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!

Midnight indulgence

All the holiday goodies the past couple days at work had me longing for the weekend so I could grab another cupcake out of the freezer.

I was in the mood for chocolate, so I chose Sugar Mama's Chocolate-Covered Strawberry.

Mmmmmmm.

What a great cupcake! It's the first time I've had the combination of strawberry cake and light but creamy chocolate frosting, which worked together to perfectly capture the flavor of a chocolate-covered strawberry -- which topped the cupcake as a garnish. I could see these cupcakes at a wedding reception. Delicious AND elegant. I could have easily gobbled down a couple more!

Cupcake-palooza

I've been juggling cupcakes from three bakers for the past several days, and I have to say I don't mind one bit. My freezer was already holding a half-dozen from Heavenly Delight and Sugar Mama's this morning when I received my spur-of-the-moment three-flavor order from Tracy of TLCuppycakes in Petersburg. She had posted on her Facebook page two nights prior that she would be bringing a delivery of her Holiday Red Velvet, Cranberry Bliss and Snickerdoodle cupcakes into town along with some extras for anyone with a craving.

Since I discovered Tracy's cupcakes a month or so ago, I've become as hooked on her confections as my beloved Heavenly Delight, so I couldn't resist adding to my backlog. In light of the sheer number of cupcakes and the other sweets and holiday foods lurking around the office, I decided to up my usual indulgence by eating two full cupcakes and just part of two others. (Sugar Mama's peanut butter cupcake was calling my name from the freezer, so I plucked it out and brought it to work with me. Thankfully, SM's cakes are a bit smaller than some of the others bakers', so I didn't feel quite so bad about eating it in whole.)

OK, the whole truth? I ate way too much cake today, and to be honest I have a bellyache as I type this. But there's always tomorrow to hop back on the bandwagon of health.

But back to the cupcakes. I started my carb-fabulous day with that peanut butter goodie from Sugar Mama's, and it was quite a satisfying lead-in to the Wednesday sugar rush. The chocolate cake was pleasantly moist with some chunkiness that I think was either chocolate chunks or Reese's Peanut Butter Cup chunks baked in. The frosting, which was topped with a small peanut butter cup wedge, was unlike other peanut butter frostings I've tried in that it was stronger on the salty peanut butter flavor. There definitely wasn't as much sugar as in the others. I didn't mind it, though; not every frosting needs to be loaded with sugar, and I liked how the boldness and authenticity of the peanut butter's flavor came through. It struck just the right balance with the sweetness of the cake and the candy wedge on top. 

Next up was the much-anticipated TLCuppycakes Holiday Red Velvet. After my recent bad experience with a bone-dry Cafe Moxo red velvet, I was ready for something a little more promising. Based on my previous TLCuppycakes cakes, I had every reason to believe this red velvet would be the real deal. 

Presentation-wise, the cupcake was an eye-catcher: deep-red cake, fluffy tower of frosting and a dusting of white-chocolate shavings reminiscent of snowflakes. Biting into it, I knew I had found a red velvet to remember. Moist cake. Light, creamy cream cheese frosting. A touch of smooth, light vanilla cream in the center -- a delightful surprise. This was red velvet fit for royalty. I've tried quite a few red velvets from various bakeries during my cupcake journey, and this one ranks at the top.

By the time I got home from work, I was ready for a bite or two from the remaining TLCuppycakes varieties -- Cranberry Bliss and Snickerdoodle. 

Cranberry is a flavor I'd normally pass over in most foods or beverages, simply because the tart flavor is a bit strong for my palate. I'm glad I gave TL's Cranberry Bliss a chance, though. The orange-cranberry cake surrounded a light cranberry filling and was topped with white-chocolate buttercream and a garnish of toasted almonds. Despite cranberry not being my first choice, I enjoyed the flavor combination and the sheer quality of the cupcake as a whole. My observation, based on the TL cakes I've tried so far, is that the quality will be dependable even if not every cupcake variety is my taste per se. 

I'm a sucker for cinnamon, so I was pretty sure I'd be a fan of TL's Snickerdoodle. Sure enough, this was the cupcake I wish I'd gotten when I ordered the Cinnamon Sugar cupcake at Sprinkles Cupcakes on the Chicago cupcake crawl this past July. That cupcake, from a cupcake chain that originated in Los Angeles and has since opened shops on the East Coast as well as in Chi-town, was merely a cinnamon poundcake --  no frosting and not even a light glaze, which at the time I felt would have elevated the Cinnamon Sugar to greatness. TL's Snickerdoodle, with it's cinnamon-vanilla cake, light cinnamon filling, cinnamon-vanilla buttercream frosting and dusting of cinnamon sugar, had all the elements missing from that Sprinkles cupcake. The founder of Sprinkles is a judge on The Food Channel's "Cupcake Wars," and she could take a lesson from TLCuppycakes on this particular cupcake.

Heck, what's a little stomachache when it comes from a day of phenomenal cupcakes? 

Two-cupcake Saturday

I was ready for some sugar by the time I finished a challenging Saturday morning workout, and I got it in spades -- a friend at the gym introduced me to some cupcakes by a friend of hers, with a baking business known as Sugar Mama's Cupcakes. Lauren and Sugar Mama's treated me to four flavors -- Lime Margarita, Cherry Limeade, Peanut Butter and Chocolate-Covered Strawberry. Lauren had raved about the Lime Margarita, so I decided to try that one first.

What a great cupcake! The lime cake was moist and flavorful, and the frosting was creamy with a subtle hint of lime. The cherry on top was a delightful touch. I agreed with Lauren's description -- that it was like eating a margarita.

In addition to the Sugar Mama's cupcakes, I picked up four cupcakes I had ordered from Heavenly Delight at the holiday farmers market on the state fairgrounds. The Christmasy HD lineup included Sugar Cookie, Gingerbread, Hot Chocolate and Pistachio. I love pistachios, so I was excited to make that one my first sample from the HD bunch.

The pistachio, with its pistachio cake and vanilla frosting, was tasty, but I thought the frosting was a tad too sweet -- sweeter than it's been on other HD cupcakes. It didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it was still good to taste some HD again and to have three more new HD creations to try on upcoming cupcake days.

Between those and the rest of the Sugar Mama's confections, the freezer is awesomely stocked.