Double Feature

Yeah, yeah... I had two cupcakes in one week. I'm sorry. The second cupcake was more of a spur-of-the-moment type of thing than my now weekly cupcake consumption. Anyway, I'll get down to business.

This week I gave a vanilla cupcake a try and chose the Caramel Celebration, a vanilla cake with caramel frosting and caramel and chocolate drizzles over the top. I'll start with the best part - the frosting. It was unmistakably caramel, but it didn't taste like burnt sugar. It was light and creamy and was complemented by the caramel sauce on top. The chocolate sauce I could have done without because it hardened after a while and was chewy instead of...um, not chewy. The cake itself was OK. It was semi-moist, but not perfect. Paired with the frosting, it was hard to tell that it wasn't as moist as it should be, but I am a dedicated reviewer and will always taste the cake and frosting separately. All in all, this cupcake was great. I would definitely order it again if I planned to eat it right away to prevent the chocolate from going south.

My second cupcake this week was a FREEBIE, so it had that going for it immediately. But The Original, a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting, ultimately disappointed. The cake was bone-dry. That's maybe the worst sin in cupcakery, in my opinion. It came apart the second I took a bite. The flavor was all right, but I really couldn't get passed the dryness. The frosting had a good flavor, but it totally overpowered the cake. I didn't even finish all of my frosting, if that tells you anything. I think this cupcake will receive poor marks mostly because it claims to be the cupcake that started it all and it is not any good. It's like they made it, and were like, "Yeah, this cupcake is OK, and I bet we could make a lot of other interesting flavors, too!" "Good idea, let's call this one The Original and move on to making GOOD cupcakes!" Now, I will grant that cupcakes can have good days and bad days. Maybe this one baked in the oven for too long. I am willing to give it a second try, or to let one of the other Cupcakers give their opinion on this, the cupcake that started it all.

Caramel Celebration - A
The Original - C-