The Sugar Tooth Fairy

It's J again, writing to you about another delicious find in the cupcake world.  Our focus this time is The Sugar Tooth Fairy.  G first told me about Tania, who bakes from the Beaches, back when she was studying at Queens.  She spoke very highly of Tania's creations and insisted that I give them a try.

I finally took G's advice a few months back and ordered a dozen of alcoholic, yes - alcoholic!, cupcakes alongside a half dozen gluten free selection for a friend's birthday party.  To be honest, my memory is a bit hazy as there were a few too many drinks consumed that night but I do recall being blown away at how delicious these cupcakes here, as were the other guests.  In fact, as proof, my other half who has been gluten free for several years now was so amazed, he ate three of the gluten free cupcakes!! What I do recall is that Tania's cupcakes were consistently moist and flavourful, wheat or no where.  

My Aussie friend, S, was visited from Van-city during the Easter long weekend and seeing that it was her first time visiting our beautiful city of Toronto, I thought what better way to be introduced to the city than go on a food tour! We indulged in Jamaican beef patties, Trinidadian doubles, north Indian samosas and other ethnic foods, only to top it off with an order of two dozen mini cupcakes from The Sugar Tooth Fairy. 

The order:

• Cookies & cream
• Donut delight (chocolate base and chocolate/vanilla frosting variety) 
• Red velvet
• French toast

The review:

• The cookies & cream was definitely my favourite.  I give it a full 10/10!  The cake tasted just like a cookies and cream ice cream bar.  Not too sweet, moist and filled with cookie flavour.  The icing was smooth, light and delicious! 
• Tania's creativity knows no bounds.  Seriously, who thinks of putting a donut on top of a cupcake?! The cupcake base was very chocolatey.  If you've read our past posts, you would know that G's biggest issue with chocolate bases is that they often don't taste like chocolate.  Bakers tend to overcompensate with sugar and sometimes, the cake winds up dry and flakey.  This cupcake was none of these things.  Both the vanilla and chocolate frostings were simple, yet fulfilling.  The donut itself didn't quite taste like a donut but I give an A for effort.  The icing tasted like mom's homemade icing which I was a fan of.  Overall,  9/10.
• Red velvet is usually my go-to flavour so my standards are pretty high on this one.  I give this cupcake a 9/10.  While I can't fault the base, the icing was a bit on the oily side.  Aside from that, great cupcake!
• French toast cupcake for breakfast? Yeah, that happened! I didn't quite know what to expect with this one but did it ever blow my expectations out of the water.  Tania nailed the flavour on this one.  While it was a bit too sweet for my palette, there is no doubt that this cupcake tasted just like french toast.  

So you're all probably wondering, did she really eat two dozen mini cupcakes?? The answer is, no, no I did not! In spite of the objections voiced by my taste buds, I ended up sharing most of my cupcakes with friends and family.  However, you can bet your dollar that I will be ordering from The Sugar Tooth Fairy in the future as there are many other flavours that I want to try.  

Cheers,

- J

The Social Cupcake

What an appropriate name for a cupcake shop.  I mean, what better way to socialize than over a cupcake?!

The Social Cupcake is neatly tucked away into one of Mississauga's many historic neighourhoods, Port Credit.  This bakery prides itself in its eco friendly products, only using organic free trade cocoa, free range eggs and the freshest of ingredients.  Moreover, it is both a peanut and treenut free environment which is a something that cupcake enthusiasts are seeing more frequently.

The Social Cupcake features sixty, I repeat SIXTY, cupcakes!! With traditional flavours such as vanilla chocolate to more complex varieties like strawberry rhubarb cheesecake and chocolate guinness with bailey's swiss meringue , you can only imagine how excited I was to visit this bakery!

To keep with the theme, birthday twin and I ventured on a cupcake tasting date to celebrate our birthdays and catch up (ah hem - socialize!) since some time had passed since we had last seen each other.

