Thursday, July 10, 2014

Cupcake Delights - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

I discovered Cupcake Delights Bakery through a BBC News article (BBC Article on Cupcake Delights) describing the distinct differences found in lifestyles of people living in Addis Ababa. After reading the article, I knew it would be my mission to travel to Ethiopia to find this bakery and taste their cupcakes. I guess this finally gave me a reason to visit Ethiopia (I know this sounds horrible, but I never really thought of Ethiopia as a country for tourists…boy was I wrong!). A few months after reading this article and deciding Ethiopia was officially on my travel ‘bucket-list’, I found out a friend from university would be beginning her Peace Corps service in Ethiopia. Lucky me! From there, it was pretty much a go…all I had to do was find the time.

When I finally made it to Ethiopia, the first thing I noticed was the food. I envy the Peace Corps volunteers in Ethiopia, their local food is leaps and bounds better than the local food in Uganda. The various foreign food in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is also impressive compared to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Between the pizza, paninis, Lebanese,  Chinese, Japanese, and other ‘-ese’ foods, I made it my mission to try Cupcake Delights before leaving for my friend’s site. Luckily, before I left I told her this was a must, so she decided dinner would be at Cupcake Delights my first night (who knew they would have real food too?). My anticipation was high, Pavlov would have killed to observe my salivation due to it.

Happily, my anticipation was rewarded by a delicious, moist, sweet, and actually cake-tasting red velvet cupcake. On the not-so-happy note, the red velvet did not have a hint of chocolate in it. It seemed to be merely a vanilla cupcake dyed red. In spite of this, I was happy because the cupcake was otherwise great. Not too moist, not too dry…the cupcake was just right in terms of texture. The cupcake was light and airy, even a little spongy, in a good way. The icing was very smooth, but also very sweet. Almost too sweet. This and the lack of chocolate flavoring are the only things I can say go against the Cupcake Delights Bakery.

Box of Goodies from Cupcake Delights

After months of hoping and wondering if there would be any decent cupcakes in Africa, I was greatly rewarded. Thank you, Addis Ababa, for not only offering me a delicious cupcake, but for giving me hope that there are delicious cupcakes along this red velvet caked road.

Price of Cupcakes: 24 Birr (~$1.33 U.S.)
Cake: Perfect, airy
Icing: Too sweet, smooth
Decorations: simple
Overall Rating: 6/10 Sprinkles



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