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.

Cross-Country Cupcake Crawl: Day 4

Las Vegas, NV
Miles Traveled:  444
States Entered: 3
Cupcakes Consumed: 4

We set out this morning at precisely 8am, arriving in Las Vegas at exactly noon.  Our first stop was The Cupcakery, which was located in the world's hardest-to-enter strip mall.

The Cupcakery
Las Vegas, NV
The Cupcakery's sign proclaimed it to have "The Best Little Cupcakes in Las Vegas" and we have to agree.  The modern walk-up bakery is clean, cute, and commercial, exactly what you would expect of a bakery located in a bright and shiny new strip mall.  Covered cake platters housing beautifully decorated cupcakes adorn The Cupcakery's long counter, and a refrigerated display case houses additional cupcakes as well.  The side walls contain sets of shelves that hold cupcake decorating kits and other cupcake accessories for sale.  My favorite cupcakes were a set in the display case, each of which was decorated with a beautiful edible purple flower and edible glitter.  Gorgeous!

We had a very difficult time selecting two cupcakes (stupid rules!) and eventually chose our Vanilla Chocolate baseline and the Bugsy (carrot cake with cream cheese frosting).  Although a couple of standing tables were nestled into a corner, we opted to take our cupcakes outside to the tables on the sidewalk.  In retrospect this turned out to be a bad plan as the adjacent parking lot was hot, noisy, and smelled like exhaust.  Baron and I had differing opinions on the cupcakes -- I thought they were absolutely scrumptious, and beautifully decorated to boot.  He liked the cake but wasn't a big fan of the texture of the frosting.  You can read our detailed reviews of the cupcakes here.


All in all this was a great little walk-up cupcake shop, though it would've been nice if there was roomier seating room indoors.  After a brief stop at In-N-Out for lunch (I love their grilled cheese "burgers"), we made our way over to Cupcake Lane Bakery.

Cupcake Lane Bakery
Las Vegas, NV
Located in yet another brand-spanking-new strip mall on the other side of the city, Cupcake Lane Bakery shared a very similar look with The Cupcakery.  (In fact, we think that both of them, along with the Cupcake Shoppe in Edmonton, all might be using the same font.)  The inside of Cupcake Lane Bakery had a strong, sugary sweet smell that reminds me of grocery store bakeries, and my heart sank as I noticed that the cupcakes in the refrigerated display case had a "grocery store" look to them as well.  (I think it has something to do with brightly colored frosting and airbrushed decorations.)  The bakery seemed to be run by two very friendly guys who cheerfully gave us permission to take some pictures.  Baron pulled out his camera and began taking pictures of the stripper-man cupcake-cake while I lounged on the kid-sized armchairs.


They didn't have any plain Vanilla Chocolate cupcakes so we chose the Main Street instead -- vanilla cake with chocolate chips baked inside topped with chocolate buttercream and rolled in mini chocolate chips.  We also got the Michigan Avenue, lemon infused cake topped with lemon cream cheese frosting.  There wasn't any seating room inside the bakery so we got our cupcakes to go and decided to eat them a bit later.  We set off going south and 45 minutes later found ourselves crossing the Hoover Dam.  We thought it would be funny to take pictures of cupcakes on top of the dam, but it was 112°F outside and we didn't think the cupcakes would last 30 seconds.  As soon as we stepped out of the car I realized that I might not make it 30 seconds.  It was so hot that the top of my sandal-clad feet were burning!


We pulled over about half an hour after passing the dam to eat the cupcakes.  Both Baron and I found the cakes to be extremely dry and the lemon frosting had a sickening artificial flavor.  The bakery was so cute and the guys were so friendly that we really wanted to like these cupcakes!  Unfortunately, they just weren't very good.  You can read the detailed reviews of them here.

After finishing our cupcakes we resumed our southward trek.  Unfortunately, we got a little bit derailed.


Both Baron and I were completely fine (well, until some helpful passers by pulled me out of the window and onto a cactus), and surprisingly none of our stuff was damaged either.  It's going to be a bit difficult to continue a cross-country cupcake crawl without a car, so the crawl is on (hopefully temporary) hiatus.  Stay tuned for an update!