Costco

Damen, Clybourn & Diversey, Chicago, IL


Chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting

Price: $16.99 for 20 (before tax)
Weight: 5 7/8 oz (165g) each
Value: $0.145/oz

Frosting Slight hint of graininess, buttery, with a fudge chocolate flavor. It has a thick consistency, but it's not particularly heavy -- more like a really thick mousse, maybe. I don't really like the richness of the fudge flavor, but it was good enough to enjoy. The plain frosting on the yellow cupcakes was better. Rating 6.5/10 (chocolate) 7.5/10 (vanilla)

Cake Moist, soft, but slightly bland, but still a respectable cake. Rating 7.0/10 (chocolate) 7.5/10 (yellow)

Overall What can you say about a cupcake that costs less than 85 cents, weighs more than 1/4 pound, and tastes pretty darn good? I declare it officially America's favorite cupcake of the 2008-2009 Recession. Overall Rating 6.75/10.0 (chocolate) 7.25/10.0 (yellow)

Su Van's Bake Shop

3351 N Lincoln, Chicago, IL


Chocolate cupcake with plain buttercream frosting

Price: $2.77
Weight: n/a
Value: n/a

Frosting The nice lady at the counter explained to me that the frosting was made with a "rue," which I learned was a mixture of flour and milk added to the buttercream. This, she says, enables you to make the buttercream real light and helps keep it from being too sweet. It worked. The frosting was super-light, almost like a whipped cream, and not too sweet...and still had the graininess that I like so much. The only drawback was that it just seemed a little "lumpy" or coagulated. I had to knock it down half a point for that. Rating 8.0/10

Cake Good substance, for the most part moist, but a little bit on the dense side so in some places it tended to seem just a little dry. Chocolate flavor was really good though. Rating 8.0/10

Overall Su Van's is just 1/2 block north of Dinkel's, so it has formidable competition. (But Su Van's is really more of a brunch/lunch place, which Dinkel's is not.) The thing I noticed about the cupcakes here is that they all look great without trying to be perfect. They just seem to me to look like what a cupcake should look like, if that makes any sense. I find that a lot of times cupcakes that have that "perfect" look are the ones that don't necessarily taste that great. But these were well put-together, good proportions of frosting to cake, and just looked really clean. And the one I had tasted really good. Overall Rating 8.00/10.0

Flourish Bakery Café

1138 W Bryn Mawr, Chicago, IL


Yellow cupcake with plain buttercream frosting

Price: $1.49
Weight: 3 3/4 oz (106g)
Value: $0.397/oz

Frosting The frosting is so light, soft and pillowy that you can literally lick it off the cupcake like you're eating an ice cream cone, rather than having to bite into it. Like my favorite frostings, it has a grainy texture and only a very slightly greasy feel . Rating 9.5/10

Cake Normally I try to get a chocolate cupcake with plain frosting, but they didn't have any this day. (They had chocolate/chocolate, but I decided to go for the plain frosting rather than the chocolate cake.) The yellow cake was very soft and moist. It had a nice flavor, but the only possible negative thing I would say is that it tasted perhaps a little too much like a cake you might get from a Duncan Hines cake mix, and it still had a somewhat "batter-like" taste. Rating 8.0/10

Overall I just recently discovered this bakery/cafe while driving around in Edgewater. My first trip back was to have a sandwich (turkey, bacon & Swiss on cranberry-pecan bread, with fruit chutney, which was excellent), and I drooled over the pastries and baked goods.

I really like this place. It's large, bright, clean and happy, and the staff is very friendly and helpful. I'm only somewhat familiar with the area, but I think the stretch of Bryn Mawr where Flourish is located, between Broadway and Sheridan, has gone through a little renaissance over the past few years. (I'm told Flourish has been there for about 3 years.) The neighborhood still has some lingering elements of its former "sketchiness," but aside from the wandering local half-way house residents, for the most part it seems to be well into the up-side of up-and-coming.

As for the cupcake, overall it was very, very nice. I especially liked the frosting, and there's no doubt I'll be going back try the chocolate version. Probably today. Overall Rating 8.75/10.0

Bennison's Bakery

1000 Davis St, Evanston, IL


Chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting

Price: $1.30
Weight: 2 3/4 oz (78g)
Value: $0.473/oz

Frosting There are really 2 frostings on this cupcake. The white frosting is less grainy and slightly greasy; the blue frosting has a sweeter, sugary taste and a grainy, thick consistency. If the white frosting can be described as moist, the blue might be described as having a somewhat dry texture (while not actually being dry). I liked the combination of textures, although I have to say I was partial to the grainer blue frosting. Rating 9.25/10

Cake The cake has a superb chocolate flavor and a soft, chewy texture that has some substance to it. An excellent cake. Rating 9.25/10

Overall Another fantastic cupcake. I don't know if I'm just being too easy of a judge lately, or if it really takes a special talent to make a bad cupcake.

