The Cupcake Quest: So Cupcake
Cupcakes are very pretty. But I don't get the hype. Because, quite frankly, they taste rather bland, and sometimes even horrid. However, I live in Salt Lake City, which is something of a cupcake Mecca. I think it's the stay-at-home moms that all have a dream of being a cupcake baker thing. I'm not really sure. But, we have a lot of cupcakeries. I mean, A LOT. So I figured that this is the perfect opportunity for me to try and find a cupcakery that changes my mind about cupcakes. I will call it the Cupcake Quest!
The first cupcake place that I tried for the Cupcake Quest is a cupcake place near my apartment on Highland Drive around 3900 S called So Cupcake.
I go into So Cupcake and it's got all the overly cutesy decor you would expect. Garish prints that look like a Victorian house threw-up. Disney princesses (I'm not kidding). Little cute chairs and tiny teasets. I got four cupcakes there, including the girl at the counter's favorite cupcake. I got the minis, because I was only tasting.
I got: Salted Caramel, Chocolate Cream Cheese, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting (as opposed to with vanilla frosting...vanilla frosting on a red velvet is an abomination, people).
The cupcakes were cute, and the price wasn't TOO bad (though I wouldn't buy them again for that price...it was part of the Cupcake Quest). About a $1/mini cupcake.
Cupcake specific review:
Salted Caramel. The caramel drizzle was VERY good. I wish I could just buy that. And I hate caramel! However...it wasn't salted caramel. It was regular caramel. If you're going to call something salted caramel, it needs that salt kick, which it didn't have. My first thought biting into this cupcake was "maybe the cake is good, but I can't tell because this mountain of powdered sugar that just hit my mouth." On Cupcake Wars (which my college roommates and I watched religiously), one of the judges, Candace Nelson, will sometimes say, "The frosting was so sugary, it hurt my teeth." I always thought, "She's exaggerating, but we get the idea." No, she's not exaggerating. This frosting literally caused pain to my teeth. And my teeth aren't sensitive. So, I would recommend the caramel drizzle, but nothing else.
Chocolate Cream Cheese. I was excited for this one. It was the one the girl at the counter named her favorite, and it had cream cheese frosting. Not only do I really enjoy cream cheese frosting, but I thought, "It's not buttercream, so it can't be as nasty as the last one, right?" Wrong. The frosting was, once again, gross. It crunched there was so much sugar in it! And I didn't get that tangy cream cheese flavor I was so excited for. Just a blob of sugar. Once again, I couldn't make a judgment on the cake because of the frosting. I wouldn't recommend this one, especially because it pretended to be a cream cheese frosting, but wasn't.
Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting. I love red velvet cake. And by this time, I was so disgusted by the frosting, it was starting to make me feel sick. So, I took the frosting off. I didn't even need to scrape. The sugary blob came off in one chunk. I figured, "Now I'll get a chance to taste the cake." Maybe the cake is to die for, and I just can't tell because of this nasty frosting. The cake wasn't bad, but it really just tasted like it came out of a Duncan Hines box, and then sit out for a bit so it wasn't moist anymore. I then ate the frosting, because the last cream cheese had been chocolate cream-cheese. It was just as gross. I make a better red velvet with cream cheese (though I feel I make killer cream cheese frosting), and I am not a professional baker.
Strawberry Cheesecake. This one had a cheesecake bite in the center, so I figured, "Hey, nasty frosting, sub-par cake. Maybe the filling is good!" It wasn't bad, but it didn't make up for the rest of the nasty.
Over-all, the cupcakes were well decorated, and cute. The atmosphere was to be expected, and their staff were friendly, courteous and seemed like fun people. But I am not converted to cupcakes or the cupcake hype. In fact, this Cupcakery reaffirmed everything I believe about cupcakes--cute but nasty. Better to look at than to eat.
This mission of the Cupcake Quest was a fail.
The first cupcake place that I tried for the Cupcake Quest is a cupcake place near my apartment on Highland Drive around 3900 S called So Cupcake.
I go into So Cupcake and it's got all the overly cutesy decor you would expect. Garish prints that look like a Victorian house threw-up. Disney princesses (I'm not kidding). Little cute chairs and tiny teasets. I got four cupcakes there, including the girl at the counter's favorite cupcake. I got the minis, because I was only tasting.
I got: Salted Caramel, Chocolate Cream Cheese, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting (as opposed to with vanilla frosting...vanilla frosting on a red velvet is an abomination, people).
The cupcakes were cute, and the price wasn't TOO bad (though I wouldn't buy them again for that price...it was part of the Cupcake Quest). About a $1/mini cupcake.
Cupcake specific review:
Salted Caramel. The caramel drizzle was VERY good. I wish I could just buy that. And I hate caramel! However...it wasn't salted caramel. It was regular caramel. If you're going to call something salted caramel, it needs that salt kick, which it didn't have. My first thought biting into this cupcake was "maybe the cake is good, but I can't tell because this mountain of powdered sugar that just hit my mouth." On Cupcake Wars (which my college roommates and I watched religiously), one of the judges, Candace Nelson, will sometimes say, "The frosting was so sugary, it hurt my teeth." I always thought, "She's exaggerating, but we get the idea." No, she's not exaggerating. This frosting literally caused pain to my teeth. And my teeth aren't sensitive. So, I would recommend the caramel drizzle, but nothing else.
Chocolate Cream Cheese. I was excited for this one. It was the one the girl at the counter named her favorite, and it had cream cheese frosting. Not only do I really enjoy cream cheese frosting, but I thought, "It's not buttercream, so it can't be as nasty as the last one, right?" Wrong. The frosting was, once again, gross. It crunched there was so much sugar in it! And I didn't get that tangy cream cheese flavor I was so excited for. Just a blob of sugar. Once again, I couldn't make a judgment on the cake because of the frosting. I wouldn't recommend this one, especially because it pretended to be a cream cheese frosting, but wasn't.
Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting. I love red velvet cake. And by this time, I was so disgusted by the frosting, it was starting to make me feel sick. So, I took the frosting off. I didn't even need to scrape. The sugary blob came off in one chunk. I figured, "Now I'll get a chance to taste the cake." Maybe the cake is to die for, and I just can't tell because of this nasty frosting. The cake wasn't bad, but it really just tasted like it came out of a Duncan Hines box, and then sit out for a bit so it wasn't moist anymore. I then ate the frosting, because the last cream cheese had been chocolate cream-cheese. It was just as gross. I make a better red velvet with cream cheese (though I feel I make killer cream cheese frosting), and I am not a professional baker.
Strawberry Cheesecake. This one had a cheesecake bite in the center, so I figured, "Hey, nasty frosting, sub-par cake. Maybe the filling is good!" It wasn't bad, but it didn't make up for the rest of the nasty.
Over-all, the cupcakes were well decorated, and cute. The atmosphere was to be expected, and their staff were friendly, courteous and seemed like fun people. But I am not converted to cupcakes or the cupcake hype. In fact, this Cupcakery reaffirmed everything I believe about cupcakes--cute but nasty. Better to look at than to eat.
This mission of the Cupcake Quest was a fail.
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