Miles Traveled: 400
States Entered: 1
Cupcakes Consumed: 5
After we learned that it would be several days until an appraiser could come to the remote town we were stranded in and evaluate Baron's car, we decided to leave the car behind. We felt really bad abandoning it, but there's a pretty good chance it's totaled anyway. We spent the morning determining if it would be cheaper to ship all of our belongings and fly back to Pittsburgh, or rent a car and continue driving. In the end, it seemed like driving would be the easier and cheaper option. My dog Honey is locked up in a kennel outside of Pittsburgh so we can't really extend our trip to make up for the lost day. Ultimately we had to cut out Toronto. Sorry Canada! Hopefully we'll be able to make the short 4 hour drive from Pittsburgh to Toronto another time.
We arrived in Phoenix around 4:30pm, leaving us 90 minutes to visit four stores, the last of which closed at 6pm. (Originally we were supposed to have spent last night in Phoenix giving us plenty of time to hit all of the stores this morning.) We raced around the city in a non-linear fashion, hitting the stores in the order that they closed. First up was Cupcake's Corner Cafe.
Cupcake's Corner Cafe
Phoenix, AZ
This cute little walk-up cupcakery is a recent expansion of Let Them Eat Cake, the bakery located next door. The bright colors and custom painted walls make for a welcoming atmosphere while the checkerboard floor and retro barstools give the cupcakery a 50s feel. I would say that the "Cafe" in the name is a bit of a misnomer -- though there are a couple of tall tables and barstools, it's not exactly a "sit down and sip a hot drink while reading a book" kind of place. There's a table and two chairs outside on the sidewalk, but as we discovered in Las Vegas eating next to a parking lot isn't the nicest.
The refrigerated display case across from the entrance is full of delicious looking cupcakes. We didn't see any plain vanilla chocolate cupcakes so we opted for the Orange Whiz (vanilla cake with lemon filling topped with an orange buttercream) and the CCC (lemon cake with raspberry filling topped with a chocolate cream cheese frosting). The cakes in these cupcakes were fantastic, but unfortunately the below average frostings marred their delicious flavor. Check out Cupcake's Corner Cafe's profile page for detailed reviews of the cupcakes.
Lulu's Cupcakes
Scottsdale, AZ
Don't let the vinyl banner sign in the abandoned-looking strip mall fool you. Lulu's Cupcakes is one hip, modern bakery. The cupcakery is much larger than it looks from the outside, with a long, L-shaped counter at the far end. Lulu's menu is suspended above the counter, describing the flavors of the cupcakes perched on covered glass cake trays below. Next to the entrance is a high counter with a handful of bar stools, and a couple of small two-person tables are lined against one of the longer walls. Modern lighting fixtures hang from the ceiling above all of the seating areas. The other long wall houses a display case full of all sorts of baking-related accessories and knick-knacks, as well as some totally random stuff. (Baron was nice enough to buy me a cute purple rubber duck with devil's horns!) A pair of large armchairs and a coffee table are located in the center of the store. In general, the space in Lulu's seems largely empty and underutilized. I'm guessing they're still pretty new.
Our selection at Lulu's included the Tantrum Tamer (vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream) and the Bunny Boo (carrot cake with cream cheese buttercream). I found these cupcakes to be pretty much the exact inverse of Cupcake's Corner Cafe -- the frostings were simply divine, but the cakes were dry and muted. You can read all about the cupcakes on Lulu's profile page.
Sweet Pea Bakery and Catering
Phoenix, AZ
We raced from Lulu's over to Sweet Pea Bakery only to discover that Sweet Pea was closed. D'oh! My itinerary mentioned that Sweet Pea was open from 10am to 5:30pm but they had a sign in their window proclaiming their summer hours to be 8:30am to 3:30pm. Weird! Usually places extend their hours in the summer, not make them shorter!
Wicked Bakery & Cafe
Phoenix, AZ
After the 40 minute detour to the closed Sweet Pea Bakery, we sped up north towards Wicked Bakery and Cafe. After much nail biting and knuckle clenching we arrived at 5:55pm, five minutes before it closed. We ran from the car up to the front door to discover the owner, Slade, locking up. After explaining that we'd just driven from Vegas to try his cupcakes, he cheerfully led us inside. Whew!
We spent the next 20 minutes chatting with the super-friendly Slade while stuffing our mouths with his delicious Red Velvet cupcakes. Slade bakes the cupcakes himself and does a different flavor every day. The chocoholic in me was disappointed to learn that he was baking a raspberry truffle cupcake tomorrow, but even though I'm not usually a fan of Red Velvet cake I had to admit his were pretty darn tasty. Slade explained that their specialty is filled cupcakes and that he's made it a mission to bring moist cake to gourmet cupcakes. (And yes, his Red Velvet cupcake was super moist.) He also said that they cover all of their cupcakes in a special glaze before they frost them, which gives them an added zip. He even showed us the fancy cupcake liners he gets from France that easily pull apart like an accordion, allowing you to remove the liner without getting frosting all over your fingers. Neat!
Like Cupcake's Corner Cafe, the "Cafe" in Wicked's name is a bit of a misnomer. I didn't notice any seating aside from a couple of barstools under a high counter along the front wall. The space in the bakery was mostly taken up by the tall, refrigerated display case and several large refrigerators against a side wall. If you're interested in sampling Wicked's cupcakes and you don't live near Phoenix, give them a call. They ship their cupcakes!
As I mentioned above, Wicked's Red Velvet cupcake was super good. The cake was moist with a nice mild chocolate flavor and the super rich frosting was to die for. You can read a detailed description of it here on Wicked's profile page.
Dragonfly Cafe
Scottsdale, AZ
According to my data, Dragonfly Cafe closed at 8pm so we had a bit of breathing room after visiting Wicked. We took the opportunity to photograph all of the cupcakes we'd acquired so far and transfer them to the Cupcake Courier. With the courier at my feet and the air conditioning blasting, we set off for Dragonfly Cafe.
Unlike Cupcake's Corner and Wicked, Dragonfly was a real cafe with indoor and outdoor seating. Unfortunately, like Sweet Pea Bakery, it had closed at 3pm. Signs in the window revealed it too had shorter summer hours. Darn! I wish they'd updated their website with their new summer hours -- it still lists their closing time as 8pm! Let this be a lesson to all you cupcake aficionados out there: call first before visiting a store to confirm its hours, especially if you are traveling a long distance to visit it! (I had in fact called every store on our list to make sure they all were still selling cupcakes, but I didn't think to ask about shorter summer hours.)
And that was Phoenix and Scottsdale. Next stop: Albuquerque!
No comments:
Post a Comment