cupcakes to go go - Edmond, Oklahoma

Only a few weeks after my fated return to the U.S., I went on another trip, this time a domestic visit to Oklahoma to see my brother and the wild wild west. Unfortunately the west is fairly tame, and cold. Fortunately, I was able to find a cupcake bakery to check out!

cupcakes to go go is a vacation and traveling inspired cupcake shop. All the cupcakes have travel themed names, like the Key West Lime, the Mount St. Chocolate, and the Route 66 Red Velvet. For more about the bakery, check out the journey.

This theme of vacation and traveling really peaked my interest, being a travel enthusiast myself, so I decided to take a journey myself and visit cupcakes to go go.

Upon entering the bakery, one notices the fun, friendly atmosphere. The walls are decorated to inspire traveling and enjoyment while keeping your focus on the cupcake displays. I selected the Route 66 Red Velvet as well as the Cookies & Creak Capped Mountain and continued my journey back to the house.

When I first took a good look at the red velvet, I noticed the color was a very intense red, almost a neon red. It made me wonder whether the cupcake would glow in the dark! The decorations and icing quantity was nice, it did not seem that there was too much icing compared to the size of the cupcake.

Route 66 Red Velvet

After unwrapping the cupcake my mouth started to water and I had to take my first bite. The first thing I noticed was the sweetness of the icing. It overpowered the taste of the cake, so much so I didn't even noticed the cake. I had to take a piece of cake on its own to realize there was no chocolate in the red velvet. Now, to me, a traditional, true red velvet has the richest chocolate flavor, better than a Devil's food cake. I'm always disappointed when I taste a red velvet that isn't chocolate. Clearly, the cake was a vanilla cake with heaps of red dye. That was a disappointment. With that let down, I continued on the cake, to noticed that the cake itself was nicely baked. It was light and fluffy and had the proper airiness to it. The icing was a bit hardened but still smooth.

Overall, the cupcake was okay, though I think had it been more chocolatey it would have been better.

Price: $2.50/cupcake
Cake: Light, fluffy, airy
Icing: Slightly hardened, thick, smooth, too sweet
Decorations: Simple but nice
Overall: 4/10 Sprinkles
Website: http://www.cupcakes2gogo.com/


Until my next red velvet road stop...

Cupakes Make My World Go Round

I've always loved baking, since I can remember. Saturday mornings waking up to warm, fresh baked blueberry muffins. Special occasions when we got to spend time baking cakes.

Unfortunately we've never really been a "from scratch" baking family. When it came to traditional American cakes and muffins, I can't remember a time when we made everything from scratch. My mom was great at making Indian sweets and baked goods from scratch, but the American goods seemed to be beyond us.

So I grew up on boxed cupcakes and brownies, watching cooking and baking shows on television, watching how amazing these bakers were, how they could make anything from scratch after just thinking about it for a few seconds.

Years and years went by, and through everything my love for baked goods, especially cupcakes, never wavered. Eventually, the rest of the world caught up with me. It seemed like cupcakes became a new thing, there were TV shows and specials on cupcakes and cupcake bakeries, or cupcakeries, were popping up left and right. My favorites were 'DC Cupcakes' and 'Cupcake Wars'.  I even went so far as to visit the location for 'DC Cupcakes', Georgetown Cupcake:

Finally! The rest of the world (or at least America) realized how awesome cupcakes were and how much everyone should appreciate them. Unfortunately, this big wave of cupcakes also came at the same time I was sent to Uganda, East Africa, to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. I accepted the post as a community health volunteer with the idea that I would be losing the ability to eat my beloved sweets for the next 27 months. I stuff my mouth with cupcakes, brownies, muffins, and anything else that I could bake. It was a glorious month of gaining weight which I believed I would lose, since I was moving to Africa.

When I got to Uganda, I was met with the reality that baking would be next to impossible. Fortunately, I had a friend who showed me how to make cupcakes with my rice cooker (see my first attempt). I was content with this, happy I could at least get a taste of the glory every once in a while.

Then I went to Kampala and found two cafes that served cupcakes. After this encounter, I wondered, do other cities in the world have the love for cupcakes I naively thought was only found in America? I did a quick Google search and found some surprising and uplifting results! 

That's when I decided to create this blog. I love to travel, and while in the Peace Corps I did a great deal of it. I thought to myself, why not find a cupcake bakery in each city or country I visit, in an attempt to find the ultimate red velvet cupcake (that's my favorite).

So here goes...I'll just judging them on my own very subjective way, but you'll get all my thoughts and comments.

Join me on an epic journey to find the one red velvet to rule them all!