cupcake tasting

i love cupcakes. i know they are super trendy right now but i have always had a love for them. even as a kid i never wanted a cake, always cupcakes. i had a pretty specific request for my mom to make for every birthday, funfetti cake with pink frosting and sprinkles. we all know how i feel about Sprinkles , 11 days until my next one, just in case you were wondering.

but since Sprinkles isn't something i can always have, i had to find a substitute to get me by. Carefree Patisserie, is located in this tiny building in valley junction. their cupcake selection is incredible, they have a menu of 101 flavors to choose from.

my friends and i have developed a fun tradition that we do for special occasions. we get one cupcake per person, divide it into quarters and then we each get to sample all the flavors. after trying all of the different varieties we rank our favorites in order from least to most.

the flavors featured below are: raspberry malt, margarita, muddy farmer, triple chocolate and summer melon. as you can see they have a good mix of traditional and fun flavors to choose from.







here is my breakdown of least to most favorite from our last cupcake tasting:

5. summer melon
4. margarita
3. triple chocolate
2. raspberry malt
1. muddy farmer

sprinkles

I love Sprinkles cupcakes, I'll even admit I'm slightly obsessed. They're known as the "original cupcake bakery." They use premium ingredients and simple decorations. I first read of Sprinkles in a gossip magazine (if you're a celeb, it's the hot spot when you have something to celebrate) and begged my brother-in-law to take me on our next trip to LA. When we showed up in Beverly Hills I knew I was in for a treat, there was a line out the door with a one-in, one-out policy.

Another reason I love Sprinkles is if you follow them on twitter or facebook they have a daily post with a secret word that you whisper to receive a free cupcake. It is thrilling to walk in and see if you made it in time, the first word I ever whispered was "La Jolla" and just like that I received a cupcake, free of charge. Here's an example of a status update:

It's peanut butter Tuesday! The first 50 people to whisper "chip chip hooray!" at each Sprinkles receive a free peanut butter chip!

They even offer an at home version, this isn't your typical cake mix. It is the most complex cake box recipe I've ever followed. I've even tried mastering their signature frosting technique. The at home result is good, but nowhere close to as tasty as the real deal.

While $3.50 might seem like a lot for a cupcake, it is worth it because every bite is pure perfection.

Last week while in Scottsdale I sampled the following flavors:

chai latte
strawberry
milk chocolate
carrot
mocha
vanilla
brown sugar praline

My two favorite were the chai latte and brown sugar praline.

And yes, I know that's a lot of cupcakes to have eaten in four days, I plan on hitting up the Y this week.





I've already started counting down the days until my next Sprinkles cupcake...86 days to go!