Designer Desserts: Waffle Cone Explosion

The cupcake pictured above is from Designer Desserts in Valparaiso, IN and the flavor is Waffle Cone Explosion. 

Presentation: 10/10 sprinkles
We thought that the cupcake looked exactly like the name "waffle cone explosion" and that the cherry on top was a perfect statement to the cupcake.  We also were excited to see a lot of pieces of waffle cone on the top of the cupcake.  This really made the cupcake taste great!

Taste & Texture: 9/10 sprinkles 
 The taste of this cupcake was amazing! Chocolate ganache, caramel, waffle cone bits, chocolate, and marble cake....what else can you want in a cupcake? The only problem was that the waffle cone was very soft and not crunchy like an actual waffle cone.

Overall: 9/10
This is definitely one of our favorite cupcakes from Designer Desserts. It is like literally biting into a drumstick ice cream cone.  We would definitely recommend this cupcake if you are going to Valparaiso anytime soon!

Gigi's Cupcakes in Nashville, TN: Birthday Cake Surprise

We went to Nashville, TN this weekend and we went to Gigi's Cupcakes to review!

The cupcake we chose to review was the highest reviewed on Yelp.  The cheesecake cupcake of the day was called Birthday Cake Surprise.

Presentation 6/10  SPRINKLES
We were excited to try this cupcake place because of the look of the cupcakes in pictures we saw online. We thought the presentation of the birthday cake cupcake was pretty simple. It was actually tucked  in a refrigerator and not on display because it was cheesecake. We thought they could have done more decoration to show it was birthday themed - like a candle. Overall, the pink frosting was so neon and fun!

Taste & Texture 9/10 SPRINKLES

We absolutely loved this cupcake! It was so different than anything we have ever reviewed before.  The pink frosting to cheesecake ratio was a fantasic and never overpowering. The cheesecake was moist and melted in your mouth. The frosting was buttercream and very soft.  The bottom crust of the cheesecake was a very soft crumble of cinnamon graham crackers.

Overall 9/10 SPRINKLES

Overall, we think that this cupcake was phenomenal. We only can suggest two improvements on this cupcake. Shauna believes the crust could be a little thicker because she barely tasted the crust.  Our cupcake was also iced over a little and needed to thaw out before we could eat it.  

Gigi's Cupcakes Nashville

Hi sprinklettes! Long time no blog! Sorry,  we have been so busy with our jobs! 

We went to Nashville, TN for a bachelorette party and stayed at a bed and breakfast off of www.airbnb.com called the Southern Stunner and it was amazing! We just wanted to show a picture from this cool house! 

Anyways, onto the cupcakes! We passed by Gigi's cupcakes on the way to and from the city.  We knew we had to bring  some home for you!

It was a small and cute store with a lot of varieties of cupcakes. We were reading reviews on Yelp on what to get and we found out that they had cheesecake cupcakes! Yum! 

We decided to get 3 cupcakes for every state we were traveling home through: Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana!

Stay tuned for the reviews. ... they will be up shortly! 

Butterfingers: VANILLA CUPCAKE

February  is upon us, and we just wanted to say Happy Valentine's Day! 

We hope you have a great holiday.  And go see that awesome movie that is coming out.  It has to do with the color of this font.

Anyways, we sampled a cupcake at Butterfingers in Highland, IN.  

Everyone who knows about our blog has always told us to try Butterfingers because they make amazing cakes and cupcakes (and other food too)!  We knew we had to go ASAP!

Why Vanilla? We chose this flavor because we were told that their cake part of the cupcakes were to die for.  Vanilla is always a great flavor to start out with when you are sampling cupcakes at a bakery.

Presentation 6/10  SPRINKLES
We have tried to go to Butterfingers on several occasions but we always end up going near the end of the day and all of their cupcakes are usually sold out by then.  We were excited to see that they had cupcakes left on the Friday that we went and visited Butterfingers.   The presentation of this cupcake screams Valentine's Day! We loved the shaved chocolate in pink and cream colors.  

Taste & Texture 6/10 SPRINKLES
We were actually not impressed with the taste of the cupcake.  It was surprisingly dry when all of the reviews we've seen on this cupcake claim that their cake is moist on the inside of their cupcakes.  We might have gotten a dud cupcake (we have in the past).  We've concluded that we may need to try other cupcakes from this bakery to make a concrete decision on if this bakery is great.  We were disappointed because it was just an average cupcake.  It seemed like something out of a box that we could make at home. The frosting on top was similar to a whipped butter cream.  The chocolate shavings on top added a white chocolate flavor to the whole cupcake.

Overall 6/10 SPRINKLES
We gave this score because the cupcake was just average.  It wasn't horrible but it wasn't great either.  Our favorite part about the cupcake was the presentation.  We really want to try more cupcakes because we feel like the rest of them are probably wonderful!

