Cupcake Quest: Hey Cupcake! (Fork it over, Austin! - Part 17)

This post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

Ah, the Cupcake Quest never really ends, does it? I don't feel compelled to try as many anymore; I already discovered my absolute favorites at The Chocolate Tarte in Somerville. (Linda has recently closed up the storefront, but she is still doing wholesale and catering, so all is not lost.)

When I was in Austin, though, I couldn't resist trying just one from the cupcake truck Hey Cupcake! Like we discovered at Annie's earlier that morning, apparently some restaurants and vendors feel justified in boosting prices during SXSW. Hey Cupcake! lists cupcakes as $3 each on their website, but at the Foodspotting Street Food Fest (where we had previously visited The Peached Tortilla with much rejoicing), the cupcakes were an exorbitant $4. Nonetheless, I forked it over for the sake of the quest.

(The photo below is from a few days earlier, when we passed the truck on South Congress but resisted, temporarily, the temptation.)

I ordered the Double Dose, chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.

The Verdict: The frosting was rich and not too overwhelmingly sweet, and the cake was dense. I appreciated the modest amount of frosting, and the jimmies (or chocolate sprinkles, I suppose, if you're not from up here in Boston) were a nice touch. (By the way, Snopes.com lists the question of whether or not "jimmies" is a racist term as "probably false." More info here.) Overall, this was a good cupcake - not the very best I've had, but definitely in the above average group. $4 is ridiculous, though. It's not an abnormally large or fancy cupcake by any means. Even the normal price of $3 is a bit much - I'd say $2.50 seems fair - but I can understand that it's probably more convenient to round things off to a whole number for the purposes of running a food truck.



Other posts in the Fork it over, Austin! series:
Part 1: Whip In
Part 2: Foreign & Domestic
Part 3: Caffe Medici
Part 4: Walking Along SoCo and Lunching at Chi'Lantro
Part 5: The Capitol, UT Austin, and Lunching (Again) at Torchy's Tacos
Part 6: Museum of the Weird
Part 7: Uchi
Part 8: East Side King at The Grackle
Part 9: Franklin Barbecue
Part 10: Flagship Whole Foods and My First Green Smoothie
Part 11: Late Night Pizza at Via 313
Part 12: Kebabalicious
Part 13: My Robotic Kitchen Planned This Dinner Party
Part 14: Papi Tino's
Part 15: Annie's Cafe & Bar
Part 16: The Peached Tortilla
Part 18: Arancini
Part 19: The DeLorean, Boxing Robots, and Roller Derby Pillow Fights
Part 20: Second Bar + Kitchen
Part 21: Tia Kelly's Navajo Tacos
Part 22: Hopdoddy Burger Bar
Part 23: Gourdough's
Part 24: The Ice Cream Social
Part 25: Walking to Barton Springs
Part 26: Izzos Tacos

I'm also posting daily recaps on the Tasted Menu blog, FOOD=LOVE:
Day 1: A First Taste of Austin
Day 2: Tons of Tacos, Sushi at Uchi, and a Late Night Trip to East Side King
Day 3: Early Morning Barbecue and Late Night Pizza
Day 4: Globetrotting: Kebabs, Enchiladas, Pommes Frites
Day 5-6: Meeting and Eating

Cupcake Quest: Au Bon Pain

This post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

Had Au Bon Pain offered cupcakes seven months ago, the Cupcake Quest may never have begun. That's not a comment on their quality - they're pretty good, but not the winners of my quest - but the immediate gratification would have prevented the idea of a quest from forming that one afternoon back at Pearson.

The Cupcake Quest began in the following manner, which is also described on the main Quest page:

One day, my coworkers and I had a sudden craving for cupcakes around 3pm. We had already taken a long lunch, so we resisted the urge to go on an expedition, but the craving kept coming back nearly every day around the same time, stronger and stronger. Finally, the Cupcake Quest was born.

Au Bon Pain was a short walk from my old office - in fact, I ate there almost daily - so you see, our cupcake craving would have been immediately quenched and we may never have become so obsessed. Alas, Au Bon Pain didn't introduce cupcakes until recently.

