Cupcake Friday Project

After reading The Daily Meal’s take on the 50 best cupcakes in the country, I knew I would need to check out some of these for myself. There weren’t many on the list in New Jersey, but I did notice one bakery that isn’t too far from Ray’s hometown in the north. Since we’d be up there for Christmas, I tempted him with the thought of swinging by Ava’s Cupcakes in Rockaway, NJ for some tasty treats. And to up the curioisty factor, Ava’s Cupcakes was the winner of Cupcake Wars in season 4, episode 8!

The shop is quaint with a lived-in feel to it … very different from a lot of the  minimalist-chic bakeries I’ve been to in larger metro areas. There were at least 15-20 different flavors to chose from that day, which made things difficult because they all looked fantastic. We settled on a 4-pack, paid, and were on our way to Ray’s family Christmas.

When we began our tasting, we started with the banana guava (a winning Cupcake Wars flavor), which had a very simple look, but packed quite the flavor punch! The cake was intensely moist and reminded me of my mom’s banana bread, flavorwise. I could tell that a lot of bananas went into making this cake … no artificial extracts here! The guava filling added to the moisture of the cupcake and went well with the banana.  I appreciated the balanced cake to frosting ratio, and found the frosting to be creamy, though I couldn’t quite place the flavor. Was it vanilla? Was it banana? I’m not sure, but it was good.

Then we moved on to the lemon cupcake, which was one of Ray’s picks. The lemon aroma was wonderful … I think cupcakes should always be aromatic; it really enhances the experience. The cake was a smidge drier than the banana guava, but not in a bad way. It was finished with a lemon pie filling and lemon frosting. This wasn’t our favorite cupcake, but it was definitely on par with a typical lemon cupcake. We just thought it could burst more with flavor.

Next up was the chocolate hazelnut truffle, which I selected because of Ray’s love of hazelnuts (I’m so thoughtful!). This cupcake was also very fragrant and moist, with a good chocolate cake as the base. It was filled with nutella, which we thought was pretty basic, and was topped with a heavenly chocolate hazelnut frosting, hazelnuts, and a chocolate drizzle. If the filling had been a little more creative, then I think this cupcake could have been a contender for our favorite.

We finished with another chocolate cupcake, this time the chocolate pomegranate. The cake and frosting were rich, but not too sweet, which I appreciated. The pomegranate filling, however, wreaked havoc on the cupcake, making it fall apart. That was a little disappointing (I’m not a fan of self-destructing cupcakes), but it was a very flavorful cupcake, and flavor always wins in my book.

Overall, Ava’s Cupcakes is a solid bakery with a wide variety of creative cupcake flavors to choose from. The menu is updated daily, and the bakery also offers savory cupcakes as well as hand pies. Definitely stop in if you’re near Rockaway, and don’t skip the banana guava cupcake!

While in Toronto, the other bakery we visited was . The shop is bright, the counter staff are bubbly, and there seems to be a cupcake for everyone, especially with 15 regular flavors and 2 flavors of the week to choose from.

Much like Dlish, Prairie Girl has specific flavors on certain days, as well as 2 treats of the week–flavors that will be available every day that week. Since we were on the move and planning to visit several other places that day, we opted for 2 sizable–in the good way–mini cupcakes. We selected one of the treats of the week, which was a chocolate cake with toffee frosting and toffee bits and then a daily flavor that was a vanilla cake and lemon frosting.

The chocolate toffee cupcake was VERY aromatic, specifically the cake. The frosting was sweet and creamy, with a great smooth texture. I found the vanilla lemon cupcake to be very well balanced, with a bright lemon flavor to the frosting. Both of the cupcakes were perfectly moist, and I think my only criticism was that the minis could have used just a little less frosting.

I also really appreciate the bakery’s “fundamental beliefs about baking,” which is shares on :

• We believe that any type of “mix”, vegetable shortening, “trans fat”, lard, preservatives, artificial flavors and bright food dyes have no place in a knock-your-socks-off cupcake;
• We believe in daily quality control, both in the kitchen and in the front of the stores, with the goal of baking up and serving the perfect cupcake each and every time; and
• We believe in never selling our customers “day old” cupcakes. When we have any delicious Prairie Girl cupcakes on our shelves as we close up the store, we give them to our friends at Toronto’s Second Harvest, a charitable organization with a common sense approach to hunger.

So, as the final cupcakes of our trip, I think we did well by stopping in to Prairie Girl. The bakery will definitely be on my “visit again” list.

Though I didn’t want my vacation to be solely about cupcakes, I knew I’d kick myself if I didn’t try a few. I managed to try 5 different cupcakes from Buffalo (2 of which I don’t want to talk about because there were some grievous errors with what we purchased), and while in Toronto I did want to try some, but didn’t want to necessarily plan my day around finding bakeries.

, located on Queen St. West, was an easy decision for us because it’s located on the street we were staying and we’d be passing by it on our way back from Casa Loma. Perfect! The shop interior is simple, clean and Spartanly-modern, with the flavors of the day available in an unrefrigerated case on the main counter. We selected 4 to share with our friend Amanda.

