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!!

Designer Desserts: Creme Brulee

The cupcake featured in this post is the creme brulee cupcake from designer desserts.

Presentation: 6/10 sprinkles
easter themed cupcake right here! Just in time for the holiday... it is super cute! We loved the fruit on top..random!!

Taste/Texture: 8/10

Taste: the taste of the cake was very sweet and milky. The whole cupcake was smooth and went down perfectly. It literally melted in our mouths! We believe they definitely got the creme brule taste!

Texture: Again, we were very surprised by this designer dessert because it had a surprise in the center! The texture was creamy and the center was a rich pudding mix. This cupcakes texture was so amazing!

Overall:
Shauna: 9/10
Shauna really liked this cupcake. She would definitely get it again! She loved the smooth milky taste.

Katrina: 8/10
Katrina liked the cupcake but she wishes they could have left off the raspberry because it made the frosting taste weird! All in all, she would get it again!

Designer Desserts: Green Tea Cupcake

The {ugly looking} cupcake pictured above is Designer Desserts: Green Tea Cupcake

Presentation:5 /10  sprinkles
The cupcake had a green leaf on top with some drizzled honey on the frosting.  It was unique but we do not care for cupcakes that we would have to guess the flavor of. 

Taste & Texture: 7/10 sprinkles

Taste: The taste of the cake was a very dense angel food cake.  It reminded us of a store bought cake.  It doesn't taste like green tea but the frosting was wonderful and fluffy.  The frosting was whipped cream with honey drizzled.  

Texture: The cake was dense and moist in the middle.  The frosting was fluffy.  We believe they compliment each other well.  

Overall: 
Shauna: 6/10 sprinkles
Shauna drinks a lot of green tea so she was excited to try this cupcake.  However, green tea is completely lacking in this cupcake.  She did not taste/see any green tea in this cupcake.

Katrina: 6/10 sprinkles
Katrina loved the frosting but the cake was lacking unique flavor.  She believed the cake tasted more like a store bought cake.  However, she would repurchase this cupcake for the frosting alone.

Designer Desserts: Peanut Butter Cup

Presentation: 8/10  sprinkles
We love the valentines look of this cupcake. You can tell it is peanut butter right away because of the reeces cup inside the frosting. We learned from the store owner that this cupcake originally didn't come with chocolate on top.

Taste & Texture: 9/10 sprinkles

Taste: Amazing amazing amazing!! If you love peanut butter, this cupcake is for you!! Moist chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse and a semi-hard chocolate shell. The sprinkles were so adorable! Had us seeing hearts.

Texture: The texture was super moist! Melted in our mouths.

Overall:
Shauna: 9/10 sprinkles
The taste alone won her over. Adding the chocolate shell on the mousse made it look and taste just like a Reeses. "They done good" ~Shauna

Katrina: 10/10 sprinkles
There is nothing that I can say bad about this cupcake. It definitely had the look and tastes I am looking for in a peanut butter cupcake :)

P.s. we also got chocolate covered strawberries for free to eat today!!! How amazing is that??

Buttercup Cupcakes: French Toast Cupcake *GUEST REVIEW*

I was at Chicago Ridge Mall today doing some ornament shopping when this pretty pink store caught my eye. No, not Victoria's Secret..."Buttercup Cupcakes", the sign read. So, remembering my nagging desire to be a romance novelist, I thought, bro, what's more romantic than cupcakes?! And here is my review:

 

This is a "French Toast" Cupcake.

 

Presentation: 8 out of 10 sprinkles

 I thought is had a very sexy, seductive look. Almost tempting you with the slight slant of the frosting, teasing you with it's little nilla wafer protruding out of it's luscious frosting. It made it look very balanced and a little off at the same time. Kinda kinky.

 

Taste and Texture: 6 out of 10 sprinkles

 While the cake did, indeed taste like French toast, I was a little confused at the flavor of the frosting. Until I looked at the description of the cupcake, I would have sworn that the frosting was cream cheese. They label it as maple buttercream. Either way, it tasted pretty dang good! A bit on the granually side, but light and fluffy none the less. The cake texture was cakey. It wasn't crummy. Not sure what else to say about that. 

 

Overall rating:  7 out of 10 sprinkles

 As big a fan as I am of French toast, I do not think that I would purchase another one of this flavor. Not that it wasn't good, but it was a little too sweet for my taste and there was almost too much frosting. It was a vanilla cake with cinnamon streusel but I didn't taste any syrup. Besides, there's so many more scrumptious morsels just waiting to be devoured!

