Cupcake Madness

I have fallen extremely far behind on my cupcake bakery reviews. There are (5!) that I have yet to post, and the fact that I have been to that many recently is a little embarrassing, but only just a little. Cupcakes are delicious, okay? And it's all about balance.

Over the June 21st weekend I was in Annapolis for one of my best friend's engagement parties, and I couldn't resist a stop at my all-time favorite bakery, Sweet Hearts Pastisserie. Located conveniently just off Route 50, it is very easy to get to and incredibly delicious.

This time I picked up a traditional vanilla cupcake with vanilla bean frosting. I love the taste of vanilla bean and their frosting is extremely creamy and the cake very moist. Whenever I go I also pick up some vanilla macarons because they are melt-in-your-mouth to die for. They were also featuring Key Lime macarons with a little ring of graham crackers around the center, so of course I couldn't resist a few of those either.

On a random Saturday before night shift I took a trip to Hamilton Bakery in Baltimore City to try their seasonal flavors of Butter Pecan and Neopolitan before they changed in a few days time. The bakery is located off of Harford Road in an area of the city that is being redeveloped. I discovered it via another blog I read, Cupcake Crusaders, and had to give it a try.

I'm sorry to say that I feel that these cupcakes were not worth the drive. I love Butter Pecan and was expecting the icing to be just that, buttery. However, I found it to be rather hard and lacking in taste. The cake was also a little dry. The Neopolitan was presented beautifully but the swirl seemed to mash all the flavors together without getting the distinct taste of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate that makes a neopolitan. I unfortunately couldn't finish this cupcake.

 While we were in Luray, VA last week you bet I Googled bakeries in the area to see where I could get a cupcake. There are only a handful of places in Luray that do sweets, but fortunately I stumbled upon Main Street Bakery and Catering. If you're looking for a large variety of cupcakes then this is not the place for you; there was only one cupcake flavor, a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting.

The cake was moist but nothing too super spectacular. The best part though was the fudgy chocolate frosting, reminiscent of a Berger cookie. This frosting made the cupcake.

My fourth and fifth bakery visits occurred on the way to Ocean City this weekend for another good friend's bachelorette party. There are a ton of cupcake bakeries I want to try on the Eastern Shore but I decided to stop at only one because I didn't know if I was going to have anywhere to stash the cupcakes. Well, one actually turned into two.

On a whim I stopped at the Bay Country Bakery off the side of Route 50 in Cambridge, MD. The outside of the building is very eye catching with a huge pink donut painted on the side, drawing you into the shop.

I picked their Raspberry Lemonade and Vanilla cupcakes. These were really, really good. The Raspberry Lemonade had a delicious raspberry jam and the cake was so moist it was falling out of the bottom. Not the easiest thing to eat in the car. The lemon frosting had little crunchy lemony bits on the top that gave it a nice texture.

The vanilla cupcake was yummy and topped with lots of colorful sprinkles but my favorite was definitely the raspberry.

The second place I stopped in OC was my original destination, Cupcakes in Bloom, a bakery featured on Food Network's Cupcake Wars. The bakery is located in Berlin, MD, the same picturesque town where one of my favorite movies, Runaway Bride, was filmed. The decorations on these cupcakes go along with the bakery's name; most of them look like flowers and they are beautifully done. You can even get cupcake bouquets.

I'm still working on this batch of cupcakes because they had a buy 5, get one free so I have quite a few left. I did try the Hummingbird and Nuts n' Berries. Hummingbird is one of my favorite types of cupcakes, spice cake topped with cream cheese frosting. I also really love almond cake, which was the base for the Nuts n' Berries and topped with raspberry frosting. Both of these cupcakes were moist, flavorful, and had creamy frosting. I'm excited to try the rest of the ones in the box, even though a few of them got a little melty in the car and are now in the refrigerator recovering. My other selections included Salted Caramel, Fisher's Popcorn, Rootbeer Float, and Strawberry Pretzel Salad.