Where have I been? Cupcakes Across America!

These last few weeks have been insane-balls at my real life job.  I'm not even sure what time zone I'm in right now.  (exaggeration for dramatic effect)  But with bi-coastal travel comes responsibility to my blog-readers for finding and sampling the cupcakes of the world, or in this case:  Santa Monica.  


SaMo is one of my favorite places.  Everything there is pretty - it's 70 degrees all the time, everyone is a health nut so yoga is found on every corner, and farmers markets abound all year long.  Plus, it sits right on the Pacific Ocean - one minute you're in a hustling little downtown with cute shops and the next minute you're frolicking barefoot on a beach.  Not bad.  Not bad a'tall.  


And with all the working out comes need for small rewards.  Enter:  Yummy Cupcakes, Santa Monica.  Yummy Cupcakes actually has two other locations in Southern California, one in Burbank and a new one in Brentwood - which may not be open quite yet.  And one international location in Istanbul (??reallly??)  Their website promises more locations opening soon around the country including NYC, to which I will bare the $15 train ride during my time of the month.  Don't judge.  


So what's so special about Yummy that they won Best Cupcakes in Los Angeles, 2011?  I can't say for sure but if I were voting, I'd say the "whippy buttercream" - oh and staggering over 400 flavors of cupcakes!  On this trip I had the Chocolate Chocolate.  Not fancy or pretentious - ok - not as pretentious as me, but ridiculously good. And I got to taste my friend's chocolate with vanilla frosting, and mango lime chili & salt.  Hand to God, I will master the art of the whippy frosting.  I'm particular about frosting - otherwise it's just a little piece of cake - the frosting makes it!  And this is the best texture of frosting that has ever graced my tongue.  Yummy Cupcakes takes frosting to a new level.  And the moist and flavorful cake part?  - it's like a bonus that the cake part is even good!  Finally, way to go on the size of the cupcakes - they are big - bigger than standard but not quite jumbo, although jumbos and minis are also available.  Other fun note:  they have a gluten free menu, make cupcakes in a jar, and have other treats like cupcake piesTM (think whoopie-like), and frosting bon bons.  And IMHO, no cupcake shop is complete without some type of merch - so the aprons, plates, kitchen towels, etc, all have a place to call a temporary home.  


I oddly don't have a picture of my cupcake - it didn't last long.  But here are a few I snapped in the store.  

Bakery Review: Deerfields Baker - Chicagoland

This review brings me to Chicago.   What a great city.  Underappreciated I think because it's cold but sometimes you get lucky and get a few hours to yourself in Chicago on a warm sunny spring morning.  The obvious thing to do is to find a bakery and so I turn to Yelp to point me to something nearby where I had a meeting and I got lucky in that I was directed to Deerfields Bakery. 

It was later that I looked at their website and found their true American dream story.  Deerfields is owned by the Schmitt family whose baking roots began in Germany in the 1880s. In 1911, Adam Schmitt imigrated to American and he and his wife set up "The New York Bake Shop" in Chicago.  His son then started Schmitt's Bake Shop which expanded to over 30 locations.  As they say - bigger business means bigger problems (I don't know who "they" are - I'm pretty sure I just made that up.  The expansion forced Henry to lose his business.  But, because this is the American dream, he apparently just continued to work hard in the industry until he was able to buy another bakery in 1972:  Deerfield Bakery.  Twelve years later, that bakery was National Retail Bakery of the Year.  Who doesn't love a comeback story like that?!  Deerfields now has three locations in the Chicagoland area and I was lucky enough to stumble upon their newest one in Schaumburg, IL.  New as in - opened in 2000.  So essentially, these guys are totally legit.  Too legit to quit (sorry - had to!).

While they did not have a huge selection of cupcakes, they did have a little bit of everything.  See the selection of fresh muffins and donuts: 

And the cute Easter-ready lamb and chick mini-cakes:

They also had a load of bagels, breads, and a whole gluten free section!  AMAZIN! 

But this day I had a hankering for Red Velvet!  Luckily, I had two really good options:  red velvet cupcake and red velvet DONUT!  Um - what?! 

I ended up getting both (don't judge).  They were both flat-out amazing!  The red velvet donut was actually - donut-y - not too dense but still had all the flavors of red velvet.  AND it had the cream cheese frosting and a light dusting of powdered sugar.  Bask in the awe of red velvet magic by Deerfields:

A Broad Abroad

Sometimes you have to see the good in things that seem like a pain in the ass.  For example, sleepless nights at far away hotels and time spent racing through or waiting in airports means  a magical treat:  Frequent Flyer Miles!  YESS!!!!  All the work trips are worth it when you finally cash in your miles for a free vacation flight somewhere and this time it was Dublin!  So among all the sites:  Christ Church, Glasnevin Cemetery, and the Guiness Factory, I managed to suss out the really important details of the local landscape and culture like the best bakery in town. 

