Velvet Cupcakes Review

Location: Valencia, California
Price: $3.00/cupcake or $33/dozen
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

In all my cupcakery reviews, I realized that I have yet to review a cupcakery from my own home town. I know! Awful! I chose to review a cupcakery that I have actually tried before (though I technically did not know it). For my bachlorette party- my sister and best friends set up a pre-party with cupcakes. Well Paulina picked up cupcakes from Velvet Cupcakes. Though I do have to say, I am glad that I went there again because my bachlorette party was 6 days before the wedding and so I was not eating very much AND I am not sure the pictures would have turned out so great because they may have been garnished by my sister and besties with some rather tacky decor ;) ::I had no choice, it was my bachlorette party::

So on my last day in California, I decided to swing by. Similar to Sweet Cupcakes, Velvet Cupcakes had my favorite boutique decor. It is an elegant white boutique with hints of pink. It has a gorgeous chandelier in the middle. It hosts a quaint seating area with both a bar counter looking out onto the mall patio and booth area to sit at. This boutique is located in an up and coming, pretty posh mall. They host daily flavors with different specials offered each day, and also seasonal flavors (e.g., peppermint). Each cupcake is decorated with a smooth cloud- so polished, I have been on a YouTube search ever since to find out how to frost cupcakes like that. I have seen a lot of cupcakeries try to frost that way and they either end up not perfectly smooth or the frosting is too soft, in order to create that smoothness. But not Velvet Cupcakes, perfectly frosted with a perfect ratio of frosting to cupcake.

Along that lines, the cupcakes were beautifully decorated in the most simplistic way. They are moist and the overall taste is pretty good. Nothing spectacular but better than average. They had a chocolate hazelnut cupcake-- and being the Nutella addict that I am, I jumped right on it. However, similar to the many places that have attempted to do a chocolate hazelnut cupcake before-- it fell short. Do not get me wrong, it still tasted yummy, but just not Nutella. Though I cannot lie, it would have been nice if it did! The chocolate was the classic devil's chocolate cupcake that you would want and so was the Red Velvet cupcake with an authentic cream cheese frosting. The type of cream cheese frosting, where you can really taste the cream cheese. But my favorite was the cookies n' cream cupcake. Although, the chocolate cake did not host Oreo bits (as I would have really liked)- the cookies n' cream frosting was one of the best I have ever tasted. So good! I could have eaten it up, but I promised to share with my dad and sister.

And bonus (not really because I do judge on this): they have my desired, cute, fancy carry out boxes :)

Bottom line: I really enjoyed this cupcakery. It has my dream look. An elegant place to enjoy some beautiful, yummy yet simple cupcakes. They are moist with the perfect amount of frosting. The only short comings are they offer few cupcakes that are filled or they lack min-in, like in my cookis n' cream cupcake, and the taste just does not completely blow you away (but it's pretty darn good). This is far better than your average cupcakery and you will be very happy if you enjoy one of their cupcakes! Let's just say, I am glad that it's in my home town ;)

Enjoy,
Chika

Sweet Cupcakes Review

Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Price: $3.25/cupcake or $12.50/4 cupcakes
Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

I am on a mission to catch up on some long overdue cupcakery reviews. Since, it's been while, you ay not remember but this past Spring Break I had gone to a conference in Boston (yes- Boston during St. Patrick's Day weekend). While there, I had tried the infamous Georgetown Cupcakes. Normally, places that have been hyped up never really live  up to their expectations. However, this time I was so amazingly surprised that the yumminess that was Georgetown Cupcakes. Being the social networking addict that  I am- I shared my yummy experience with Facebook. A colleague of mine, who recently left our program for internship, ended up in Boston. She commented that if I loved Georgetown Cupcakes, I would really like Sweet Cupcakes. Well-- with that-- I just had to go. There are three locations, but Ashley (aka: my cupcake buddy) and I decided to go to the original location.

