Cupcake Crawl

Well we are back from our huge trip to Perth. Many delicious discoveries where made including some cupcakes which I will add to the review of my Sydney cupcake tastings.

I love food, which is quite obvious by looking at me :o) Without a doubt going to Plant Cake was my main reason for going to Sydney but I have to say I was also excited about all the yummy food I could eat too!

Around 3 years ago I was in Sydney and I saw Cupcakes on Pitt and it was at that time that I thought “Hey I wanna do that” So I headed there first...

I was disappointed before I even stepped in the shop! When you used to walk past the window was full of all the beautiful cakes on display but sadly all that was on display was a crappy small cupcake stand with a few old looking cupcakes and hello kitty paraphernalia everywhere. I could quite quickly tell that new people where running the joint. The cupcakes are small but at only $2.5 each reasonably priced. I got a strawberry, milk chocolate, raspberry and vanilla.

Strawberry cake was ok, it had artificial flavouring added. The cake was ok not moist but not too dry, I suspect lots of rising agents used in the batter as it was really holey. Buttercream was smooth but I could not tell what it was made with it was very sweet. Milk chocolate was YUCK! The cake was so so dry I couldn’t bring myself to swallow it! Vanilla on Vanilla is my favourite cupcake but it is so hard to find a good one and cupcakes on Pitt failed in this flavour too L It didn’t even taste like vanilla cake it was just sweet, on the upside the buttercream was nice and smooth how I like it. They looked beautiful and where boxed up nicely but the taste just wasn’t there so personally a big FAIL to Cupcakes on Pitt.

(Which is sad as they look so cute!)

Next stop was The Cupcake Bakery in QVB. I had been admiring their website for a while as it is in the kind of style I would like one if I ever had a business. Anyway I was expecting a cool little funky retro shop and what I discovered was an average shopfront in the middle of the food hall. It looked dirty and the staff where all young girls too busy gossiping to serve me. I made my choice of Chocmint, Strawberry and Vanilla. I was pleasantly surprised! I would not brag about them or rush back to eat them but they had a real homemade taste to me. The cakes where on the dry side for me but most people wouldn’t be bothered. The buttercream was gritty which I hate but definitely tasted

like it should – sweet and buttery. Basic but cute decoration, they are quite a decent size and at $3.50 each a fair price.

(Sorry bad photo, they got squashed!)

The next place I stumbled across was The Cupcake Factory. I only found this place because it was on the corner of Adriano Zumbo’s Cafe. It was day 2 of my course and I was fairly caked out so just got 1 vanilla on vanilla. This place was just a shop no kitchen and as I got there the lady was placing cuppies in the cabinet out of a large plastic container so I suspect that yes there is a large cupcake factory somewhere that just supplies the 3 stores. This one was weird! The cake was just a normal butter cake, quite nice actually not dry but the icing! OMG I don’t even know what it was, it tasted so buttery and almost custardy? Just plain decoration, a buttercream swirl with 100’s and 1000’s. $3 each. Sorry no photo.

Now over to W.A! My Aunty knows how I love cuppies so took us to Babycakes to grab some morning tea. The owner served us and was very lovely. I was happy to see some love and detail go into the decorating with little fondant shapes handmade for some of the cakes . We picked 6 of our favourites and headed off somewhere nice to sit and taste test. Again I was disappointed L It is so bizarre how different everyone’s cupcakes can be!

I will admit the chocolate cuppie with chocolate ganache was nice. There was lots of ganache but you can’t complain about that and the cake was moist but as Mark and Kim agreed it just didn’t taste that chocolaty. We had a banana which was ok, Kim had raspberry and was disappointed to see only a few little berries push into the top.

Now to vanilla, big thumbs down. The cake was so dense and moist it was like it was undercooked. I suspect it was meant to be like a mud cake but to me that is just not how a cupcake should be. The buttercream was hard to pick, I think it may have had some cream cheese in it and it was thick. Again not my personal preference for a cupcake. At $3.95 the most expensive cuppies I have bought but with all the ganache I can see why! But $23.70 for our selection of 6 made it an expensive and disappointing morning tea!

Lastly we had lunch at a cute little patisserie called Sugar and Spice. Vanilla cupcake was yummy, yay! It was more of a sponge so light, fluffy and moist. It was dipped in ganache so didn’t look amazing but did taste lovely. Spencer definitely thought so too and at $3 was a very fair price. Sorry no photo again.

So there you go, it seems it’s hard to find a good cupcake! Hopefully one day I can change that J Now remember this is all just my personal opinion, please feel free to taste test yourself!