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!

A Cafe Moxo cupcake day

I've been sampling cupcakes all summer from a bakery in Neoga called Heavenly Delight Cakes. This bakery, which has a stand each Wednesday morning at the Old Capitol Farmers Market in downtown Springfield and every Thursday evening at the Illinois Products Farmers Market at the Illinois State Fairgrounds (except for this week, when the stand moved to the Illinois Building to serve state fair patrons), has been my weekly stop, with only a few exceptions due to travel, since the end of May. I've also been logging each cupcake, week by week, with a description and a ranking. My intention starting out was to choose one cupcake per week, but, of course, there have been weeks when I couldn't resist buying more than one and sometimes even freezing one or more for later.

OK, so I'm a little OCD. But it's been fun! It's also going to become fodder for this blog.

This week, though, I wasn't able to go to the fairgrounds to hunt down my Heavenly Delight cupcake. Instead, after I finished buying my produce at the farmers market (yes, I do make an effort to eat fruits and vegetables as well as cupcakes!) I stopped into Cafe Moxo, a locally owned restaurant downtown, on one fo the same blocks occupied by the market, to select one of their cupcakes as a replacement for Heavenly Delight. I chose the shortcake cupcake, which is strawberry-themed. My other choices were peanut butter, which I've had before and loved; chocolate; and carrot. (I plan to return and try other Moxo flavors, which revolve from day to day, once the market has ended and Heavenly Delight no longer operates a Springfield outlet.)

The shortcake was a white cake with a filling of chopped-up strawberries, what I can best describe as a thick vanilla whipped-cream frosting, and a strawberry garnish. The frosting, which tasted like a thicker version of the cream Mel-O-Cream uses in its bismarck doughnuts, was outstanding. It rivaled buttercream for me, which is saying a lot. The filling of chopped-up strawberries was a nice tough, as was the half-strawberry garnish. I loved the presentation, with frosting swirled high atop the cake. Moxo cupcakes are smaller than Heavenly Delight's, but I was just as satisfied after finishing.

I would highly recommend this cupcake for lovers of vanilla and strawberry. It was a worthy substitute for my beloved Heavenly Delight, and I can't wait to go back when the market ends in October and try more Moxo flavors.

Speaking of Heavenly Delight, I'll soon be posting my log of those cupcakes from May through last week, and I'll continue my recommendations on a weekly basis until the end of the market. I look forward to Wednesdays all week!

Now, get off the computer and go have a cupcake!