo candy into yellow cake, and, unfortuantely, as we cut the cupcake into pieces we could all try, the entirety of the candy piece wound up on one of the segments, so I got the whole thing while Kathy and Jayette got none. Therefore, they missed a major part of the cupcake while I got a too-large ratio of Rolo to cake. Rolos aren't my favorite candy because I'm not a fan of hard, chewy caramel (I prefer the soft, flowy kind like in Caramello bars), so the mouthful of Rolo wasn't so great. I suspect that it would have been better had we each gotten equal parts of the filling. Regardless, we would likely pass on this one in the future (and go for an Oh Oreo!).

Finally, Tracy had thrown in a veteran of her menu, the Chocolate Peanut Butter. I expected to love this one, and I wasn't disappointed. The moist chocolate cake housed a center consisting of a Reese's peanut butter cup, which retained its texture quite well through the baking process. Up top was a dreamy chocolate-peanut butter buttercream and a mini-peanut butter cup garnish. This cupcake should definitely come with an extra shot of frosting on the side. Yum.

We also managed to tackle a bit of Kathy's Carrot from OMGosh. The colorful, nut-filled spice cake was, unfortunately, dry. Kathy and Jayette did, however, like the cream cheese icing, which featured a cheery frosting carrot. I wasn't as impressed with the frosting, though. Something about it, which I couldn't put my finger on, just didn't taste quite right. I'm still not sure what the problem was, but I know that, despite the cute carrot garnish, this is one I'll never need to try again.

I needed a few hours to digest and log a workout, but when I arrived home from work, I was ready to take a few bites from  my other two OMGosh cupcakes before I put the majority in the freezer. 

First up for a nibble was the Butterfinger. I didn't get too far into it, but it seemed to be yellow cake, maybe with some peanut butter in the batter, and a filling of melty Butterfinger candy. Mmmm. Piled on top was a swirl of peanut butter frosting crowned by a thin layer of chocolate frosting and Butterfinger crumbles. The only other Butterfinger cupcake I've had was from Heavenly Delight, and that was a much simpler interpretation -- yellow cake with chocolate frosting and candy crumbles. The HD version scored high on my cupcake meter, but while that one was Butterfinger in topping only, this one was Butterfinger from top to bottom, inside and out. 

In the interest of being a thorough blogger, I managed to choke down a few final cupcake bites -- these from   OMGosh's Chocolate Mint. I had fond memories of my last taste of OMGosh's phenomenally rich, milk- chocolately frosting (on its Snickers cupcake), and the mint-flavored frosting on this one was just as delicious. The chocolate cake was a bit on the dry side, but the frosting distracted me from that imperfection, as did the minty filling, which was a creamier imitation of the center of a York Peppermint Patty. Wow. I felt just like one of the people in those old, windy York TV commercials -- refreshed and blown away.

Raspberry rhapsody and pumpkin perfection

I'm still basking in my cupcake windfall from New Year's weekend, which included stops at Jilly's and The Cup in St. Louis. Thanks to my generous coworker, Jayette, I also found myself with a Chocolate Raspberry cupcake from TL Cuppycakes on Friday night. That was on my menu for this weekend, along with a Pumpkin Harvest cupcake from The Cup. 

Lately, I've become a fan of jumping on my first weekend cupcake at the stroke of midnight Saturday morning, and that's exactly when I tucked into my Chocolate Raspberry. 

As Jayette pointed out, one of the strengths of TL Cuppycakes is owner Tracy's ability to inject a cupcake with taste identity from top to bottom. For instance, the Chocolate Raspberry was dark chocolate cake filled with raspberry cream and topped with raspberry buttercream frosting and chocolate shavings. Even the color of the frosting was just right, calling to mind raspberries. Jayette commented that the frosting's color appeared natural, as opposed to some of the bright, obviously artificial colors you see on a lot of frosted cupcakes. When I tasted it, it was evident that Tracy had actually used raspberries in the frosting -- the texture included the seeds. While berry seeds in frosting might bother some people, it appealed to me. I liked knowing that there was no artificial flavoring -- just the real-deal berries themselves. The moist chocolate cake received an assist from the raspberry cream filling that bumped it into a higher tier of tastiness. And the chocolate shavings on top were the perfect complement to the whole creation. 

