It seemed like there was a time I could hardly browse around the LA blogosphere without bumping into some article about cupcakes. What is it with these daintily sized desserts? Certainly LA had good normal sized cakes before Sprinkles. Is it just that it’s a convenient serving size where a regular cake is too much of a commitment? Or have cupcakes pushed some sort of button in the collective unconscious? Could it be that eating a cupcake is like taking a brief, carefree trip back to your childhood?
Whatever the reason, cupcakes have been a major hit ever since Sprinkles Cupcakes opened its doors a couple of years ago. And of course, with success comes imitation. But strangely, we hadn’t seen much hoopla about cupcakes in San Diego… until now…
With 2 cupcake only bakeries, and 5 more specializing in them, I declare the cupcake war officially on in San Diego!
As usual, our mission is to find the absolute best that San Diego has to offer, so we sampled cupcakes from 9 San Diego bakeries as well as the Sprinkles Cupcakes in Newport Beach. Sugar coma, be damned!
On our tasting panel, we had two new special guests, Candice from SD CityBeat and Caron from SignOnRadio’s Gourmet Club and SD Food Stuff. Also on hand were long-time FoodieView friends and cupcake fanatics Mike and Eric, and the indispensable Michele and Liz helping with cupcake serving and photos.
So the idea was to visit each bakery and get a Red Velvet Cupcake - a mildly cocoa-flavored cake tinted red for some inexplicable reason and topped with cream cheese frosting. But not all the bakeries carry that flavor, so we just got what was available from those places. So how did they do? Read on for all the gory details…
| 10th place (Tie) |
Elizabethan Desserts |   |
This North-County bakery might need to go back to the drawing board for their Red Velvet cupcake. Although Elizabethan is generally well-regarded, their neon-pink Red Velvet cupcake was dreadful. Some choice words from our tasters included “Weird flavor” and “Tastes like Play-Do”. |
| 10th place (Tie) |
Heaven Sent Desserts |   |
Heaven Sent makes some fine desserts (especially since they hired a new pastry chef not long ago), but their angel food cupcake with mint frosting needs some serious tweaking. Though the cake was fine, it was completely masked by the bizarre frosting which tasters alternately described as “waxy”, “greasy”, “like Jello”. Note that Heaven Sent doesn’t really specialize in cupcakes, though they often have one random flavor in their case. |
| 8th place | Heavenly Cupcakes |   |
Heavenly Cupcakes is a brand spanking new cupcake shop downtown. Unfortunately we weren’t big fans of their Red Velvet. Tasters noted “Dry, very dry”, “Not sweet enough”, “Gritty frosting”, “Almost tastes like bread instead of cake”. |
| 7th place | Michele Coulon |   |
Michele Coulon doesn’t specialize in cupcakes, but they often have a couple of flavors in stock. Though their angel food cupcakes looked lovely, the texture of the cake seemed out of whack: “Tough cake, like bread”, “Seems dense for angel food, like it was smushed”. But people did like the light frosting on the cupcakes, and on average it scored much higher than the 8th place cupcake. |
| 6th place | Babycakes |   |
Babycakes’ Red Velvet cupcake landed smack in the middle of most tasters’ rankings. Though many tasters liked the “not-too-moist, not-too-dry” texture of the cake and the “smooth cream cheese frosting”, some found the flavor of the cake off-putting: “Strong chemical taste”, “no pronounced cocoa flavor”. |
| 5th place | The Daily Scoop |   |
Scoop is actually a cute, little ice cream shop in South Park that happens to serve a few cupcakes. The to-go packaging for their cupcakes is either hilarious or annoying depending on your mood. They take their ice cream pint cartons and literally plop the cupcake into them. To get to the cake later, you have to rip apart the carton.