Sweet Cupcakes is an adorable boutique, with beige antique wall paper, dark wood floors, and just a hint of soft pink and white as the color for its seating area-- so subtle that it will no doubt, be attractive to even the manly, man. As this particular location, the ambiance was that of an upscale, business casual. The host wore a dress shirt, black slacks and a tie. I absolutely loved it! It was so chic. Do not get me wrong, I love small, low key, casual type eats BUT if you remember, for some odd reason-- I love the fancy, uptown, girliness that is meant to be a cupcakery! Definitely a note I took down, if I were to ever open up a bakery myself. And, so, for overall atmosphere, I really enjoyed this place.

The small display of cupcakes, hosted quite a few selections, which was a added bonus. No limit to the daily flavors you often get stuck with at other places. Their famous cupcakes, was that based on the buttermilk pancake. Though I am a sucker for signature cupcakes, the buttermilk pancake based cupcake was just not screaming my name. So between Ashely and I we decided to get: Hot Chocolate, Cookies n' Cream, Cookie Dough, and Chocolate on Vanilla (ignore the green sprinkles-- as it was a holiday limited look for none other than St. Patrick's Day).

Similar to Georgetown Cupcakes, these cupcakes are small and hand sized. With an almost pefect frosting to cupcake ratio, except for their Chocolate on Vanilla cupcake, which had slightly too much frosting. They are simple, but elegantly decorated. A trait that I have come to admire- not lumpy. I have come to the realizations that some cupcakeries are sloppy. They put out lopsided, lumpy cupcakes which irritate me to the core. Luckily, the beauty that is Sweets Cupcakery is also shown in their cupcakes. I had high hopes for this cupcakery that was compared to Georgetown Cupcakes.

Sadly, as many places that are hyped- it did not live up to its expectations. But we did not have the heart to tell the sweet host that kept checking if we were happy with everything (plus, for Sweets as they hire great staff...kudos). The cupcakes were slightly dry-- every one of them except for the Hot Chocolate cupcakes that was filled with a chocolate mouse. Even the cookie dough cupcake was dry even though it was filled with cookie dough--why--because the cookie dough was even dry. Even the cookies n' cream cupcake, a new found favorite of mine, was underwhelming at best.

Bottom line: it was not bad-- not close. Yummy, cute and a good portion. But dry-- so grab yourself a drink when you enjoy the cupcake. It was a "sweet" place with a cute vibe. What does that get you? A nice outing with a pretty cupcake that is average. People enjoy average cupcakes all the time, in fact, its called average because most cupcakeries are. So- if you craving a cupcake, why not enjoy it in an elegant little boutique. BUT if you could go down the street to Georgetown Cupcakes-- I'd head there instead ;)

A bonus: Ninja was not with me in Boston, but had he-- Sweets Cupcakes sells Pupcakes! I have a special place in my heart to cupcakeries and bakeries that sell sweet treats to our furry, loved ones :) Brownie points to Sweet Cupcakes. 

Enjoy,
Chika

Celebrity Cupcakes Review

Location: Houston, Texas
Price: $3.50/cupcake or $2.50/mini cupcake or $39/dozen
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

After posting my Georgetown Cupcake Review I felt the need to continue to share fabulous cupcakeries! And I decided to bring it back home to Texas :) And maybe continue my bias in posting cupcakery reviews of places where I got to take pictures with my Nikon D5100 AND pictures of the cupcakes in daytime light. Does that make me a food photo snob? Can you even be one when you are not even that great ;) Do not judge me ;)

Okay- well if you remember one of my cousins from California, the same cousin I went to Mardi Gras with last year, came to Houston to experience the awesomeness that is the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show. Now, I can only imagine that those of you not from Texas are probably doing what I did when I first heard about the rodeo-- which is chuckle while simultaneously rolling your eyes! BUT it was actually way more fun then I ever dreamed! Actually it was one of the first dates I had with the hubby. And you know what?! My cousin thought it was amazing too! My cousin also came to Texas because I have another cousin who lives in Houston (sadly she only moved to Houston after I moved to College Station :/ -- well it was her birthday AND she is preggers! I love babies!

