Sticky Fingers Bakery

G and I recently tasted cupcakes from Sticky Fingers Bakery, the Americana and the Lemon.

Americana - jam and peanut butter - basically, a dribble of jam that escaped out the bottom of the cupcake, a boring vanilla cupcake and some delicious peanut butter icing.  Topped with glitter (important) and popcorn that had been on the cake so long it was soggy.  I think "so long" is probably only a minute or two, given the amount of liquid in the icing.

Disappointing that the jam did not stay in the cake. AT ALL. 

Very atttractively iced - lemon at the front, americana at the back. 

Lemon curd was lucky to avoid the jam's fate.  Not enough lemon curd.  Not lemony enough. 

But both were oh so pretty.

Seven seeds cupcakes

Deceptively large and not too sweet. Perhaps not chocolatey enough? That's a personal decision and I think a little more chocolate wouldn't go astray. Also, the cake was *just* moist enough. I purchased and ate in the afternoon, but any later and I would have to call it dry.

Mister Nice Guy Cupcakes

mmm Zombie Brains? Yes, we really ordered a cupcake that was called "zombie brains". The 2nd cake was a peanut butter cake from Mister Nice Guy cupcakes, an all vegan cupcakery, newly installed at the Prahran Markets.

Both cupcakes were very moist, bordering on too moist, as a fair amount of crumb stuck to the paper as we peeled it away. The peanut butter icing was generous and delicious, whereas the strawberry (zombie brains) icing was delicious, but certainly not generous. Looked effective, but didn't deliver enough flavour to the very chocolatey cake.

Magnolia Bakery

Of course, G and I had to visit the famous Magnolia Bakery while we were in NYC.  We were happy to find an outpost of the bakery at Bloomingdales, so grabbed a red velvet and a vanilla with chocolate icing.  I also took the opportunity to study the ladies doing the icing, and am going to have to give it a go at home!

Cake & Shake

We arrived at the Met and were feeling a little peckish, luckily there was a pale blue van outside, selling cupcakes and milkshakes!

We sat on the steps of the Met and enjoyed the cupcake and shake and listened to an absolutely amazing group of buskers!  The nougat centre was absolutely delicious - in fact, G thinks it was the best cupcake we had on our whole trip.  The cake itself was soft and not crumbly and the icing (and the filling) weren't buttery and hard, but really soft and more like a mousse.

We didn't have time for a savoury cake, but they certainly sound awesome too.

Baked by Melissa

Baked by Melissa - 3 for $1, and yes they are absolutely tiny, but awesome, because you can definitely eat several in one sitting!

Lola's cupcakes

The cupcake craze has hit London!  We found Lola's Cupcakes in Topshop on Oxford St - that's right, inside a clothing store.  It sounds pretty messy - but it is right in the middle of 2 sections (one of those is stockings in packaging, so no drama if you get icing on the plastic I guess) and then they get all wrapped up.  G and I bought these last to keep them safe.

Anyway, G and I bought 4 small cakes to give Lola a good road test - nice cake texture, though the outside was quite "crisp" and the icing was super delicious - and good flavours, no fake fruit flavours here!

Sugadeaux cupcakes

G and I had originally considered getting sugadeaux cupcakes for our wedding cake, but couldn't taste test them because the owners were on holiday when G and I were in Melbourne cake taste testing.

When G came home and told me that he had seen sugadeaux cupcakes at Elevenses, an amazing little sandwich bar in Melbourne, I asked him to pick up one for a post-wedding taste test!

He grabbed a vanilla with strawberry icing, and the icing was amazing - much like The Cupcake Family - but unfortunately the cake itself was a little dry.

Create Great Cake cupcakes

G and I were running late to the markets on the weekend, but managed to get their just in time to spot a new stall "Create Great Cake" who were selling 4 cupcakes for $10... who could resist?

Quite good cupcakes, and a particular mention to the good chocolate cupcake (top left) that was moist and not a mud cake!

The Cupcake Family

Coincidentally, I was sitting outside the State Library of Victoria (a lovely green patch in the middle of Melbourne) enjoying a harajuku crepe and saw someone walk past holding a bag emblazoned with "The Cupcake Family".  I took a note of the name and googled it, and was glad to find that it was a local shop.

G and I went to the cricket (twenty20, Australia v England at the MCG) so I picked up a few mini cupcakes from The Cupcake Family to make the cricket more fun.  The cupcakes were delicious - the fruit flavours taste like the fruit, nothing like oils, or essences.

Lemony sunshine, chocolate with strawberry icing and vanilla with strawberry icing - all yum!

Of course, having experienced the delicious mini cakes (purchased mini cakes just in case it was awful) we had to go back for the big ones.

(from top left corner: lemony sunshine, swiss dark.  Middle row: raspberry white chocolate, strawberry cheesecake; front row: strawberry and coffee crunch)

Seriously. Amazing. There was lemon curd inside the lemon one, choc ganache in the choc one, real cheesecake in the middle of the strawberry cheesecake and the white chocolate and raspberry was filled with, you guessed it, white chocolate sauce and raspberries.  The best commercial cupcakes ever. 
Want to get some Cupcake Family of your own?  Level 2 of the QV building in Melbourne, at the Swanston St end.

Sophisticakes

These cupcakes are beautiful to look at, delicious to eat and are packaged in such a cute way!

Inside each one of those boxes is a cupcake, much like these ones:

Lemon on the left and chocolate raspberry to the right.

Some things to LOVE about these cupcakes:

• the sparkle on the snowflake
• the super rich chocolatey icing
• the real raspberry flavour - nothing fake tasting here!