As luck would have it, there's also an Au Bon Pain very near my new workplace. I've cut back to getting lunch there once or twice a week instead of every day. Apparently daily tomato soup binges can bring about heartburn.

On a long afternoon a couple weeks ago, I grabbed my soup and decided, with a sigh, that the Cupcake Quest must continue when I find myself staring at untasted cupcakes. Au Bon Pain has three kinds: double chocolate, French vanilla, and red velvet. I was about to grab the red velvet when I noticed the calorie counts staring me in the face. (How's that for appetizing?) Double chocolate - 320 calories. French vanilla - 350 calories. Red velvet - 400 calories. Knowing that I'd be trying Mix Bakery cupcakes at the Signpost launch party later that evening, I went for the "healthiest" choice, double chocolate.

The Verdict: Not bad, Au Bon Pain, not bad at all. I always feel a little uncomfortable praising gigantic food chains, but I've always been pretty pleased with Au Bon Pain's baked goods, and this is no exception. (Oh yeah, I like the various tomato soups too. Probably too much.) (Also, Au Bon Pain was founded in Boston, so even though it's around the world now, it has local ties.) The cake part of this cupcake had the kind-of-light, kind-of-cakey taste that you get from a boxed cake mix, and the frosting was luxuriously rich. The cute little chocolate shavings on top were a nice touch. Au bon...petit gâteau!  

Note: This review is for the Au Bon Pain in the lobby of Children's Hospital Boston (300 Longwood Ave).

Cupcake Quest: The Chocolate Tarte

A modified version of this post appears on Somerville Local First.

This post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! No, the Quest doesn't end here; I'll keep gorging myself on cupcakes so you don't have to. But this Somerville gem is the reigning champion, and it's been right around the corner from Joel's apartment the whole time (and also extremely close to where I'm moving in just two weeks...uh oh). Well, it's actually only been there for a couple months, as The Chocolate Tarte's storefront on Highland Ave. is new, but owner Linda Hein founded the business back in 2004, bringing custom desserts to lucky wedding guests, Bar Mitzvah boys, and such. (According to the website, The Chocolate Tarte now works closely with Dave's Fresh Pasta and East Coast Grill to cater weddings and other events. Can someone please marry me immediately so I can experience the awesomeness of three of my absolute favorite food places feeding me all at once? Some girls dream out every detail of the dress, the decorations, and the flowers. I just want BBQ, pasta, and cupcakes. Is that so much to ask?)

The discovery of these Greatest Cupcakes in the World occurred in three increasingly delicious parts. Part I involves pasta, so I'm going to give you a sneak preview of the cupcakes right now since it'll be a few paragraphs before we actually get to them. Behold, miniature cupcakes from heaven:

Part I: The First Taste (from Dave's Fresh Pasta)

One day, I picked up some black heirloom cherry tomatoes from the farmers' market, along with fresh basil and mozzarella. The tomatoes looked greenish-reddish-purple to me, not quite black, but they were both beautiful and tasty.

After thinking about what else could go in the tomato-basil-mozzarella salad to make it sufficient for dinner, we decided to just make the salad as an accompaniment...

...to pasta. I'd been craving a trip to Dave's Fresh Pasta for awhile; my last several attempts occurred after closing time. We picked up a couple types of ravioli (something with basil and something with lemon, but the details are clouded in the haze of fond cupcake memories). I'll devote a whole blog post (or ten) to Dave's at some point in the future. I'm obsessed with that place.

While at Dave's, I spotted mini cupcakes from The Chocolate Tarte, so of course I had to buy them. I had heard that The Chocolate Tarte opened up recently, and I knew it was nearby, so I was excited to give it a try.

After eating the ravioli, I took the cupcakes out of the bag and found a sad mess, which I promptly blamed on Joel.

One bite and all was forgotten. We knew immediately that our Quest had reached its first real zenith, the long awaited reward of so many calories consumed. There may be others down the line - who knows? - but at that moment, these were the Best Cupcakes We Had Ever Tasted.