Anyhow, their cupcakes had its fans (”moist, soft, tender”, “strong cream cheese flavor in frosting, yummy!”), but it was not without problems (”cake needs more cocoa”). |
| 4th place | Eclipse Chocolat |   |
This local chocolatier turns out several exotic flavors to highlight its chocolate. Their Chocolate Cupcake with Burnt Caramel Filling scored very high with some, garnering 2 first place votes noting its “deep chocolate flavor”, “good moist cake”. But some also noted a “burnt, bitter aftertaste” and “a gritty texture” to the frosting. |
| 3rd place | Sprinkles |   |
Apparently Sprinkles is worth the hype. Their Red Velvet cupcake had two 2nd place votes and one 1st place vote. Several of us appreciated the flavor of the cake: “just the right amount of cocoa”, “tastes most like red velvet”. But there were still some notable criticisms (especially regarding the frosting): “frosting is too sweet”, “sweet frosting is gritty”. |
| 1st place (tie) |
Influx |   |
So we have a tie for first place, and I’m glad to see one of my neighborhood haunts is at the top. Influx is more of a coffeehouse that happens to make some pastries and cupcakes. The Red Velvet cupcake was well-liked by most. “Very good cake flavor, nice texture”, “Very smooth, tart frosting.” |
| 1st place (tie) |
Cupcakes Squared |   |
Cupcakes Squared confounded the tasting panel with its not-red-at-all Red Velvet cupcake. We thought there was a mistake in ordering, but after calling to confirm, we discovered that they purposely do not add red coloring to their Red Velvet cake. Despite the confusion, the tasting panel liked the cupcake. “Moist, chewy, nice flavor”, “Nice cream cheese frosting”, “Good crumb”. |
So that’s it for this battle. Want to chime in and tell us about your favorite cupcake fix? Let us know in the comments…
Meh. You start off by saying you’re going to compare Red-Velvet and then what it ends up as is a mish-mash of different flavors from each bakery. How is that even comparable? Your challenge is inherently flawed and not very reliable. It’s like a bunch of kids slopping together a study because they wanted to eat some cupcakes. I’m sure you could do better.
Comment by Foodie Boy — October 3, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
Yes! Influx is my very favorite - in fact, I was there today, and looked for a red velvet cupcake, but they were out. Based on my past experience with these places, I’m sure I would probably agree with your rankings. I’m surprised by Elizabethan Desserts’ low ranking though since I have heard such good things - I wonder if it was an off batch or something?
Comment by Alice Q. Foodie — October 3, 2008 @ 6:32 pm
Hi, Foodie Boy, we *are* a bunch of kids (in adult bodies) making an excuse to eat cupcakes!
But in our defense, we got 7 red velvets out of 10 bakeries. You can ignore Michele Coulon, Heaven Sent, and Eclipse to get an idea of the red velvet rankings.
Hi, Alice! I was really surprised about Elizabethan too. It could be they had a bad batch, but I think their red velvet was off anyway since there was no hint of cocoa either in color or taste. The bigger problem though was the weird under-baked flavor. By the way, I love Influx too! Especially their homemade granola and danishes.
Comment by howie — October 3, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
Foodie Boy, As Howie mentioned we actually did rank the red velvets by themselves and then also ranked them within all 10 total cupcakes. The results, although for all 10 cupcakes, pretty much reflect the order of the red velvets also. So, even though it appears to not be a fair ranking it turned out it really is. The comments regarding the red velvet and other cupcakes reflect exactly what we experienced. Would you prefer a lousy red velvet cupcake or know that there are better cupcakes out there? Red velvet is pretty middle of the road and if a bakery can\’t do a red velvet one very well perhaps we don\’t even want to purchase other cupcakes from there. You may notice a lot of the comments have little to do with the red velvet itself. Although some comments talk about the cocoa flavor most are texture and moisture related. So, that reflects back to the bakery which is probably a better way to read the reviews. Anyway, it was a very good tasting and the results stand as fair and accurate.
Comment by Mike — October 4, 2008 @ 7:20 am
Hi, Mike, as always it was a pleasure having you on the tasting panel! I think you make a good point about having a bad red velvet vs a decent cupcake with a random flavor. I guess it’s a little like Top Chef; the cheftestants never make the same exact dish or even the same type of dish, but it’s usually not difficult for the judges to give them a relative rating. This is especially true when there are significant mistakes. It gets more difficult when comparing food that is equally well-executed, but just different; that’s when personal preference takes on a bigger role.
Comment by howie — October 4, 2008 @ 12:01 pm
There is a brand new cupcake bakery, Cupcake Love, opening in Solana Beach on October 25. I can’t wait to try it. I have friends that know the owner and they say that the cupcakes are absolutely fabulous.
