Miles Traveled: 544
States Entered: 4
Cupcakes Consumed: 12
After visiting Cupcake Island in Omaha, we set off for Chicago. Our evening drive through the cornfields of Iowa started out serene, but dark, ominous clouds gradually began to appear on the horizon. After hearing that a Tornado Watch was in effect for the area, we decided to pull over in Grinnell, IA for the night.
We ended up stopping around 8pm and thought it would be a great idea to use the extra time to upload pictures and write up reviews. We finally admitted defeat around 1am, with only half of our pictures uploaded and one blog entry posted. I have to say, when I first started planning this trip, I actually thought it would be a vacation. Baron and I would have a grand old time casually meandering across the US, eating delicious cupcakes along the way. In actuality, this trip has been non-stop work. There's not a single moment when we're not either driving, at a cupcake store, eating cupcakes, writing reviews, or uploading data to the website. Usually the person who isn't driving is writing reviews and blog posts, and a couple of times we've resorted to eating cupcakes while driving with the passenger writing down the driver's dictated notes.
I showed our itinerary to Amai before we left and she thought we were crazy to hit more than one or two stores in each city. I recall her saying "If I were you'd I'd just pick one or two places and have a nice, relaxing visit rather than run around all over the city." I argued "Yeah, but when am I ever going to be in some of these towns again? This might be my only chance to visit these stores!" In retrospect, I totally should've listened to her. Our current pace is exhausting. Baron and I are getting more and more tired and cranky as each day passes. For all of you cupcake aficionados that end up planning your own Cupcake Crawls, I would definitely recommend limiting yourself to three places a day.
Anyway, back to the cupcaking! Right before I left for the airport last Friday I stopped by Dozen to grab their Mystery Friday Flavor cupcake. While I was there I asked James and Andrew (the owners of Dozen and Chicago natives) if there were any places in Chicago I shouldn't miss. They recommended against a couple of the stops on my itinerary and suggested a couple more that I'd never heard of. When I hopped on the internet last night in our hotel, I noticed a blog post on Cupcakes Take the Cake describing a reader's joy at having found the best cupcakes in Chicago, also at a place I'd never heard of. Ultimately we ended up redoing the entire Chicago itinerary. If you couldn't tell, I'm a little Type A, so I was really nervous about changing everything at the last minute and attempting to visit all these places without printed Google Maps, but luckily we didn't have any trouble finding any of them. We left the hotel this morning around 8am, hitting the Chicago city limits around noon. Unfortunately there was a lot of traffic (especially for noon!) so we didn't make it to our first top until 1pm.
Lovely Bake Shop
Chicago, IL
Lovely Bake Shop is the bakery mentioned by the Cupcakes Take the Cake reader as having the best cupcakes in Chicago. Lovely is, simply put, a diamond in the rough. As we were driving down this particular section of Milwaukee Street, I couldn't help but get a little nervous about leaving our fully-packed car unattended. After we parked I stowed my laptop in the trunk and gave the area one last once-over before running across the street to Lovely.
Boy were we shocked when we stepped inside. The first thing that hits you is Lovely's size. It's huge for a bakery! You could easily hold small concerts and other entertainment events in the space. The next thing you notice is the fabulous decor which I can only think to describe as "modern vintage." Modern lamp fixtures hang in rows from the beautiful copper ceiling, between the track lighting and exposed duct work. The tables are rustic and distressed, and 50s barstools upholstered in vintage fabric flank the long, low counter. The walls are peppered with 40s-type art, and old typewriters and other mechanical devices decorate the bookshelves and side tables. The far right corner is full of cute merchandise for sale, including shirts and dishtowels silk-screened with cupcakes.
They had two muffin-sized cupcakes for sale that day, Vanilla Vanilla and Chocolate Vanilla, and we ordered them both. We took our cupcakes to a corner table at the front of the store and began to dig in, despite still being rather full from the six cupcakes we'd eaten the previous night. We ate the Vanilla Vanilla cupcake first and I was immediately disappointed. The "cake" actually tasted more like a cornbread muffin; the texture was rough and crumbly and the taste wasn't sweet at all. The vanilla buttercream was creamy, sweet, and delicious, but it was nowhere near capable of masking the rough, dry cake. I was pretty sure the Cupcakes Take the Cake reader was either crazy, or needed to seriously expand her cupcake horizons.