Where to find them? The website and the Sunday market at the Arts Centre, Melbourne!

Wedding cake!

G and I were married in mid November and I wanted to share the cake.  When we arrived at the reception and I saw the cake I exclaimed "oh, the cake, it;s perfect, now we can get married!"

Maybe that was a little extreme because I would have married G anyway, but the cake was an added bonus.  We had spoken with Kerrie of Love at First Bite about the cupcakes in detail, but had given her free range, using our invitation as the base, for the top tier cake.

There were 100 mini cupcakes (half vanilla and half chocolate and all wonderful) and the top tier, which we didn't serve.  So we ended up with a few left over cupcakes which we ate the next day and the top tier.  We have frozen some for later, each took some to work and enjoyed a slice the day after the wedding.

Cupcake Bakery in Melbourne

The Cupcake Bakery has arrived in Melbourne (shortly before I did apparently!)

I have seen 3 locations in the CBD:

• Near the Rialto Tower
• On the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Lane
• in Melbourne Central

Of course, we had to try to see if Melbourne was the same standard as Sydney...  Rest assured cupcake lovers, the Cupcake Bakery is good here too!

Cupcakes galore!

A couple of weekends ago I went to Handmade Market for Markets in Bloom. The Handmade Markets are amazing, and have spawned a successful shop in the City in Canberra, Shop Handmade.  It was actually my first trip to the markets, but I am a regular shop attendee.

The most exciting part was the variety of cupcakes on offer.

Red Velvet and Black Forest from Sweet Petite (facebook link, sorry)

Top row - cake pop and mocha cupcake from pARTycakes
Bottom row - black forest and lemon meringue from A Moment on the Lips

Black Forest v Black Forest

That dark purple icing looks amazing... and was super light and fluffy.  The white was too buttery... (G disagreed, he loved the super butteryness)

And then we ate a couple of macarons for good measure.

Joy Cupcakes

I came across a little cupcake stand at a shopping centre in Melbourne on the weekend - Joy Cupcakes at Doncaster Shoppingtown.

This little box of 2 was called 'double the joy' - cute.  We had red velvet (left) and toffee apple (right).  I didn't like the apple cake - too much cinnamon (which I don't like as a general rule) but the icing was yum scrum!  The red velvet cake was good and the icing was a really nice light cream cheese.

Actually I think the icings were both meringue based which made them SUPER smooth, but felt like there wasn't much there - it disappeared in my mouth too quickly and the flavours were a bit subtle.  I don't think cupcake icing should be subtle!

To try for yourself (or just enjoy the website if you aren't local) have a look at their site.

More pARTycakes

We bought some caramel cupcakes at another Sweet Tooth Tuesday from Shop Handmade.

This time we got little caramel cupcakes with fondant farmyard animals as icing - G got the piggy and I had the chick.

pARTycakes did a lovely job - though the knitted cupcake was more delicious!

A knitting cupcake

G was kind enough to buy me a delicious cupcake that merges 2 of my favourite things - knitting and cupcakes!

G bought it at Shop Handmade - a shop that sells artisan designer products of all types.  Such as chocolate, clothes, handmade toys, childrens clothes, jewels... lovely.  Have a look at the shop!

The cupcake was part of Sweet Tooth Tuesday, supplied by pARTycakes.

Obsessed with Cupcakes on Pitt?

Each time I go up to Sydney (or G goes) we grab some cupcakes, often from Cupcake on Pitt.  To be honest, the chocolate cake is often too dry, but the cakes are a great (small) size and the flavours are good, and natural/not too sweet, even the fruit flavours.  They decorations are pretty, and a step above a simple icing swirl with a 'flavour indicator' (eg piece of honeycomb) put on top.  I have probably tried (or bought) most flavours.

(back row - peanut butter, white chocolate; middle row - raspberry, strawberry; front row - banana, butter cookie)

(clockwise from front left - black forest, raspberry, choc mint)

(left column - 2 x chocolate sundae, pistachio; middle column - pistachio, lemon; right column - carrot, 2 x mocha)

Little Cupcakes, Melbourne

I thought it would be a nice surprise to turn up at my sister's house with some cupcakes for us to share, so after I arrived in the city in Melbourne I went to Little Cupcakes in Degraves St.  There are 2 'Little Cupcakes' locations in the city, but the Degraves St one seems like the main location - or at least, that's my impression from their website.

I bought 4 mini cakes: choc mint, cookies 'n' cream, latte and white chocolate and raspberry.

The cookies 'n' cream was my least favourite - too sugary - but my goodness, they really were all delicious.  The best cake was the white chocolate one, super smooth and not crumbly, the chocolate cakes (all 3 of the other flavours were chocolate cakes) ranged from too dry/crumbly to just right!

The icing is beautifully heaped mounds of super smooth deliciousness, artfully topped with a flavoursome decoration.

These are definitely in the running for wedding cupcakes...

Some more Jazz Apple Cafe cupcakes

Over the last couple of months G and I have sampled some more of the Jazz Apple Cafe cupcakes 

On the left is the sticky date and toffee, on the right peppermint choc chip

Key lime and coconut on the left, black forest on the right.

Verdict - the sticky date and peppermint choc chip = tie for first place.  There was not enough cherry jam in the blackforest for it to be blackforest - it was basically chocolate with a 5c piece size squirt of cherry jam.  The key lime and coconut just tasted fake - I have no idea why they didn't use actual coconut and lime, instead it tasted just like artificial flavourings and too much sugar/sweetener.