My cousin from California is the one that introduced to me to the art of food crawling and so I wanted to take her on a Houston Cupcake Crawl. Well I took her to Crave Cupcakes (duh!)--since they are like my favorite cupcakery in Houston (or so I thought!). But then I wanted to go to some other places-- most of which I have gone to before but one of which I have never been to called Celebrity Cupcakes. Celebrity Cupcakes is located in the same area as Crave Cupcakes-- the Rice Village Area of Houston. Its off the "beaten path" in a quaint little corner of rice village and they are quite easy to miss but do take the minute to stop by! Though, since it is small-- they do not have any indoor city and have very limited outdoor seating :/ My cousin who lives in Houston had been there before and shared that she thought the staff was a sort of mean, which I hate and so I was a bit nervous. We were pleasantly surprised that the girl who was there that day was super friendly and super nice about me taking pictures for my blog. She kindly explained the different cupcakes, sizes and Celebrity favorites!

We decided to get four different flavors: Red Velvet, Chocolate Truffle, Vanilla Bean and S'mores. We got all regular size cupcakes except for S'mores because they ran out of the regular size and so we decided to get the mini. Okay- so when reading this review you need to know that my cousin from Cali was not as in love with this place as I was. I think she preferred Crave--so take that into consideration. The first thing you will notice about these cupcakes are they are absolutely beautiful! They really take the time to decorate their cupcakes to the T with just perfect color combinations. Then when biting into these cupcakes I though they were moist and fluffy. I do have to say, not the moistest ever (I think that victory would have to go BCS Chocolate Gallery or More Cupcakes) but still very moist. My cousin disagreed and though they really were not moist enough. I loved the amount of frosting they had on their cupcakes.

Usually I veer on the side of less frosting than more BUT their frosting tasted fantastic- so I did not mind that they chose to veer on the side of more than less. What I truly loved about them- was that this was not always the case though. I think they have a wonderful skill of knowing which cupcakes would be matched great with more frosting and which cupcakes would be better with a little bit of reserve on how much frosting they used, such as the Vanilla Bean Cupcake that I tried. The overall taste of each cupcake, I loved-- ALL of them! The S'more did not taste exactly like S'more and probably needed more graham cracker BUT I have made S'more desserts before myself and know how hard it is to master that taste even if you put a ton of graham cracker. Marshmallows and chocolate just mask that flavor very easily. The Red Velvet was really yummy not my ultimate favorite (as that win goes to  Georgetown Cupcakes) but very good! You just cannot go wrong with truffle- I loved it! But my super favorite, and this is weird for me to say--was vanilla bean and this is coming from a chocoholic!

I must be reminiscing a lot to my childhood but this cupcake reminded me of a fun lunch/snack my mom would make me. She would make this really simple "sandwich"- she would spread butter on two pieces of bread (not toasted) and then sprinkle each side with sugar and put the pieces together- voila you had this wonderful dessert sandwich that I just fell in love with when I was a little kid. The vanilla bean cupcake brought me back to that very feeling of love :) It just tasted so good and so homemade, you know!? My cousin was not as big of a fan as I was but I really loved this cupcake and how homey it was.

They offer both filled and non-filled cupcakes that rotate on a daily basis. You can check out their website for the menu of daily flavors. They do offer seasonal flavors- such as S'mores which becomes daily for a temporary basis. My only criticisms are few: their box is too simple: a white box with a Celebrity Sticker-- for how fancy and quaint this place was- they really need to "up" their look (the box that I show- is topped with a t-shirt and tied with a ribbon- but that is NOT how they present their box, just the bottom-- white box w/sticker), their cupcakes were small (not super small but on the smaller side, although they tasted better than Crave Cupcakes, I get about twice the amount of cupcake there for something that tastes almost as good), and finally, although I really loved this place-- I did have other people who tried Celebrity as well and I wanted to take into account their impressions (which weren't as positive as mine).

