A Delicious Wannabe

Once more, cupcakes have helped me through my lack of candy and ice cream. The celebration Pheobe's cupcakes my boyfriend got were devoured quickly, so even the remains were no longer in sight. Yet, my second cupcake was a little less exciting than my first.

First, take a look at my boyfriend's second choice. To the left is a mint chocolate chip cupcake. I decided to wait and post these cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day because they both felt very Irish-y. Not exactly Irish, but look at the green! We giggled about it and were excited at first since the wrapper didn't reveal the green at all beforehand. There it was once it's wrapping was pulled away - a green tint. It looks a little moldy in retrospect - so it might not be the best presentation, but I was originally so started I thought it was fun. He was very thrilled by the mint, the mint butter cream, and the chocolate chips all mixed together. I think he also loved that the cake was yellow and not chocolate. So he wasn't eating a Thin Mint cupcake or a wannabe Ande's. Instead it was minty and chocolate chip focused. He was thrilled.

I, on the other hand, may have been more thrilled when I first picked up my cupcake than by the time I finished it. I felt like the cupcake itself was kind of a mystery. Mine was a Chocolate Toffee Stout cupcake (as seen on the right). It is describe as "chocolate cake filled with Stout toffee topped with brown sugar butter cream and toffee drizzle." The toffee drizzle was thrilling, although it looks a little sloppy on the top. If on cupcake wars the design of the drizzle would be frowned upon, but the taste of it was wonderful. In addition, I was addicted to the brown sugar butter cream. Sometimes frosting is hard for people to deal with, especially when it is swirled on top of a cupcake and you can get more frosting than cake in one bite. Yet this frosting felt soft, sweet, and almost like it would melt in my mouth. I loved that feeling. The cake was also a delightful chocolate comparison with it. But my biggest question is: What is Stout toffee?!

Originally I was concerned about getting this cupcake, since I'm not a beer fan. But the toffee aspect intrigued me and I thought that if it was in the center it wouldn't be too beer-y or scare me that much. The strangest part was I didn't taste it at all. The middle part had a different texture than the cake. It was no longer this moist, springy, solid instead it felt a little liquid-like. But looking at the cake there was nothing dripping out, like the marshmallow in the Snowball cupcake, and the coloring wasn't very different. There was only a slight sheen. I tried biting just the cake. The texture was prominently different without there being frosting in the mix. When the frosting was there, you would have had no idea this cupcake was supposed to be filled with something.

I now understand a little more when on Cupcake Wars they say they don't get all the flavors that are mentioned. It happens. There was no stout or real toffee besides the frosting. Although good, I left my wrapper in the trash confused and unsure what to think. Of course my sweet tooth enjoyed the chocolate, but my inner foodie searching for something new and exciting was let down. I'd suggest trying a different Irish inspired cupcake - I hear Guinness are yummy and much more beer flavored for you beer lovers out there.

So Happy St. Patricks Day! Eat, drink, and be merry!

- Mollie

A Snowball Anxious for Spring

Yesterday I was informed that I have received an independent contractor position with K. Grace.
Meaning, I have a new job! This is especially exciting because I am now able to have a changing schedule that works with me and my hopefully upcoming internship. As well as I can do family things and plan my schedule ahead of time and not a few days before. To say the least, I was giddy. I wanted cake. I wanted celebration.

So that's what I did.

My boyfriend and I walked down Broadway to good ol' Pheobe's cupcakes to pick out delicious little cakes to enjoy on the special day. It was actually more difficult than usual. For those who have read my previous Pheobe's blogs, they tend to have a very similar menu with only a few rotating each time I go in. Yet this time we were greeted by quite a few delicious newcomers, including Key Lime Macadamia Nut, Chocolate Toffee Stout, Irish Coffee, and Green Snowball. I spent my first minute or so that I entered drooling over their giant cinnamon rolls (which I didn't know they had!) before realizing that I came in for cake and I had plenty of options. We came home with this bountiful supply of baked goods:

I was thrilled by the fact that I could get two cupcakes that had chocolate and didn't break my lent promise. No candy, no ice cream, no cookies. Cupcakes are just the trick for my lent season.

Of course, the boyfriend got his usual Very Vanilla. He tells me that vanilla to him is like chocolate to me. I don't think he understand the capacity his love must be for vanilla to meet that equation. Or maybe he does and I just can't seem to fathom how vanilla can ever compete. Either way, I just enjoyed his cute festive sprinkles. To the right you can see the color and the cute topped shamrock. Although St. Patty's is still a week away, it made me smile and wonder what they'll do next week.