Rich's House of Cakes: Cupcake Pushpops

Rich's House of Cakes is based in Waukesha, WI and they are doing something unique with cupcakes.  We saw them at Chicago's Annual Baking & Sweets show on Sunday, Nov 16, 2014.  We love that a baking company is not afraid to step outside of the cupcake liner! ;)

Introducing Cupcake Pushpops!  They're super cool and easy to eat while on the go! 

Katrina driving her new car while eating a cupcake pushpop.

Rich's were selling these pushpops at the show for $2.50 and we think it's a really good deal for what you get on the inside!  

Our review for the unique treat:

Appearance: 8/10 Sprinkles

We think this cupcake is one of the coolest we ever got to try!  When we walked into the baking show in Chicago we immediately were drawn to the table with the pushpop cupcakes!  It's something we haven't really seen in our area.  We like the fact that they layered them with different colors and textures.

Taste:

Cake: 8/10 Sprinkles

We loved all of the layers of this cake pop!  There were moist yellow cake layers and a drier chocolate cake layer.  The cake consistency was a very typical box-style cake.

Frosting:   8/10 Sprinkles

The red frosting in the photo pictured above was delicious (whipped frosting).  There was a correct ratio of frosting to cake in this cake pop.  The other cool thing about this cake pop was that it wasn't just frosting and cake, but also pudding!  We tasted a banana/vanilla type pudding in the middle of the pushpop.

Overall:  

We both gave it a 9/10 Sprinkles.

The taste of the whole pushpop all together was amazing.  It's a fantastic on-the-go cupcake and we think that more cupcake vendors should go into this medium for artistry of cupcakes.  The only thing we don't like about this cupcake is the extra packaging is wasteful. But overall, we were really excited to see this type of "cupcake" out there.  

**They also had things like Cupcake Parfaits which were really cool but we were full and didn't want to try them... but if we're ever back in Wisconsin we will!!**

Stay tuned for more! 

Delish Cakes: Oreo Cupcake

We reviewed this cupcake at Chicago's 2nd Annual Baking & Sweets Show in Schaumburg, IL on Nov 16, 2014.  Delish Cakes is located at 112 W. Lake St. Bloomingdale IL, 60108 and their website is here.

Appearance : 8/10 sprinkles
We thought the piping on the frosting was very professional and we recognized what flavor the cupcake was right away. 

Taste:
Cake: 7/10 sprinkles

We took a bite of it and the outside was stiffer and drier. We figure it was because they were in a glass case at the sweets show. The middle of the cupcake was very moist and had a hearty milk chocolate flavor. 

Frosting : 5/10 sprinkles

We thought this cupcake tasted more like a cookies and cream and less like a signature oreo (yes, there's a difference).  The frosting put us off. It was thick and not as sweet as we had hoped.

Overall: 6/10 sprinkles 
We thought there would be more cupcake vendors at the show that we went to but it turns out that Delish Cakes was one of the only places that we saw! We were recommended to eat the apple pie or blackout cupcakes but we really wanted to try the Oreo.  It was just okay but not very sweet and moist (two things we look for in cupcakes).

Stay tuned for our next cupcake we reviewed at the show!

America's Baking & Sweets Show ~ Chicago

Hey everyone!  Sorry for the lack of updates for awhile.  We both have full time jobs now and it is hard for us to coordinate cupcake dates!  

We were invited to go to the America's Baking & Sweets Show in Schaumburg, IL on Sunday Nov, 16, 2014.  We made our own shirts!! 

 We had hoped that there would be a lot of cupcake vendors at this show so that we could review a lot of cupcakes at once.  Once we got there, we realized there were only less than 5 cupcake vendors :(.  So we dropped off our cards to every booth at the show! 

We enjoyed sampling a lot of other baked goods and sweets!  

We even got to see the TLC's DC Cupcake girls!  How AWESOME!!!!!

Until next time.........!!!

The Cupcake Cupboard: Red Velvet featuring Tim

Katrina and her boyfriend recently went on a cruise to Haiti, Jamaica, and Mexico. To their surprise, there was a cupcake shop on board the cruise ship "Oasis of the Seas" - the world's largest cruise ship! This cupcake place has unique flavors such as mojito and cupcake decorating classes for kids and adults! We really enjoyed the decorations for the cupcake displays!

The cupcake they reviewed together is the red velvet. 

Appearance: 5/10 Sprinkles
Katrina has ate a lot of red velvet cupcakes in her day and she thought the look of this cupcake was too normal. It's on the biggest cruise ship in the world!  Go big or go home!

Taste
Frosting: 7/10 Sprinkles
When we tried this cupcake, it was around 8pm so the frosting had probably been sitting out in the open for awhile. However, the white chocolate shavings on the butter cream frosting was a great touch! It made the frosting more milky.

