Luli's Cupcakes - St. Augustine, Florida

I had to take another hiatus from my cupcake explorations. A trip to Bonnaroo took a bit out of me. I did have some cupcakes from Sprinkles in LA though, which helped with my cupcake withdrawals.

This past weekend I went on an impromptu trip to St. Augustine. I hadn't been to St. Augustine wince I was young, probably in elementary school, so I was very excited to go.

On the first day I was walking around checking out some of the local shops when I just happened to pass by Luli's Cupcakes. I knew I had to check it out!

Luli's Cupcakes story is just as serendipitous as my find:
"LuLi’s Cupcakes began when  owner, Janeen Damiano Sara, took an anniversary trip to San Francisco and fell in love with the array of local bakeries. The love became an idea, which quickly evolved into reality when Janeen compiled a collection of delicious recipes and opened up her store front in Uptown Saint Augustine. What began as a hopeful business dream, in seven years, has grown to encompass baked goods, special events, café eats, and boutique fashions! As much as we have grown over the years, we have maintained the belief that the finest ingredients, utmost quality and superior customer service at an affordable price is what makes a business great. We hope that you will indulge and share in our belief that cupcakes fix everything! Because, life is too short to do anything less than eat dessert first!"

I walked in and found an array of flavors in the display case. Apparently they have 17 different flavors daily along with 2 monthly specials. They also have gluten free and vegan options. Lucky for me one of those treats was a red velvet!

Red Velvet with Buttercream Frosting

The cupcake itself was light and moist. It had a great amount of chocolate flavor, almost perfect. The frosting, however, was a plain vanilla buttercream frosting. I enjoying the pecans on top. I was missing the traditional cream cheese pairing, but it was a great cupcake nonetheless.

This trip just re-invigorated me to restart my search for the perfect red velvet cupcake. I've found some other places in the Tampa area that I intend on investigating.

Onward to find the perfect red velvet cupcake!


Price $2.95/each
Cake: moist, airy, near-perfect chocolate flavor
Icing: smooth, creamy, vanilla buttercream
Decorations: simple pecans
Overall Rating: 7/10
Website: Luli's Cupcakes

Cupcakes and Cocktails - Epicurean Hotel

I know it's been a few weeks since my last post. Things have been quite hectic in my life lately. I was in the middle of searching for a new apartment, not an easy task with my budget. Luckily, I have found a place but now I have to actually move. This means taking the time to pack up my apartment which has seemed to double in the amount of things inside.

Either way, I'm back on the hunt. While searching for places to find a decent red velvet cupcake, I came upon an event called Cupcakes and Cocktails at the Epicurean Hotel in South Tampa. While the event cost $50, after looking at the menu I knew I had to attend.

Menu for event:
Red Wine Red Velvet with Red Wine Cream Cheese Frosting
Mojito with Lime Buttercream Frosting
Hummingbird with Cream Cheese Frosting and roasted pineapple flowers

The description of the event hooked me in even more, "Join Chef Beth, as she hosts another Cupcake Cocktail hour, and shows you how to make three different spring influenced cupcakes paired with cocktails. You will be getting to take home 6 cupcakes and the recipes to make them at home. Each cupcake will be paired with a matching cocktail".

Now I know everyone knows I'm obsessed with cupcakes (and why wouldn't I be, they're everything good in the world contained in one small, hand-held package) but I do enjoy a good cocktail. I have been interested in pairing events for a while and am happy to have found something that pairs two of my favorite things!

When I got to the event I was surprised to learn that the baker, Beth Lukens from Cloud 9 Confections, would only be demonstrating one cupcakes. I also was disappointed to hear we would not be tasting the cupcakes along with the cocktail pairings.

Me with Chef Beth Lukens from Cloud 9 Confections

The event basically went like this: we were served cocktails while the baker demonstrated the most complicated cupcake recipe. We were given the recipe for the other cupcakes though. That was a plus.

After the demonstration, and during the third round of drinks, we were called down to decorate our six cupcakes. I thought this was a bad idea considering we had two pretty strong drinks in us, having us decorate our own cupcakes may not have been the best idea. It turned out to be pretty fun though. Apparently everyone did really well with the decorating, so I guess the alcohol didn't affect us that much!

