The Cupcake Shoppe

the cupcake shoppe

I visited Raleigh’s premier cupcake bakery, The Cupcake Shoppe, today following a birthday lunch with friends. While that extra “pe” really bugs me, their baking should be taken seriously. It’s seriously good.

Cupcakes have become so trendy in the past few years with cutesy bakeries cropping up everywhere. The trend has made its way into the wedding industry with cupcake wedding cakes becoming a standard option alongside traditional cakes or the trendy Krispy Kreme doughnut cake. I attribute the cupcake hype at least partially to Carrie and Miranda famously dining on New York City Magnolia cupcakes (in the episode “No Ifs, Ands, or Butts” from season 3). In between bites, Carrie reveals to Miranda that she has met Aidan. (Voice over: “He was warm, masculine, and classic American. Just like his furniture.”)

Besides this, the cupcake is just adorable: a smallish, single serving to be savored all on your own. The cupcake is appealing because it’s messy, but manageable. It’s an adventure mapping your way around the paper wrapper to get a bit of icing in every bite and not on your nose. And the little cakes come in so many flavor varieties, decorated either simplistically or elaborately.

the lemon zinger

On this visit I ordered the Lemon Zinger. That’s lemon cake with with lemon buttercream icing, and surprise!—lemon curd in the center. The heaping icing is beautifully simple and subtle in citrus flavor, though there is a kind of brightness, a lemony “zing.” I think Ina Garten adds a bit of lemon juice to her plain buttercream icing because it truly brightens the flavor, without adding that identifiabley lemon tartness. Likewise the cake was subtly lemon-flavored, until reaching the bright yellow curd on the inside. And then it was a matter of trying to plan each bite to include a taste of lemon curd.

The menu at The Cupcake Shoppe includes a variety of regular flavors, and a rotating flavor of the week. Here’s the bakery case. Top left is the “What’s Up Doc?” carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Below that is the “Mint Condition” chocolate cake with mint buttercream. Check out the menu here for a complete list of their regular flavors. I’m a big fan of the “Big Red.”

pretty cupcakes

And here’s the flavor of the week: Banana Caramel.

flavor of the week

I also did a little spying into the kitchen where a cupcake decorator was busy preparing a small custom order for a Harry Potter-themed party. What a fun job! She’s got a box of six cupcakes with brooms on the first two, then a pair with stars, and a pair with Harry Potter spectacles. I love the whimsy!

to-be Harry Potter cupcakes

If you’re in the Glenwood South area, I recommend making a quick stop. There are tables and chairs inside if you want to eat-in. Plus I’m pretty sure they serve milk, coffee and so forth. The bakery also completes smaller custom orders and orders of a larger size for events and weddings. Prices are reasonable for the quality at $2.75 each, or $30 for a mixed dozen.

Keep Austin Tasty

Foodstalking runs in my family. I am probably the most obsessive, with Dad at a close second- although that may just be because I have much more time on my hands to obsess. That’s why I always jump at the chance to foodstalk with said family. Reasons being A) they aren’t embarassed by my weird habit of taking pictures of my food, B) We usually have similar tastes, C) There are some restaurants that only the Goldens will visit, brave souls we are.  So when I found out my sister was going to come visit me in Texas, I figured it was a good time to drag her to along for the ride.

We begin this long weekend in Austin, which just so happens to be my favorite city in the country. I got in Friday night just in time to meet friends for dinner at Polvo’s, which is a Mexican dive in South Austin. Tear… this type of place makes me long for the Mexican joints in Birmingham that made me like Mexican food (El Poblano and Sol Azteca were my most frequented). Too many of the Mexican/Tex-Mex restaurants in Houston are overpriced and too much of an ordeal for it to be plausible to go on a regular basis. Polvo’s was definitely more like what I am used to as far as Mexican food goes- decent, cheap margaritas, and food that sticks with you for a while. I had some kind of beef fajitas (can’t seem to find the exact name on the menu), and they hit the spot.