Frosting: perfect. A buttercream unlike any we had ever tasted. (After much testing, Linda settled on a method that actually combines two European methods.) Creamy but light, like a dollop of the best whipped cream you could ever imagine, the frosting sits in a perfectly manageable little puff atop the cake.

Cake: moist! Flavorful! Until this point, all other miniature cupcakes that we had tasted on the Quest were very dry. These were magical.

We sat in a cupcake coma of sheer delight, pondering whether to go on. I decided I must try a regular-sized cupcake to see if it reached the same awe-inspiring level of greatness as the mini cupcakes. I planned to check out the actual store as soon as possible.

Part II: The Search for Non-Minis

One evening soon after the initial taste, I was hanging around Joel's apartment while he practiced music, so I figured it was a good time to go for a walk and check out The Chocolate Tarte in search of regular-sized cupcakes.

Turns out Linda only makes the big ones on special order. (I will definitely be making an order when I have a housewarming party after moving into the neighborhood next month!) No matter: the minis are amazing and virtually guilt-free.

I wanted to take some photos of the shop, but Linda asked if I could come back in the morning when the lighting would be better and there'd be more fresh treats to photograph. Not one to leave a chocolate shop empty-handed, I bought a couple more cupcakes, plus a small brownie, and said I'd be back.

By the way, the brownies are amazing too.

Part III: The Return (or, A Whole Lot of Chocolate for Breakfast)

I brought Joel back the next morning, and we discussed cupcakes and a whole lot more with Linda, who is very friendly in addition to being an amazing baker. She told me that after 20 years in the corporate world, she took a baking class and realized she could bake cakes ("but not pies.") The Chocolate Tarte was born.

As science nerds, Joel and I were impressed with Linda's technical baking knowledge, taking things like humidity into account when choosing a proper frosting-making method. (Side note - If you're into science and cooking/baking, check out Molecular Gastronomy by Herve This. I'm reading it right now; it's kind of like a Mythbusters for cooking myths. Lots of fun!)

We left with more cupcakes plus a couple slices of the namesake chocolate tarte, which Linda garnished with a sprig of fresh mint from the herb garden out back.

The tarte is incredibly smooth, rich, and fudgy, with some extra subtle flavors. (The one we got was made with Moroccan mint tea.)

We also saw this beauty on display, hinting at the gorgeous cakes Linda makes for events:

The Verdict: Good thing these are miniature, because I am going to be a frequent visitor once I move into the neighborhood in just two weeks. And it's not just the cupcakes that make The Chocolate Tarte worth a visit (or ten): everything else was spectacular, too. Linda's talent is evident in every flourish of frosting or bite of chocolate. She knows that every second counts when baking a treat to perfection, and she understands the changing environmental factors that can cause obstacles to deliciousness.

Fork it over, Boston! is thrilled to declare The Chocolate Tarte the reigning Cupcake Quest champion. Now stop reading and go eat!

Cupcake Quest: Le Petit Cupcakery (Brooklyn)

This is the seventh in a series of posts from a weekend trip to NYC. You can read the first post here (a general overview), the second post here (a review of a small chain of Thai restaurants), the third post here (cupcake truck!), the fourth post here (more cupcakes!), the fifth post here (Spanish food), and the sixth post here (a mobile farmer's market). The last post will go up tomorrow.

Also, this post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

After spotting the mobile farmers' market, we continued on through Brooklyn and stopped by an artsy (read: totally hipster) flea market. Outside, we found miniature cupcakes! Might as well finish off the weekend with a third stop on the cupcake quest. (Earlier in the weekend, I tried out Cake & Shake and Magnolia.) Plus, mini cupcakes are so tiny that they're practically guiltless. If you can swallow it whole, it doesn't count, right? (Wrong. Especially when bacon is involved.)

Le Petit Cupcakery features organic miniature cupcakes (many of them made with locally sourced ingredients). There's just something about the aesthetic of miniature cupcakes that makes me squeal with delight. Unfortunately upon tasting, though, they often turn out to be dry. These were sadly no exception.

