Seattle Cupcake Tour

Last year, I gave Esther the assignment to go to Trophy cupcakes and the report was good. I was super excited to finally try them for myself when I started planning to visit her this month. I also was intrigued to try the lavender cupcakes from Cupcake Royale because of this review. I had tried their cupcakes the last time I was there, but hadn't tried the lavender, so I figured this was my turn. Then, when Esther recently blogged that the woman that made her wedding cake started making cupcakes, I got even more excited for the possibilities. Sounds fun, right? Cupcakes from three different places?

A few weeks before my trip, Esther sent me a link and told me to choose which ones I wanted from Sweet Lorraine. I chose six and thought we'd just get two or three and split them between Esther, Paul and myself. Esther emailed me back and said, "Okay, I ordered them, I got all the ones you wanted... 18 cupcakes!" Now, I know I talk a lot about food in general, and talk a lot about cupcakes and dessert specifically, but eighteen cupcakes for three people... plus the additional ones from Trophy and Cupcake Royale? Honestly, I was freaking out! And not in a good way. It may not seem like it, but I actually would like to drop a few pounds (and have been somewhat successful until this trip) and the thought of having that much sugar around was causing me to panic. Panic!

Thursday was the day we decided to drive into the city and pick up the first batch. We went to Trophy and got one vanilla/vanilla, one lemon/strawberry, and one peanut butter & jelly. The vanilla/vanilla is so good, that it made Esther switch teams from a vanilla cake/chocolate frosting person to a shoveling-the-vanilla/vanilla- in-her-mouth-before-we-could-get-to-the-car person. As I've said before, I usually get the vanilla/vanilla because I like it the best, but also because it's easier to compare to other bakeries if I always get the same thing. As we were driving home, Esther was asking me how it compares... and I will agree it is, by far, one of the best. I have a hard time saying it is the best unless I try them in a side-by-side comparison, something that frustrated Esther to no end, but how can I? The cake was really good, the paper is scraped clean and the frosting is super creamy and not too sweet. Delicious!! The other flavors were good, but I wouldn't necessarily get them again. I don't know if you can see the frosting but they were definitely the cutest.

Next it was on to Cupcake Royale. I had these before and never thought they were that great. In fact, when I thought they were the only cupcakes in town, I actually felt sorry for Seattle people. Here I have several really good places to choose from and they have one mediocre place. Anyway, I still wanted to try the lavender cupcake because it was highly recommended and 18 cupcakes weren't enough, apparently. So, the report for these is... eh! The lavender is kind of interesting, but my first bite I felt like I bit into a weed. The cake part is pretty light and airy, which I might compare to, like, a Hostess cake or something. So, not great. Esther didn't even want to get one from there, but did get a lavender cupcake for Paul to sample, which he barely touched.

The next day was the big day. To appease me, Esther made a plan to give some of the cupcakes away and I stopped hyperventilating, but of course, we still planned to try lots of them. Here's what we got, from left:

Carrot, Turtle, Peanut butter cup, Bananas foster, Vanilla/vanilla, Lemon. We opened the boxes up just to check what we got, and we saw that we were missing the Mango lime. I heard about how good these were from Esther, so I was really looking forward to them... so Lorraine threw in two more (in front). So, instead of 18 we now had 20!! But now they were in my hot little hands and no longer hypothetical cupcakes, and I decided to enjoy them. So, here's my report. The vanilla/vanilla were delish and every bit as good as Trophy. I think, because I didn't compare them side-by-side. But great cake--perfect density-- and really smooth, really tasty frosting. The one I liked the most was the Peanut butter cup, pictured here. Look at that peanut butter filling! So good! I actually couldn't finish it all, it was that rich and creamy. I also loved the mango lime, and even though there were only two of those, I ate them both! (sorry Paul!) The others were all good, but I didn't think the banana or lemon were super banana-y or lemon-y, although Esther disagreed with me. I didn't try the carrot (Paul's faves--I let him have them all). The turtle was my least favorite. But you can see here that we enjoyed ourselves immensely and needless to say, none were given away!

I haven't weighed myself since I have been back -- too scared!