Where's the toffee?

My stop at Qik-N-Ez after work tonight yielded two Java Express cupcakes -- the Chai Latte I wrote about in  my last blog post and a Chocolate Toffee. Both were flavors I'd never seen at Java. I suspect the coffee shop has expanded its selection since it started selling cupcakes at the gas stations around town.

The devil's food cake wasn't the freshest or moistest, which I attribute at least partially to the fact that the guy behind the counter said the batch had been in the store for two days (albeit in the refrigerator while not in the display case). And overall, I liked it a lot. The frosting was especially good -- creamy and light with a milky chocolate flavor. What puzzled me was the lack of detectable toffee. Guy Behind the Counter had said the toffee was in the frosting. It must have been ground up to a fine powder, because I sure didn't taste it or feel the crunchy texture. It was quite good as chocolate cupcakes go, but it didn't live up to its name. Somebody get these cupcakes some toffee bits!

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.

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!

Rock bottom

Cupcake day was all over the spectrum this week -- good, bad and mediocre.

I wound up with a trio to try yesterday -- one from Cafe Moxo and two from Java Express, my most recent discovery.

I was most excited to try one of the pair from Java, a cherry-almond cupcake with cherry pie filling and cherry-almond buttercream frosting.

It tasted fantastic. The yellow cake was fresh and moist (the batch had been baked that morning at Java), and the frosting was thick and rich. And then there was the fresh cherry pie filling. It was just the right touch. I ate only half of it because it was the first of three, and the Java cupcakes are jumbo-size.

I chose to try Cafe Moxo's Hostess With the Mostest next. It's exactly what it sounds like -- a gourmet version of the snack-cake classic.

The chocolate cake was reasonably fresh for Moxo, and the marshmallow filling was delightful. I'm not a fan of dark or bittersweet chocolate, so the ganache icing didn't thrill me. But overall it was a good cupcake, and it was in the upper tier as far as Moxo cupcakes I've tried.

I had saved the other Java Express selection -- chocolate peppermint -- for last because I didn't want the peppermint flavor to linger on my palate for the other cupcakes.

I knew something wasn't right when I ran into a struggle while trying to peel the paper lining away from the cake with my fork. My suspicions were confirmed when I went for the first bite: Hard. The cake wasn't just dry -- it clearly had been sitting out for more than a day at Java. Still, I wasn't ready to give up. After all, the frosting is my favorite part of any cupcake. So I dipped my fork into the pretty, pink-tinted whipped topping ... took a bite ... arrghhh! It tasted almost like plastic. When my coworker Kathy tried it, she reported an overwhelming amount of shortening. I was shocked, considering the quality of the two other cupcakes I'd tried from Java (the first was a lemon-raspberry that I wrote about in my last post). I had to throw away the majority of the chocolate peppermint. It pains me to toss out a cupcake, but it just wasn't edible.

Java Express still has a few cupcakes I haven't tried, and I'm eager to go back and sample the rest. I'm convinced that the chocolate peppermint was an isolated bad experience. It can happen to anybody. It does bring up a point worth stressing, though: Freshness is everything. I wish all the bakeries and shops would consider that.

Java (and cupcake) Express

When my coworker, Amy, left a post on my Facebook page late this week mentioning that she had tried -- and loved -- a cupcake from Springfield's Java Express, 1827 N. Peoria Road, I knew I needed to squeeze in some time to check it out myself.

Java Express is just down the road from my office, so I took a quick break on Friday for an excursion. Amy had tried the pumpkin, and there was one left when I arrived. However, I also found lemon with raspberry filling and chocolate with peppermint frosting. The women behind the counter (one of them the baker herself) reported that the lemon-raspberry is one of Java's most popular flavors. (They also told me that they rotate their small variety of flavors, and two others that they mentioned stuck in my memory -- chocolate-peanut butter and one with cherry pie filling and almond buttercream frosting.)

After a bit of deliberation between the pumpkin and the lemon-raspberry, I decided to go with the less-common combination and chose the lemon.

Let me just say that Java Express knows cupcakes. I waited to eat the cupcake until Saturday morning and forgot to freeze it, so it sat out most of the day and all night. As a result, the cake was a bit dry by the time I ate it. One of the ladies at Java also told me that they bake 3-4 times a week, so I'm not sure how long the batch I bought from had been sitting in the display case at the store. Despite the slight dryness, though, the cake was an overall hit for me. The lemon was subtle in both the cake and the thick buttercream frosting. And the raspberry filling was just right -- it was just the right consistency, and I liked the presence of seeds. I'm not sure if it was a jam or a homemade filling, but either way it worked for me.

A couple other noteworthy details about these cupakes: They're jumbo-size and bargain-priced at about $2.

I'm eager to go back and try the one with the cherry pie filling and almond frosting. Here's a shout-out of thanks to Amy for the recommendation!