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

Sweet Cakes Bakery

935 N Damen, Chicago

Chocolate cupcake with white chocolate buttercream frosting

Price: $2.21
Weight: 4 5/8 oz (131g)
Value: $0.478/oz

Frosting The frosting is smooth and greasy, with no hint of graininess. Regarding the taste, I have to say that after having tasted a few white-chocolate flavored buttercreams, I have decided that there is no place in a buttercream frosting for white chocolate. The flavor combination just doesn't seem to work in my opinion, and here is why I think so: Buttercream is made with butter, right? And despite the name, white chocolate isn't actually chocolate at all. It's actually a substance that is extracted from the "chocolate liquor," a thick liquid of fermented cacao seeds that have been ground up. By pressing this liquid, it separates into cocoa solids and cocoa butter, which is also known as white chocolate. The cocoa butter is essentially the vegetable fat of the cacao bean. So you're really just mixing two fats together with a white chocolate buttercream; it's kind of like making the buttercream frosting with part butter and part Crisco. The white chocolate flavor doesn't even really seem come through the buttercream or give it any distinctiveness, other than perhaps to make it a little greasier. The taste and texture of this frosting was kind of like biting into a cool stick of butter. There was some sweetness, but it was mostly bland. So let's just agree on this one thing: bakeries should just cease and desist on the white-chocolate flavored buttercream. Rating 5.0/10

Cake Oh, the cake. After the experience with the frosting, I wasn't expecting this. Possibly the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted. The chocolate flavor was rich, deep, sublime. The texture was moist, chewy and substantive. It is just so unfortunate that they paired it with a mediocre frosting. It merits a perfect rating. Rating 10.0/10

Overall I might have to re-evaluate my rather simplistic rating system. Basically, my Overall Rating is just the unweighted average of the individual ratings of the frosting and cake. I guess I can't decide if I like that method in this particular case. I liked the chocolate cake on this cupcake more than any other so far -- in my view it was almost off the charts. But the frosting was disappointing. In the end, my Overall rating is 7.5, but I'm left wondering would I really prefer this cupcake -- this particular cupcake -- over, say, a Dinkel's cupcake (7.0) which I like very much and which doesn't have any drawback like this one did?

So, I didn't like the frosting on the Sweet Cakes cupcake, but while it was a distraction to the overall experience, it wasn't totally awful. This is where the numerical rating just doesn't do a very good job, because if I had a choice between this particular cupcake and the average Dinkel's cupcake, I would take Dinkel's. Sure, I could always lower the frosting score so that the Overall Rating would be lower than 7.0, but I didn't feel that the frosting deserved a 4.0 rating, for example.

Oh well, I'm too lazy to come up with anything more sophisticated, so I guess I'll settle for imperfect. Besides, it's only a cupcake. And I can't believe I've even written this much. Is anyone still reading? Overall Rating 7.5/10.0

A Taste of Heaven

5401 N Clark St, Chicago

Chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting and chocolate ganache

Price: $2.70
Weight: 4 1/2 oz (128g)
Value: $0.600/oz

Frosting The ganache covering the buttercream frosting is rich and way-super-chocolaty. The flavor in the chocolate buttercream itself, however, was a little hard to discern. The buttercream was a little dense and seemed to have more the consistency of a paté than a frosting. Without the ganache, I would probably give the frosting a 7.0. Rating 8.5/10

Cake The texture of cake was chewy, substantive and moist, with a larger crumb. The chocolate flavor was fine -- not too subtle, not overbearing. Rating 8.5/10

Overall This was overall a very nice cupcake. A word of warning, however: The ganache is so rich and chocolaty that this really should be a 2-person cupcake. I have a pretty high sugar tolerance, but even I felt light-headed and dizzy after eating this whole cupcake (and that says something).

Apart from the cake, however, I have to say I have been disappointed more than a couple of times with the service at A Taste of Heaven. The last time I went there was about 3 years ago, and I actually had stopped visiting because of the service. Previously, it seemed that the employees were more interested in talking to each other than they were waiting on the counter; this time, it seemed like I waited an unnecessarily long time for service, which was made to seem even longer by the fact that there was an employee just standing next to the counter doing nothing while another worker was helping the person in front of me. My friends will say that I have perhaps an abnormally low tolerance for poor or even mediocre service, so in fairness I should point that out; I do tend to be overly critical about such things.

