Kay had a chance to visit Sprinkles Beverly Hills cupcake store in Scottsdale, AZ. They only have five stores outside of Beverly Hills, CA right now, but are opening a bunch of them soon around the country, including Chicago. For more info on the company, see their website.

Here are a few shots of the Scottsdale store at the corner of Scottsdale & Camelback.

The cupcakes are $3.25 a piece, so for about 20 bucks, you can get a yummy six pack. Which is what we bought to test the product =)

Their slogan is “Peace and Cupcakes”, and they tell you not to refrigerate the cupcakes as that will dehydrate them. Even the plastic baggy the cupcakes are stored in has a cute little Sprinkles logo on it.

The company makes different flavors, but not each of them every day. Here’s the schedule:

We were there on a Thursday so our six-pack contained the following: vanilla, vanilla milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and carrot.

The verdict:

Carrot Cake Cupcakes: Amazing texture and taste. Somehow, there are cupcakey while still retaining the sweetness and texture of carrot cake. Probably not a hit with people who do not like carrot cake, but a must for those who do.

Milk Chocolate Vanilla: A yummy but not exceptional vanilla cupcake (think Amy Sedaris’s recipe). Very nice chocolaty frosting, which gives the cupcake a nice balance. A great option if you want a simple cupcake but are bored with vanilla buttercream.

Vanilla: Aside from the size and evenness of the frosting layer, this could have been made at home with the Amy Sedaris cupcake recipe (posted earlier). Don’t get me wrong–it was excellent. Just not exceptional. I might get one on the go for a snack, but wouldn’t spend the money if I wanted more to share with friends. You can achieve the same taste w/ the Sedaris recipe.

Dark Chocolate: This was a pleasant surprise. A very well-though-out  mixture of tastes, this cupcake works because the batter, the frosting, and the chocolate pieces sprinkled on top are not overwhelming. This is dark chocolate, great for the chocolate-addict, but not the overload of cacao sometimes used for similarly named concoctions.

Overall: Every cupcake was excellent and the shopping experience is a joy. The cupcakery is gorgeous, and the packaging, service, and all the extras were delightful. The cupcakes are big, with a distinct “muffin top” over the edge of the liner, and they are frosted in a fairly even layer across the top.

Grade: A- (will be an A+ if their vanilla cupcake distinguishes itself from the pack)

Happy 2009!

–Kay

Halloween cupcakes, vanilla w/ butter cream frosting; Halloween M&Ms for decor.

These were for a friend’s party, and she hates red food coloring (she can taste it), so I wanted Halloween-y without orange frosting since that would have required red and yellow. I opted for gooey green, and the new Halloween colors of M&Ms worked quite nicely for a Halloween effect.

The trusty Sedaris recipe, works well for mini. Bakes in five minutes less than full-size, again frosted with buttercream frosting.

All have the same blue frosting; the light just hits them differently in the middle shot.

Here’s the recipe for the excellent vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting from Amy Sedaris.

These are the ones in our welcome post, and they are wonderful. Instead of half-and-half, we used full-fat milk and the frosting turned out great. Food coloring helps add a splash; the cakey part is very yummy–even on its own

Pistachio Chocolate and White Chocolate Macadamia Cupcakes from Cakes on Walnut. More of review forthcoming once we gather our thoughts!

This week Kay made chocolate cupcakes at home. Here are the results:

More about the recipe in a minute, but in the middle of the night when making these, I realized we didn’t have that much in way of decor. I raided Jay’s candy, using some Finnish fruit animals to top off some of the cupcakes. Above you can see the pink lamb resting on chocolate-chocolate goodness,

I also used sprinkles–quite sparingly–and got compliments on my restraint. This example shows one of the more plentifully decorated cupcakes.

Now the recipe: I was a bit worried, having never made chocolate cuppies before, about making them chocolatey enough. I found tons of good recipes, lots of them with cocoa powder, but ended up using this one from Cupcake Fun. I simply used the recipe, and did not put extra chocolate chips on top as I planned to frost these babies with chocolate.

For frosting, I used a great recipe with sour cream, vanilla, chocolate chips and light Karo I can’t find the link right now since I found it on another computer, so I’ll add it soon!

We are now committed to cupcakes, and not much else. Do one thing and do it well. Sweet posts coming up soon!!

Not an original post, but it goes to show that good things should not come in ugly packages.

The 100 Worst Album Covers EVER

The shipping log menu at Virgin Oil Company in downtown Helsinki, Finland.

Different groups of foods (antipasti, pasta, pizza, drinks, salads, etc.) were on different pages, and it was easy to flip back and forth. The faux-shipping invoice format allowed for a very clear layout w/o seeming lame. Loved the rustic touches (stamps, photos, and such) as well.

Even the most meticulously and no doubt expensively designed attractive new logo can become an accomplice in an annoying violation of Commercial Aesthetics. CA Rule #1: Make sure signs are straight, not annoyingly askew.

This is actually a large and heavy-looking sign. It makes me wonder if it’s properly attached, since whoever did so couldn’t get it on straight. I’d think twice about walking under it, although I do drive by it all the time.

–K