My husband has been to Chicago twice and I still have not been yet!! Chicago is a great city to find cupcakes in, so of course I asked him to find some cupcakes for me on his latest business trip. And being the awesome husband that he is, I got a whole box of cupcakes to try.
I have a list of cupcake shops I would stop by if/when I travel to Chicago.
Swirlz Cupcakes is on my list, as my husband brought me cupcakes from their shop last year. But now I have a new one to add --
Molly's Cupcakes.
The staff of Molly's Cupcake did a great job of picking out a variety of flavors for me to try. The hard part is figuring out where to start.
First up, Peanut Butter Nutella: peanut butter cake, Nutella filling, buttercream Nutella frosting.
The thing that scared me the most about these cupcakes were the sprinkles. Those sprinkles are the ones that I remember from childhood, topping cupcakes and cakes from the grocery store (yuck!). Fortunately, I was able to push back those memories and focus on the task at hand. The peanut butter cake was delicious, like eating a moist peanut butter cookie. The nutella filling was a nice little accent to the cupcakes. But the frosting was my least favorite part. It was a whipped buttercream, not my type.
Next, Classic Vanilla: self-explanatory.
I've never been a big fan of a plain vanilla/vanilla cupcake. It's like the cupcake hasn't lived up to it's potential yet. But this vanilla cupcake was very decadent. The buttery flavor of the heavy buttercream frosting was amazing. If I had to eat another vanilla cupcake, this would be the one I would eat.
Not sure who Ron Bennington is, but the next cupcake is named after him: chocolate cake, peanut butter filling, chocolate ganache, crushed butterscotch topping.
I LOVED the frosting on this cupcake. Sometimes a fudgy frosting just hits the spot. And I like how this cupcake technically had two frostings -- fudgy chocolate and chocolate ganache. The butterscotch topping (which I suspect is crushed Butterfingers), brings out a nice salty flavor to the cupcake. The combination of the chocolate, peanut butter, ganache, and butterscotch made this cupcake a winner. Yum!
Last, but definitely my favorite, Cookee Monster: vanilla chocolate chip cake, raw cookie dough center, buttercream, mini chocolate chip cookie.
My husband carefully watched me as I took my first bite of this cupcake. It was like he was waiting to see how much I would love this cupcake. But before I tasted it, I was a bit skeptical. Let me explain. Before I took my initial bite, I took a quick swipe of the frosting to confirm what I feared: whipped buttercream frosting, my least favorite frosting of all time. So of course I was expecting not to like this cupcake. It's funny how my opinion changed so quickly.
I cut into the cupcake and used my fork to get the perfect bite of all of the ingredients of the cupcake. I made sure there was enough cake, frosting, and filling. Then I tasted it.....delicious! Even though the frosting wasn't what I'd normally like, it was perfect for this cupcake. If the frosting would have been any heavier, it would have overpowered the rest of the cupcake. This was the first time I've eaten a cupcake with cookie dough in the center and I now know that it needs a light frosting to balance it out.
Summary: My husband told me that the staff was friendly, the store was nice, and the selection of cupcakes was plentiful. The cupcakes survived an airplane trip from Chicago to Orange County, so the packaging did it's job. The cake was moist on all cupcakes and most of the frostings were delicious. The flavors had good combinations of ingredients (check out their
menu for other flavors). And the price for most of the cupcakes is $3.75. Not bad, but certainly not cheap. My recommendation: go to Molly's Cupcakes! I can't wait to visit their shop one day myself.
