Cupcakes in Chicago Part II

The second cupcakery I tried in Chicago was the famous Molly's Cupcakes! Molly's won season 1 of Food Network's Cupcake Wars. First of all they're shop was super cute and any bakery that has ice skate decorations is winning in my book :) I got 4 flavors: blueberry cheesecake, minty red velvet, the ron bennington, and kaluah. I ate the blueberry one at the bakery but ended up lugging the other 3 through security and onto the plane back to DC with me ^_^ (security definitely asked who's cupcakes these were as the box was going through the xray machine lol!)

Cute sprinkle station :] 

Clockwise from top left: blueberry cheesecake, the ron bennington, minty red velvet, kaluah


Blueberry Cheesecake: Definitely tasted like a cheesecake and nothing like a cupcake lol It wasn't over 'cheesecakey' and it was actually pretty light. I felt like eating another cupcake after I ate this one :X I would recommend trying this flavor!

The Ron Bennington: Chocolate cake base with lots of peanut butter filling. I usually love peanut butter cupcakes but this one wasn't cutting it for me. The chocolate 'frosting' was more like heavy fudge..it felt like I was eating peanut butter fudge more than an actual cupcake. If I went to Molly's again I probably wouldn't choose this one.

Minty Red Velvet: This flavor definitely intrigued me because I've never seen a cupcakery try mixing red velvet with peppermint or any other flavor. Biggest disappointment by far. First of all the red velvet cake itself was subpar; it lacked the tasty red velvet aroma. I've tasted far better red velvet cupcakes. The center had peppermint filling with more peppermint frosting on top...TOO MUCH PEPPERMINT. I felt like I was eating toothpaste when I got to the middle of the cupcake lol All that frosting and filling masked the red velvet flavor. I think if the middle was cream cheese filling rather than peppermint, the cupcake would've tasted much better since it would've brought out the red velvet flavor more.

Kaluah: My favorite flavor from Molly's that I bought and not because I'm an alcoholic! This too was a center-filled cupcake. The kaluah creme filling was very tasty, not too overwhelming or heavy. I would totally get this flavor again!

I really wanted to like Molly's because I've heard so many people rave about their cupcakes, but to be honest they're not at the top of my list. Maybe it was the flavors I chose? Either way, not my favorites, but I'd definitely give them another try. Have any of you tried Molly's? What'd you guys think?

Next post: my own holiday cupcake recipe - dark chocolate peppermint cupcakes :D Not to toot my own horn but...they're pretty delicious!

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Cupcakes in Chicago

I realized that given the title of my blog, it probably would've been more appropriate to start with a cupcake related entry lol but I guess post #2 will have to do. I just got back from visiting the Windy City for the first time and stumbled across a cupcake truck, Cupcakes for Courage! I'd never seen or heard of it but the cupcake flavors looked good and I saw that they were on Cupcake Wars. After looking them up, I learned that they donate their proceeds to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the American Cancer Society, hence their name. A lot of their flavors were sold out but I got Dreamsicle and Spicy Siracha Turtle (Spicy Siracha Turtle was the one featured on Cupcake Wars).

Dreamsicle - I was told that they hand-squeeze orange juice for the batter of this cupcake. Frosting was delicious! It wasn't too sweet and had just the right amount of orangey flavor. The cake itself was moist but a bit bland in my opinion. There wasn't much flavoring but I'm guessing that was intentional since it compliments the sweet frosting. I imagine if the cake was sweeter the overall cupcake might have tasted overly sweet? This is the first dreamsicle flavored cupcake I've tried; most impressed by the frosting more than anything.

Chocolate Siracha Turtle - The name definitely intrigued my taste buds! haha The siracha flavor isn't overwhelming, and it isn't that spicy; it's mostly for flavoring I'm sure. At first I didn't taste the siracha honestly, but after taking a few more bites it's definitely there. The cake is topped with a pretty thick and heavy chocolate frosting, walnuts, and caramel that all compliment the cake. (side note: I only ate half the cupcake because I was saving the other half to help me write my review. When I went back to the kitchen where I left my half-eaten cupcake, I couldn't find it anywhere....turns out my mom devoured the rest. LOL)

Here's a few pictures of their truck/menu:

I also tried the famous Molly's Cupcakes, but that'll be a later entry :P Hope you guys enjoyed this post :)

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