Cake: 9/10 Sprinkles
Very dark and rich cake..Tim thought the cake was very moist and tasted like dark chocolate

Overall: 7/10 Sprinkles
We think the chocolate taste and moist cake made this cupcake awesome! We only gave points off for boring appearance and bad ratio of frosting to cake (more cake than frosting)

Chicago Cupcake: Créme Brûlée

Chicago Cupcake: Créme Brûlée
Review from Shauna

My twin sister purchased this cupcake from a cupcake truck driving in down town Chicago.

Presentation: 7/10 sprinkles
The cupcake of course didn't look like the original Créme Brûlée everyone thinks of but it still looks scrumptious!

Taste & Texture: 10/10 sprinkles
Taste: Chicago Cupcake hit this cupcake on the nose! If this cupcake doesn't look like Créme brûlée, It definitely taste like it!
Texture: It definitely was not a cake batter like cupcakes normally are. It has a rich, soft, creamy consistency of egg yolks and sugar. With a melted brown sugar base and a heavy Cream on top.

Overall: 9/10
Chicago Cupcake was able to make Créme brûlée in cupcake form! If you were craving a cupcake, I suggest not getting this one. But if you didn't want to slave away making actual Créme brûlée, then track this cupcake vehicle down!

Stay sweet Sprinklettes!

Guest Review: Riley Steinmetz for Kara's Cupcakes in San Francisco, CA

Kara's Cupcakes: Chocolate Velvet Cupcake

I'm a recent transplant to San Francisco and, of course, cupcake connoisseur. So, naturally, I quickly asked for recommendations upon arriving and found no shortage of praise for Kara's Cupcakes! I happened to walk by it one afternoon and ducked in to grab a few minis. This is a review of their chocolate velvet cupcake. Their website describes it as a "chocolate cupcake with a velvety bittersweet chocolate buttercream." 

Presentation 9/10  SPRINKLES
I'm a fan of simple decorations that illustrate the flavor...a healthy coating of dark chocolate sprinkles does that for me!

Taste & Texture 8/10 SPRINKLES
The cake was very light and fluffy. It definitely fit its "velvet" name! The first thing I noticed when I bit into it was the intense, bittersweet chocolate taste of the frosting. It's clear that some high quality chocolate was used in here! The flavor of the cake was almost an afterthought, but was a little overly sweet and standard chocolate. The sprinkles are actual dark chocolate sprinkles rather than waxy sugar bits, so they add to the chocolate flavor. Overall, I found it a little overly sweet for a chocolate cupcake, but it was a good effort and I would eat one of these again.

Overall 8.5/10 SPRINKLES
This is a simple, straightforward chocolate cupcake leaning towards the dark chocolate side of things. That definitely works for me, but isn't for everyone. 

Short & Sweet & Quick ( DESIGNER DESSERTS: KEY LIME PIE CUPCAKE )

Shauna and her sister Desiree did a quick review for you guys today :)

Happy Summer!

DESIGNER DESSERTS: KEY LIME PIE CUPCAKE

Presentation 7/10  SPRINKLES
Desiree thought it looked very pretty but she would have not guessed it was a key lime pie flavor.  The candy on top is a nice touch!

Taste & Texture 8/10 SPRINKLES
Once that moist fluff of cake hits the tip of your tongue, your taste buds are ravished by a multitude of key lime pie flavored goodness. If you do not like lime, this is not the cupcake for you!

Overall 8.5/10 SPRINKLES
The over all flavor and presentation was extremely professional and well put together. This is your cupcake if you can't live without key lime pie! 

Designer Desserts: Orange Dreamsicle

The photos below are of Designer Desserts Orange Dreamsicle cupcake.

Presentation: 8/10 Sprinkles
We love how neon this cupcake is! There is a lot to take in...tons of orange and yellow! We figured it had to taste like an orange when we first saw it.

Taste & Texture: 9/10 Sprinkles
Taste: The cupcake tasted like you were being smacked in the face with 3 oranges.  If you like oranges, this is the best cupcake for you.  Everything has a hint of citrus: the frosting,  the cake,  and the candy on top. However, we don't understand what the white blob on top is. We tasted it and it tasted like marzipan with whipped cream and it had black dots in it. Obviously they were trying to put the cream in the orange dreamsicle but we don't think it tastes like vanilla cream.

Texture: The cupcake was moist and we thought the frosting had the texture of almost orange pop rocks once we put it in our mouth. The frosting was fluffy and milky.

Overall Sprinkles
Shauna: 7/10 Sprinkles
They did a good job with making it taste like an orange dreamsicle but she probably would not get it again.

Katrina: 8/10 Sprinkles
She has an orange CRUSH on this cupcake! It tastes like the drink Tang. If you like citrus and summer cupcakes, this one is for you!!