the cupcake tasting notes: 16 cakes, 20 minutes, one opinionated eater
After Chrysta Wilson, creator of the Kiss My Bundt bakery and I returned to her shop from a Beverly Hills cupcake reconaissence mission, (see my previous post on a secret cupcake mission), we lined up our booty (16 cakes from 3 bakeries) like an army of sweet soldiers awaiting battle.
In order to taste 16 cupcakes (17 really, because we added Chrysta’s cookies and cream bundt to the mix), we had to have a game plan. Chrysta suggested starting with the lighter flavors and moving into chocolate. She began with strawberry. Here’s where I have to confess my hatred for one kind of cake. Can’t stand strawberry, the flavor my brother always insisted upon for his birthdays. Grrr.
So I reached for orange. The two contenders were Sprinkles orange with orange buttercream and the one from Frosted. Frosted’s orange was the most highly decorated of their cakes. Sitting on my plate, its decadence offered an almost comical appearance. The cake was coated in white chocolate curls, so heavily decorated its shape was like that of a ball on a stand. In fact, it almost resembled the head of a poodle, dyed a strange shade of orange. The cake was indiscribibly sweet, the frosting even sweeter. The product was good, moist, attractive with bright, tart flavor but was so sweet I couldn’t touch more than one tiny bite.
Sprinkles orange was next. First, the cake: It offered the freshness of zested oranges and a reasonable texture. The frosting, although far too heavily spread, was a traditional buttercream, subtly flavored orange. The result was sweet but almost refreshing. It was the best Sprinkles cake I’ve ever tried.
The vanilla cakes were both a disappointment. The Frosted was the prettiest cake of the bunch with its vanilla swirl of frosting and white-sprinkled edging. But the cake was so sweet you really couldn’t taste vanilla and the frosting was that dense, sticky sort of buttercream that’s more powdered sugary than buttery. The Famous was strange. The bakery’s signature cake, the vanilla is spiced and tastes more of cinnamon than of the bean for which it is named. The milk chocolate frosting on top was absolutely lovely although it didn’t integrate well with the cupcake’s spicy flavor.
Next I tried red velvet, the cake flavor of the moment in Los Angeles. First there was Sprinkles. The cake is somehow simultaneously dry and oily. The frosting was thick and chewy, neither an attribute I want in my frosting. Frosted was an improvement. The texture was nice but the cake was more sweet than sour – a flavor note a true red velvet should offer. The Famous was extremely chocolatey. Its color so dark it was barely red. There was a nice balance of cake to frosting but again it lacked that faint sourness which makes red velvet so unique.
On to the chocolates, we dove in to the variations on cookies and cream. Each was an Oreo frosting atop chocolate cake. The frosted tasted like cookies and cream ice cream with little chunks of chocolate wafer cookie, tasty but so sweet when paired with the light chocolate flavor of the cake. The Famous offered a far more rich and bitter chocolate cake, deliciously dark like a bar of fine, dark chocolate. The frosting, however, basically tasted like the filling of the oreo. lacking the flavor of the dark cookie wafer. Although they were among the tastiest cakes in the tasting, I still prefer the Kiss My Bundt cookies and cream cake to either of these.
In the home stretch we tasted the two peanut butter cakes. The Sprinkles, tasted first, was the peanut butter chip, a peanut butter cake with chocolate chips, topped with peanut butter frosting and a dense layer of dark chocolate sprinkles. My first fork full was pure frosting which almost made me gag with surprise by the overwhelming sweetness and density. This isn’t frosting, its thinned-out peanut butter fudge. Its fantastic if you’re looking for peanut butter fudge but it is not appropriate, in my opinion, as a topping on a cake. The cake itself was dense and heavy, oily with peanut butter and so wet you could almost squeeze out the oil. On the bright side, the bakery uses high-quality sprinkles on top! The pb from Famous was a milk chocolate and peanut butter cake topped with a light, mildly peanut buttery buttercream. Teetering on the brink of too sweet, there was just enough restraint to make the cake deliciously decadent, moist, with complexity of flavors – although I could only eat half in a sitting.
Lastly, we tasted the Famous black tie, a super-rich dark chocolate with a dark chocolate buttercream. The frosting was so dark and chocolately it was a reddish black color – something I’ve never seen before atop a cake. Its flavors were equally intense, interesting and delicious. We definitely saved the best for last! Chrysta and I both agreed that it was hands-down the best cake of the day. The cake itself was dense and moist and with a faintly bitter finish and probably the most intense dark chocolate flavor I’ve ever tasted in a cake. It was sophisticated, sexy and satisfying, the perfect climax to an orgy of sweets.
famous black tie and peanut butter
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