First, I pounced on the maple bacon mini cupcake. Actual size: about half of this photo. The candied bacon was, of course, delicious. Would you expect any less from the lovechild of pig and sugar? The maple frosting was sweet and tasty with a smooth, light texture. The cake itself was rather dry.

Maple Bacon Cupcake: Farm-raised bacon and maple cake with maple cream cheese frosting and candied bacon

Next up, the Chocolate Blueberry. Again, great frosting. The blueberry was spectacularly juicy. But the cake? Dry. Not quite as dry as the maple cake, but still not satisfyingly moist. What a shame. These are just so adorable; I wanted so badly to fall in love.

Chocolate Blueberry Cupcake: Rich dark chocolate cake topped with organic blueberry buttercream and fresh blueberries

The Verdict: Worth a quick nom if you're browsing through the market, but I wouldn't go out of my way to order a full batch of these. If you're into a more cakey, dry cupcake, though, you'll probably love these, so give 'em a try!

Check back tomorrow for the last post in my NYC weekend miniseries, a review of a Southern restaurant in Brooklyn called Pies 'n' Thighs!

Cupcake Quest: Magnolia Bakery (NYC)

This is the fourth in a series of posts from a weekend trip to NYC. You can read the first post here (a general overview), the second post here (a review of a small chain of Thai restaurants), and the third post here (cupcake truck!). The remaining posts will go up over the next several days.

Also, this post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

As we walked away satisfied from the cupcake truck, Kim and I prepared for Part Two of our Double Cupcake Day: Magnolia. Apparently popularized by mentions on Sex and the City and a few other shows, Magnolia has quite the reputation.

First of all, it's totally cute: frilly and light like a five-year-old birthday girl's party dress. The cakes might make you drool on the window. (Side note: The French phrase for "window shopping" - lèche-vitrine - means something closer to "window licking", which conveys the activity so much more accurately, especially when desserts are involved.)

There was a line, but it wasn't quite out the door of the tiny bakery, and it moved pretty quickly. Magnolia smartly has a self-serve cupcake system (though I wonder how many people attempt or succeed to grab and run): on the broad front windowsill, there are several trays of adorably pastel-frosted cupcakes bedecked in round rainbow mini sprinkles or little pastry flowers. A variety of packaging accompanies the treats, and you just pack up what you want and bring it to the register.

Kim and I anguished for a minute over which cupcake to split. Flowers or sprinkles? A weighty debate. We settled on a classic vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

The cake part of the cupcake tasted like real cake, light and airy, almost like angel food cake. The frosting was of the light and sugary variety rather than rich buttercream. The sprinkles added some nice texture. Maybe I'm spoiled from all the fancy flavors I've been tasting, but now I have trouble staying with vanilla. Cupcake flavors: it's a slippery slope. One day you move from vanilla to cookie dough, the next day you're stuffing your face with a whole tray of peanut butter chocolate, and the next day you're in the secret basement dungeon of a bakery wearing nothing but...well, never mind.

We ate our cupcake in a park across the street, and the pigeons and sparrows shared the remains of other people's cupcakes.

The Verdict: Sure, it was good, but like anything that has received so much press, it just feels a bit overrated. It's nice that despite the popularity, the price ($2.75) is reasonable relative to the cupcakes I've been eating all around Boston, which have mostly been in the $2.50-$3.50 range. Magnolia could easily raise prices and still bring crowds, especially around closing time (midnight!) on Saturdays and Sundays. I give Magnolia a thumbs up, but in the future, I'd be more likely to seek out lesser known bakeries.

My NYC weekend miniseries continues with Part V: Tio Pepe - A Taste of Spain and Mexico in the West Village, or you can jump ahead to Part VI: A Farmers' Market on Wheels.

 

Cupcake Quest: Cake & Shake (NYC)

This is the third in a series of posts from a weekend trip to NYC. You can read the first post here (a general overview) and the second post here (a review of a small chain of Thai restaurants). The remaining posts will go up over the next several days.

