Who Makes the Best Cupcakes?

Today Cupcakes Take the Cake linked to a MSN article entitled The Country's Best Cupcakes.  In the article author Amanda Petrusich gives her picks for the country's 11 most original and most delicious cupcakes.

As soon as I spied a cupcake from Chicago's Cupcakes on the list, a red flag went up.  Both cupcakes I had from there were a disaster, and their reviews on Yelp are pretty mixed.  I immediately wondered, had Ms. Petrusich actually sampled her selections?  Just how many cupcakeries had she visited, in her quest to find the country's top eleven cupcakes?

In response, I'd like to present The Top Eleven Cupcake Shops Violet has Visited.  Coming from a scientific background, I feel that a few disclaimers are in order:

1. I have not visited every cupcakery/bakery in the world, nor sampled every cupcake said shops offer.  Obviously, I cannot definitively say that these are the best places in the world; that's why I'm calling this list "The Top Eleven Cupcake Shops Violet has Visited", and not "The Top Eleven Cupcakeries in the World!!11!!1!"
2. Everyone's palate is different.  These are my favorite places.  Your mileage may vary.
3. To date I've sampled almost 250 cupcakes from 56 cupcakeries and bakeries around the world.  These are the creme of that crop.

Bittersweet
Chicago, IL
Technically Bittersweet is a patisserie, not a cupcakery, but the Carrot cupcake I had there far surpassed most carrot cakes I've had from "gourmet" cupcakeries.  And, at $2.00 a pop, their amazingly delicious, high-quality cupcakes are a total steal.



Cake Nouveau
Ann Arbor, MI
Cake Nouveau is a fantastically whimsical, gorgeous little cake shop.  In addition to slices of decadent looking cakes, they also offer a wide selection of exotic-sounding cupcakes.  Their Blueberry Morning won one of my elusive 5-star ratings, and the Chocolate Clementine was delightfully scrumptious as well.  Cake Nouveau's strength is definitely its art style -- their bright, playful store won "Cutest Store" during our Cross-Country Cupcake Crawl.

CoCo's Cupcake Cafe
Pittsburgh, PA
Okay, I'm not just biased because I live in Pittsburgh -- I've lived in many cities around the country and I have no special loyalty to "the Burgh".  It's just a plain truth that CoCo's makes some of the best cake in the country.  In fact, I've gotten totally spoiled on their moist, soft cakes -- all other cupcakes seem dry in comparison.  Their authentic Italian meringue buttercream is famous around Pittsburgh,  and their Carrot cupcake is the best carrot cake cupcake I've ever had.

Crumbs Bake Shop
New York, NY
The only "chain" cupcakery on my list, Crumbs has somehow managed to maintain a high-quality product while rapidly expanding their business to new locations around the country, unlike another chain-cupcakery I know of whose name rhymes with "twinkles".  Their Raspberry Swirl won one of my 5-star ratings, despite the fact that I hate raspberries.  At $3.50 each their cupcakes are a might expensive, but they're also ginormous and can easily be shared with a friend.

Cupcake Station
Birmingham, MI
Cupcake Station is amazing.  I have no idea how they mange to keep 26 (yes, that's right, twenty-six!) flavors in stock every day.  And they don't do it by skimping on quality!  We stopped by on our Cross-Country Cupcake Crawl and were blown away when we were served two 5-star cupcakes in rapid succession.  Their Strawberry Delight was named Best Cupcake of our entire Cross-Country Cupcake Crawl.

Dots Cupcakes
Pasadena, CA
Looking for an alternative to Sprinkles' dry cakes and Yummy's sugar bombs?  Dots is your place.  Sure the staff can be a little bit snarky, but the delicious cupcakes are totally worth it.  Their cute, modern cupcakes are delectably moist, and they have one of the best strawberry cupcakes cakes I've ever eaten.  The frosting is a hair too sweet for me, but it's orders of magnitude better than Yummy's super-saccharine icing.