This afternoon, after a nail-biter win by my alma mater, the Fighting Illini, it seemed like a no-brainer to celebrate with the Pumpkin Harvest from The Cup.

This is among my favorite pumpkin cupcakes of the five I've tried. The spice cake was a tad dry, and I suspect that was from sitting in the freezer for a week. The frosting, however, took this one to new heights. Instead of using cream cheese frosting on their pumpkin cake like most other bakeries, The Cup opted for cinnamon buttercream. Divine decision. Creamy, creamy, creamy with a delicate cinnamon flavor that made me wish I'd asked for a side of extra frosting. (Oh yeah, and there was a wedge of pumpkin chocolate bark on top that was a nice touch, too.) I would love to try this one again, eating it in the shop or at least the same day. Not all cake holds up well in the freezer, and my foil liners (which I learned, from Heavenly Delight, help to hold moisture in cake when frozen) were too small to fit The Cup's jumbo-size creations. In the long run, though, the loss of moistness barely dampened my enthusiasm for the Pumpkin Harvest. I wish I had another!

New year, new cupcakes

Sugar Mama's Cherry Limeade

Jilly's Orange Dream

Happy New Year's, cupcakers! I started off 2012 the best way I could think of -- with my remaining Sugar Mama's cupcake, Cherry Limeade, and an Orange Dream from Jilly's in St. Louis.

Thanks to my awesome husband, I was able to visit Jilly's (as well as The Cup -- more on that in a later post) during our New Year's weekend trip to St. Louis and pick up a couple of their over-sized creations. We arrived late-afternoon on New Year's Eve, about an hour and a half before closing time. By the time we got there, the selection was down to only three choices -- the Missy-licious, which is one of my Jilly's favorites; the Bee Sting, which is Camille's favorite; and The Reese's with vanilla cake (it's also available with chocolate cake, which is how I tried it on our first visit). I was a little disappointed that there was nothing new to try (I contemplated trying a vanilla Reese's but decided it wasn't quite new enough). At least Camille and I were both able to enjoy our favorites. Note to self, however: Never wait until close to closing time to visit Jilly's!

We checked in to our downtown hotel after our Jilly's stop, and once we had dropped our bags in the room we realized that we needed some bottled water and a few other things. There happened to be a grocery store around the corner, so we went to check it out. Culinaria, which neither of us had heard of, is an offshoot of Schnucks, and we found it to be a cool little metropolitan-inspired market. It made a great first impression on me -- as we walked in, my eyes fell on a display of baked goods ... including Jilly's cupcakes! There were two left -- one, ironically, was a Bee Sting -- but the other was an Orange Dream, which I hadn't even seen on Jilly's website. I grabbed up that bad boy with delight. I wouldn't end up eating it until New Year's night, when we were back at home (I had my Missy-licious for the hotel room), but I've loved orange cupcakes I've tried previously, so I was looking forward to this Jilly's confection with white cake, vanilla filling and an "orange creamsicle buttercream frosting," as the package advertised.

The Orange Dream didn't disappoint. The cake was moist and the orange buttercream thick and luscious. The vanilla filling added that extra va-va-voom. (The other orange cupcake I tried, several months ago from Heavenly Delight, was tasty but lacking the cream filling that, at the time, I felt would have put it in a higher category.) There's no doubt -- Jilly's knows how to do cake and frosting, and although they specialize in creative flavors and combinations, even the basic, familiar flavors are fantastic.

I also indulged in my remaining cupcake from Sugar Mama's here in Springfield -- the Cherry Limeade. Just like the other Sugar Mama's cakes I've tried, this one was flavorful and delightful. I loved the combination of cherry cake and lime frosting, and I'm a sucker for maraschino cherries, so the garnish hit the spot. The first words that popped into my mind as I bit into this small-but-mighty treat were "tantalizingly tart." The cherry and lime played perfectly off each other, and, as always, the petiteness of the cupcake made it managable and left me with plenty of room for more (if I'd had another). There's no doubt I'm going to have to connect with Sugar Mama's again sometime so I can continue exploring their menu.

Here's to a new year full of delicious cupcakes!