Also, this post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

As I planned out the weekend, it was a given that I'd have to embark on a quest to at least one cupcake place. (As it turns out, I tried three! Stay tuned for the other posts to go up over the next few days.) 

Due to my recent fascination with food trucks, I was hoping to check out Cupcake Stop, the first cupcake truck to turn up in my Google search. It frequents a Soho location convenient to Kim's apartment, so it seemed like a good choice. Well, circumstances prohibited us from getting over there, so instead, we decided to head to the (in)famous Magnolia Bakery, which is painfully adorable. More on that tomorrow.

As we walked along the edge of Washington Square en route to Magnolia, we saw something in the distance: an intriguing pastel blue truck. Could it be an ice cream truck? Maybe, but they're usually bright white and blasting obnoxious music. We got closer and read the logo: Cake & Shake! Yes! We decided to split a cupcake here and another at Magnolia so we could each try both without eating two cupcakes per person. There was a lot more eating to be done over the weekend.

A cupcake truck is the best thing to stumble upon.

We perused the daily flavors, marveled at the "cupcake for two" that looked like it was on steroids, and decided on Cup o' Joe. (Kim really likes coffee.) Why was the girl who was working in the truck so grumpy? Smile! You're surrounded by cupcakes! (Maybe she's not allowed to eat the cupcakes, guessed Kim.)

Cup o' Joe: Chocolate cake, dark chocolate mousse, chocolate mocha butter cream, bittersweet chocolate shavings

We grabbed a bench in Washington Square, enjoyed some great people-watching, and quickly devoured Joe. Deliciously creamy frosting. Spongy moist cake. Mocha nirvana.

The Verdict: This is a cupcake truck worth chasing. I'm guessing the shakes are delicious as well. Bonus: Cake & Shake bakes with organic milk, sugar, flour, and eggs, and all packaging is biodegradable and compostable. Follow Cake & Shake on Twitter to keep an eye on when and where to find the truck.

My NYC weekend miniseries continues with Part IV: Cupcake Quest - Magnolia Bakery, or you can jump ahead to Part V: Tio Pepe - A Taste of Spain and Mexico in the West Village or Part VI: A Farmers' Market on Wheels.

Cupcake Quest: Seattle's Best Coffee (via Borders Bookstore)

This post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

Well, well, well. It's been quite some time since I've posted a cupcake update, aside from the post about how the quest is making me fat. Fear not - I've still been eating my way through the cupcakes of Boston. (And now, I'm also adding in a moderate amount of exercise to balance out the buttery, creamy, sugary goodness.) I have some posts that just haven't made it up here yet, and I have plenty more places to visit! I'm going to try to power through the rest of the backlog and schedule them all to go up over the next week or so, and then we can move on to new cupcakes. I'll be in NYC this weekend, so I'm hoping to try out one or more of the legendary cupcakeries there. Kim, the artist responsible for the lovely yeti over there on the left (and all the other Fork it over, Boston! yetis), will be questing with me, possibly to Magnolia. (Any other suggestions?)

Anyway, back to the task at hand. As it turned out, when my co-workers and I were desperately searching for cupcakes within an easy walk from the office in the early days of the quest, there were cupcakes right next door, hidden in the upstairs Seattle's Best cafe at the Copley Square location of Borders, the bookstore. (Well, it doesn't matter; we weren't missing much.)

Usually I get to work before 9am, so Borders isn't open yet, but the other day, it was just after 9, so I figured I'd stop by and get an iced tea. The line at the nearby Starbucks is always out the door (almost literally), so nearby alternatives are nice. I rode the escalator up, a simple iced tea in mind, but there, in the pastry case, sat plates full of cupcakes: chocolate and raspberry and vanilla, oh my! (Sorry, I just finished watching the Tin Man miniseries.)

It was a co-worker's last day at work, so I figured we could have a little cupcake party for breakfast. I got a "raspberry sparkle" (oooh) and a chocolate. They were both packaged very neatly in sturdy cardboard boxes, held in place by another piece of cardboard.

