Cupcake Tour of North America - Cupcakes by Heather and Lori

Hello my lovelies,
I believe I've lost track of you for the past few days, the time change of being on the other side of the country is really throwing me off, so I'm sorry if my today is actually your tomorrow.

So first off, a little happiness for me, I'm excited that yesterday (or Saturday the 16th) was Heart of the Batter's 1/2 birthday (meaning it's been 6 months since I started this blog and the facebook page). And, I would like to say a huge thanks with lots of frosting and sprinkles on top to everyone who has stopped by and brought me to 3600 page views and almost 125 likes in that short time. I'm so excited to share my recipes with you and share my experiences and tips. So once again, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Now, on to cupcakes! While I was in Vancouver, in the rain, I made a quick trip to Cupcakes, or Original Cupcakes or Cupcakes by Heather and Lori (on tv known as the Cupcake Girls). I went to the shop on Thurlow. Sooo tiny, but really cute... don't you agree?

This shot is from across the street, maybe not the best shot, but I wanted to get the outside view. So cute, very pink and pastel-y. So cute inside, too. Although, there was no menu... each of the cupcakes was on display with a label to indicate what the flavor was.

I picked my 6 favorite flavors of about 15 choices, and they popped them in this nice clamshell, for $16 Canadian dollars. If you haven't seen the show before, here is a shot inside the store of the pricing and cash...

And a shot of some of the merchandise available. I was hoping to pick up a branded apron, but since this was a very small franchise outlet, they informed me they didn't have a lot of merchandise.

I would need to take a 30 minute cab ride to the flagship store to have more options. I wasn't in THAT desperate need of an apron, so I happily left with just my cupcakes.

I got the cupcakes back to the hotel and was able to share an impromptu cupcake tasting with my mom and one of our work colleagues. We each had a taste of every cupcake and discussed how we felt about each one.
So here's what we tried...

Starting from the top left (I hope I remembered the names correctly):
Maple Eh! I believe this was a vanilla cupcake topped with maple icing and canadian maple leaf sprinkles.
Buttercup. A chocolate vanilla marble cupcake topped with peanut butter icing and a mini peanut butter cup.
Nutella. A chocolate cupcake topped with chocolate hazelnut icing and a chocolate syrup drizzle with a little dollop of nutella on top.
In the second row...
Cookies and Cream. A chocolate cupcake topped with chocolate and vanilla swirled icing, filled with cream cheese icing and topped off with a half oreo.
Caramella. I believe this was also a vanilla cupcake topped with caramel icing, caramel crunch and a dollop of caramel.
Now this last one escapes me...I think it may have been called Raspberry Beret...but that could be completely my imagination... but it was a lemon cupcake with raspberry filling, lemon icing and a dollop of raspberry jam.

So, our assessment of the cupcakes...
The favorite of the group was the Cookies and Cream. The cake was moist and the swirled icing had a fairly nice flavor. My second choice was the butter cup, the marble cake was nice and the icing was certainly peanut buttery... maybe a little too much so, I found it hard to have more than 2 bites of this one. The lemon raspberry cake was nice in flavor, not so much on texture...it was rather dry and crumbly... too bad, because I really enjoy lemon cake and as a rule, I think it is rather moist. Caramella, I'm sorry to say, was rather disgusting, I had a hard time even finishing the bite I put into my mouth. I had a similar feeling with the Maple... the flavor of the icing was just so overwhelming it was taking over any flavor the cake might have and really left too much of an after taste for my liking. Nutella was not bad, the chocolate cake was again pretty moist but the icing was the draw back, yet again. The flavor of most of the icings was incredibly intense and the texture was very powdery (like icing sugar). If you like classic grocery store birthday cake icing, then you would like this...me... not so much.

The consensus of the group was that most of the cakes were moist, but lacking somewhat in flavor. The icings on the other hand were over flavored and didn't have a pleasant texture. The overall flavor of the cupcakes were due almost entirely to the frosting.

Unfortunately at this particular location they did not have any of the flavors I was hoping to try (from having seen them on tv), but there was still a good variety to choose from. Although I will continue to watch the show and had fun with the experience, I sadly have to say, I think I would rate these cupcakes 2 'cupcakes' out of 5. I love you Heather and Lori... your product really looks great, the stores are totally adorable, pricing is reasonable and the merchandise is cute... but the actual cupcakes... are kind of a pass... I really do feel sad to have to say this because I had such high hopes and I don't want to slander anyone in any way. Maybe it's just me, but I think maybe they could benefit from taking a few baking classes, or trying out some other frosting options.

So where does that leave us? If you're ever in Vancouver I might suggest giving one of their mini cupcake variety packs a try. That way you only end up with a small dollop of icing and a higher cake ratio and you get to try 12 different flavors. It's fun to see the stores and get a glimpse of 'the cupcake girls'... beyond that, don't spend your money on the full sized cupcakes... I think you'll find, as we did...a fair bit of them end up wasted.

Well, as I continue on my tour, I've hopped on a plane down to California and am currently in San Francisco. I'm excited to try a few cupcake shops here in the city and see what might be new and tasty around Fisherman's Wharf. I'm expecting there may be a few delicious chocolate cupcakes... what with Ghiradelli having made its (quite famous) home here.

Well that's all for now my traveling companions, hope to see you all next weekend for my SF cupcake updates.

Until next time,
Happy baking, caking and tasting!
Love and sprinkles, xoxo