I liked the fact that there were essentially 3 textures and 3 flavors here: the chewy chocolatey cake, the smooth plain white buttercream frosting, and the sweeter, grainer blue frosting. Overall Rating 9.25/10.0

Jewel

Various locations around Chicago



Chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting

Price: $3.78 for 6
Weight: 2 3/8 oz each (67g)
Value: $0.265/oz

Frosting The frosting is thick, slightly grainy and has a candy-like sweetness, though not overly sweet. Rating 8.5/10

Cake The chocolate cake has a nice flavor and a moist, soft crumb. Rating 8.5/10

Overall That's right, Jewel the grocery store. We've all had grocery store birthday cake -- some are so sweet and overbearing that even those of us with the most dedicated sweet tooth can't finish even a single slice, and others are so tantalizingly good we keep going back to the fridge to sneak just one last slice, again and again. This cupcake is like the good birthday cake. I bought a pack of six, and they were gone in 24 hours. Cupcake purists might roll their eyes when I say this, but in my opinion this cupcake rates near some of the best. Actually, I have to admit I wasn't really all that surprised. There are certainly better cupcakes out there, but when you can get SIX really good cupcakes for the price of one very good cupcake, you have to wonder if what you're paying for at some of those fancier bakeries is worth it. Overall Rating 8.5/10.0

Bleeding Heart Bakery

1955 W Belmont, Chicago


Chocolate cupcake with plain frosting and chocolate shavings
Price: $3.59
Weight: 3 3/8 oz (97g)
Value: $1.064/oz

Frosting Grainy, buttery but not greasy, and a slightly chalky texture...which is not necessarily a criticism. The frosting has a little density to it, and I generally prefer something that feels lighter and more whipped. The chocolate shavings added a nice bittersweet flavor. It was a solid performer, but didn't knock my socks off. Rating 7.5/10

Cake The cake also has some substance to it that you can really bite into. A cupcake this dense without sufficient moistness would have been a disaster, but this cake was very moist. Great chocolate flavor too -- rich without being overbearing. Rating 9/10

Overall I'm afraid to say anything bad about this bakery, because the people who run the place look like they would hurt me. I really don't know how to describe them: a mix of biker/punk/hipster/urban and....I don't know. Heavily pierced, thoroughly tattooed and colorfully dyed.

But none of that should distract you from checking out this bakery. It may be a little pricey, but it by far has the most character of any bakery/cafe I've been to, and based on this cupcake alone I'd say it's a pretty good one at that. Plus, I don't know anywhere else you can get chocolate covered bacon.

Overall Rating 8.25/10.0

Sweet Occasions and More

5306 N Clark, Chicago
4639 N Damen, Chicago

UPDATE: As of the end of August 2008, Sweet Occasions and More is no more.

Chocolate cupcake with plain frosting
Price: $2.75
Weight: 3 3/4 oz (107g)
Value: $0.733/oz

Frosting The frosting was very light and grainy, and it had a slightly chalky texture Rating 9.0

Cake Slightly chewy but soft. Chocolatey and moist Rating 8.5

Overall Sweet Occasions started with a small shop near Lincoln Square, and a couple of years later opened a second, much larger store in Andersonville, and soon it will be opening a third in Edgewater. The cupcake here was quite pleasing. However, having eaten probably a dozen cupcakes from Sweet Occasions, I feel I should mention that they haven’t all been as good as this; I’ve also had a couple that were really disappointing. Nonetheless, Sweet Occasions is one of my favorite shops because it offers a good variety for anyone with a sweet tooth: cake slices, pie slices, brownies, tarts, ice cream, candy, imported chocolates, and probably other things that I haven’t noticed because I was in too much of a hurry to stuff a slice of cake in my mouth. The ice cream is excellent and rich, and the cake slices are HUGE (though now also a bit pricey). There’s a lot to like about this place, not just the cupcakes. Overall Rating 8.75/10

Alliance Bakery & Café

1736 W Division, Chicago

Yellow cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting
Price: $2.37
Weight: 3 1/2 oz (100g)
Value: $0.677/oz

Frosting This buttercream has a slightly dry, chalky feel at first, but it gives way to a nice creaminess as it melts in your mouth. Slightly grainy, light and buttery flavor, and while I wouldn’t say it’s greasy, it has a somewhat slippery mouth feel. Rating 8.0/10

(Speaking of greasy, I should say that I don’t necessarily consider that a bad thing. I prefer a texture that is slightly grainy, but naturally a buttercream is going to have a buttery texture, which is going to feel a little greasy. However, too greasy just makes me think that there’s shortening in it, and you don't want your mouth to feel as though you just took a swig of vegetable oil. So, slightly greasy is okay, but greasy greasy is not so good. )

Cake Moist and spongy. The cake as some substance to it, meaning it’s a little heaver than a Sweet Honeybee cupcake, for example, but has a slightly chewy quality you can sink your teeth into. Rating 8.0/10