Decorating my red wine red velvet

After decorating my cupcakes, I hung behind to finish my third cocktail as well as to speak to the baker about some questions I had about the red wine red velvet recipe. In the recipe, it called for a chocolate cake box mix. This confused me considering that there are plenty of boxed red velvet mix available as well as recipes online to make either recipe from scratch. She indicated it would be better to use the red velvet box mix or even better to make it from scratch. She was trying to make the cupcakes easy and accessible for most people to make. I understand and appreciate this considering some of the ingredients to make cupcakes can be better expensive (i.e. vanilla beans).

Chef Beth was really nice (she let me take home six more red wine red velvet cupcakes) and mentioned various types of parties she was able to do, including a Cupcake Wars themed party. I guess I know what I'm doing for my next get together!

My finished products

Overall the event was a hit. I had my hesitations and high expectations because of the location and the price, but the hesitations were overall not necessary and the expectations were exceeded. I'm looking forward to her next Cupcakes and Cocktails course.

Info on Cloud 9 Confections:
Made to Order Bakery
Telephone: 813.833.8002
Email: bethlukens@aol.com
Web: Cloud 9 Confections
Visit Cloud 9 Confections on Facebook.

Sugardarlings - Lutz, Florida (pt. 2)

I wanted to give Sugardarlings another attempt considering the cupcake I had was melted and not at its most appealing. I wanted to give the cupcakery an honest chance because I felt that my first experience was probably skewed by the fact that the frosting had melted. I wasn't sure if I went too easy with my judgement or if I was harsh enough, so I figured I'd go out to Lutz to get the red velvets fresh from the bakery.

Red Velvet and  PB & Chocolate cupcakes

I went ahead and treated myself to the PB & chocolate cupcake as well. I thought, since I was driving all the way out to Lutz, I might as well treat myself, right?

Red Velvet Cupcake

I have to say that the fresh cupcake was slightly disappointing. The cake itself was pretty good. It had a good amount of chocolate flavor, but it didn't have the same punch as the first cupcake I had. The frosting tasted like a simple vanilla frosting. It was creamy and smooth, but didn't seem like the ideal pairing with the red velvet.

In the end, I wonder if the heat in the car altered the taste of the first cupcake. I was so impressed by the came itself and I wonder why this one is so different. Now of course I understand that often when baking fresh two cupcakes aren't always going to taste the same, but if one is using the same recipe then it should taste more similar, right?

And the hunt continues...

Price $1.50/each
Cake: moist, airy, minimal chocolate flavor
Icing: smooth, creamy, no cream cheese flavor
Decorations: simple sprinkles
Overall Rating: 8/10
Website: Sugardarlings

Cakes Plus - Tampa, Florida

While on my adventurous cupcake tour of Tampa, I found out that a custom cake bakery, Cakes Plus, actually made cupcakes too. That was an exciting new finding!

The first time I stopped by that weekend, they had run out of red velvet cupcakes. I was sad, but promised myself I would return. I went back a few weekends later and found myself elbow deep in red velvet cupcakes!

I decided not to be too greedy so I only got one cupcake. During the drive to my apartment, the cupcake scent filled my car. I have the say that the scent of the cupcake was fairly misleading.

While the cupcake looked delicious, the cake itself was fairly plain. I didn't taste any chocolate flavor. In fact, there was a hint of cinnamon. The texture was okay, the cake was moist and airy. The icing was a whipped cream type frosting. There wasn't any cream cheese flavor at all.

Overall I was really disappointed, especially when I looked at the various cakes in the displays. The decorations for the cakes looked amazing, they made the cake look like they would taste delicious. 

Oh well, I get my quest continues...

Price $2.99/each
Cake: moist, airy, no chocolate flavor
Icing: smooth, creamy, whipped cream
Decorations: simple
Overall Rating: 3/10
Website: Cakes Plus

Bea's Bakery - London, England

One of my dear friends, Lindsay, went on an adventure and moved to London. She's a foodie, like me, though she's more well-rounded in her food endeavours. Here's her review of Bea's bakery's Red Velvet cupcakes:

Bea's bakery has some of the best cupcakes in London. I was quit surprised during one of my visits that they had red velvet cupcakes. I've visited the place before and didn't see any but apparently they are the most popular and they sell out quickly.

