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 ...

Workday S'more

A cold rain was coming down when I left the house this morning, and yet, somehow, in my cupcake-induced rush to get downtown to the farmers market, I failed to consider that the wet weather might put a damper on attendance -- customers AND vendors -- at the market.

It was a cold, wet realization when I parked the car and scrambled the half-block to Adams Street, looked to my left, where Heavenly Delight's stand usually resides, and saw the empty space. No HD cupcake this week.

Fortunately, just behind me was Cafe Moxo, where my fall/winter cupcaking stint starts in two weeks, after the market's season wraps. I had a Moxo cupcake in August, the week HD put its stand at the Illinois State Fair instead of the farmers market. That time, I chose the Shortcake cupcake, with white cake, a filling of chopped strawberries, and vanilla frosting. I adored the cupcake, with frosting that I thought resembled the cream in Mel-O-Cream doughnuts.

This time, the selections were fall-flavored, and the one I chose was the S'more.

The S'more scores high on presntation, with a graham cracker resting on top of a thick layer of marshmallow cream frosting covering the foundation of chocolate cake. Crowning the creation was an extra dollop of frosting serving as base for a square of Hershey's milk chocolate. The cake is moist and light, and the marshmallow frosting had a hint of marshmallows' stretchy texture. (I wondered how they would accomplish marshmallow frosting, and they did it quite well.) My only complaint was that the graham cracker had softened from being sandwiched between two layers of frosting. The staleness didn't keep me from eating the cracker; I simply broke off the bottom half of the cake so I could fit the rest of the cupcake in my mouth without taking the cracker off. The flavor of the graham cracker blended with the cake and frosting, and the cracker's texture became, for the most part, a nonissue.

Moxo's more heavily decorated cupcakes aren't the easiest to eat, but this particular one was worth the effort. I'd certainly order it again, once I get through the rest of the fall flavors. Moxo has 25 cupcakes on its menu, and it features certain flavors during different seasons. Some, like S'more, Caramel Apple and Pumpkin Spice, obviously fit with a particular season, but others, such as the Black & White (chocolate cake with vanilla frosting) and the Bistro (yellow cake with chocolate frosting) are basic enough to fit any season and pop up on the restaurant's display year-round.

I'll probably wait a couple weeks, until after next week's final farmers market, to return to Moxo, but when I do I think I'll try the Caramel Apple. I love fall for its colorful leaves and sweatshirt-wearing weather, but I hate what it ushers in. At least I have a tempting fall selection of cupcakes to anticipate. Bring 'em on!

Finally, cupcakes!

It's been a busy week and I haven't had much time to devote to the blogs, but yesterday was Cupcake Day, and I was able to find the time to swing by Heavenly Delight at the Old Capitol Farmers Market to pick up my week's selections. That's right -- this week, I was unable to pick just one, so I bought Cheesecake and Carrot.

I was fascinated with the idea of translating cheesecake into a cupcake, so when I finally found the time, after work, to sink my teeth into it, I was a little disappointed to find that it just tasted like a vanilla cupcake. White cake with vanilla frosting, it was delicious, but not in a cheesecake way. Maybe the frosting was supposed to be infused with a cheesecake flavor, but if it was, my tastebuds didn't pick up on it. Still tasty, but I'd pick HD's classic white cupcake with the mini-M&Ms on top if I wanted a plain vanilla cupcake.

Next up was the Carrot, for which I had high hopes. The cake was just as I like carrot cake -- no nuts. It was moist with an excellent flavor. The only problem? The cream cheese frosting was a little heavy on the sugar and a little light on the cream cheese, and it had an aftertaste that reminded me of Splenda. I doubt HD uses sweeteners in their cupcakes, so I'm not sure what was behind that. (Maybe I have defective tastebuds ....) My mom makes a luscious cream cheese frosting that she puts on pumpkin cake, and that frosting in combination with HD's carrot cake would have made quite a memorable cupcake. As it was, though, I would skip over it in future weeks at the stand.

I was in the mood for chocolate this week but didn't listen to my craving, and maybe that was part of my problem with this week's selections. There was a S'more cupcake I passed on, but maybe that would have been a better option than, say, the cheesecake. Oh well -- it's a crapshoot with cupcakes just as much as with anything else in life!