I returned to the office, and we split the cupcakes in half so we could each try both flavors. Both were extraordinarily dry.

The raspberry frosting had a wonderfully creamy texture but tasted very artificial. Coupled with the very dry cake, it was not a winner. The only redeeming factor was the surprise raspberry filling, which tasted a bit more like real raspberries than the frosting.

The chocolate frosting was actually delicious, and it extended into the cupcake a bit as filling, but it just couldn't save the cake. Several glasses of water were necessary to neutralize the resulting dry mouth.

The Verdict: Skip the cupcakes, but try something else. Seattle's Best has great cookies - and they'll even warm them up for you! - and most of the drinks are solid as well. My red iced tea was actually the best iced tea I've ever had from a chain coffee shop. I returned a few days later to get it again, and it was just as good.

Cupcake Quest Consequences

With cupcakes come consequences. Flabby, energy-sapping consequences. Ever since I started the Cupcake Quest, I've been feeling less than stellar. The number on the scale hasn't changed much, but there are certainly areas that were toned that now aren't, energy levels that are suspiciously low, and an overbearing feeling of disgust at my diet that can't be fully counteracted by fresh veggies from the Farmers' Market.

I'm leaving Cleveland Circle in a month and a half, so I should take advantage of the beautiful Chestnut Hill Reservoir while I'm still here. I've run it many times over the past two years...but not so much recently. Actually, I haven't done much of anything exercise-related in at least a month or two. Oops.

Here's the plan: a reservoir running challenge for the duration of my Brighton habitation. I'll be posting weekly Reservoir Running Reports, and you get to yell at me if I haven't met my goals. In fact, the first person to comment on a post where I haven't met my weekly goal will win a small prize, such as a gift certificate for a cupcake.

Week 1 Goal
Run 5 times by next Wednesday, at least once around the Reservoir without stopping (about 1.5 miles) each time. In the event of torrential downpours, a seemingly likely occurrence, I'll substitute one hour of Exercise TV workouts in my living room with at least 30 minutes aerobic, such as Jillian Michaels' evil workouts. The other 30 minutes can be pilates and/or yoga.

I won't tell you how long the running takes me because (1) I'm a slow runner and I'm not really looking to increase speed at this point and (2) I'll be breaking my feet back into these crazy "shoes." It can be a painful process, and I haven't worn them in awhile.

Well, that's the plan! I'll report back next Wednesday, and hopefully I will have met my goals, or one of you is getting a cupcake!

Cupcake Quest: Cakeology

This post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

My Cupcake Quest has reached a dangerous new level. First, co-workers started bringing me cupcakes. Then, a couple weeks ago, I received an email from Victoria Donnelly, owner of a new mobile cupcakery launching this month called Cakeology. (I love the science-y name!) She wanted to know if I would try out her "little darlings." In the spirit of the Cupcake Quest, I'll take cupcakes any way I can get 'em, and I'll write about them all. These were free and hand-delivered right to my office doorstep, but in the review that follows, they will be subjected to the same scrutiny as all the other store-bought cupcakes in the Quest. (For more information about my product review policy, please read this page.)

Victoria arrived at 11am on the dot last Friday - which just so happened to be my birthday! - and handed over a sturdy pink box with a big sticker on the top: Bruce the Panda, the adorable Cakeology logo. (Victoria has loved pandas since she was a kid. Her logo was designed by Mike Lok at Urbane Dog.) She described the flavors, and then I headed back upstairs to take photos...and eat!

A nice sturdy box. No squished cupcakes here!

When I opened the box, the cupcakes announced their flavors to me with adorable little name tags!

All of my usual co-tasters were out of the office. What's a birthday girl to do? I skipped lunch and tried a Mint Chocolate cupcake for a late morning snack and a Cookies & Creamsicle for an afternoon snack. I promise to eat more vegetables soon.

