Bacon strikes again

It's not often you hear the phrase, "Breakfast for dessert." It applied to my choice of cupcake yesterday, when I took a break from Heavenly Delight cupcakes just long enough to make a long-awaited return to Cafe Moxo. It was Saturday, and Moxo had a spring/summer menu cupcake that I hadn't tried yet -- the Wakin' Bacon.

I'm not gonna lie -- I wasn't exactly looking forward to trying another bacon cupcake. The last time I tried one, More Cupcakes' Bacon Bacon Bacon during the Chicago cupcake crawl last July, I took a few bites and had to throw away the rest. The combination of vanilla, bacon and maple syrup very nearly tested my gag reflex. I'm a fan of pancakes and bacon with maple syrup, but that's not exactly the same as mixing it all together in a cupcake.

So I was wary as I had my Wakin' Bacon packaged up to go. Presentation-wise, it was pretty cute -- two small strips of bacon criss-crossed over white and yellow frosting made to look like a sunny-side-up egg.

As I strategized how to eat it, I debated taking the bacon off and eating it first, then tackling the cupcake. But  then I realized that taking it apart would defeat the whole purpose of the cupcake. Alas, it was time to be brave and take an all-encompassing bite. I have to admit, with that first bite I liked the flavor combination more than I had expected. The saltiness of the bacon sort of complemented the sweetness of the vanilla frosting, and the bacon bits baked into the cake were subtle. As I continued to work my way toward the middle, I discovered maple syrup soaking the cake. I had gotten that far, so I was committed to finishing, but the combination of the vanilla frosting, bacon and maple syrup was starting to get to me. Thankfully, Moxo's cupcakes are a smaller, more traditional size compared to More's jumbo cupcakes, so it wasn't such an undertaking to finish the Wakin' Bacon.

All things considered, this cupcake was one I never need to try again. I'm glad I did, though, because one of my goals in writing this blog is forcing myself to try new things, even if they're not my taste (or I think they won't be my taste). I know there are lots of people out there who love bacon cupcakes (my friend and former colleague Jayette Bolinski one of them), and for those people I would highly recommend Moxo's Wakin' Bacon.

Breakfast for dessert, baby!

Nuts and berries ... and zucchini

I had some catching up to do on new cupcake flavors after my visit to Heavenly Delight's stand at the farmers market this week, so I once again recruited some help from a coworker. The trio of the day: Lemon Blueberry, Italian Cream and Zucchini.

Lemon Blueberry took the best-of-three award for both of us. This was pretty much a perfect cupcake. Moist lemon cake with a filling of fresh blueberries; creamy, zesty lemon frosting; and a little dollop of blueberry jam on top. We also loved the combination of flavors. HD's Lemon Drop is one of my favorite cupcakes, and it's hard to say which I love more between it and its blueberry cousin. I guess I'll just have to try them side by side sometime and find out. Oh, what a hardship!

We also really liked Zucchini. I had had zucchini bread but never cake, and I really like HD's carrot and pumpkin cakes, so I was looking forward to trying this one. The cake was very spicy, and we could see the tiny bits of zucchini in it. I wondered if the frosting might be cream cheese, but it was vanilla. Although I love cream cheese frosting, I wasn't at all disappointed because HD makes an excellent vanilla and it complemented the cake quite well.

We wrapped things up with the Italian Cream. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this one, with all the nuts. I'm not a huge fan of pecans, and the cake was full of big chunks of them, as well as coconut. I like coconut better than nuts in cake, so that didn't bother me. I don't mind nuts in cake as much when they're ground up or chopped smaller. But the chunks bothered me with this cupcake. Nuts aside, though, it was a high-quality cupcake. The white cake was moist, and the vanilla frosting, of course, was great. Again, I wasn't crazy about the nuts on top. But Italian Cream apparently is all about coconut and pecans, so I have to give HD  props for doing the cupcake up right even though it wasn't my taste. (I have to note that Kathy loved it. She likes nuts in cake, though.) So to all my friends who love their nuts, I recommend the Italian Cream!