The next day’s meals started with brunch/lunch at Z’Tejas. Part of this place’s main appeal is the location and atmosphere: right on busy 6th Street (but far enough out that it’s not considered a ‘touristy’ spot- a Golden no-no), and a massive patio that is perfect for spring in Central Texas. They have excellent brunch cocktails and mojitos- of which I didn’t partake in this time. I had the Huevos Rancheros, a standard for me. I will enjoy anything with avocado in it (more on that later…), and the eggs were perfectly cooked.

4:00pm: time for a snack. Sister and I just so happened to run into this fabulous place that is basically my ultimate food fantasy on wheels. That’s right, an airstream trailer that sells cupcakes. Located in the quirky South Congress area, they have a short list of flavors (no daily rotation here like some of the cupcake purveyors in Houston) and a couple of tables with napkin holders on top. There just so happened to be a Gregg Allman look-a-like playing acoustic around the seating area on the day we were there- not sure if that’s a regular occurence or just a random Austin musician trying to catch his big break. I had the Red Velvet, which in my experience is a pretty good barometer for cupcake quality. The cake was moist and the frosting had the most interesting texture- whipped, not hard like a lot of bakery cupcakes, and on the thin side- I kind of liked it. The frosting was almost too cream cheese-y for me (not one of my favorite ingredients), but I did appreciate that it wasn’t sickeningly sweet like many non-homemade frostings.

Hey, Cupcake!

Sweet Southern goodness

Saturday dinner was at Curra’s, a place that is known for its avocado margaritas and no-frills Tex-Mex food. Our entire table ordered the avocado margaritas- I may have been the only one that actually enjoyed it. I think the reason is…

Ugh, I hate to reveal this dirty secret to the World Wide Web…

I don’t really like normal margaritas. I know, it’s strange. I don’t normally like to be reminded that tequila exists, and too many margaritas don’t do a good enough job of masking it/use the cheap stuff, which reminds me that it exists the next morning. I like the addition of avocado, because it’s just one more ingredient to mask the fact that I am drinking tequila. The consistency resembles a smoothie, so one warning would be to drink it quickly before it gets warm. Warm smoothies are not good. To eat, I had the Enchiladas Curras- cheesy, meaty, yummy goodness that you expect from Tex-Mex food.

Avocado marg

Mmm... cheese...

Our final stop in Central Texas is located on the famed BBQ Trail. I had previously made a stop at the City Market in Luling on another trip to Austin, a place that I credit with making me realize that I may actually enjoy brisket. I wanted to test another Top 5 BBQ spot to see if it was a fluke, so sister and I headed to Smitty’s Market in Lockhart. If you are easily intimidated by new dining experiences, Smitty’s is not for you. First you must enter the actual pit area and purchase your meats. Slap some brisket and ribs on butcher paper, give the man named Virgil your cash (ONLY), and head into the dining room. From there, you’ll purchase your sides and drinks. Don’t waste your time on sides. The beans were of the tasteless pinto variety. Ask for sauce at the “sides check-out,” or else you’ll be sadly sitting  at your table, staring at a bottle of hot sauce like sister and I did for a few minutes before we wised up. Between the two of us, we had a 1/2 lb of brisket and 1/2 lb of ribs. I think Dreamland owns Smitty’s in the ribs department- while the ribs were tasty, they were a little dry. The brisket, however, was exactly what this carne lover has learned to like about Texas BBQ- you taste the MEAT. Yes, you taste the smoke- but there’s nothing artificial about it as some Southeastern ‘que can seem. I did, however, like the City Market’s brisket a little more I believe. Could have been an off day for Smitty’s, but I thought the meat at City Market was slightly more moist than Smitty’s.

Smitty's Market exterior

Order carne here

Before

After

That’ll do it for the Austin portion of sister’s trip. Stay tuned for new adventures in Houston…

Raindrops keep fallin’ on my head

I’ve had a major sweet tooth lately. I started to feel like I wasn’t taking advantage of all of the wonderful bakeries/sweet shops in my area. All that has now changed. I am averaging about one major chocolate/sweets excursion per week. Here are my discoveries: 