We began the tasting session with the Apple Caramel Cupcake, described as a pure apple cake with pure caramel frosting drizzled with sweet buttery caramel.

The cake was very apply with a touch of cinnamon. The moisture of the cake was good. Ray and Amanda liked the caramel frosting, but felt like it needed a little bit of work. I actually picked up an odd nuttiness in flavor, which caught me off guard.

We moved on to the Maple Walnut, a walnut-studded maple cake with cream cheese frosting. We found the cake to be very walnuty in flavor–without constantly crunching down on nuts–and were impressed. We all thought the cake could use a bit more maple, but the cream cheese frosting hit that excellent balance of sweet and tangy.

I figured the Salted Caramel–a caramel cake topped with caramel frosting and fleur de sel–would be a crowd pleaser, and it was. Unlike the other cakes, this particular cupcake seemed a bit dry, but not bad. Funny enough, this caramel frosting tasted more caramely than the apple caramel (though really, I imagine they would have used the same base recipe for it). However, the salt for this cupcake is only on top, whereas mine, and many others, infuse the caramel frosting with salt. It was interesting to see a different technique, but I think I prefer the full infusion.

We finished our tasting with the Mocha Cupcakes, described as a dark chocolate cake topped with mocha frosting and covered with pure chocolate java flakes. The aroma was heavenly! We all noticed a wonderful coffee flavor from the java flakes, which was a great touch, both in flavor and visual appeal.

While I was a big fan of the Mocha, it seemed that Ray and Amanda were leaning toward the Caramel Apple. Overall, I was pleased with the size of the cupcakes (not huge), the balanced moisture and presentation. We remarked several times that a couple getting married could have ordered these 4 cupcake flavors for a wedding and it would have been beautiful.

If you’re in Toronto, definitely put DLish on your list to visit!

Ray turned 32 on Nov. 13, and before we left Buffalo for Toronto I knew that I had to get him over to Zillycakes so he could experience the cupcake bar.

I can’t completely recall what he ordered, but he definitely took advantage of the “make your own cupcake.” I believe his cake was a maple bacon, filled with apricot filling, and possibly topped with salted caramel frosting … yeah, that sounds about right. And the counter girl was sweet enough to put a candle in it.

I ordered one of their cupcakes straight off the menu because it sounded interesting. It was a rosemary cornbread cupcake with maple cream cheese frosting, topped with dried rosemary and some yellow sanding sugar. I really liked how the cornbread and rosemary popped–it was a flavor that worked very well together, though I think it’s a cupcake geared towards those with a more adventurous palate.

As I’ve said before, if you’re in Buffalo and love cupcakes, go to Zillycakes!

The first cupcakes we enjoyed on our Buffalo/Toronto vacation were at Swirls Cupcakery in East Aurora, one of the cutest little WNY towns! After spending some time skating at the outdoor ice skating rink (well, Rach and Ray were the ones that really skated … I hobbled along in a slighty-panicked fashion, since I hadn’t been up on skates in close to 8 years), we decided go across the street and try some cupcakes.

Swirls opened in 2011, and seems to be a blossoming bakery, even if it is tucked behind the East Aurora main street favorite coffee house Taste (which is also fantastic and features desserts from Butterwood in Buffalo). Fun fact: The cupcakery was founded by Michael Wulf at age 18. Now I just feel old.

Anyway, on to the cupcakes! After chatting with the very knowledgable and friendly counter staff, we selected 3 flavors to share.

We dug into the Caramel Apple cupcake first, which was a seasonal flavor. It was described as a vanilla cake with apple bits, a caramel infused filling and vanilla buttercream topped with caramel. The cake was very fragrant and moist, but could have used a bit more apple (the 3 of us are huge apple fans). The frosting was sweet and vanillay, but not over the top. A nice introduction to the shop.

Next, we tried the Red Velvet cupcake, mainly because I was intrigued when one of the counter girls explain that it was made with a special imported cocoa with a distinct taste. As we all know, I don’t really care for Red Velvet because I don’t see the wow factor. They always tend to taste like “cake” to me. However, in this instance, she was right–I got a really interesting cocoa flavor from the cake. Like the Caramel Apple cupcake, this cake was moist, but I think the cream cheese frosting could have used a bit more tang. Overall, we were impressed. A Red Velvet cupcake with some flavor!

We finished our sampling with the Mocha cupcake, described as a chocolate cake topped with a mocha espresso buttercream. We noticed this one to be a smidge drier than other cakes, but still good. Interestingly, the mocha espresso butter cream was almost a little boozy … the flavor was good, but hard to place. I verified that the cupcakery does not use any alcohol in that particular cupcake, so it left me wondering how they managed the unique floral chocolateyness.

For the first cupcakes on our trip, these were a good start. The shop was cute and well decorated, the staff were friendly and helpful (nothing is worse than a counter person who acts like they have no desire to wait on you, and trust me, I’ve been to a few bakeries like that), and the cupcakes were a nice treat to follow our ice skating. I highly suggest checking out Swirls in East Aurora, NY if you’re in the area!