He also got a mint chocolate chip and I got a Chocolate Toffee Stout for later in the week - by which I mean they will be devoured quite quickly in my frenzy of finals.

My celebration cupcake made my heart leap like joy. To the left stands the Green Snowball. Again, festive which always brings joy to my heart. Yet the implication of it being similar to a Hostess SnoBall made my decision that much easier. I fell in love with SnoBalls at a young age and have missed them since I've started eating healthier. So this cupcake was the answer to my childhood memories.

The chocolate cake was soft and springy topped with a beautiful buttercream. I loved the coconut shavings, but my boyfriend and others might be terrified of the stringy nature it has. The green was a little light on my cupcake and I wish if they were calling it a Green Snowball to put a brighter pop of color into it - instead I decided it was anxious for spring. The green is starting to come in - hinting at St Patty's Day and the soon to be green trees and grass.

Yet what really took the cake (pardon my pun) was inside. A nice bite revealed to me a gooey, beautiful center of marshmallow creme. Not marshmallow fluff or a marshmallow peep, but beautiful cream. Just enjoy it for a moment with me:

That is what I'm talking about. The beautiful cream flowed out of the cupcake and into my mouth. The only issue with this beautiful brimming marshmallow is that it wanted to flow faster than I could eat it (SHOCK!). It was one of the few cupcakes where I grabbed a plate and began to dig in with a fork. For me it was enjoyable still because I could be sure to get all the cake, buttercream, marshmallow, and coconut in one bite and I felt fancy eating a little cupcake on a plate. Yet for others this could be a drippy, sticky mess.

If you want to try this cupcake, be warned, the inside will drip on you. I would suggest not trying to walk and eat with it. As well as don't try to talk or do other things with it, because it will catch you off guard and leave you with a questionable white spot. Otherwise, this is a delicious cupcake that would only intrigue me more if the frosting was also marshmallow based. yummm.

- Mollie

Disappearing Pineapple Cupcake

When I eat a cupcake it usually consists of my whole mouth encompassing a large portion of the cupcake to get the frosting, center, and cake all in one glorious bite, and then little bites to get a little bit of both and savor the rest. There are a few exceptions: 1) cupcakes that I inhale, because I cannot help the deliciousness from flowing into my mouth and 2) cupcakes where I am hunting for something inside of it.

Often in Cupcake Wars on food network you hear them say they didn't get enough of this flavor that was stated to have been there, or that they didn't taste it at all. I am usually confused by this statement. Bewildered by how they could not taste what sounds delectable or sometimes even strange. Yet today I had that first experience.

I had bought a Pineapple Right-side up cupcake from Pheobe's cupcakes last Saturday to eat in celebration of the Bear's going to the Superbowl. Alas, this did not happen. Therefore it waited for me for another celebration in the fridge. Today I decided it was a day to celebrate and devour a cupcake I had never had before. The cherry on top was exciting enough. I slurped it up before the rest of the cupcake was out of it's liner. I took one bite and enjoyed the soft cake, but something was missing. I literally picked at this cupcake. A little bit of the cake: soft, moist, buttery. A little bit of the filling: sweet, kinda caramel-esque flavored. A little bit of the frosting: delicious butter cream in a perfect thick swirl on top. But something was off...
Then I realized.
Where was the pineapple?!

There was no actual pineapple slice anywhere, as I had imagined in my head hiding underneath that beautiful frosting awaiting my teeth to sink into it's sweet crunch. There wasn't a heavy flavor of pineapple juice in the cake. The middle may have had a bit of the sweetness to a pineapple, but no real pineapple taste anywhere. The cake was yellow, buttery, and had a little spice. But the fruit was missing. It had disappeared. No bite could find it.

The cupcake is not listed on the Pheobe's website as one of the flavors. Although these do, sorta, rotate weekly, perhaps it's just not a usual one and that's where the slip up happened. Or the sign was mislabeled? I don't know what had happened, but the perfectly fine cupcake ended up being more disappointing because of the missing ingredient that should have been key.

Don't lose your sweet tooth
- Mollie

The Perfect Combination of Chocolate and Peanut Butter has a Rival

Pheobe's cupcakes has become an easy dessert stop on the way home from various locations, work, school, Noodle Company, the cold wind, whatever it is I couldn't deny the thought of stopping in today and getting a cupcake. The choices were hard, mainly because, again, they had a very rigid set of flavors as I mentioned in a past blog. Their website shows a list that is weekly, but I've noticed that only a few of them change. The usual very vanilla, death by chocolate, red velvet, tuxedo, funfetti, caramella and peanut butter fudgey are there. There was the addition of one today: the pineapple right-side up cupcake. I'll write more about this cupcake soon (since it's waiting patiently in the fridge for my will to break and devour it).