Dozen Cupcakes
Pittsburgh, PA
Well, at least Ms. Petrusich and I agree on one cupcakery!  And I'm not just biased because I live in Pittsburgh, I swear.  Dozen makes some of the best frosting in the country; their citrus frostings in particular are to die for.  I'm a cake person myself, but if you were to give me a bucket of their Key Lime frosting and hand me a spoon, I'd happily eat the whole thing in one sitting.  Other frosting aficionados may want to check out their Cosmo, Lemon, and Old-Fashioned Fudge frostings.

The Cupcakery
Las Vegas, NV
The Cupcakery's sign proclaims it to have "The Best Little Cupcakes in Las Vegas", and at the time of my visit I had to agree.  (Though two more cupcakeries have opened in Vegas since I last visited, so the current accuracy of that sign is questionable.)  Their thick, fudgy chocolate frosting is absolutely fabulous, and their Bugsy (carrot cake) cupcake garnered one of my 5-star ratings.

Pink Moon Cupcake Bakery
Powell, OH
When you think of gourmet cupcakes, Powell, Ohio is not exactly the first place that pops to mind.  That said, cupcake lovers visiting the Columbus area would be missing out big-time if they didn't take the 15 minute detour to Powell.  Not only does Pink Moon Cupcake bakery have a large selection of delicious (and exotic) cupcakes, they also have plenty of eclectically furnished seating space and the absolute cutest cupcake-packaging I've ever seen.  Be sure to try the cake on the Key Lime Margarita -- it's like eating a soft, fluffy cloud.

Primrose Bakery
London, England
With a bright, welcoming atmosphere, Primrose is a younger, fresher version of "Grandma's Kitchen".  A whiff of the fresh, warm cinnamon rolls on the counter is enough to distract a cupcake-lover from trying their cupcakes, but be sure to at least sample their chocolate buttercream (tastes just like Cadbury bars!) and their lime frosting.  Primrose excels at presentation -- our cupcakes were served to us on a glass pedestal cake platter with elegant china.

Wicked Bakery & Cafe
Phoenix, AZ
I hate Red Velvet cake, but even I had to admit that Wicked's Red Velvet cupcake was really freaking good.  I think the secret is Wicked's technique of covering their cupcakes with a special glaze before they frost them; locking moisture into the cake while simultaneously giving them an added zip.  The thick cream cheese frosting was sinfully rich; one of the best cream cheese frostings I've had.

Well, that's my pick for top 11 cupcake purveyors in the world (that I've visited).  I'll try to keep this list updated as I continue my cupcake travels.

Cupcake Crawl: Chicago, IL

Two weekends ago I flew to Chicago for a friend's wedding.  Mybest friend, his fiance Cherry Tops, and I rented a car together, andspent Sunday afternoon exploring Chicago.  It didn't take mucharm-twisting at all to convince them to go cupcaking withme.

The last time I went to Chicago, the guys atDozen recommended Istop by Sweet Mandy B's andBittersweet, but Ididn't have quite enough time to squeeze them in.  Luckilythey were both open on Sunday, and our first stop was at Sweet MandyB's.

Sweet MandyB's
Chicago, IL
My firstimpression of Sweet Mandy B's was that it reminded me of a mutedversion of bake-a-boo in London.  The decoris comprised of soft pastel colors and warm, inviting lightingfixtures, and the entire bakery has a "grandma's kitchen" sort offeel.  A stained glass cupcake is perched in the window overthe door, and the front of the bakery is packed with patrons queued upalong two display cases.  Small tables are nestled against thelength of the right wall, and there is a long bar with barstools alongthe left in the back.  Awards, accolades, and glowing magazinereviews are framed on the walls.

When we entered thebakery there were only a couple of other patrons clustered around thedisplay cases.  No neat queue had formed yet, and the bakerystaff seemed to be a bit disorganized.  It took about fiveminutes before anyone asked if I'd been helped yet, even though therewere only two other customers in the store, and a customer who walkedinto the bakery after I did was helped before I was.  Notexactly my best customer service experienceever.

