More new Sprinkles cupcakes

Just when I thought I had made my last trip to Sprinkles this year they released a new flavor… margarita! Sounds good right…wrong. Some things shouldn’t be messed with.

Also, following in the footsteps of In-N-Out, Sprinkles decided to introduce secret off the menu flavors. First on the list – Neapolitan: vanilla cake with strawberry frosting dipped in chocolate.

See how they ranked here

round21

*these cupcakes are from May 2013…better late than never…

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Belated 4 year Blogaversary


Yesterday marked the 4 year anniversary of Bay Area Foodie. I meant to do something special like go get a Jumbaco (j/k) then completely forgot. So on my way home from work today I stopped by a new cupcake shop in Campbell called Frost Cupcake Factory.

Luckily it was Mini Monday so I could get a bunch of flavors to try. I chose the following…

Mocha Java – stay away from anything with meringue butter cream frosting…has an unpleasant greasy/waxy consistency.

Salt ‘n sweet – should be called super salty! Probably better in the large size.

Frostfetti – frosting was overly sweet.

Maui coconut dream – good flavors but it has the dreaded meringue frosting.

Rose velvet – supposed to taste like red velvet but didn’t.

Snowball – THIS WAS THE BEST! Chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting and covered in coconut. WINNER!

The snowball will have me coming back for more.

Website: http://www.frostcupcakefactory.com/

Mrs. DeLish’s Cupcake Boutique


A friend (Thanks Julie!) brought Mike and I a sampling of cupcakes from Mrs. Delish’s cupcake boutique. She felt they were better than Sprinkles….

Here is what we got:


Red Velvet
– good frosting & cake but tasted like a cupcake I could make at home.
Coconut/Coconut – best of the bunch..loved the toasted coconut on top. I’d even say better than Sprinkles.
Espresso – ok flavor but I wouldn’t pay to have it again.
Cherry Bomb – really didn’t taste like anything at all except peanuts which coated the top. (I chose this flavor because I liked the name. I had just seen the Joan Jett movie “The Runaways” – As we ate this you could here me chant ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb!)

Overall better than Sprinkles…not a chance.

Website: http://www.mrsdelishs.com/

The Kupcake Factory

kupcakes

banana on top

Would I pass up trying a gourmet cupcake shop? Hell, no! The Kupcake factory is a chain in New Orleans and they just happen to have a location down the street from Cochon. By the look of the place I really wasn’t expecting much. The decor/presentation was lacking.

We bought 2 cupcakes: banana and hummingbird (banana, pineapple and walnut cake with cream cheese frosting). I was pleasantly surprised with the banana. It was the first time that I’d had a cupcake that is cut in half and frosting is layered in the middle. This made the cake a little messy to eat but worth the trouble. The banana flavor was on point. The hummingbird, although it had a cute name, didn’t taste like anything at all. Conclusion… I wasn’t blown away but, I’d come back to try some more.

Website: http://www.thekupcakefactory.com/

Kupcake Factory Gourmet Cupcakes on Urbanspoon

Sprinkles Cupcake Challenge & Rankings

You’ve heard me discuss my Sprinkles obsession in the past. Now I’m taking it to a whole new level. There are 23 regularly featured Sprinkles cupcakes plus 17 seasonal and I am on a mission to try them all! My plan is to go once a month to the Palo Alto store and buy no more than 6 flavors at a time. By my calculation it will take me 12 months to accomplish the task of eating all 40. Are you up for the challenge? Join me! MISSION COMPLETED SEPT 2009 but when new flavors are introduced I add them to the list.