Comment by Keri — October 6, 2008 @ 7:59 pm
Cupcakes Squared has the best cupcakes, hands down. I think it is great that they leave the nasty food coloring out of their Red Velvet cupcakes, it is not necessary and frankly, kind of gross to think you are eating all that food coloring. I have tried several of their flavors (OK, most of their flavors), and all of them are excellent. I think the lemon is my favorite (I love lemon desserts!), but I gotta say their chocolate peanut butter rocks too. I had one that I think was coconut macadamia, and it was heavenly. Also try the walnut maple
Thanks for comparing all the different cupcakes out there, cupcakes are totally fun!
Now, where is my cupcake, this blog has made me Jone’s for cupcakes, grrrr!
Comment by SanDiegoFishes — October 21, 2008 @ 2:41 pm
Wikipedia has an entry for the whys and wherefores of the origin of Red Velvet cake (apparently a southern US dish):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_velvet_cake
Comment by Anita Cohen-Williams — October 29, 2008 @ 8:58 am
Wow, I had put Cupcake Squared at number 9 and Elizabethan Desserts at nunber 1 in my book. After reading the results I think I will try Cupcake Squared again. Maybe I just got had a bad cupcake. As for Eliabethan, I love Elizabeth’s cupcakes. Her red velvet is amazing!! But the cupcake to icing ratio is not good. Waaayy to much icing.
Comment by lexi — November 11, 2008 @ 10:45 pm
One cupcake bakery that was not published is Silver Cup Bakery, a custom order bakery that makes amazingly decorated cupcakes for birthdays, showers, and weddings. Try their red velvet cupcakes! (They also make pink velvet, a variation of the favorite.) For pictures: SilverCupBakery.com
Comment by Jason — November 19, 2008 @ 8:34 pm
Love the recipies for cupcakes and desserts. Our friends make the dish at our food fair at Sears Law Building in Irvine CA. Steve Sears Atty and Mike Sears EA give us use of the Kitchen for 30 guests. Every time a fun event.
Comment by minnielane — December 5, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
I am convinced this shootout is biased. Why? I drove all the way down there from oceanside because of good reviews so went home with a dozen cupcakes and other varieties of desserts and pastries they have there.
There is no way Influx is tie for #1 or in top 5. And Elizabethan is #10 no way in hell. Although Influx customer service is miles better than Elizabethan, Influx cupcakes and other desserts is far from top 5.
Elizabethan has the most awesome cherry pies probably on this planet, and her other items like cookies are top notch. Last place my ass.
Sprinkles is right at 3 or higher.
Comment by donutdave — January 8, 2009 @ 9:02 am
Oh I forgot to mention why Influx should not be in top 5….very dry and frostings were not creamy at all like a good cupcake should be.
Comment by donutdave — January 8, 2009 @ 9:04 am
Hi, donutdave,
I’m not sure how I can convince you that we don’t have an agenda. I will say that consistency in the quality of product can vary a *lot* from day to day. Elizabethan’s cupcakes were *terrible* (almost inedible) that particular day. Given their good reputation, I fully admit that they could have great cupcakes on other days. It’s a shame they didn’t deliver a good product on the day we held our tasting, but that’s how the cupcake crumbles.
Comment by howie — January 8, 2009 @ 12:04 pm
Hi Donutdave,
I had never eaten at any of the bakerys we tested. So, I can truly say I had no bias going in to this test. I agree with Howie in that the rankings could reflect a bakery having had a bad day. Either way, I know my tasting results weren’t biased in any way since I never ate any of those bakery’s products before.
I would totally be up for another round though.
Comment by Mike — January 27, 2009 @ 7:21 pm
Cupcake Squared has won Best Cupcakes In San Diego
In the San Diego Magazine Best of San Diego Edition 2009
This is a readers pole
So all of San Diego has voted that Cupcake Squared is number One
Bottom line Cupcake Showdown got it right a year before the rest of the public Tasted Cupcake Squared
Comment by David — September 2, 2009 @ 2:15 pm
You want the best red velvet cupcake in town……Lemon Grove Bakery in Lemon Grove on Main Street. All I can say is…OMG!
Secret ingredient in their frosting…mascarpone cheese. Did not sound good to me but these cupcakes are to die for. I dare you to deny it.
Comment by Valerie — October 15, 2009 @ 6:04 pm
Correction to 10/15/09 comment. It is called “Grove Pastry Shop” in Lemon Grove on Main Street
Comment by Valerie — October 15, 2009 @ 6:07 pm