Friday, June 27, 2014

Quest for the best cupcake in Austin (Part I~ Sugar Mamas Bakeshop)



Let me first admit that this little quest isn't exactly scientific.  Maybe not even fair.   Our Summer adventures include visiting Austin's most popular cupcake bakeries hunting for the BEST Austin cupcake.  To be completely fair, I suppose that we should sample each flavor at the the shops we visit, or at least a big variety.  Well, at at least $3 a cupcake, that just isn't going to happen.  So we visit the bakeries, choose one flavor and try it.  If it's good...it's in the running.  If it's not that great, then we move on.  
Our first visit was to Sugar Mamas Bakeshop.  This cute little shop has a great location in South Austin off of S 1st Street.  Recently, they won on a episode of Cupcake Wars, seen on the Food Network.  I feel like with all the good reviews, we should at some point try this shop again.  Perhaps today was just an off day at the bakery or I just picked the wrong flavor, but the "Marilyn Monroe" that I sampled today was definitely not my favorite cupcake!  While the Madagascar Bourbon vanilla buttercream was very good (not overly sweet, but rich and delicious), the actual cake portion (butter vanilla) was very dry and basically tasteless.  Zachary chose the same flavor and only finished 1/2 of his.  Lucas chose a "Back to School Special" (Wish I would have picked that one now too.  He ate the whole thing and said it was delicious....I didn't even get a taste!) which is a chocolate cake with marshmallow cream filling and a ganache frosting top.  They have a few flavors that they make daily and have a rotation of various flavors that they make the other days of the week (closed Mondays).  There were a few more flavors that looked appealing, so perhaps we will try this out again to give it a fair shot.  But for now, the hunt continues....

Zachary wasn't excited about having his photo taken!

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Flower cake for Bake A Wish

Birthday cake for Janey.  She wanted a vanilla cake with white and pink flowers.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Baby shower cake with vintage deer and ruffle buttercream

School is out which means I have some extra time to bake and practice some new cake decorating techniques.  I have been wanting to make this style of cake for some time and finally got the chance this weekend.  I love the look of the vintage deer with soft pink ruffles.  Would be so cute as a baby shower cake or for a little girl's birthday.  This particular cake is going to a potluck tomorrow.  I hope to make more of these through my catering website:  BoxSocial.weebly.com