 

Kitty Majeski from Illinois

Orland Park Bakery: Turtle Cupcake

Surprise! We went to a place that wasn't Designer Desserts to do reviews!

There were so many things to choose from at this bakery!  They specialize in everything from cupcakes to BACON DONUTS (omg)! 

It comes in this cute box and our cupcake we chose to review was called the Turtle Cupcake.

The cupcake pictured above is the Turtle Cupcake from Orland Park Bakery.

Presentation : 8/10 Sprinkles

This cupcake looks like a "turtle candy" but we thought the presentation in general was messy and sloppy.  The cake was crumbling everywhere when we opened the box.

Taste & Texture: 7/10 Sprinkles

Cake:  The cake was a chocolate cake with toffee caramel stuffed in the middle mixed with walnuts.  We were completely surprised by the filling inside the cupcake because it was very unexpected.

Frosting: The frosting  was caramel & chocolate syrup and crushed walnuts drizzled on the top of a thick layer of whipped cream.

Overall:  

Shauna: 8/10 Sprinkles

Everything about the cupcake was good especially the middle part of the cupcake.  However, the presentation was sloppy.

Katrina: 7/10 Sprinkles

Katrina is a turtle candy lover and she was excited to try this cupcake.  The cake tasted generic until she tasted the middle filling of the cupcake. She would definitely get this cupcake again because of the filling part of the cupcake.  The toffee caramel paired nicely with the cupcake.

To our followers (Sprinklettes):  Go try it and tell us how you liked it in the comments below or at splitstatecupcake@gmail.com.

Designer Desserts: S'mores Cupcake

Happy New Years!  

Our goal for 2014 is to bring you more cupcake reviews!

The cupcake listed above is Designer Desserts S'mores Cupcake.

Presentation : 10/10 Sprinkles

We definitely feel like this cupcake looked like a S'more.  We like to see when cupcakes actually look like what they are named so we gave it a high score.

Taste & Texture: 6/10 Sprinkles

Cake:  The cake tasted like straight-up box chocolate cake.  Something your mom could have made in the kitchen after she was experimenting with dinner.

Frosting: The frosting was characteristic of designer desserts: vanilla butter cream with nuts.  However, that was just on the bottom layer of the frosting.  On the top of the cupcake sat a large jumbo marshmallow with an attached Hershey's piece of chocolate..

Overall:  

Shauna: 7/10 Sprinkles

Shauna believes that the presentation did not match up with the taste of this cupcake.  The presentation was so awesome but the actual taste of the cupcake wasn't too grand.

Katrina: 4/10 Sprinkles

Katrina doesn't like s'mores in general because she dislikes marshmallows.   Marshmallows aside, the Hershey's piece of chocolate was not stale but the cake was very generic tasting.  She would never order this cupcake again when there are so many other choices with Designer Dessert cupcakes.

To our followers (Sprinklettes):  Go try it and tell us how you liked it in the comments below or at splitstatecupcake@gmail.com.

Designer Desserts: Carrot Cake

The photo above is of Designer Dessert's Carrot Cake Cupcake!

Presentation : 6/10 Sprinkles

This cupcake had a little frosted carrot on top with sprinkled crumbs of carrot cake.  The presentation of this cupcake was elegant and super cute with the edible carrot.

Taste & Texture: 6/10 Sprinkles

Cake:  The cake was a very dry carrot spice cake.  We believe that this is not characteristic of carrot cakes in general so we were a little bit disappointed.

Frosting: The frosting on this carrot cupcake was a regular vanilla buttercream without any coloring except for the carrot on top.

Overall:  

Shauna: 6/10 Sprinkles

Shauna thought the cupcake was good but was not the best carrot cake she has had.  She believes that the frosting could have had more coloring to it in the presentation.  For example, perhaps an orange frosting with a green leaf on top would have had a more creative presentation.

Katrina: 5/10 Sprinkles

Katrina thought that this cupcake was super dry and she loves moist carrot cake.  It left her feeling disappointed and she thought that the cupcake needed more frosting to counterbalance the dryness of the cupcake.

To our followers (Sprinklettes):  Go try it and tell us how you liked it in the comments below or at splitstatecupcake@gmail.com.

Designer Desserts: Big Texan

Presentation: 5/10 Sprinkles
We thought this cupcake was very unoriginal in looks. In Texas, everything is big. This cupcake had a big chocolate mound on the top with heath bar bits inside the chocolate.

Taste: 9.5/10 Sprinkles

Frosting: The frosting for this cupcake is very true to most designer desserts "mousse" cupcakes. The top was a scoop of chocolate mouse covered with a hard shell chocolate covering with heath bar mixed inside.

