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

Happy New Year!

May all of you have a happy and safe NYE celebration!!! Looking forward to the many cupcakes that will be eaten in 2013 :)

- G & 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

Merry Christmas!!!

Wishing you and your families a happy and safe holiday! Happy cupcakes!!!!

- G & J

Calling all cupcake lovers!!!

Dear fellow cupcake fiends,

If you know of a bakery that you would like us to try, feel free to send us an email @ cupcake.enthusiasts@gmail.com!  Or if you happen to be in the cupcake tasting mood and come across an incredible find, let us know and we can blog your tasting! Be sure to take photos :)

- J

Prairie Girl Bakery

Greetings cupcake lovers,

I was downtown today for a recruiter appointment and given the fact that I had paid a flat fee for all day parking, I was tempted to go for a walk into the financial district and 'pop into' PGB.  

This bakery was founded by a real life prairie girl, originally from Saskatchewan.  With the help of a professional baking team, Jean opened Prairie Girl Bakery up for business and has never looked back!  It has two convenient locations for those busy-bees working in the financial district: 18 King Street East and the First Canadian Place (concourse level).

It was of no surprise that there was a small line formed in front of the bakery's location in the First Canadian Place.  After all, it is the week before Christmas!  It was just last week that I had been browsing the bakery's website when I saw that their weekly special was an eggnog and vanilla cupcake.  I knew I was going to be downtown this week so I figured, why not give it a go??  Unfortunately, I missed the lesson on calendar weeks as a child and didn't realize that the special would have been different this week.  Slightly disappointed, I decided to test the infamous Joe Prairie's Red Velvet Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese with a swirl of vanilla icing.  I didn't just walk all the way from King and Spadina for nothing, right?

PGB prides itself on using only natural ingredients, thereby only selling fresh goods to its customers.  Be warned, just because it's natural, doesn't mean that it's healthy! In fact, PGB's chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing falls just short of 700 calories with approximately 30 grams of fat!!! It's no wonder the bakery does not have an accessible nutrition guide.  So the question is, was calorie worth it?

  In short, the answer is no!  Here's why:  

There are several things that I look for when I eat a cupcake.  The most important you ask?  The cupcake itself!  A lot of bakeries overcompensate for poor cupcake quality with their icing.  If I'm eating a cupcake, I'm more concerned about the cake than the icing.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not an icing hater by any means but I like to know that the cupcake can still be delicious on a standalone basis!    

I'm not entirely sure if I didn't get a so-called 'fresh' batch but given that my purchase was at 11:30am, I think it's fair to rule that out as a crutch.  I found the cupcake itself to be slightly dry, which was rather disappointing.  That being said, red velvet flavour satisfied my expectations.

Secondly, the icing was slightly overwhelming.  I will admit that I'm not a fan of overly sweet icing so the chocolate icing may have been a bad call on my behalf.  Even though I ordered a mini-cupcake, I found that the icing to cupcake ratio was too high for my liking.  The icing itself - pretty damn good.  There was a stark contrast between the chocolate and vanilla flavours which made this cupcake unique to other red velvets.  

Overall, I give this cupcake a 7/10.  So was it a good cupcake?  Yes.  The best cupcake in Toronto?   Doubtful.

- J

The Beginning

Once upon a time, there were two girls - Gobhina and Joanne.  The two first met in grade ten business class at Lincoln M. Alexander Secondary School.  At first, they were merely classmates.  It took several years until the friendship began to first blossom.  Bonding over things like mistaken cultural identity, prom committee and the aspirations of going to the University of Waterloo brought them closer together during their final year of high school.  It was to her dismay that Joanne did not get accepted to her program of choice at University of Waterloo.  Feeling saddened about having to part from her new friend, she decided to accept an offer received from Wilfrid Laurier University, only a few blocks away.  

The pair tried their best to stay in contact, in spite of their notoriously busy social and academic schedules.  This involved cheesy chick flick dates, halloween parties and frequent dinner dates to Jamaican Jerk.  However, it wasn't until Gobhina's exchange to Paris that they discovered their mutual, unfathomable love for cupcakes.  There could have been no better place for this to happen; after all, Paris is the city of love!

Many years have passed and the girls have continued their tradition in indulging in cupcakes while catching up.  Today, they have decided to step things up a notch and to undertake the mission of finding the best cupcakes in Ontario.