When they did finally notice me, the staff wasvery friendly, and quickly accommodated my request to try each of theirtwo "special flavors" that day: Creamsicle and Pumpkin.  Inaddition to their special flavors, Sweet Mandy B's seemed to have alarge stock of the standard vanilla and chocolate combinations onhand.  My favorite part of the entire bakery was the hugemetal rack bursting with trays of colorful cupcakes, hiding a young manwho was rapidly frosting a pile of nakedcupcakes.

I don't like Creamsicles, but mybest friend and Cherry Tops had purchased their own non-cupcakedesserts, and were dying for "just one bite" of the Creamsiclecupcake.  They shared one half of the cupcake while I ate theother half.  The cake was soft and fluffy and tasted likesalty creamsicles.  Though the sign proclaimed the sugaryfrosting to be a vanilla buttercream, it too had a strong orangecreamsicle flavor.  I couldn't quite place it, but somethingabout the cake or frosting (or both) gave the overall texture aslightly greasy feel.  The combination of the creamsicleflavor and the greasy texture turned me off this cupcake, but both myfriend and Cherry Tops loved it, proclaiming it "veryauthentic".

The super cute Pumpkin cupcakehad a rich aroma of pumpkin and cream cheese.  The pumpkincake was dense, and unlike most "vegetable" cakes (carrot, zucchini,etc.) the texture was very smooth.  There weren't any pumpkinchunks or nuts in the cake, which led me to believe that they'd usedpureed pumpkin in the batter.  The pumpkin flavor of the cakewas quite nice, but I wasn't a fan of the rough texture of the cakegranules.  The real treat was the cream cheese frosting --super smooth with a sweet, cool, refreshing flavor. Yum!

You can read more detailed reviews of thesecupcakes on Sweet Mandy B's profilepage.


Bittersweet
Chicago,IL
Our next stop was Bittersweet, a pastry cafe thatalmost overwhelms the senses.  As you step through the dooryou are presented with a super long display case that takes up almostthe entire width of the cafe.  It's stuffed to bursting withpositively scrumptious looking pastries, cookies, candies, and bakedgoods.  The right side of the store holds a modest sizedretail space, which was thoroughly decorated for Halloween. The left side of the store is full of tables, all of which wereoccupied when we arrived.

We were surprised todiscover that the cafe had full table service.  Luckily, agroup of people vacated a table just after we arrived, and we wereseated pretty much  immediately.  (People who arrivedafter us didn't seem to fare quite so well.)  Cherry Topsordered a sampling of some of their smaller pastries and cookies, whileI ordered their cupcake flavor of the day,Carrot.

The cake had a colorful texture,full of shredded carrot and spices, with a moist, rich, carrot-cakeflavor.  Yum!!  The cream cheese frosting was supersmooth and rich, with a heady cream cheese flavor.  There wasa bit too much of frosting for the amount of cake, but it was sodelicious I just scooped off some of it and ate it plain.  Iwas shocked to discover that this $2 cupcake found in a cafe easilysurpassed most of the carrot cake cupcakes I've had from "gourmet"cupcakeries.  It was so good I briefly considered purchasing abox of their 1-day-old "previous day's cupcakes", except thatyesterday's flavor seemed to involve a generous coating of coconut,which I hate.

At any rate, this carrot cake cupcakewas superb, and a total steal for $2.  It'sa shame that Bittersweet only offers one flavor of cupcake eachday.  You can read a more detailed review of their Carrotcupcake on Bittersweet's profilepage.


Ofthe eight cupcakeries and bakeries I've visited in Chicago, I have tosay the top cupcakes have been the Chocolate Vanilla from Lovely Bake Shop,the Devil's Food from Fox & Obel, andnow the Carrot from Bittersweet.  Arethere any other great places in Chicago that I'm missing?