Today I stopped by Raindrop Chocolate while I was running errands. This shop, located in a strip mall just down the street from me, has always intrigued me. I have heard that they make amazing gelato, but it’s very rare that I’m in the mood for ice cream-y concoctions. I decided to stop in this afternoon and see what else they had to offer besides the gelato. They had a very small selection of baked goods (2 things: some type of cake and amaretto cupcakes), around 8 gelato flavors (including unusual picks such as Blood Orange Chocolate and Wine with Raisins), a wide selection of truffle flavors, and several other chocolate treats. I went with 2 varieties of truffles: Sweet Curry and Dark Chocolate Caramel with Grey Sea Salt. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the Sweet Curry truffle, as I ate it before I was out of the parking lot. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I really enjoyed it. It’s exactly as it sounds- Dark chocolate shell with a creamy chocolate interior that is spiced with curry powder. A sprinkle of the bright yellow stuff over the top made for a nice presentation. The Dark Chocolate Caramel one was my favorite, though. I love salted sweet things. The salt heightened the flavors of the sweet caramel- this particular version was standout because they used the large crystals of sea salt. It looked great and tasted the same. 

Another place I’ve been visiting recently is The Chocolate Bar, a cutesy place in Montrose. They are rumored to have awesome gelato as well, but my eyes were on the baked goods the first time I went. I sampled several gelato flavors, and was really impressed with all of them. I particularly liked the Coffee Toffee Time. I decided to go with a slice of Uncle Darryl’s cake, and it was an excellent decision. I am usually wary of any kind of cake that’s not made by my mom. I find that most store bought cakes (even from bakeries) are too dry and the icing is usually tooth-achingly sweet, so it was pretty hard for me to plunk down $10 for a slice of the stuff. This specimen was perfect- the cake was suitably moist, and the icing was actually a dark chocolate ganache, and the whole thing was sprinkled with toffee bits. This thing was HUGE. I ate it for 3-4 days, which is pretty impressive for me. That should give some sort of indication of how big these slices are (well that, and the price). I’ve been back since then for a couple of scoops of gelato. It’s a cool little place. The best part is that it’s open late (even on Sundays), so it’s there whenever I need it.

I have a thing for cupcakes. I don’t even know that I like them that much, but I tend to crave them frequently. I think it’s partially the look of them, and partially the fact that they are a cheap, portioned way to satisfy my baked good cravings. The closest cupcake shop, Crave Cupcakes, is a boutique bakery that specializes solely in cupcakes. I believe it’s based on the famous LA cupcake outlet, Sprinkles (and it looks like we’re getting one of those soon!). In my opinion, the cupcakes from Crave aren’t really anything to write home about. The times that I have gotten them, the cake has been semi-dry and the frosting is a hard shell of the sickeningly sweet variety. However, it serves the purpose to satisfy my cravings (it could also be due to the fact that I usually go right before they close in a mad rush to cure my sweet tooth). 

Eyes < Stomach

I‘ve had some pretty promising foodstalking opportunities lately, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to adjust to my new, bloggy self and bring a camera with me. I picked up a Chocolate Chai cupcake today from The Path of Tea, a local tea shop (I know, strange place for a cupcake). I have read several times that they make some of the best cupcakes in town, and since I happened to pass by it while running errands, I thought I’d give it a try. Too bad I remembered to take a picture only after I devoured the yummy morsel in 3 bites. The cake was a little on the dry side, but the icing was amazing. Sweet- but not too sweet- and plenty of delicious chai spices. I’m on a mission to recreate the recipe at home. I think I could do the cake part better than they did. After doing some research, I found a recipe for Chai buttercream icing that requires you to make your own chai spice mixture. No big deal, except for the fact that it has FENNEL in the mix. Excuse me? If I could have a spice nemesis, it would be fennel. Or maybe dried dill. Either way, I refuse to believe there is fennel in my beloved chai tea!

The remains

Earlier this week, I picked up a burger for dinner from one of my favorite places in Houston- Christian’s Tailgate. The location I frequent is a total dive bar- just picture the fact that I was the only female in there at the time, besides the biker chick taking orders (they also have a yuppie-fied Midtown location… but do yuppies know good carne? I think not). Once again, no picture, because I tend to forget these things when there is a huge hunk of beef waiting to be eaten. Their onion rings are top-notch too.

I’m having a hard time getting recipe inspiration for this week. Suggestions are welcome!