Will Work for Cupcakes

So I recently received some wonderful news. Things have fallen into place nicely, and I will be working in the the Woodlands come next week. I decided to familiarize myself with the area. I hopped into the car with my friend, and after lunch, I came up with the great idea of visiting the new cupcake shop that opened Spring 2010: Frost Bake Shoppe. Surprisingly, it is the first cupcakery to open in the Woodlands and conveniently located less than a mile from my new workplace. What more could I ask for?


We approached the shop, and it is full of customers savoring every little bite and smiles walking away with boxes of little goodies. The baby blue walls and the cupcake theme throughout the place gave it a nice and quaint feel. I made my way towards the case and there before me was a beautiful selection of flavors. Most cupcake shops have common flavors that are available everyday and also daily special flavors that are offered on specific days of the week. Today's daily special: chocolate extreme, chocolate peanut butter, italian cream, chocolate salted caramel & lemon


A solitaire chocolate salted caramel cupcake sitting in a separate display case caught my eye, the last one in the batch. I was definitely at the right place at the right time. So the story is, I fell in love with the acquired flavor a few winters back when Starbucks offered a seasonal flavor: salted caramel hot chocolate. They since have not brought back the flavor, so every chance I get I don't let pass.


Spicy Cupcake Lady's review: chocolate salted caramel: The frosting was on the heavy end of sweetness factor. It was overwhelming. The caramel drizzled on the top gave it a nice touch, but there was not a taste of salt on the cupcake which i think would help to neutralize the sweetness. The cake was moist, but the flavor of it was just your everyday chocolate, nothing unique. I think if the caramel flavor was infused in the cake and sea salt was incorporated on top it would then deserve the name: salted caramel. This will be one of my upcoming experiments: salted caramel cupcakes. I will share my previous recipes with you cupcake lovers soon.

I had a taste of the Chocolate Extreme yesterday. I was told it was a new addition to their flavors. It consists of dark chocolate and chocolate ganache. The frosting was delicious and the cake was very moist and tasteful. If you're a chocolate lover it is definitely a must try! A vanilla with milk chocolate is waiting to be eaten. My girlish figure can only handle one cupcake a day, so I will share my review once this baby's consumed.

I will definitely become a regular at this spot. So far, 1 of 2 is a go, so I intend to give them all a try!

Spicy Cupcake Lady

The Bittersweet Journey

Little Cupcake Lady and I ventured to Austin one fine summer Monday. We had a mental checkoff list of to-do's for the day, and a must on the list: hey cupcake! This is where our journey began. Giddy and ready for a sweet taste, we googlemap our way to the cupcake-topped tin. We reached our stop only to find the "closed" sign dangling on the side of the mobile. We then walked back to our car, determined to get our cupcake fix.

As we head back to Houston we decided to hit up Sprinkles. The talk was that the shop opened Spring 2010. We approached the Highland area only to find a vacant, chocolate brown building with the Sprinkles sign teasing us on such a dismal afternoon. The opening for the shop was delayed 'til early summer which leads to another story I will share in the near future. It was still too soon to give up on our unsatisfied craving.


At this point, Houston rush hour picks up, and we're still weaving through town. A few blocks down was Sugarbaby's, which doesn't quite hit the top 5 for Little Cupcake Lady and I, but reviews of local cupcake shops is a whole blog in itself. This stop was out of desperation. Last resorts come in handy every now and then. We pull up to the parking lot only to be surprisingly turned down by a "cupcakes sold out" sign. We then make one final attempt: Celebrity Cupcakes. At this point, my taste buds are quite anxious. We ride down University Boulevard anticipating a sweet success. There was no car in sight. The cute, little shop was closed, cupcake-less and disappointing. Little Cupcake Lady and I turned and looked at each other. I am pretty sure Crave crossed her mind as it did mine, but nonetheless, our restless journey came to an end.

Cupcake fail.

Spicy Cupcake Lady

Little Cupcake Lady's DREAM...

Hello cupcake lovers and friends!

At the this very moment, I am waiting for the first trial of my "Kit Kat Cupcakes." Before I share the details of the first batch I am making, I would like to share with everyone about the wonderful dream I had.

In a little over a month I will be leaving for Japan to teach English! With this on my mind, I have been sleeplessly thinking about Japan and how life will be there. One night, I finally was able to fall asleep from all the Japan excitement/stress, but of course, I had a dream about me living in Japan! My lovely family was in Japan visiting me, and we make a trip to the local Japanese grocery store. In the grocery store, there is a bakery section. Guess what I see... A section of candy flavored foods. There were Kit Kat flavored foods like pizza, pies, cookies, and.... CUPCAKES! (I just recently came back from my vacation in Asia, and my search for different flavored Kit Kats that are originally from Japan was still on my mind. I think that's why Kit Kats appeared.) The only thing from my dream's Japanese bakery that left an impression on me when I woke up was the Kit Kat cupcake!! I realized that my obsession for cupcakes and the love for Kit Kats were the best two things to put together! Just like Hot Cheetos and cookies n cream icecream! :)

(30 minutes later)

So, I looked through my book of cupcake recipes and felt like a chocolate cupcake recipe would be the most appropriate to start from. Kit Kat (after a debate on what flavors are in Kit Kats with my sister) is made up of milk chocolate and wafer. So, I decided to replace the semi-sweet chocolate morsels to 66.67% crushed Kit Kats and 33.33% of milk chocolate morsels. And this is how they came out...

Trial One



The top view of the cupcakes look like molecules...



The one I tried...



The frosting is YUM!!~ I can really taste the Kit Kat. In my last minute frosting I whipped up, I used more Kit Kats than morsels just like the cake. It really compliments the cake big time. The cake is very moist, and it smells so chocolaty! However, the taste isn't as chocolaty or Kit Kat-y as I imagined it would be...


Back to the drawing board!!!


Little Cupcake Lady

Introduction

Hello Blogger world!

We would like to share with the world wide web our thoughts and ideas about.... CUPCAKES! My sister and I started our cupcake obsession when we first stepped foot in Crave. We then found out that our friends in Dallas share the same cupcake obsession.

We love to eat cupcakes. We love to bake cupcakes. We love to try new cupcakes. We love to travel far and wide for cupcakes.

We just recently had our second "Battle of the Cupcakes." However, I would like to share with everyone the first cupcake battle.

The first "Battle of the Cupcakes" was based in Houston, TX. We wanted to compare the brand new Sprinkles that opened in Highland Village and our beloved Crave in the Uptown Park. We had five judges from both Houston and Dallas to compare red velvet cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes, and chocolate cupcakes from both cupcakeries. We judged the smell, moistness, cupcake flavor, icing, and overall. The purpose of this battle was to be able to determine the difference between the two cupcakeries. The judges had their eyes shut while cupcakes A and B were presented to them. Judges were to rate each category, 1 being "Not So Great" to 5 being "The Best."



The winner of the two cupcakeries was.... Crave!! Four out of the five judges agreed that Crave had the best red velvet, strawberry, and chocolate cupcakes. Two judges were from Dallas and never had Crave cupcakes before. Two judges were well... my sister and I, and we just knew the delicious taste of Crave when we tasted it!

The second "Battle of the Cupcakes" will be shared another time.

Little Cupcake Lady