Preview: The Perfect Circle

Imagine how excited I was when I was walking around the Orange Street Fair and stumbled across some cupcakes! They weren't just any cupcakes, they were cupcakes from The Perfect Circle, the future cupcakery in the Orange Circle. I had noticed some progress when I walked by their store a few weeks ago, but I definitely didn't expect them to be selling cupcakes any time soon!
Their store isn't open for business yet, but they were selling mini cupcakes (for $1 each) as a preview of what's to come. The first time we stopped by we tried the Vanilla Bean and the Chocolate Coconut.
Vanilla Bean: I am not much of a plain vanilla person, but I figured that I better try each flavor for research purposes (although it's not too hard to get me to eat any cupcake). The cake was very moist and the frosting was amazing! The vanilla bean frosting tasted just like vanilla bean ice cream.

Chocolate Coconut: This was my favorite cupcake of the day! I didn't realize how much I love coconut cupcakes. The combination of moist chocolate cake and creamy vanilla frosting with coconut sprinkled on top was incredible!
We stopped by again about an hour later because I was told that there would be red velvets coming out of the oven. Sure enough, there was a crowd waiting for the anticipated red velvets.

Red Velvet is probably my favorite flavor of cupcake so I am very critical of them. And I was not disappointed! The cake was a tad (a very small tad) dry, but it was still very good. I hate to say anything bad about it but it was the only thing I could find wrong with it. The frosting was my favorite part. It had a very strong cream cheese taste which I wouldn't expect to enjoy as much as normal sugary frosting. I don't think I have had a better cream cheese frosting before!
I talked to the lady selling the cupcakes and she informed me that their store will be opening in October. The baker is perfecting her recipes. I am ok waiting a little longer if that means that I will be eating great cupcakes instead of mediocre ones. I got a copy of their menu and some of the flavors we have to look forward to are Pumpkin, Snickdoodle, Chocolate Malt, Raspberry Lemonade, and Nutter Butter.

The Perfect Circle Cupcakery is located at 165 N. Glassell in the Orange Circle.

Cupcake Art

A very creative friend of mine recently had a birthday party for her six-year old daughter. Instead of making a cake she made cupcakes without frosting. She then gave the girls the chance to decorate their own cupcakes.
As a six-year old I can only imagine how much fun this was. I have actually been thinking about doing this for my 27th (wow, I'm getting close to 30) birthday in November. I don't think my friends will have nearly as much fun as I will, although I bet our cupcakes will look similar to the six-year olds.

Progress!

My biggest inspiration for starting this cupcake blog is this place...
What is this place, you may be asking? It is the future home of the closest cupcake bakery to my home. I saw a sign advertising that a cupcakery, rumored to be called The Perfect Circle, would be opening this summer. I was jumping for joy!
Sadly, that was back in April, summer is almost over, and not much has happened since then. My friends from Orange and I have been impatiently awaiting the opening of this store.
I was walking by today and it looks like there is construction going on. Finally! Hopefully, they will be on the fast-track to opening soon. And I will be first in line!

Whole Foods Cupcakes!

Friday night we ate dinner at Whole Foods. They have such amazing food, not to mention a great bakery! I was so excited to see cupcakes there that I could barely eat dinner.

I chose the chocolate cupcake out of a possible two flavors (vanilla and chocolate). This one was shaped like a cow (I think), so it was almost too cute to eat.
Result: So good!!! The cake gets a thumbs-up for moistness. The frosting was a vanilla and chocolate buttercream frosting. I wanted to get a cupcake with more frosting on it, but this one actually had the right amount. Their cupcakes were larger than the average cupcake, maybe even a little bigger than Sprinkles. That was the only downside to this cupcake...I couldn't take a full-size bite!
I was planning on only getting one cupcake until I spotted these Red Velvet Towers. I didn't realize they were cupcakes until I looked closer. The Red Velvet Tower is made of two layers of red velvet cake and two layers of cream cheese frosting. They are smaller than an average cupcake. Result? Great! This is the perfect size for a "cupcake," not to mentioned it tasted great! I know it is not a traditional cupcake, but it has all of the same characteristics. The price is the same as the cupcake ($3.25), which made it a little more expensive than I would have liked, but other than that, it is the perfect snack-size dessert!

Whole Foods is the great place to go for a late cupcake craving, since it is open until 10:00pm. Although there are only two flavors of cupcakes to choose from, plus the Red Velvet Tower, you will not be disappointed!

Cupcake Trends

I'm back! After spending a week in the beautiful Caribbean I am back to work. Two interesting things happened in the cupcake world that I wanted to take a moment to contemplate.

First, I put a lot of effort into searching for cupcake stores in the Caribbean. I googled, looked for reviews, and asked around. I was hoping to get the inside scoop on reviewing Caribbean cupcakes. Sadly, I did not find any. I did find one website that advertised that they made cupcakes, but they had to be ordered in advance in large quantities and be picked up at someone's house. I was very disappointed, but it started me thinking...are cupcakes only a craze in large metropolitan areas?

Second, I found news that Dolcissimo, a cupcake store in Costa Mesa has closed shop. I reviewed their store over two months ago and was not super impressed with it. Their cupcakes were decent, but I didn't like the frosting. The biggest downer was that they didn't have very many flavors available when I was in their store. Sad to say, but I am not surprised to see them close shop. Some have speculated that there might be too many cupcake stores in the area, which may have caused the close. I think that "survival of the fittest" was going to be imposed sooner or later. Dolcissimo's cupcakes were nearly the same price as Sprinkles, but not the same quality. Of course I am sad to see a cupcake store go, but hopefully that means that only the good ones are left.

I would like to see more cupcake stores in north Orange County. Supposedly, there is a cupcake store opening in the Orange Circle, but I still haven't seen much activity there yet. I am still keeping my fingers crossed!

On A Mission

Hello from St. Lucia! I am on a cruise, searching the Caribbean for some cupcakes! I will post my findings when I return in a few days.