Luckily, the Chocolate Vanilla cupcake was much, much better. The cake was moist and soft with a rich chocolate flavor. It was quite possibly the best chocolate cake I've ever had. When paired with the silky smooth vanilla buttercream, it was a perfect cupcake. Delicious! I felt really bad that I was too full to finish it. For more information about the cupcakes, see Lovely's profile page.
 |  |  |
 |  |
 |  |
Milk and Honey Bake Shop
Chicago, IL
Our next stop was Milk and Honey Bake Shop, a recent expansion of Milk and Honey Cafe and one of the recommendations from the guys at Dozen. It's located on Damen Avenue, which is a bustling and somewhat modern retail corridor. Many of the Chicago cupcake stores in our database are located on Damen; we passed Hot Chocolate and Goddess and Grocer on the way to Milk and Honey. The layout of Milk and Honey is wide and shallow; the right side of the bakery is taken up by counters and display cases while the left side offers ample seating room. They offered two flavors today, Chocolate Vanilla and Banana Butterscotch. The cupcakes looked small and unimpressive, but I've long since learned not to judge a cupcake by its cover.
The Banana Butterscotch cupcake had a very unusual flavor combination, which I discovered I liked more and more as time passed. The moist, sweet banana bread combined with the creamy butterscotch frosting tasted like caramelized bananas, reminding me of a cupcake version of bananas foster. The Chocolate Vanilla didn't fare so well. The cake tasted more like alcohol than chocolate, and the frosting was oversweet to the point where the texture was thick with sugar crystals. Check out Milk and Honey's profile page for more detailed reviews.
 |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |
Angel Food Bakery
Chicago, IL
I've been admiring Angel Food Bakery's cute and colorful website for some time now, and I was delighted to see that their retro decor was just as neat. Both street-facing sides of the bakery are entirely comprised of windows. One side is a huge display case that is contains things you'd expect to find in your grandmother's attic including antique EZ Bake Ovens, display cakes, and all sorts of weird, distressed decorations. The other glass-fronted side of the bakery covers a high counter lined with tall chairs. After passing over the "Yum" threshold in front of the doorway and stepping inside, the first thing you notice are the tons of antique EZ Bake Ovens perched on a shelf around the perimeter of the ceiling. Two display cases at the back of the bakery house scrumptious looking desserts. The front of the bakery is as big as a typical cafe, offering plenty of seating to customers. The only odd thing about Angel Food Bakery was the smell inside...it had a faint odor of old rubber.
There were quite a few cupcake flavors available, though no Vanilla Chocolate. We eventually agreed on a fluorescent pink Vanilla Vanilla (I don't know what it is with Baron and his pink cupcakes) and a Malted Milk Chocolate. All of their cupcakes were muffin-sized. There is no other way to put this, so I'll just come right out and say it. The Vanilla Vanilla cupcake was disgusting. The dry cake tasted like a more potent version of the odd rubber smell in the store; it reminded me of the smell of the wrestling room in high school. The frosting was oversweet, though it had an interesting texture that dissolved on your tongue, and the nonpareils tasted like licorice, which I hate. The whole thing tasted like oversweet sweaty gym socks with licorice. Ugh. The Malted Milk Chocolate was much better; the cake was soft and moist with a sweet mild chocolate flavor and the malted frosting had a creamy, sweet flavor that wasn't overly sugary. The chocolate "crust" reminded me of dip cones from the Dairy Queen. Yum! For more details see Angel Food's profile page.
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
Sensational Bites
Chicago, IL
After learning my lesson in Phoenix, I called every store in Chicago early this morning to make sure they'd be open when we visited. The only place that didn't answer their phone was Sensational Bites, and when we arrived there we discovered that they'd lost power. We asked if they had any cupcakes they needed to sell before they went bad, but they were all out. The nice woman offered us cookies instead, but neither of us could stomach the thought of taking on additional baked goods at that point. Sad!
 |  |  |
 |  |
Cupcakes
Chicago, IL
I'd been eagerly anticipating our trip to Cupcakes for quite some time. When I first found their website I was really intrigued by the unusual flavors they offered. Feedback on Yelp, however, was not very positive and I was curious to taste their cupcakes for myself.