Given that the bakery offers a combo of 6 minis for $10 and that there were 6 readymade varieties on display today, it seemed like the perfect idea to sample one of each!  And oh did they ever look and smell soooo delicious! Side note: why don't they make cupcake flavoured perfume????

So for the moment of truth...... The Social Cupcake is a real winner!!!!!

Flavours tested:

• Vanilla
• Cookies and Cream
• Strawberry
• Marble
• Red velvet (of course!)
• Chocolate

Birthday twin and agreed that the top contenders were tied between the chocolate and red velvet.  Given that neither of us are huge fans of icing and that I am no lover of chocolate cake, the fact that this chocolate cupcake has snuck it's way into our number one demonstrates what good value it was!  You could truly taste the richness of the chocolate in both the cake and the icing without being overpowered with sugar.  The red velvet - WOW!  I really don't know if I have ever had cream cheese icing that tasted so good!  It was light, creamy, and cream cheesy - what else can you ask for in a cupcake?!  

Vanilla ranked as a close second.  It's buttery buttercream icing melted in your mouth like ice cream on a hot summer's day.  The cake was nothing short of moist.  This is what my dreams are made of... delicious vanilla cake.  

Sadly, strawberry came in as our least favourite.  Truthfully, there was nothing wrong with the cupcake.  The icing was extra light and the cake was filled with the goodness of strawberries.  I'm just not entirely sure if I like strawberry flavoured cake.  No disrespect!

As you can see, we ate all of our six minis - and no, we did not have a tummy ache after.  Hurrah! 

Overall experience - 9/10!

If you're ever in the Port Credit area and in search for a delightful treat, I highly recommend The Social Cupcake! Just be sure to arrive with an appetite because this bakery will not disappoint.  Disclaimer: expect a queue as there were five customers during our short wait on a Thursday afternoon!

- J

Pink Lemon Bakeshop

Our first adventure as official cupcake enthusiasts took us to Pink Lemon Bakeshop, located in Vaughn off of Highway 7.  The bakery carries a wide array of baked goods, from French macarons to cookies to speciality cakes.  Of course, we were only interested in one thing:  their cupcakes.

The order:
- One black forest cupcake
- One lemon cupcake
- One cookies and cream cupcake
- One red velvet cupcake

First up, black forest!  The cake itself was a bit on the dry side but the chocolatey flavour was pretty damn good.  The icing... well it wasn't bad but it was different.  We couldn't quite figure out what type of icing it was (certainly not butter icing and we were pretty sure that it wasn't marshmellow icing either).  Regardless, the wow factor was lacking.

Next was cookies and cream.  One word: disappointing!!!!!!!!  I got the chocolate flavour just fine but  where was the cookies and cream?!!  I have nothing else to say about this.

At this point, we decided that we were cupcaked out and it would have been unfair to continue eating the cupcakes as our marginal utility was diminishing rapidly.

Overall assessment:  6/10

You're probably wondering what happened to the other two cupcakes.  You didn't think we would let them go to waste, did you?  After all, that would be blasphemy.  Since the red velvet was my pick (and because I am on a mission to find the best red velvet cupcake around), I decided to take it home.

To be honest, I can't really decide how I feel about this one.  The cake itself was perfect.  The right amount of cocoa flavour, super moist, great texture - really, no complaints here.  The cream cheese icing was also super tasty.  It was light and fluffy, yet creamy all at the same time!  I mean, imagine a cream cheese cloud melting in your mouth.  But for the strangest reason, the cake and icing combo didn't quite taste right.  I've been racking my brain to figure out why the flavours didn't mesh with my taste buds but I am coming up with nothing.  Ehh... That being said, I would still rate this red velvet cupcake as a solid 8/10.

Bottom line: if you are ever in Vaughn and in desperate need for a cupcake, you may want to consider Pink Lemon Bakeshop.  Just be sure to avoid the cookies and cream flavour.

- J