Independence Day cupcake

I love mid-week holidays, and I love them even more when they include cupcakes. I had picked up a Chocolate Butterscotch from Heavenly Delight at the farmers market last week, and I was saving it to try this week. (I also picked up several new flavors; more to come on that in my next post.)

Although the cupcake was good overall, the butterscotch promise came up a bit short. Mini butterscotch morsels covered the vanilla frosting (which had no butterscotch flavor I could taste) and the chocolate cake, while moist and delicious, also had no traces of butterscotch. I was hoping for the flavor to be more incorporated into the body of the cupcake. Alas, this was one that wouldn't stand out to me at future farmers markets, although if I were in the mood for a basic chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting, I'd certainly consider it.

Tasty trio

This week at the farmers market brought a variety of new flavors to try, so I recruited a few of my trusty tasters yet again -- in this case: Kathy, Natalie and Marilyn. The flavors of the week: Twisted M&M, Chocolate-Covered Almond and Neopolitan.

Chocolate-and-vanilla marble cake, as we discovered, was the Heavenly Delight flavor of the week. Two of the new flavors featured it, including Twisted M&M. This was a solid cupcake in terms of moist cake and creamy, flavorful vanilla frosting. However, we were a bit perplexed by the name. I had expected M&Ms to be somehow incorporated into the cake, but they were limited to the garnish. 

Neopolitan's name was fairly dead-on, except that the marble cake was a little light on chocolate. The strawberry frosting was dynamite, though, and the flavor combination did remind us of Neopolitan ice cream. A scoop of it would have been ideal next to this moist, tasty treat.

I was most excited to try Chocolate-Covered Almond. I love almond flavoring and was hoping it would come through in the cake. The flavor was lacking a bit in the vanilla cake, which wasn't as moist as the week's other selections. But the almond slivers baked into the cake elevated the cupcake in terms of innovation, in our opinion. I had never tasted cake with almonds in it, and although I normally dislike nuts in cake, the pieces were so thin and soft that the texture didn't bother me a bit. I loved HD's out-of-the-box thinking on this one. The four of us also agreed that the light, moussy chocolate frosting was perfect. 

All in all, this was a pretty good bunch, with only small complaints. I was able to grab a few old favorites at this week's market, as well -- Peanut Butter Cookie, Snickerdoodle and Chocolate Mint. I couldn't resist dipping into PB Cookie after we had divvied up the other three, and it was just as phenomenal as I remembered from last summer. It was clear why I ranked it No. 1 out of all the HD cupcakes I've tried, and why it's stayed at No. 1 for the past year. In fact, I hit the Thursday evening Illinois Products Farmers Market at the Illinois State Fairgrounds last night to buy one more for the freezer. While I was there, I noticed yet another new flavor -- Chocolate Butterscotch. I love butterscotch, so I can't wait to try that one next week. Gotta love cupcakes!

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 ...

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.

Daiquiri daze

I was long overdue for some cupcakes from Tracy Cowee of TLCuppycakes in Petersburg, and yesterday was my day. For a group of friends, I ordered a dozen of her Cupcake In Paradise (margarita) and Strawberry Daiquiri cupcakes.

This is what was left after everyone attacked the strawberry daiquiri and Cupcake in Paradise treats from TLCuppycakes.

The Daiquiri was delicious, as are pretty much all of TL's cuppy -- er, cupcakes. The strawberry cake was incredibly moist and the strawberry frosting thick, smooth and creamy. There was some filling that seemed to be vanilla pastry cream. The only thing that gave me pause about this cupcake was my inability to detect the difference between this and a regular strawberry cupcake. The only difference between this and TL's Strawberry Fields (which I've never had but can look up on her website, http://www.tlcuppycakes.com/Flavor-Menu-and-Ordering.html) is that the Strawberry Daiquiri has strawberry cake instead of white cake, and the Fields has a strawberry cream filling instead of vanilla. I'm not sure if she put any daiquiri mix in the cupcake batter.

Either way, it's splitting hairs because this was a tremendous cupcake. And when it comes down to it, that's all that really matters.