Cupcakes is located on an extremely busy and very affluent street. (You know you're in a ritzy neighborhood when the realtor sign in front of a house for sale says "Sotheby's" on it.) It took us a good fifteen minutes to find parking, circling the one-way streets. We eventually found a spot four blocks away. I know it's not very fair, but this alone was enough to negatively affect my opinion -- I hate looking for street parking! I'm such a suburban girl! Baron and I did enjoy strolling down the heavily-foliaged street, admiring all of the fancy houses.
Based on all the attention they've been getting I was unsurprised to find Cupcakes packed at 3pm. They were sold out of about half their flavors but a baking team in the back was frantically trying to keep pace. The nice young woman behind the counter told me it would be 10 minutes until another batch of Sparkling Pear cupcakes were ready, so Baron and I chose the Dr. Pepper instead, in addition to our Vanilla Chocolate baseline. (Honestly, I was a bit dubious about the Dr. Pepper cupcake, but as soon as Baron saw it he wanted it. Go figure.) It was about 75 degrees outside and the street was very shady, but even so the frosting on our cupcakes melted over the course of the four block walk back to our car. Annoying!
Unfortunately, I'm sad to report that I have to agree with the readers on Yelp. These cupcakes are definitely overhyped and overpriced. We blasted the cupcakes with 50°F air conditioning for several hours, and yet the chocolate frosting on the Vanilla Chocolate was still a goopy mess. The vanilla cake was dry and crumbly and the sweet vanilla flavor was so subtle it bordered on flavorless. The sweet milk chocolate flavor of the frosting was quite nice (though it was supposed to be dark chocolate flavored), but the runny texture wasn't ideal. The Dr. Pepper cupcake fared better texture wise (the cake was nice and moist), but overall it tasted exactly like chocolate covered cherries from Harry & David, not Dr. Pepper. Disappointing. You can read more on Cupcakes profile page.
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
Swirlz Cupcakes
Chicago, IL
Swirlz is the other cupcakery in Chicago, and like its rival Cupcakes, it's located on a very busy street. We ended up parking directly in front of Swirlz in a 15 minute loading zone, which I think is Chicago's version of 15-minute parking. Swirlz has one of my favorite cupcake websites; I love their graphic design. It's the perfect combination of modern, minimalist, and whimsical and matches my personal decor preferences exactly. I was happy to see that their cupcakery was just as cute as their website. A green neon sign bearing their logo and name perches on top of the store, welcoming customers inside. The interior isn't that large, though there is enough room for 2 or 3 small tables and chairs. A custom open-air display case towards the back houses their ten daily flavors. They are the only cupcakery I've ever visited that carries both gluten free and reduced sugar cupcakes every day, though they didn't appear to have any vegan ones. Large colorful "swirls" in the shape of their logo hung from the ceiling, bordered with can lighting. A set of shelves along the left wall held merchandise for sale including some pretty cute t-shirts.
We asked the woman behind the counter if we could take pictures and she told us that technically she was required to say no. "Are you going to copy us?", she asked? Aha! That's why some bakeries won't let us take pictures! They're worried about people copying their design. Honestly, I find this position pretty silly. First of all, pictures = publicity, and you can never have too much of that. Second of all, these aren't graphic design firms, these are bakeries. Their product is cupcakes, which anyone can walk in off the street and buy, and take elsewhere to examine and reverse engineer. Duh. To quote a Yelp reader in his review of rival Cupcakes, "it takes more than a pretty storefront to turn a profit." Anyway, the woman was really nice about it and told us that if she had to leave us to go in the back for a second she obviously wouldn't be there to police us with the camera. Wink, wink. Unfortunately several people entered the store after us, so we never got an opportunity to be in the front alone. We got some ok shots through the window, though.
With 10 flavors to choose from Baron and I had quite a difficult time selecting just two. There wasn't a Vanilla Chocolate offered that day, which made the decision even harder. The woman told us that they were known for their Red Velvet cupcakes, but for some reason every cupcakery we visit says that, and we were more interested in trying some of their unusual flavors. I haven't had the best experience with gluten free cupcakes in the past, but the woman assured us that their gluten free cupcakes were so good that people around the country call in to order them. With a sales pitch like that, how could I refuse? We settled on the Pina Colada and the Gluten Free Chocolate Grasshopper Mint. As she packed our cupcakes into their own individual pods the woman said "since you went for the gluten free I'll go ahead and throw in a Red Velvet on me." Nice! Except that she then charged us for it. I felt too bad saying anything so I just paid for it, even though I don't even like Red Velvet, so this better be the best darn Red Velvet cupcake I've ever had.