I decided to get the peanut butter fudgey for today, because the Reece's commercials have been making me crave chocolate and peanut butter. So much that I almost had a pb&j for breakfast just for a taste of peanut butter. Yet that wouldn't have satisfied my chocolate addiction, so this cupcake was perfect.

I've had this cupcake once before, when my room mate got it for me, but it had been sitting in the fridge for a bit before I ate it. This led to a harder cream frosting, which brought a much harsher and stronger peanut butter pop than I had hoped for. I decided to give the little guy another chance anyway.

Now first off, never let this one sit in the fridge that long. Just devour it right then and there if you can. The butter cream frosting has a perfect fluffy-ness that is soft with a beautiful peanut butter flavoring. There is no punch into your face. Instead it's smooth, airy, with a peanut butter taste that compliments the texture. It's the perfect kind of cream to get on the tip of your nose while you're trying to dig into the cheesecake bottom (which I did). Oh, did I not mention it was cheesecake? oh yes. There is a chocolate and cream cheese mixture that is, again, light and fluffy.

I learned from a  Food Feuds episode about the variety of cheesecake fluffiness. Usual New York style cheesecake is much more thick and heavy. So while this cupcake is not your typical, authentic New York cheesecake, it's the kind that I would much rather dig into: the fluffy and airy kind. I also think this melds well with the light cream frosting. You do not feel heavy or like it's hard to finish the cupcake. Instead you savor every bite, carefully tying together the frosting and the cheesecake.

Now my only curiosity left, is it always a cheesecake cake on the bottom? On the website it lists it as chocolate cake with "a baked in cream cheese top", but in the store it said cheesecake. My hope is that it's always made this way, focusing on the light airy cheesecake quality. If you give it a try, let me know!

- Mollie

A Late Happy New Year Chicago

Hello and Happy New Year!

I'm sorry I've been behind on my writing, but the holidays caught up with me in the same way that the cold wind catches up with you while you are walking down the streets of Chicago - and then overtakes you and almost knocks you over. I am going to do a whole lot of adjusting to the blog, mainly to any recipes I post, and will be updating much more often. But first I thought I'd show you the sweet that gave me a happy start to the new year:

Oh yes, that is a cookie cake. His face and the numbers are off center. Despite the fail (which made me want to send him to Cake Wrecks), I fell in love with his goofy face and uncertainty about the new year. He made me wish for a good Mrs Fields cookie cake, but still kept me coming back for more soft cookie sliced up like a pie.


Now what you were really waiting for:
The Cupcake.

This bit of chocolate heaven was brought to you by Pheobe's Cupcakes at 3327 N. Broadway. Since this is just a short walk from my apartment and doesn't include spending money on transportation, this cupcake place has been a happy place for my entire apartment. I have been treated to their cupcakes many times, but this was the first time I had ever entered.

It is a small store, with a few small tables, and a counter that goes from wall to wall of cupcakes and cakes. You could easily miss it walking down Broadway with all the other shops and restaurants clumped around it. Yet, it is a little gem.

This particular cupcake was the "death by chocolate" - which sounds like part of my future obituary. It fit exactly what I wanted. Rich chocolate cake, soft chocolatey frosting, and chocolate crumbles on top. It was rich, but not to the point where I couldn't eat the whole thing. This cupcake is not for mediocre chocolate fans, such as my boyfriend.

We were both a little disappointed that day by the small selection. There was the very vanilla (his choice), salted caramel, funfetti, and Caramella. The Caramalla sounded tempting. An amaretto and vanilla swirled cake filled with caramel and topped with chocolate sugar cream almost beat out my love for chocolate. Yet it was the only really unique cupcake we saw. Very different from the crazy selections you see on Cake Wars or even at Molly's Cupcakes.

What I discovered after conversations with other cupcake fans and research on their website, is that they have flavors of the week. So one week may be simple, while the next will be crazy and fun. It also varies in decoration and recipe depending on the chef there. My boyfriend was told that Saturdays the best chef was in, so I recommend stopping by on Saturday to try out some of them. Otherwise, feel free to stop in and check out their delicious cupcakes for something new, quiet, small, and not as talked about.

Enjoy the new year and all the goodies it brings you!
- Mollie