Bottom line: if you live in Houston, nearby or are just visiting- stop by! You can make it a double whammy- swing by Crave Cupcakes and the swing by Celebrity! You will not be sad! In fact just the opposite- you will be very happy you decided to try both! Yummy in your tummy!

Enjoy,
Chika

Georgetown Cupcake Review

Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Price: $2.75/Cupcake or $15/half a dozen or $29/dozen
Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

I am well aware that I am long overdue on some cupcakery reviews and should probably address them before I write this BUT--okay so do not judge me--but after getting my Nikon D5100, I have gotten so much more picky about the pictures that I post. The cupcakeries that I visited in NYC really need to be posted but they were taken with my iPhone and that makes me sad. I also hate when I have to take pictures of cupcake sin the nighttime but that happens like half the time I go to cupcakeries! Because we head there for an after dinner snack! I cant tell everyone- hey let me take these home, take pictures of them in the morning and then we can eat them ;) Though I do wish I could. So I may have a bias towards sharing cupcakery reviews that I took with my Nikon and that I took in the daytime!

Okay- so if you follow me at all, you probably are well aware that I just came back from Boston where I engaged in a 4 cupcakery crawl! Most were disappointing but one was a wonderful surprise and I decided to start there! Having watched the TLC show Georgetown Cupcakes--when I realized that there was  Georgetown Cupcakes in Boston I knew I just had to go and that is exactly where I went on Day 2 of Boston. They have a few locations across the country, so they are national! I went with Ashley and Mike. After Day 1 of disappointing cupcakes, we were not super hopeful for anything great. We ordered 3 different cupcakes (Red Velvet, Chocolate Ganache and Boston Creme--haha..just had to try that one!) at first and I got 2 to take home to the hubby (if you also follow me- you've probably realized that my "thing" with him is to bring him back cupcakes from wherever I go).

They cupcakes were so good that we may have decided to go back and get three more (2 peanut butter chocolate and 1 birthday cupcake).

The cupcakes are small but they are about $0.50 cheaper than other cupcakes, so I guess they make up for it that way. The Boston Creme was the "worse" one which is a stretch because it was still amazingly delicious. Which probably gives you some idea of how the others tasted. They all were moist and fluffy (I love moist fluffy cupcakes)- with the exception of birthday cake which was slightly dry on the edges. Georgetown is a great cupcakery because they bake their cupcakes at least twice a day and refuse to sell "morning" cupcakes in the afternoon to maintain the integrity of the cupcakes.

Although they look like they have very little frosting (some) the amount is just a perfect pairing for the cupcakes. For example, the peanut butter cupcake is filled so the frosting is minimal- to enjoy all the flavors. For the birthday cake- it has no filling and so there is more frosting. I hope that made sense. The frosting was great and so was the overall taste (with cake and frosting and all). There are an abundance of flavors that rotate on a daily basis--you can either look this up online or they provide menus. I love all the choices! They can be filled or not filled-- so it's what your heart desires! They were adorably decorated! Just like you would except cupcakery cupcakes to look like and the store itself was a cute cupcakery as well with Andy Warhol Cupcake Painting decoration to match! I just loved the vibe of this place! I just love cupcakeries- they are just made to be fancy :)

Their cupcake boxes are a simple pink box--nothing fancy nor printed on it- so I was a bit disappointed at that, because you know how I like my adorable boxes. But they do have these simple white to-go bags :) Although they hubby got to enjoy his cupcakes two days later- he still enjoyed them and said they tasted great. He loved the coconut more than the key lime--but again- its a battle of just which one is better out of good! So why the 4.75- two simple reasons: the box and the slightly dry birthday cupcake (either it was out too long, which I doubt, or we got one from a batch that was slightly overcooked).

Bottom line: if you live near Georgetown Cupcakes or travel to a location that hosts them- TRY IT! It'll put a smile on your face!

