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| From cupcakes_2009 |
Aw yeah…it's almost Halloween, and MF and I are getting ready for our annual CUPCAKE HUNT! Basically, we take Halloween day to drive around town, visiting a pumpkin-load of bakeries, buying cupcakes, and then bringing them home to taste and rate them using absolutely no criteria whatsoever. The only rule is that they be Halloween themed in some sort of way.
Then we pick a winner and go watch spooky movies to get through our sugar comas.
(I always wait till the following Halloween to post our results, mainly because I have no interest in talking about Halloween after the 31st, and posting the results a year later gets me excited all over again. )
So this was 2009:
Now for those who don't remember, Halloween was actually pretty warm last year, and since we spend about 4 hours driving around town, I was worried that our cupcakes would melt in the car. Our solution? Pack a cooler full of ice-packs.
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
Portable cupcake carrier is GO.
Our first stop was Sweet Lady Jane's on Melrose.
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
This place makes THE most incredible cupcake frosting I have ever tasted. It won our little competition the first year, and we usually go there first, because they tend to run out of Halloween cupcakes by early afternoon.
After that, we swung be Thee's in the Farmer's Market.
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
These guys won the year that we got to Sweet Lady Jane's late, and all they had left were carrot cupcakes. Thee's usually turns in a solid Halloween cupcake, and there's really something to be said for the little plastic witch sticking out of the top.
Then, we took Kimberly's advice and hit Joan's on Third for the first time ever.
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
This place was AWESOME, and we came away with a yummy looking Snickers cupcake with a little ghost on top.
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After that, we headed to another new spot on Beverwil called Famous Cupcakes.
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Steph mentioned this place, having never been to it, hoping that our professional analysis would let her know if it was good enough to visit. All I can say is, this was their packaging:
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
Evidently, a thumbs-up from the Kardashian Sisters.
What?
Okay. They also didn't have any Halloween cupcakes when we got there, but a nice girl behind the counter said they were getting more in an hour in case we wanted to come back. That was cool, so we headed to Santa Monica for two of our favorite standbys:
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
(Nosferatu T-shirt by Threadless!)
Vanilla Bake Shop always has a solid cupcake, and I can't sing them enough praises. The first year we stopped in, they didn't have any Halloween cupcakes, so they couldn't be in the competition. They almost won last year with their "Black and White" cupcake, and this year, they happened to have a little ghostie sitting on top of their Bittersweet Chocolate cupcake, (which is one of my favorites.)
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One block down the street is their arch-rival, Yummy Cupcakes!
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
(Okay, I may have just said that to increase the drama, but it's fun to think of them as rivals.) Yummy was overly impressive this year with FIVE Halloween cupcakes. And these weren't their normal flavors with a little pumpkin on top…these were special cupcakes DESIGNED for Halloween. Now that's the kinda spirit we're looking' for! My pick was called the Blackout Cake!
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
Mary Frances' choice was Peanut butter with a spooky cat.
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
After the Santa Monica leg, we went back to Kardashian Cupcakes, where they had two special selections waiting for us.
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Thanks, girl behind the counter...that was awfully cool of you!
By that time, it was getting to be rush hour, so we skipped our usual ritual of seeing what the grocery store had to offer, and took our cooler full of cupcakes back to spooky town.
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MF did the arranging.
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I dug in.
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I tasted and tested...
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They were all exceptionally good, with one surprise FAIL. From Thee's!
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I don't know what the deal was, but the normal baker must have had a stroke that morning because this frosting was made by an Ugnaught. It had NO taste! It was like eating whipped orange lard! FAIL.
Apart from that, the choice was difficult, but it came down to two...Yummy and 2 time winner, Sweet Lady Jane.
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
Yummy's Blackout Cake had a layer of chocolate fudge frosting, topped by a layer of cocoa powder, and finished off with a chocolate drizzle and zombie hand. It was amazing.
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
Sweet Lady Jane always has good moist cake, and like I said, their frosting is something RIDICULOUS. Plus, it had a bat, which speaks to the Vampire in me.
Ultimately, I had to give it to Yummy.
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The cupcake was outrageous, and the fact that they had designed several cupcakes SPECIFICALLY for Halloween was exactly the extra bit of love that this contest celebrates.
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Who will take the cake this year? Will Yummy turn in new Halloween designs? Will Sweet Lady Jane just beat the trick or treat out everyone else with their incredible frosting? Or will one of the other bakeries surprise us? We have a few new places to try this time around, so really...anything can happen!
Happy Halloween, everybody!
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| From cupcakes_2009 |