Mint Chocolate Cupcake, from the "Gooey" category of Cakeology's menu: "Ghirardelli chocolate mint cake with green mint buttercream, chocolate ganache and a Junior Mint candy"

This is actually the first appearance of a mint chocolate cupcake on my Quest! It's one of my all-time favorite flavor combos. Cakeology's Mint Chocolate did not disappoint. The cake had a dense, almost-but-not-quite brownie-like texture. Although it leaned toward the dry side, little bits of melty chocolate balanced it out well. The frosting was light and sugary, similar to Sweet but not as obnoxiously large compared to the cake. The strong minty smell is detectable several feet away; a nearby co-worker was very curious.

Cookies & Creamsicle, from the "Old Skool" category of Cakeology's menu: "Fragrant chocolate orange cake with a creamy frosting mountain, rolled in crushed cookies"

I had my doubts that orange and chocolate would work, but it actually turned out quite well. The orange flavor was subtle, resulting in a spice cake or orange madeleine sort of flavor. This cupcake isn't quite as attractive as the whimsical Mint Chocolate, but it makes up for it with flavor. One bite and you'll fall in love with the creamy frosting.

The menu is split up into six categories: Classic 6, Old Skool, Gooey, Fruity, Boozy, and All Day Breakfast. Here are some flavors that sound pretty awesome:

• Root Beer Float (Old Skool): "Root beer cake with root beer buttercream and a boiled root beer barrel candy on top"
• Chocolate Chili (Gooey): "Real chillies nestled in dark chocolate goo. Exotic and bold, yet perfectly yummy"
• Margarita (Boozy): "Tangy tequila cake with a sweet & sour lime glaze, rimmed with fleur de sel and a wedge"
• Earl Grey & Honey (All Day Breakfast): "Flowery bergamot cake with purple bergamot frosting and a generous drizzle of honey"

While Cakeology cupcakes will be available only by delivery for now, Victoria expects to have a storefront early next year. She hopes to eventually offer gluten-free versions of all flavors, and she will be sourcing ingredients from a local dairy once she finds a suitable one.

Delivery is free to Boston and Cambridge, and there is a 12-cupcake minimum. 12 cupcakes will run you $39, 24 for $78, and so on. Considering some local stores sell cupcakes for more than $3 each, Cakeology cupcakes seem to be priced fairly as you're also getting delivery.

So, why should you get a Cakeology delivery instead of walking into one of the many stores selling cupcakes around town? Well, for one thing, there's just something special about buying a product from someone who is toiling away in her own kitchen, painstakingly packaging and delivering cupcakes to your door, doing something she's passionate about. "My cakes are the kind you'd make at home if you had the time and knew how," said Victoria. "They're not the fancy but soulless type, like a lot of cupcakes out there right now. They've got heart, and I want you to love them as much as I do!" I'm excited to see Victoria open up a storefront next year, and I hope that her cupcakes will still maintain the homemade feel even as her business expands.

The Obligatory Silly Interview Question: I asked Victoria what flavor she'd be if she were a cupcake. "Pina Colada," she decided. "Light and silly but with an unexpected kick."

The Verdict: Cakeology cupcakes would be a nice addition to a social gathering. It would be fun to order a Boozy combo for a summer party: Pina Colada, Margarita, and Rum & Coke, oh my! The menu hits the standards, like vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet, and then delves into creative territory with interesting-sounding items like Fluffer Nutter and Chocolate Banana Split. It's well-rounded with flavors that would please kids as well as more adult-oriented flavors. Blindly ordering delivery seems a bit risky - you really don't know what you're going to get - but give Cakeology a try, and based on the two flavors I sampled, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Follow Victoria on Twitter, and check out the Cakeology website, which will be fully launching within the next couple weeks.

Cupcake Quest: Sportello

 This post is part of the Cupcake Quest series on Fork it over, Boston!

...although you're going to have to read through a bit of an anecdote before I get to the cupcakes.

Wednesday was an odd day of bad luck and good luck. I went to my temp job for the first half of the day dressed for a job interview later in the day. My nice suit pants are on the long side, so I wear them with a high pair of heels that are not so great for walking long distances, but aside from a twenty minute walk to the interview, I wasn't anticipating moving much.