Okay, I'm a diva. I'll admit it.

Overall Rating 8.50/10.0

Cupcake couture

No review this week....just a shirt my friend Jason got me, in Taiwan of all places.

Lutz Café & Pastry Shop

2458 W Montrose, Chicago, IL


Chocolate cupcake with buttercream (?) frosting

Price: $2.56
Weight: 2 3/4 oz (77g)
Value: $0.931/oz

Frosting The frosting was light and marshmallowy. The lady at the counter said it was a buttercream, but I really don't think it was -- the texture and taste was just too much like a stabilized whipped cream. Also, speaking of taste, it seemed to have absorbed the flavor of something else in the display case, because it had a slight tiramisu-like flavor. Finally, it was rather bland. Rating 5.0/10

Cake If the frosting was disappointing, the cake was a disaster. The bottom third of the cupcake was soggy and had an alcohol flavor, like it had been saturated in vanilla extract (maybe this is what the frosting was picking up). The top of the cake was okay. It had a delicate chocolate flavor and a spongy texture. If not for the soggy mess at the bottom I might have rated the cake a 6.0, but I just can't make any excuses to give it a good rating. Rating 2.0/10

Overall There is just nothing more to be said -- there is no excuse to sell a cupcake of this quality. I've had other sweets and pastries at Lutz, and none were as bad as this, so hopefully this was just a fluke. Overall Rating 3.50/10.0

Café Selmarie

4729 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago


Chocolate cupcake with white chocolate buttercream frosting

Price: $2.37
Weight: 3 1/4 oz (91g)
Value: $0.729/oz

Frosting Smooth and slightly on the heavy side. The frosting was rich and creamy, but mixed on the white chocolate flavor. Rating 7.0/10

Cake Slightly dry and crumbly, which is unfortunate because it really detracts from the decent chocolate flavor that would otherwise make for a pretty good cupcake. Rating 6.0/10

Overall I really didn't expect that I'd enjoy this cupcake from Café Selmarie at all. A lot of the other cakes and desserts here seem to me to be very bland. However, they always looked so good that for a couple of years I would convince myself to try them just one more time, thinking that the next one will taste better. However, each time I was disappointed, and each time I would say to myself, "Never again." Alas, I found myself there the other night with some friends and I noticed that they have cupcakes, so I decided I'd have to at least give them a chance. (For the record, the banana eclair I had that night once again disappointed - it was just so bland to me that the only thing that saved it was the banana).

Although my expectations were pretty low with the cupcake, it didn't turn out to be bland like the other desserts I've had. Though the white chocolate didn't really add flavor, but at least the frosting was actually sweet, creamy and rich. And the cake had a decent chocolate flavor. All in all, while it wasn't a bad cupcake, I thought it was just little bit below the Dinkel's standard, mostly due to the density of the frosting and the slightly dry cake. Overall Rating 6.50/10.0

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

Recap

The BCG Cupcake Portfolio Matrix

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

Fox & Obel

401 E Illinois, ChicagoChocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting

Price: $3.06
Weight: 4 5/8 oz (130g)
Value: $0.662/oz

Frosting The frosting is smooth, sweet, and chocolate fudge-like. I would also say it had a quality that can only be described as....well, wet. It was like frosting you would get out of a can at the grocery store. Rating 6.0/10

Cake The cake was a little bit dry on the edges, but toward the center it was fairly moist. I know this will sound strange, but it also seemed like there was some kind of spice or herb in the cake -- I kept tasting something that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I can't say it was bad necessarily, but I wish I could place it. Even though the texture was a little dry, I was intrigued. Rating 6.0/10

Overall I've heard people rave about the cupcakes at Fox & Obel, but I couldn't help thinking the frosting was something from Duncan Hines. The store seems like a nice place though. I would describe it as a grocery store with mood lighting. I didn't look around a lot, but my initial impression is that of a more upscale Whole Foods (if that means anything). Even so, I was impressed that the cupcake, for as big as it was, wasn't more expensive. It's a decent cupcake, and worth the price overall -- in other words, I wouldn't turn it down. Overall Rating 6.0/10.0