Overall I generally try to review chocolate cupcakes with plain buttercream so that comparisons between cupcakes are meaningful. However, according to the woman at the counter, Alliance doesn’t make chocolate cupcakes as part of their daily offering (though they can be special-ordered). So, I was left with a standard yellow cupcake. Overall, this was a nice cupcake – the sponginess of the cake was a pleasing texture, and it was a good balance with the light buttercream frosting. Overall rating 8.0/10

Sweet Signature Bakery

1956 W Montrose, Chicago
MOVED! 5708 W Fullerton, Chicago
Chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting
Price: $1.00
Weight: 3 5/8 oz (102g)
Value: $0.276/oz

Frosting Slightly grainy texture. Fluffy and light, soft and whipped butter texture. Rating 9.0/10

Cake A very moist, soft, pillowy crumb that dissolves in your mouth. Rating 9.0/10

Overall Another small bakery that opened in mid-late 2007, just a couple of blocks down the street from Sweet Honeybee. Actually, this cupcake reminded me so much of the one from Sweet Honeybee that I wondered if I had wandered into the wrong bakery; in terms of taste, texture and quality, the cupcakes are nearly indistinguishable. When the clerk rang it up for just $1.00, the first thing I said to him was that he was not charging enough – before I had even tasted it! The only drawback I would say is that of the four times I’ve been here in the past 2 months, they were sold out twice. I don’t get the impression that it’s because the sales volume is very high, I just think that it’s because it’s such a small bakery. If people only knew, though.... Overall rating 9.0/10

Swedish Bakery

5348 N Clark St, ChicagoChocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting
Price: $1.02
Weight: 2 1/4 oz (65g)
Value: $0.453/oz

Frosting Light and fluffy, slightly grainy and just a little greasy. Rating 9.0/10

Cake Moist, with a delicate chocolate flavor. Rating 9.0/10

Overall This cupcake is right up there with Sweet Honeybee. It’s a little smaller, but the taste and texture are near perfect. It’s also pretty good value at just over $1 – and that’s after Swedish had to raise prices on some of its goods. Just as we’ve been hearing about the dramatic rise in commodity prices around the world, prices of raw ingredients such as flour, eggs and shortening across the country have increased anywhere between 50-400% in the last year due to a number of factors including fuel costs, the weak dollar, drought and the resulting increased demand for US wheat exports. Perhaps other bakeries will have to begin raising prices, if they haven’t already. Even so, I have a feeling that Swedish Bakery and Sweet Honey Bee will still be worth the price – they’re that good. Overall rating 9.0/10

Angel Food Bakery

1636 W Montrose, ChicagoChocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting
Price: $2.82
Weight: 5 oz (142g)
Value: $0.564/oz

Frosting Slightly grainy and somewhat dense (which is partly evidenced by the overall weight of the cupcake). However, the flavor was a little off; perhaps the frosting had been frozen at one point, or perhaps the food coloring is lending a hint of unusual flavor, I don't know. I would characterize the frosting as decent, even with the slightly off-taste. Would have rated a 7.5 otherwise. Rating 6.5/10

Cake A slightly chewy cake with plenty of substance. A noticeable chocolate flavor without being either too weak or overbearing. Rating 7.5/10

Overall This was still a better than average cupcake, though the off flavor of the buttercream was a bit of a hindrance. For the price, however, I think it's a pretty good value. Overall Rating 7.0/10

Sweet Honeybee Bakery

1918 W Montrose, ChicagoChocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting
Price: $2.00
Weight: 2 5/8 oz (73g)
Value: $0.762/oz

Frosting Real Italian buttercream, with a slightly granular texture, light buttery taste and whipped into a fluffy cloud of a frosting. Possibly the best buttercream I’ve had. Rating 9.0/10

Cake This cake has a pudding-like moistness and a soft, velvety texture. The chocolate flavor is noticeable but not overbearing. Rating 9.0/10

Overall This small bakery opened up in the late summer of 2007, and the cupcakes here quickly became my new favorite – if I didn't have the goal of trying to eat cupcakes from as many different bakeries as possible, I'd be here almost every weekend. With almost perfect flavor, moistness and texture, it’s an outstanding cupcake and one of the best I’ve had. Though it's a bit pricey relative to other cupcakes in terms of price per ounce, in terms of taste and quality, it is worth every penny. Everyone should try this cupcake. Overall rating 9.0/10

Southport Grocery & Cafe

3552 N Southport, ChicagoChocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting
Price: $2.04
Weight: 3 5/8 oz (103g)
Value: $0.563/oz

Frosting Heavy and slightly dry, with a delicate outer crust. Powdered sugary aftertaste. A buttery frosting with a hint of graininess. Good frosting, but a little too sweet. Rating 7.0/10

Cake The light chocolate cake had a crumbly yet sufficiently moist texture. Rating 7.0/10

Overall Southport Grocery does make a decent cupcake. I put it on par with Dinkel’s, though each has distinctly different qualities. I used to give my co-workers a hard time when they raved about Southport’s cupcakes, insisting to them that Dinkel’s was far better. But in all honesty, both are good cupcakes; I don’t see the differences as making either one necessarily better than or inferior to the other. Overall rating 7.0/10