Cupcakes in the Windy City

When Camille and I embarked on our trip to Chicago with another couple this past weekend, it had been four years since I last stepped foot in a Magnolia Bakery shop. That time was in New York, during a trip with my friend Sara. Since then, I've probably tried a hundred different types of cupcakes from at least 20 bakeries. But Magnolia ( http://www.magnoliabakery.com/home.php), which I first tried on a trip to New York in 2001, has always stood out in my mind as the best place for cake and cupcakes.

My only priority for our Chicago trip was to stop at the Magnolia shop that opened last September on State Street, in the Block 37 mall across the street from Macy's. Sara, who lives in Gurnee and has visited the store a couple times since it opened, had told me that the quality of the cake at the Chicago shop is the same as in New York. That was reassuring because you never know, when food places become chains, how the goods will hold up.

As much as I love the cupcakes, the first thing I wanted, right there in the store, was a slice of layer cake -- chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. Magnolia's vanilla frosting was what made me fall in love with the place in New York, and to this day it's still the best I've ever tasted. The fact that my taste for it has held up after the past year-plus of cupcake tasting makes me happy because I can't count the number of times I've raved about Magnolia to anyone who wanted to have a conversation about cupcakes. 

One of the reasons I love the layer cake is the divine thickness and creaminess of the buttercream frosting. Chocolate cake with vanilla frosting is my favorite combination at Magnolia. I also bought several cupcakes to go, and one of them, which I tried the next morning at the hotel -- yellow cake with chocolate frosting -- was very good, but I've preferred the chocolate frosting at other bakeries I've tried. Magnolia's was a bit too cocoa-y for my taste. That's not to say that I won't savor the other chocolate-frosted cupcake I brought home (with chocolate cake), but on return trips I'll stick with vanilla. 

In addition to the yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting and the chocolate with chocolate frosting, I had them box a vanilla coconut for Camille and a white cake with vanilla frosting for me. I love how the chocolate cupcakes are garnished so delicately with the little flower candies. So simple, but so sophisticated. I love the retro, 1950s feel of Magnolia's shops and the cupcakes themselves. 

I can't wait till my next sweets day so I can pull the remaining two Magnolia cupcakes out of the freezer and consume a bit of heaven once again!

Another side note from the weekend: While looking for parking downtown on Sunday, we stumbled upon Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique (http://sugarblisscakes.com/), which was the second stop on Sara's and my Chicago cupcake crawl last summer. Of course, I couldn't resist running in. The cupcake that stands out in my mind from our stop there in 2011 is a banana mini-cupcake with a buttery vanilla frosting that knocked my socks off. Unfortunately, that cupcake wasn't on the Sunday menu, but there were quite a few other tempting choices.

My picks: Lemon Coconut (for Camille), Orange Creamsicle, Chocolate Milk Chocolate, Margarita, Cinnamon Carrot and Chocolate Peanut Butter. When we arrived home Sunday night, I dipped into the Orange Creamsicle and Chocolate Peanut Butter. Both were delicious, with moist cake and creamy frosting. The Orange Creamsicle was refreshing, and the two-bite size was just enough. The Chocolate Peanut Butter frosting was rich and absolutely delectable. I wouldn't have minded a full-size version of that one. I like that Sugar Bliss offers mini cupcakes in all the same flavors as its regular-size cupcakes, though. It was great to be able to choose several flavors to try. The rest are in the freezer, to be pulled out this weekend, most likely, when I'll be hanging out at home, wishing we were still in Chicago.

Anniversary cupcakes

Camille loves to surprise me on special occasions. On this, our second wedding anniversary, he caught me completely off-guard with a trip to St. Louis and St. Charles, Mo., that he began with a stop at Jilly's Cupcake Bar and Cafe, which competed on and won an episode of the Food Network's "Cupcake Wars" this year.

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We missed out on Jilly's a month ago, when we went to St. Louis for my birthday, because the shop was closed for construction. It was up and running when we arrived this weekend, and I was impressed by the array of cupcakes on display in the freshly painted, partially decorated shop.

They. Were. Huge. Possibly the biggest cupcakes I've seen to date. Crumbs had oversized cupcakes when we stopped there on the Chicago cupcake crawl, but I'm pretty sure Jilly's would come out on top size-wise if we compared them side-by-side.

Jilly's was serving a brunch buffet when we got there, so we had some pre-cupcake food. As it turned out, the buffet included a cake version of Jilly's Pink Velvet cupcake. Camille and I both tried some and were blown away by the moist, rich cake, stuffed with caramel, and the light-yet-creamy frosting featuring cream cheese, caramel buttercream and pecan praline. When it was time to get in line to buy cupcakes, that one was on the list. Others we chose for the to-go box: Bee Sting (lemon and honey); Missy-licious (vanilla with vanilla whipped cream filling); The Reese's (self-explanatory!); and Space Monkey (banana-toffee, with Dulce de Leche filling), one of the cupakes that won on "Cupcake Wars."

Clockwise from top left: Space Monkey, The Reese's, Missy-licious, Pink Velvet.

The Bee Sting

By the time we got home Monday afternoon, I was ready to tackle one of Jilly's monster creations. Looking for the least-rich of the bunch, I went for the Missy-licious, the all-vanilla cake. It was about twice the size of your average, homemade cupcake, with probably three times the frosting. However, I somehow managed to make it nonexistent in less than five minutes. Let's get another look at this beauty, with frosting in Jilly's signature colors of pink and green:

The Missy-licious is the closest competitor I've yet to find for the vanilla cupcakes I hold in highest regard: the Magnolia Bakery vanilla cupcake. With the Magnolia cake, it's all about the thick, creamy, sugar coma-inducing frosting. The vanilla frosting on the white-cake Missy-licious was light, but still creamy, and I wish I knew how to describe exactly how perfect the sugar/butter/vanilla flavor/texture balance was. There are no words -- at least not for me, an inexperienced food critic. Let me just remind you that it was a monster cupcake, and I ate it in less than five minutes. That should suffice to get my point across about how irresistible this cupcake was. My best advice: Get thee to Jilly's and try one!

Camille's lone choice for his take-home was the Bee Sting, which Jilly's website describes as vanilla cake with honey lemon curd stuffing and topping consisting of "lemon cream cheese, toasted almonds and a lemon candy dust."

After finishing half of it (cupcake-eating amateur!) he pronouned it "really good." I went in for my own sample of the leftovers and found it to be a little strong for my taste. I've mentioned in past posts that I prefer my lemon flavoring subtle, and I'm finding out that most cupcake places don't believe in subtlety when it comes to lemon. I can see where a lemon lover would fall head over heels for the Bee Sting, though. The frosting, cake and filling were a tart and tangy trio, waking up my tongue (which I admit was a little sluggish after working overtime to consume the Missy-licious). I would never attempt an entire Bee Sting, but I'll give it props for eliciting a "really good" from Camille, who could easily live without sweets altogether.

Our freezer is currently holding three cuipcakes that I'll probably need at six sittings to finish (OK, let's stop kidding ourselves -- MAYBE two servings for The Reese's, which is piled so high with peanut butter cup clusters that it rivals Mt. St. Helens), and with a Heavenly Delight trip coming in a couple days, it might take me through next weekend to finish them. But I'll be back to review them as soon as they pass  my lips.

Don't wait for me, though -- get on I-55 South and burn some rubber to Jilly's!