Cupcake Tour of North America - Kara's Cupcakes

Hello Darlings,
I'm back home, safe and sound.

So, last you checked in I was telling you about my trip to Vancouver and Cupcakes... well once I left Vancouver, I took a quick trip south to San Francisco. I was dying to try 'That Takes The Cake' but low and behold they were closed on the days I was in San Fran... needless to say, I was quite sad... luckily I stumbled across another cupcake shop and a smile came back to my face when I saw the words 'organic cupcakes'!

If you haven't been following me for long, you may not know how much I love the health food store. No, I'm not a freak about what I eat, I eat take-out and 'normal' food, but I love the special diet variations and organic offerings the health for store has waiting. I often bake gluten-free and lactose free treats, and don't include nasty chemicals, (like red dyes) in my baking. I would rather have a few extra calories and know I'm eating real sugar and farm fresh butter than take in the endless chemicals and damages of sugar substitutes that are deemed unsafe for pregnant women and fat substitutes in margarine if I can have the choice. Ok, jumping down off my soap box.

While in San Francisco I had to make a trip to the famous Ghiradelli Square. A bright outdoor shopping area with some sweet offerings. Upstairs and right in the center of the square is Kara's Cupcakes. A little pink cupcake shoppe that bakes almost entirely organic cupcakes.

They offer a selection of about 12 cupcakes each day, and they are nicely displayed in a lit, below counter, windowed section.

Sweet and simple cupcakes with great flavors like Smores, Key Lime Pie and Chocolate Velvet. The shop is clean and simple with a few chairs and counter seating, they serve cupcakes, water, milk and coffee. But what else do you really need? For my first trip here (yes I said first) I got chocolate velvet, a chocolate cupcake with velvety bitter sweet chocolate buttercream rolled in chocolate bits and passion fruit, a vanilla cupcake with passion fruit filling and vanilla buttercream topped with what appears to be a signature kara's fondant flower.

The chocolate cake was moist and moderately dense, just perfect. The chocolate buttercream was light and truly velvety and the chocolate (no doubt ghiradelli) sprinkles it was rolled in added that extra touch of bittersweet chocolate that I love. The passion fruit...OH MY GOD! To DIE for!!! The vanilla cupcake was sweet and sumptuous, really moist and creamy. The passion fruit filling really packed a punch, but was just a squirt, so it wasn't overwhelming. The vanilla buttercream was so light and so buttery with a sweet hint of real vanilla. Best buttercream I have ever tasted, EVER! The cute little flower on top was a light citrusy fondant that was actually enjoyable to eat. So good, I had to go back.

And so, two days later, I did just that. And this time, the place was packed. A line up right out the door. My first time through I had my eye on these...

Raspberry Dazzle, a chocolate cupcake with raspberry cream filling and raspberry buttercream. Sadly by the time it was my turn to order, they were all gone (dag nabit)! So I looked through the other options and chose Meyer Lemony Lemon... a vanilla cupcake with lemon curd filling and lemon buttercream. Again, incredibly delicious. I think if Kara's came to Toronto I would be a very chubby bunny...and likely their best customer. As you might have guessed, although I did not get a chance to taste any other cupcakes in San Francisco, I highly recommend, if you are in the area to go to Kara's Cupcakes. I will forewarn that the cupcakes are 3.25 each...but they are so worth it. I will admit, as much as I love cupcakes, I often find it hard to eat a whole cupcake at once. I'm more of a mini cupcake person myself. But I easily downed these cupcakes in a few minutes. NOM NOM NOM.

Down to the review part. I give Kara's 5 out of 5 (bet you didn't see that coming, haha).
Yes the price was a little high, but such is the way of the world right now when you want fresh organic, healthy ingredients. The recipes I'm sure are old fashioned, something your grandma would have kept in her recipe box, but with modern twists like salted caramel cupcakes. Oh dear, I'm drooling on my keyboard again... I applaud you Kara. Your cupcakes are delicious, simple but interesting flavors, simple but sweet and classic decorations and organic wholesome ingredients. Well done!

On a personal note, for my dear friends in Toronto, I'm giving up my space and will be back home for a while until I can find a more central location. I'm sorry for any inconvenience or further drives this may cause, but I promise it is not permanent or long term. Since I will be leaving the city soon, I'm going to try and stop into a cupcake shop in my (soon to be) former neighborhood and let you know what's happening in the cupcake world downtown.

I hope you've enjoyed traveling with me, and maybe you'll get a chance to try out some of these cupcakes yourself. If you've been to Kara's cupcakes, tell me what you thought of their product!

Until next time,
Happy baking, caking and decorating!

Love and sprinkles, xoxo

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

Cupcake Tour of North America

Hello there my traveling companions...
You may have seen an earlier posting of mine where I told you about my first famous cupcake tasting. Magnolia Bakery, New York City. Their cupcakes are cute, and pretty tasty, but, I'm not convinced they are quite as good as mine. BUT, Magnolia did lead me to the fabulous discovery of whipped icing.... ahhh my one true icing love.

Now the cupcake tour continues...

Last year I was in New York for a work conference... and wouldn't you know, this year the conference is taking me to yet another rather famous cupcake city. Vancouver!

You may be thinking, Vancouver has famous cupcakes?! Well, if you've watched the W Network lately, you may have seen a little show called 'Cupcake Girls' giving viewers a behind the scenes look at a franchise called Cupcakes by Heather and Lori, that is currently based only in British Columbia.

I watch this show all the time. It gives a good business perspective of running a bake shop. I also like to drool over the pretty cupcakes and watch the fun new flavors the bake staff comes up with. So while I'm in Vancouver, I will DEFINITELY be making a trip to a cupcakes shop, and see what their product is all about. I will still be in Vancouver next Sunday, but hopefully I get to post some updates.

If you are a fan of the show, and watch regularly, maybe you've seen the episode where they have staff from all the stores get together and bake up some new flavors and everyone tastes them to see what should become new additions to the menu... this episode made me drool, so hopefully I will get a chance to try the passion fruit, french toast and oh honey cupcakes... Eeep! I'm so excited!!!

Alright my darlings, lots to do, things to pack, baking to finish up... I'm off for now...

Until next time,
Happy baking, caking, and decorating (oh, and tasting, can't forget the wonders of tasting)!

Love and sprinkles, xoxo