Enjoy,
Chika

Sam's Club Gourmet Cupcake Review

Location: National

Price: $15.00/dozen or $4.99/4 cupcakes (seasonal)

Rating: 4.50 out of 5 stars

I love trying cupcakeries from all over- hoping one day- to have tried a cupcake in each state. But whenever I do that-I always feel bad for readers where the post does not apply. Though, I guess you could argue that- much like me- when you maybe happen to visit that area, you could try those cupcakes. However, most of the time, the review really only applies to people who live in the area. I mean, really- look at all the cupcakeries I have rated in College Station: I highly doubt people are just flocking to come here ;) But, nevertheless, it does help people who do live here. Or so I say to justify my cupcake addiction :)

Well, speaking on that- it always excites me to post cupcake reviews of National Chains. Because, then I am sure it applies to almost all readers :) Because there is a large chance that store is somewhere nearby. And there is national- where these cupcakeries are sprinkled around the U.S. but may not be in every state and then there is NATIONAL- where it is in every state- and almost every city. Today's cupcakery review is for Sam's Club-- this is NATIONAL. Normally, I am a Costco gal. But in College Station, there is no Costco :( The tragedy, yes I know! (On a side note: they also do not have Trader's Joes, it's awful). But- even having been to Costco- I am not sure they have gourmet cupcakes!

On a potluck dinner with Luke and Justin- they had gotten these cupcakes as a way to cheer me up and figured they would be quite enjoyable- as they were listed as "gourmet" and sold through the bakery and not just the dessert section. I was intrigued. I actually got to try all four variations: Red Velvet, Coconut, Carrot Cake and Chocolate, but the hubby and I may have eaten the first two before we took pictures of them :/ The horror! I know- this is very unlike me. In fact, the only reason, this happened, was because we ate them at night. And I have a huge pet peeve of taking pictures of food at night. Trust me--some cupcakeries- I just gave in and did it, but it makes me shudder! We packed the Carrot Cake and the Chocolate Cupcake to go- so I took pictures of them the next morning.

How were these bad boys? Delicious! First, they were jumbo- winning there :) Second you got about a dozen of these cupcakes for $15.00 or during Valentine's season they sell four for about $5.00. Making these little delicious yummies, only a $1.25. When in the world- do you get to have gourmet cupcakes for that price--NEVER! They offered some core basic flavors: Chocolate, Carrot, Red Velvet and Coconut (vanilla cupcake base). 

I often roll my eyes, thinking- really- "gourmet" cupcakes from a national chain like Sam's Club- give me a break. No seriously---give them a CHANCE! The cupcakes were moist (melt in your mouth moist) and fluffy- my ultimate favorite. They had just the right amount of frosting- not piled too high. And their frosting also, just melted in your mouth. Not the normal buttercream that tends to get hard around the edges because it's beginning to dry out. This frosting was soft from the start! They looked adorable- the red velvet with crushed cake garnish the coconut with a snowball look on top (since I do not have pictures of them...yet...I hope to go get these cupcakes again, and at $15, you can't got wrong). And to top it off- they just tasted fantastic. I mean- awesome! I would have these cupcakes over some other, so called cupcakeries, any day! And it's a national chain! 

The only drawback I could find for these cupcakes: was- yes- Sam's Club is not a cupcakery so do not expect your cupcakes to be packed in cute little boxes (but they are in a clear plastic box)--not really a drawback. The real drawback was, since their cupcakes are so yummy- you wish they offered more flavors, and dare I saw at least one filled option? To make my tummy dreams come true!? You can't make a delicious cupcake without people asking for more ;)

And since there is a Sam's Club almost everywhere- my bottom line to you is this: You will not go wrong- if you decide to eat those cupcakes. If you are on a budget and want a cupcakery style cupcake- got to Sam's Club- you get a lot of yummy cupcake without breaking the wallet :)

Enjoy,

Chika