I wasn't sure if they would do red velvet justice. I'm a southern girl and I grew eating red velvet cake often. Let's just say it holds a special place in my heart.

Of course Bea's hasn't disappointed me so far. I went ahead and bought one. It was probably the best decision I could have made.

Bea's Bakery's Red Velvet Cupcake

The cupcake visually looking very appealing with its deep red, chocolate hue and its swirl of cream cheese frosting on top. The cake it self was so moist and that's after it trekking it all over London in the sun and to a pub for a evening of ciders.

I guess Bea's will always be my go to place in London.

It looks like I'll have to check out Bea's whenever I'm in London next. For more food adventures from Lindsay, check out her blog, Imaginary Chef!

Price: £2.70 (about $4.00)
Cake: moist, airy, perfect chocolate flavor
Icing: smooth, creamy, no cream cheese flavor
Decorations: standard cupcake swirl
Overall Rating: 8.5/ 10
Website: Bea's of Bloomsbury

A Brief History of Cupcakes

I've realized that even though I went through the history of red velvet, as brief as it as, I never really went through the history of cupcakes. Now of course we all know why cupcakes are awesome...they are pretty much everything good in the world put into a small cup. You can literally hold it all in one hand. Why wouldn't anyone like cupcakes?

I did a bit of searching and while I know Wikipedia isn't always the most reliable of sources, I found the most concise and easy to find information there:

"The first mention of the cupcake can be traced as far back as 1796, when a recipe notation of "a cake to be baked in small cups" was written in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. The earliest documentation of the term cupcake was in "Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats" in 1828 in Eliza Leslie's Receipts cookbook.

In the early 19th century, there were two different uses for the name cup cake or cupcake. In previous centuries, before muffin tins were widely available, the cakes were often baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins, or molds and took their name from the cups they were baked in. This is the use of the name that has remained, and the name of "cupcake" is now given to any small cake that is about the size of a teacup. While English fairy cakes vary in size more than American cupcakes, they are traditionally smaller and are rarely topped with elaborate icing.

The other kind of "cup cake" referred to a cake whose ingredients were measured by volume, using a standard-sized cup, instead of being weighed. Recipes whose ingredients were measured using a standard-sized cup could also be baked in cups; however, they were more commonly baked in tins as layers or loaves. In later years, when the use of volume measurements was firmly established in home kitchens, these recipes became known as 1234 cakes or quarter cakes, so called because they are made up of four ingredients: one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs. They are plain yellow cakes, somewhat less rich and less expensive than pound cake, due to using about half as much butter and eggs compared to pound cake. The names of these two major classes of cakes were intended to signal the method to the baker; "cup cake" uses a volume measurement, and "pound cake" uses a weight measurement." [You can find the entire entry here]

Here's an even better version of the story of cupcakes, by Jessie the CakeSpy:

Cupcake Cache LLC - Tampa, Florida

I went on another cupcake adventure to see if I could find some hidden gems in Tampa. I happened to be passing Busch Garden and I found Cupcake Cache LLC! I checked their inventory and realized they specialized in gourmet cupcakes. They don't have the traditional red velvet with cream cheese frosting, but they did have a banana split cupcake which was banana frosting on a red velvet cake. I thought this would be a good initial taste of the red velvet cupcake available at Cupcake Cache LLC.

Red Velvet & Oreo Blast Cupcakes

I also got the Oreo blast cupcake. I thought this would be a good treat for myself once I finish investigating the red velvet cupcake. Spoiler alert, IT WAS DELICIOUS!

Red Velvet Cupcake

The red velvet cupcake was very moist and light. The cake texture was perfect and the flavor was nearly perfect. I would have liked more chocolate flavor and I felt the banana flavor from the frosting in cream inside the cupcake transcended into the cupcake.

Oreo Blast Cupcake

Overall I was impressed with the combination of banana split and red velvet cupcake but I would have liked to have more of a traditional pairing. I did find out from the cupcake baker that they had various other cupcake flavors that paired red velvet cupcake with other frosting flavors.

I will definitely have to check out the other red velvet flavorings they have in the future.

Price $3.50/each
Cake: moist, airy, light chocolate flavor
Icing: smooth, creamy, banana split
Decorations: simple
Overall Rating: 8/10
Website: Cupcake Cache LLC