One of my favorite local publications, Seattle Metropolitan, featured local "Top Sweets" this month. The lucky journalists engaged in testing the desserts tried nearly every pie, cake, chocolate, brownie, and cupcake around the area giving all of us an easy chart to find the best ones. Surprisingly, there were even a few Eastside mentions (Hoffman's Fine Pastries in Kirkland, to name one). My side of the lake usually gets nary a mention (yeah yeah, except for the whole issue dedicated to the Eastside last month...but other than that, not much).
Maybe it was too new to mention in the Seattle Met list, but Kirklanders are going a little nuts for our new favorite cupcake shop Sweet Cakes. Certain men I know have even had to prove that it was a dessert joint they were going to and not another kind of joint, when mentioning Sweet Cakes to their co-workers.
I'd been wanting to try this place for a while when I got the opportunity to sample the cupcakes at a children's birthday party recently. Yum. (I'd say "love at first bite" but that's cheesy). Of course, I tried the Red Velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting...maybe one of the most delicious inventions on the planet. I'm a sucker for cream cheese frosting, but the moist buttermilk cake was great, too!
Since then, I've also sampled the chocolate, mint-chocolate, and coconut varieties. The coconut ranks a close second on the delicious scale...the rest haven't been quite as close. But, Red Velvet is the one for me!
If you are in town, check them out! The staff is friendly and the sweets are tasty.
My own attempt at cupcakes for my son's 4th birthday turned out beautifully thanks to my friend Wendy's:
Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 c warm water
3/4 c buttermilk
3 TB oil
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat the oven to 350 and line the muffin tin with paper liners.
Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
In a separate bowl, blend the eggs, water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla until smooth. Add in the dry ingredients, scraping down the bowl. Mix well.
Divide batter among muffin cups, filling 2/3 full (makes about 18-24). Bake about 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
For icing, combine 4 oz finely chopped bittersweet chocolate, 1 TB corn syrup, and 2/3 c heavy cream that has been heated. Stir together to melt the chocolate. Chill it a while to thicken. Then, dip the cupcakes and let drip over a wire rack.
If you chill them, they are kind of like a delicious version of Hostess cupcakes, (minus the whipped cream filling)!
3 comments:
Heavens' to mergatroid! If you are familiar with purgatory (a level of hell) I would like to submit that 'Sweet Cakes' is certainly the opposite! This tiny little cupcake shop is a level of heaven! Recently I was gifted with an assortment of sweet cakes that included the red velvet, carrot cake, strawberries & cream and lemon! The strawberries & cream has risen to first place in my book. The cake itself has a very unique texture that almost defies description, but I shall try. The texture is hearty almost like a corn muffin but not at all course or gritty like corn meal. It's a wonderful compliment to the delightful pale pink strawberry frosting. It was my husband’s colleague who first introduced us to this slice of heaven and it's worth noting that his nick name has become 'Sweet cakes'! I dare say that I may end up to be the founding member of "Sweet Cakes' Anonymous cause this place is habit forming!
i havent been to seetcakes yet, inspite of living right here!! tch tch!! im making a trip soon, how can i not, after reading so much about it!
Well I admit to already being an addict of the Sweet Cakes variety. My latest craze, must have a bite of...the Coconut Angelfood Cupcake. A little bit of heaven! I love the mini versions of all the flavors, because one can have their fix, without going overboard. A good vice, everyone will agree. Try this place and you too can be a regular.
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