I adore these cupcakes but all are not created equal. Here is how I rank them…

  1. Red Velvet – super moist, the light chocolate cake and cream cheese frosting are perfect complements
  2. Banana – very moist, bananalicious!
  3. Brown Sugar Praline* –  best seasonal cake, fantastically crunchy and sweet, should be a regular flavor
  4. S’more* – simply genius… the graham cracker bottom is divine & the gooey marshmallow finger lickin’ good, pls make it a regular flavor!
  5. “The King” (banana cake/peanut butter frosting)* – I’m all shook up… the peanut butter was like skippy, needs to be a regular flavor
  6. Strawberry – hint o’ strawberry is lovely
  7. Peanut butter chocolate – soft chips, moist cake, flavors remind me of a See’s Milk chocolate Bordeaux candy
  8. Maple bacon* – they didn’t skimp on the bacon and it’s real not that fake bac-0 bits stuff
  9. Lemon – yummy light lemon flavor, dense cake
  10. Lemon meringue* – like S’more subtract chocolate add lemon
  11. Pumpkin – awesome cinnamon frosting
  12. Eggnog spice* – eggnog frosting rocks
  13. Cuban coffee* – just enough spice and great coffee flavor
  14. Salty caramel* – good caramel flavor frosting, salt on top is nice
  15. Lemon blueberry* – think blueberry muffin w/ lemon frosting – another good morning treat
  16. Triple cinnamon – advertised as a cinnamon roll, tasted more like a snickerdoodle cookie
  17. Almond dark chocolate* – flavor of a poppyseed muffin minus the seeds. I wish it didn’t have sliced almonds in it.
  18. Vanilla milk chocolate – a classic cupcake
  19. Cinnamon sugar – a cupcake with NO frosting, great for breakfast
  20. Green tea* – very flavorful NEW
  21. German chocolate* – cool chunky frosting, wish it tasted more coco-nutty
  22. Flourless chocolate*- dense yet moist, similar to a super rich chocolate brownie
  23. Orange – similar to lemon but with orange flavor
  24. Vanilla peppermint* – great combo,very festive
  25. Peanut butter chip – creamy cake, like a mouthful of peanut butter
  26. Key Lime* – very subtle lime flavor initially but has a zesty finish
  27. Orange cranberry* – tasty combo
  28. Raspberry* – solid cupcake, nice raspberry flavor
  29. Milk chocolate – not overly chocolaty
  30. Dark chocolate – didn’t think I was going to like this since I prefer milk chocolate but it was good w/ a glass of milk
  31. Caramel apple* – didn’t get any real caramel apple flavors, just spice
  32. Gingerbread* – tis the season  NEW
  33. Irish Chocolate* – wish the frosting had more Baileys flavor
  34. Vanilla hazelnut chocolate* – if you think this is going to taste like nutella…you’re wrong
  35. Chocolate marshmallow – like a ding dong but needs more marshmallow
  36. Sprinkle – for 10 yrs I expected more.  NEW
  37. Vegan red velvet – if u want a coconut cupcake get this- if u want red velvet …don’t 
  38. Pistachio* – bland NEW
  39. Coconut – great coconut frosting, cake a bit dry though
  40. Raspberry chocolate chip* – nice combo but cake was dry
  41. Vanilla- sprinkles on top were too sweet
  42. Ginger maple* – nice frosting, too much ginger
  43. Chai latte – herbal flavor with spice frosting
  44. Chocolate coconut- dry cake, didn’t like dark chocolate frosting
  45. Carrot- if you like carrot cake, you’ll like this (I’m not a fan)
  46. Ginger lemon – good on their own but a weird combo
  47. Mocha – had high hopes for this – very good mocha flavor but with the choc cake was just bla
  48. Apple cinnamon* – apple chunks…no bueno NEW
  49. Banana chocolate – the chocolate frosting masks the banana cake
  50. Neapolitan* – just tastes like chocolate  
  51. Lemon coconut – dry,dry,dry
  52. Chocolate peppermint* – too much chocolate
  53. Choco loco* – cinnamon and chocolate is not my favorite combo
  54. Black & White – really bland
  55. Margarita* – tasted like salt
  56. Summer Cherry* – tasted like cough syrup
  57. Red Hot Velvet* – frosting tasted/smelled like Dentyne gum (which I despise) & overpowered the cake

    *seasonal/ limited edition flavors / secret menu

How about you? Which flavors make you drool? Leave a comment or two…
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Dog cupcakes

While standing at the check out counter at Summer Winds Garden Center I saw a small display of Ma snax organic dog cake mix. It was a weird location to sell dog treats, but I thought I’d give them a try. I wasn’t about to bake a big cake for Edison (our 105 pound black lab mix) as he would make a total mess, so instead I made carob-peanut cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

I tried taking a picture of Edison as he ate a cupcake but as soon as we gave it to him it was devoured, so I decided to make my first video blog. Here is Mr. Ed chowing down. He loves these little dense cupcakes!

Website: www.masnax.com

Red Velvet cupcakes

The Sprinkles cupcake shop is still not open in Palo Alto so I had to bake up a batch myself to hold me over. I picked up the red velvet mix from Williams-Sonoma. They turned out terrific… If I say so myself!

Get yourself some!

Sprinkles Cupcakes are FINALLY coming to town!!!

My prayers have been answered…THIS summer Sprinkles Cupcakes is opening up in Palo Alto. It’s not my backyard but it’s closer than LA. I’m truly excited. It will be at the Stanford shopping center. Start your diets now!

sprinkles cupcakes
image © sprinkles cupcakes

Sprinkles Cupcakes

Growing up I was not into sweets. My mom would have to toss my Halloween candy in December because it was still sitting on the floor of my closet. As I have aged things have changed. I now really enjoy desserts. In 2006 Mike and I were in Beverly Hills and as we were driving down Santa Monica Blvd. looking for a place to eat lunch we saw a line of about 10 people outside a place called Sprinkles. We had no idea what it was but we decided to stop by after lunch. What we found was a tiny storefront with 4 stools a counter and a display of delectable cupcakes. I had never seen anything like it before in my life. I had a new found love …cupcakes. My favorite flavors SO FAR include: red velvet,banana & coconut. Note: if you want to make your business look like its always busy design it like Sprinkles (have absolutely no space for customers).

I have also tried cupcakes from “Icing on the cupcake”(Rocklin) & “Kara’s Cupcakes” (SF). Both are good but can’t beat Sprinkles. I really wish they would open a branch in Los Gatos…

Tip: You can buy Sprinkles mix at Williams-Sonoma! It takes a bit of work but they turn out pretty good. Eat them asap or they get hard. If you choose red velvet be advised that your hands will be dyed red.

sprinkles cupcakes
http://www.sprinklescupcakes.com/

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