Shockingly, the Gluten Free Grasshopper tasted like a normal cupcake. The cake was moist and crumbly with a dark chocolate flavor that had a bit of a bitter, salty aftertaste. The mint buttercream was delicious; fluffy and silky-smooth with a buttery mint flavor. Overall it was freaking amazing for a gluten free cupcake. The moist coconut cake in the Pina Colada contained ground coconut instead of shredded coconut, making the texture less chewy while still retaining a sweet, coconut flavor. Genius! The pineapple curd filling was cool and refreshing and it's texture was kind of a cross between preserves and custard. The pineapple buttercream was silky smooth with a sweet, pineapple flavor. I'm a huge pineapple fan and I was thrilled that this cupcake did everything right. I gave it a perfect score, even though I hate coconut. Lastly, the "free" Red Velvet. The color of the cake was more of a rust colored than the traditional blood-red I've come to expect of Red Velvet cakes. It was moist and dense and you could definitely taste both the buttermilk and the cocoa in it. Neat! It was only very subtly sweet, and was more "savory" than "dessert-like". The cream cheese buttercream tasted like whipped butter with a cream cheese aftertaste. Overall the cupcake was more of a savory bread that you would eat with your dinner, rather than a dessert you would eat afterwards. For more detailed descriptions of the cupcakes, see Swirlz's profile page.
 |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |
Fox and Obel
Chicago, IL
Fox and Obel is a gourmet market and was one of the places that was recommended by the guys at Dozen. Located in downtown Chicago, parking was an absolute nightmare. We kept ending up on one-way streets that would eventually toss us back onto twisty highways. After 20 minutes of driving around we eventually snagged a spot in another 15-minute "loading zone". As we approached the entrance of Fox and Obel we were able to glimpse a sign that was only visible from the cross street: "Free Valet Parking" D'oh!
Their bakery case contained two flavors of muffin-sized cupcakes, Devil's Food and Red Velvet. We were pretty sick of Red Velvet cupcakes by that point so we only got the Devil's Food. The cake was soft and dry with a sweet dark chocolate flavor. The frosting was fluffy and sugary and had a rich dark chocolate flavor that had a fairly bitter aftertaste. The chocolate swirl on top was super rich dark chocolate ganache that must've been at least 70% cacao. The frosting added a lot of moisture to the dry cake and the overall flavor was luxuriously decadent -- a true chocolate lover's delight. You could taste the high-quality of the ingredients used in the cupcake. Visit Fox and Obel's profile page for more details.
 |  |  |
 |  |
Well, that was our whirlwind tour of Chicago! Baron and I sped away from Fox and Obel at 4:30pm and promptly got stuck in traffic. We found out later that they'd closed down part of the highway the previous day but of course nobody thought to put up signs saying so or indicate detour routes. (They were talking all about it on AM radio, but by the time we realized that it was too late to take a wide berth around the city.) We used Baron's atlas to navigate an alternate route, but even the side streets were clogged. It took us three hours to go 11 miles. I have never experienced anything more frustrating in my life. That, combined with the fact that it took us four hours to drive in a circle around the city during the middle of the day (what the heck is up with the congested 5-way intersections?!?!) makes me never want to drive to Chicago again. Chicago, I really liked your cupcakes, but no cupcake is worth 7 hours of traffic and crappy parking. Hopefully some of you will pull a Dozen and open locations in more accessible cities.
We arrived at Ann Arbor at 1am with 10 cupcakes still left to eat. I stayed up until 4am eating those cupcakes and taking notes, putting my daily total at a dozen cupcakes. In case it wasn't obvious, this was a terrible idea. I would strongly advise everyone against repeating my stupidity. By the time I went to bed my hands were shaking and I spent a good portion of the next morning feeling sick.
One more day to go! Next stops: Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Hudson!
No comments:
Post a Comment