Words cannot express the shame I feel that my favorite cake comes from a mix and my favorite frosting is packaged in a plastic tub. Whenever someone asks me what the best cupcake I've ever had is, I tell a little white lie, suppressing the part of my brain that is screaming "Duncan Hines yellow cake with Betty Crocker chocolate frosting!" Ever since I embarked on this little cupcake adventure, I've been on a quest to find a vanilla/chocolate cupcake better than my favorite prepackaged duo. Such a cupcake would have to have a cake just as moist and sweet as Duncan Hines' and a chocolate frosting just as thick, gooey, and rich as Betty Crocker's. Though I've sampled a couple of vanilla cakes that have come close, I've never had a chocolate frosting in the same ballpark. For some inexplicable reason, although thick, fudgy frosting is readily available on chocolate cakes served in restaurants, I've never found a gourmet cupcakery that has offered it. Cupcakeries tend to go with buttery, fluffy buttercreams, or super thick, super dark ganaches.
When Baron and I set off on our Cross Country Cupcake Crawl, one of the rules I implemented was that we had to purchase a vanilla/chocolate cupcake from every store we visited. My hope was that I'd find my fantasy gourmet vanilla/chocolate cupcake somewhere among the 31 stores on our itinerary. No dice. Defeated, I gave up and assumed that there was no such thing as a "gourmet" version of the classic box-mix/plastic-tub vanilla/chocolate cupcake.
Well, I am thrilled to report that after over a year of searching, I have finally found a gourmet version of my favorite cupcake. Ladies and gentlemen, I present the Vegan Blacktop cupcake from CoCo's Cupcake Cafe:
This beautiful little cupcake is comprised of moist vegan vanilla cake with a layer of dark cocoa baked on top, topped with vegan chocolate buttercream and a dollop of dark chocolate ganache. Yes folks, you read that correctly. It's even freaking vegan.
The cupcake smells like a little piece of childhood heaven, giving off an aroma of buttery vanilla cake and rich milk chocolate. The cake is CoCo's exceptionally moist vegan vanilla cake. It's dense and moist with a classic buttery, vanilla flavor. Scrumptious! The chocolate frosting is, in a word, amazing. I can't believe it's vegan. It's nice and sweet with a thick, sugary texture and a rich milk chocolate flavor. Freaking fantastic. The cake and frosting are well balanced, both in flavor and texture. Neither flavor dominates - the delicious blend of rich chocolate and buttery vanilla is a like a timewarp - Ratatouille style - back to birthdays in elementary school. The thick, creamy frosting is a good counterpoint to the dense, moist cake, and the dark chocolate ganache adds an even richer, more decadent flavor to the mix. The ganache is super, super dark and super, super sinfully delicious. Normally I take my time eating cupcakes, carefully savoring every bite and every flavor as long as I can. My friends usually get annoyed at the 10 minute mark. I think I wolfed this one down in less than a minute...
Anyway, I've run out of words to describe this truly magnificent find. It's exactly like a rich, upscale version of a classic mix cupcake. I never in a million years would've guessed it was vegan if I hadn't already known. Good job, CoCo's, you have truly outdone yourself.
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