I was telling my boy yesterday that I think the best job would be reviewing bakeries. He pointed out I would be huge if I had this job but it would be a delicious premature death by suffocating in my own fat.
My roommate and I reviewed local cupcake bakeries for science a couple years ago with excellent results. The excellent result being using Sweet Mandy B’s for our awesome volcano cake the next year.
The boy and I are planning my No-Baby Shower and once again I have the chance to summarize cupcake findings FOR SCIENCE.
Reviews behind the jump.
First stop after rolling out of bed around 11 on a Saturday morning was Angel Food. It’s in Ravenswood so it’s a little past where I usually go in the city but the boy heard about it on Food TV. Angel Food also serves real food so we grabbed some chicken soup and a cupcake each. The chicken soup was also very good. I got a mud pie cupcake which was served with a dollop of what appeared to be homemade whipped cream with little flecks of vanilla bean. The mud pie cupcake was crunchy on top, no frosting needed. The inside was gooey and rich and after finishing it, I knew the other cupcakes would be To Go. I was a little afraid to serve these at my party. I could see everyone eating them and then being unable to get up. The boy got a Boston cream pie cupcake. His had chocolate frosting and creamy filling. He also noticed the weight of his cupcake just by picking it up. These are no light and fluffy treats. These are serious fucking cupcakes. These cupcakes beat up everyone else in the bakery case.
The Angel Food staff was very nice. They told us how awesome the soups were, brought us water when we took on our cupcakes and cleared dishes quickly. The bakery itself was retro and cute like a bakery should be.
Next up was Bittersweet. My friend got her wedding cake from them and said it was so good it made her want to cry. I was sick with a crazy fever the day of her wedding so unfortunately I never got to try the tear inducing cake.
It was busy when we went in Bittersweet. The 2 counter people were talking to other customers so boy and I perused (licked) the bakery cases. They had lots of small, perfect looking cakes and tarts. Were they plastic? Is it really possible to make a cake that perfect looking? I’m not sure. They have lots of iced cookies, a few types of macaroons and other cookie type things. The only cupcakes they had were mini double chocolates so we decided to get cupcakes and macaroons. We were going to get iced party hat cookies but they were $3.50 each and pretty small.
So one counter person was obviously busy with a big order because she was giving box dimensions that sounded like it could have stored a small child or large TV. I got in line behind the 2nd person who was finishing up. The counter girl finishes with customer, looks at me, turns around and calls out a number. I turn and notice the number tags and guy closer to the number tags was nice enough to give us the next number before grabbing one for himself. Counter girl was nice enough with the rest of the order but what’s with not acknowledging my presence? At least tell me to go get a fucking number.
Obviously, bitch rubbed me the wrong way and her desserts didn’t win me over. We ate the Bittersweet treats last that night and they were the least impressive. The icing was really good, I could tell it was made from a nice dark chocolate. The boy pointed out the cupcake itself could have come from Jewel. The chocolate dipped macaroons were good but I need something more impressive than a macaroon for my party dessert.
After leaving Bittersweet, we went to Bleeding Heart Bakery. Bleeding Heart wins me over before we even go in because they do the whole organic and vegan options thing. I’m not vegan and I ingest more poison than most roaches but I still appreciate healthy options for “unhealthy” snack foods.
So we go in and the tattooed, heavily gauged counter guy is helping some other customers. Some punky music is playing. I think presentation matters so I am happy with this place. They have some awesome looking tarts and bars in one case. Another case has a few types of cupcakes. We ask about the types of cupcakes and choose a hazelnut chocolate cupcake and white with sprinkles. I admit I chose the sprinkled cupcake because it was entirely covered in sprinkles.
The white cupcake had a ton of frosting on it. The top of the actual cupcake was crunchy and everything tastes good but it had something odd to it that reminded me of cornbread. Maybe they use corn flour instead of white flour? The hazelnut frosting was really good. I think hazelnut is a hard flavor to work with. A lot of hazelnut desserts just taste like chocolate to me. The boy offered to buy cupcakes from multiple bakeries for the party so I think he liked his cupcake a lot more than I liked mine.
So even though they might put my guests in some kind of sugar coma, I think Angel Food wins this round. Yay science!