I researched where to go in advance but was unsuccessful in finding some of the places that Google told me about.  I managed to ask the locals who directed me to a shop cleverly named "The Bakery".  I usually just look for a cupcake shop but this place seemed too good to pass up.  Other reviews claim that it's good for a quick sandwich or soup or snack.  But I'm on a mission for cupcakes. 

The Bakery is in Temple Bar - a touristy area also frequented by locals for its many shops, restaurants and trendy bars.  I found it on one attempt on a Sunday but it was closed - I couldn't find the hours posted on the door so we tried again on Monday.  Finally at about 4:10 we popped in and they had quite a few cupcakes left so I got a vanilla.  They had some standard flavors, nothing exciting or original so I went with something simple.    It was AWESOME!  The cake was moist but had a small cell structure.  The frosting was good but a kindof unoriginal buttercream although they added some white (and pink) chocolate shavings in the middle which brightened up the frosting texture but didn't add much in the way of flavor.  I would have liked a fluffier frosting but that's how buttercream rolls - sometimes it's just too think.  Still yummy and I actually ate the whole thing.  I'd give The Bakery 3.5 stars out of 5 on my arbitrary scale.  It was a solid cupcake with good flavor but they lacked imagination in cupcake types - maybe because they aren't cupcake exclusive?  And the buttercream could have been lighter - again -maybe because they make so many other things.  

Either way - The Bakery is worth a stop if you're in Dublin!  They had all sorts of treats that might hit the spot for you when you're there!

Here's my cupcake experience:

Cupcakery Review! Indulgence Cupcakery – Haddonfield, NJ

Having no children of my own, I get to politely excuse myself when some unpleasant parenting task is about to happen.  If I’m with you when your kid acts up, I can just leave.   Tantrum?  No thanks, I think I have a wax appointment.  Explosive diaper?  Oooh – I just had a manicure – sorry!  Time for potty training?  Apparently for that one I’m totally on board.  When my friend dedicated President’s Day weekend to the trials of potty training her 2 year old, I of course volunteered my non-parenting expertise which says for everything child-rearing, rely on bribery.   If I know anything about toddlers (which I don’t) I know that they like toys, cartoons and sugar.  This philosophy also works with dudes in their twenties but for them you can also add beer. 

Anyway, for my potty training adventure, I swung by Indulgence Cupcakery in Haddonfield, NJ to pick up a dozen bribes – err – cupcakes.  I got there at about 4pm and they close at 6 so they were already out of a number of flavors.  To their credit, they did have a lot of flavors available for the day.  I got the following:  Smores,  Red Velvet, Butterfinger, Cookies and Cream, Peanutbutter Cup, Classic Vanilla, Classic Chocolate, and Black Forrest and one more flavor I can’t seem to recall but I think there was a pretzel in it. I'd guess they had 15 or so flavors of the over 45 they list on their website.   Anyway, the place was totally cute and I liked their logo:

Here are the dozen adorable cupcakes.  I can’t decide if these are mini – I guess technically they are – they are certainly smaller than a standard cupcake.  But with each having a generous dollop of frosting – not to mention additional toppings like nuts, mini chocolate chips, etc.  These cupcakes are just the right size – 2 or 3 bites  - enough for a sweet treat and it’s gone before you have time to calculate how many more sessions with your trainer this will cost you. 

I ate the Smore cupcake.

I suppose it was a “graham” cupcake with chocolate frosting and a marshmallow syrup that penetrated through the frosting and was inside the cupcake too.  The cupcake was moist and a bit like a spice cake but I can’t say it had a graham flavor – yummy nonetheless.  The frosting was thick and chocolately and topped with the graham cracker crumbs –  a nice touch.  I’m a fluffy frosting person rather than thick but this was still super good. 

One - VERY minor complaint - it took a while for someone to come up front to help me and although she was certainly friendly, she warned me to hold the box very straight because the cupcakes were prone to tipping over.   I was nervous the whole way that I'd open my box of 12 cupcakes to find one stuck together frosting/cake mash.  Maybe there's a better packaging option out there to prevent top-heavy cuppies from tipping?

And for my potty training pal - he did great!  He had the cookies and cream!