San Diego has Cupcakes!

So this is old news, but we hit some bakeries on our two trips to San Diego in the past month. First on our anniversary trip, then on our return trip to take Tad to the zoo.

Okay, if I didn't hate the way so many of the roads are set up, and it wasn't so close to Mexico, and it wasn't so far away from everyone I love... I would move there for the cupcakes. Because the one bakery we have here... well, I definitely wasn't impressed when I tried it. I'd rather put the effort into making my own.

So on our anniversary trip, we decided to hit up a bakery every day. And as soon as we checked into our hotel, we headed for our first one: Cupcakes Squared. And yes, the cupcakes are square. And the best things I have ever tasted.

We're total piggies and we got FOUR cupcakes. There was lemon (lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting), not-so-red velvet ("red" velvet with cream cheese frosting), lemon white chocolate (white chocolate cake with a little lemon and a white chocolate ganache), and cheesecake (graham cupcake with lemon marscapone frosting).

OH. MY. LORD. We had a couple then saved the other two for later. And they were all amazing. I think they use a french buttercream (so different than your regular buttercream) which I am so learning to make. If I had one of these places near me, I would be a cow because I would get cupcakes all the time.

Saturday we hit up a place called Babycakes that's just north of downtown. They don't just have cupcakes, they have a little bit of everything. We split a couple cupcakes. We got a blood orange and a hazelnut.

The blood orange was AMAZING. You could eat it for breakfast. There was the blood orange filling and blueberries chilling on the bottom of it.

The hazelnut was awesome because it was a marble cake that wasn't heavy at all. And the frosting was pretty light too. Tasty stuff.

For our anniversary we went back to Cupcakes Squared. We wanted to try and get the same flavors we had in our wedding cake. So we got vanilla squared (vanilla/vanilla), mocha (chocolate and coffee cake with chocolate chips and chocolate ganache), and lemon.

They did not disappoint this time either. I think I died a little with the mocha one. It was super-crazy-delicious.

Then on our last day we ventured into downtown to try Heavenly Cupcakes. We got red velvet (since hubby has apparently deemed it his new favorite flavor) and a vanilla caramel (vanilla cake with vanilla bean buttercream and caramel sauce). Aren't they pretty?

The red velvet was good, but the cream cheese frosting didn't impress me as much as others. The vanilla caramel was outstanding. Add some coffee flavor and you have a frappuccino. Awesome.

Then on our last trip we made a stop, but I didn't get pictures of our cupcakes before we ate them. The place was in Encinitas and is called Elizabethan Desserts. I think my favorite part is that it's located kind of inside a nursery so you've got all these plants and flowers around when you get there.

We got a chocolate toffee, a grasshopper, and a Mr. Bean's cup o' joe. Tad loved his. Tim liked his. I liked mine, but I thought it was a little sweet. Not sure I'd stop there if I was going back, I'd just hold out for Cupcakes Squared.

Jeez, I feel like a food blogger naming off all these places. If you're headed down there and only have time for one, go to Cupcakes Squared. Hands down the best ones we had.

Food Review

I haven't done one of these. But this one was SO necessary.

Cold Stone Creamery is serving ice cream cupcakes through the end of March.

I learned this and did a happy dance. I love Cold Stone. I love cupcakes. What could be better? So hubby and I went to get some recently. There are three flavors available: Sweet Cream, Cake Batter Delux (yes, they spell it that way), and Double Chocolate Devotion. Descriptions of each are available at the link above.


Overall review: really good. I was expecting the chocolate cups to be obnoxious and too thick. But not at all. They were a perfect thickness. The ice cream was great (duh), the frosting (whipped cream!) was not too sweet at all (I was worried), and the cake tasted good. My only complaint? Not quite enough cake. I could definitely do with more cake in mine. Hubby agrees. On to details...

Sweet Cream: Oh soooooo good. I loved it. Surprisingly, I haven't had the sweet cream ice cream before. I will definitely be getting that on the next visit. Cake was good, just not quite enough for me.

Cake Batter Delux: Good. I'm not a huge fan of the cake batter ice cream though. The red velvet cake was good though, and that's one cake that I'm picky about.

Double Chocolate Devotion: Reeeeally good. Seriously. If you have a chocolate craving, have one of these. Cake was great, ice cream was great... I was happy.

Overall I think I may have liked the Sweet Cream best. But if I was PMSing, I can totally see downing three Double Chocolate Devotions. Cake Batter Delux, I would eat it again. It was good, but given a choice I would pick the other two. Hubby can't pick. He loved them all. If he absolutely had to pick though, he said Sweet Cream also.

So go forth. And purchase ice cream cupcakes! They come in six packs and you can get one flavor, or the variety pack with two of each flavor. Remember, this is only through the end of March!