Cake: The cake was very moist for being on sale for $2.75 today. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge in the center. It tasted like a decadent chocolate dessert and not like something you could make at home.

Overall:
Katrina: 8 Sprinkles
The look of the cupcake wasn't that appealing to her. She thought that the chocolate mousse was amazing in the cupcake and that is why she gave a high score.

Shauna: 8 Sprinkles
Taste & texture was on point but the look of the cupcake would have never caught her eye if it weren't for the cool name.

Cardinal Cupcake & Coneys: Gingerbread

Another cupcake review from Victoria P. in Muncie, IN!

      

The pictures above are of the Gingerbread cupcake at Cardinal Cupcake & Coneys in Muncie, IN.

Presentation:  3/10 Sprinkles

This cupcake was pretty cute with little brown spinkles. However, I was a bit underwhelmed by its overall presentation and simplicity.   Since it was purchased from a cupcake shop, I expected a bit more “pizazz” from a holiday-flavored cupcake.

Taste and Texture: 6/10 Sprinkles

This is a gingerbread cupcake and most definitely tasted like a gingerbread cupcake.  I would rate its taste a bit higher than its texture. This was a dense cupcake, similar to the vanilla cupcake I tried. However, as this is a gingerbread flavor, the density did not bother me very much. The icing was also pretty heavy and dense but did add a nice cinnamon-gingery note to the sugary flavor. The sprinkles on top added a nice crunch to the cupcake.

Overall: 5/10 Sprinkles

Compared to the other cupcakes I saw at the storefront, this was one of the cuter cupcakes. It had a nice flavor for the holiday season and would be a nice addition to a holiday party.  Since this was a smaller, more modest cupcake than what I am used to seeing in cupcake shops, I could easily mistake this cake as a homemade dessert instead of a cupcake from a cupcakery. 

Cardinal Cupcake & Coneys: VANILLA

Review from a guest cupcaker!!  

Victoria P. from Muncie, IN

Presentation 2/10 sprinkles

As this cupcake came from a standalone cupcakery shop, I was very underwhelmed by the presentation to the point of being a little disappointed. The icing, though a pretty blue color, was very flat.  It did not cover the whole top of the cupcake, which made it look a little naked to me. However, there were a few pearl white sprinkles on top to help try to dress it up.

Taste and Texture: 5/10 sprinkles

This was a very dense cake. I was actually surprised at its density and expected a lighter, airier cake. The icing was also very dense, heavy, and VERY sweet. With that said, the cake itself did taste good and was pretty moist.  The edges on the top were a tad hard (perhaps over-baked or sat out too long?) but not inedible. The icing tasted a lot like thick sugar.

Overall: 4/10 sprinkles

This cupcake tasted okay and was rather moist. I was just very underwhelmed by its presentation and didn’t expect such a dense cake from a vanilla cupcake. To me, this cupcake would be great to purchase and pass off  as a “homemade” cupcake from my personal kitchen, but I would not expect it to be from a commercial bakery.  On the up side, this cupcake was only $1.00 as I believe they were having a dollar sale this past weekend.

Designer Desserts: Caramel Macchiato

The cupcake pictured above is Designer Desserts: Caramel Macchiato.

Presentation : 7/10 Sprinkles

We thought the presentation of this cupcake was unique, but did not remind us of our favorite drink at Starbucks: Caramel Macchiato.  The pirouette cookie was cute and reminded us of being in a cafe.  Additionally, there was a messy looking caramel drizzling all over the frosting.

Taste & Texture: 7/10 Sprinkles

Cake: The cake was hard and dry, which isn't the best thing to taste when you're hungry for a cupcake!  However, the actual taste of the cake hit the nail on the head of the famous Starbucks drink.  The inside of this cupcake had actual caramel baked into the center, which is not characteristic of a Designer Dessert cupcake.  (*We must admit we got this cupcake a few days after it was made at a reduced price so that may be why the cake was so hard and dry.)

Frosting: The frosting was buttercream with caramel flavoring.  Actual caramel was drizzled on top for the added effect of a macchiato.  

Overall:  

Shauna: 8/10

Shauna thought that Designer Desserts did a good job on this cupcake taste-wise.  She believed that it tasted like the actual drink and that is why she gave a high score.

Katrina: 6/10 Sprinkles

Katrina thought that this cupcake was too sweet and she would rather have the actual drink than the cupcake flavored like one.  However, the pirouette cookie on top was very soft and she would get it again just for the cookie!

To our followers (Sprinklettes):  Go try it and tell us how you liked it in the comments below or at splitstatecupcake@gmail.com.

stay sweet!!