Then, the fire drill went off. I'm on the top floor of a ten-floor building, and it took a frighteningly long time for us all to file down all the flights of stairs. We reached the bottom, and my group is apparently supposed to meet a few blocks away on the steps of the Public Library to make sure everyone's out of the building. Already limping, and drenched in sweat from the almost-90-degree day, I hobbled to the meeting spot and eventually back to the office.

Fast forward a few hours: time to go to the interview. I limped halfway there and stopped by a Dunkin' Donuts for a quick lunch, desperate to sit down and relax for a minute. Figures...it had counters only. No tables. I stood at the counter, painfully shifting from one foot to the other, and ate my bagel. A guy spilled a whole iced coffee on the floor right next to me, and it splattered on my pants. Awesome. I cleaned up and headed to the interview, which was near South Station.

After, I had to make a stop at one of my favorite restaurants, Sportello. I rarely find myself around Fort Point, so when I do, I feel compelled to eat there, even if I'm alone and it's 3:30PM, like on Wednesday. The first bit of good luck: my obsession, the spicy tomato soup, had not yet disappeared from the menu! Last year I was disappointed to find that it's only on the winter menu, replaced by a not-quite-as-exciting soup in the warmer weather. But here it was, late June, and it was still available. My luck was changing! It actually looked like the staff was learning about the new summer menu while I was there. They were all sitting at a long table with pens and paper, looking at a variety of dishes. I wonder if I stopped by on the very last day of the winter menu.

Sportello's amazing spicy tomato soup with grilled cheese crostini!

As I ate my soup, I happened to glance over at the bakery section in the corner. (Ok, it was more of a deliberate look than a chance glance.) Cupcakes! I picked out three cupcakes, they brought them over to me, and I waited for my check. And waited. After a few minutes, the waitress apologized and told me that all the computers crashed at once, so they were rebooting. Then, she returned and said I was all set. I guess the computers were really not cooperating. Free lunch! Awesome! I left a tip and went on my merry way, cradling the box of cupcakes. I stopped for a minute near the Children's Museum to fish my phone out of my bag, and a little girl wandered over and got very curious about my cupcakes. I snatched them away before she managed to touch them, and I headed to the T.

Finally...on to the tasting! Joel and Dan - my Julia and Joy replacement Cupcake Quest duo - helped out with this one. After the Kickass Cupcakes debacle when Joel and Dan split the best cupcake in the world and I didn't get to try it (until our second visit later that day), we decided to split the cupcakes in three parts this time so we could each try all of them.

First up, the obligatory red velvet. This one was more of a rusty brown than red, and the cake was sadly very dry and bland. The frosting, however, was delicious - thick and creamy and topped with crunchy walnut bits. Dan and Joel were less angry about the dry cake than I was. They thought the creamy frosting balanced it out.

Next up, a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting, sea salt, and peanuts. Unlike the peanut butter chocolate cupcake from Petsi Pies, which had frosting that (appropriately) tasted like peanut butter pie filling, the Sportello cupcake's frosting tasted like straight up smooth, creamy peanut butter. Insanely delicious. The sea salt and peanuts brought this to a whole new level of awesome. Have you ever had a chocolate-covered, peanut butter-filled pretzel? It was like that, but even better. Again, the cake was very dry, but with the best frosting in the world, the cake matters a little bit less.

We saved the toasted marshmallow cupcake for last, due to its impressive visual display. I wonder how they managed to char the edges of the marshmallow frosting like that - a torch, I guess? Anyway, sad news on the toasted marshmallow front. This cake was even dryer and more tasteless than the other two - almost inedible - and the marshmallow frosting had a weird granular texture. We were unimpressed, which makes me very sad, because I absolutely love Sportello.

The Verdict: The peanut butter frosting was soooo good. I would get that and possibly the red velvet again as the awesome frosting outweighs the mediocre cake, but I'd avoid the toasted marshmallow. I also think it'd be worth a revisit earlier in the day to see if the cake is less dry.