Wednesday, January 16, 2008

baltimore cupcake company

I finally made my way over to the Baltimore Cupcake Company last week, after hearing mouthwatering raves from many a friend and loyal followers of these top-heavy mini cakes. The store is in a word, delightful. It's every little girl's tea party dream, pink walls, white chandeliers, whimsical cakestands and crisp linens. And along a rear counter, four trays of pristine cupcakes, all of varying hues and flavors. I had to fight the urge to dip a finger in every cake. At 3pm, two of the trays were already empty. Much to my disappointment, it'd been all the vanilla ones. I didn't have too much trouble picking out the ones I wanted from what was left. I pointed, the girl bagged. There was coconut and pumpkin amaretto. Needless to say, the drive home with my sachets of goodies was quite torturos as I did everything in my power to keep from peeking in to sneak a bite.

My hands trembled when I unwrapped the cakes from their shells. What was impressive was that there was as much frosting as there was cake (I measured!). The cake was lovely, so dense and moist, it seemed to be laden with syrup or honey. The frosting on the other hand, hit my tongue like a sugar rush. It was much too sweet and slightly chalky, probably due to the confectioners sugar as a main ingredient. (I was expecting a rich buttercream.) It even had that hard sugar crust... I tasted very little of the natural sweetness of butter; it was mainly flavoring (amaretto and coconut). It would have been more enjoyable if there was a thinner layer of it.

For $3 a pop, these cupcakes were definitely pricey. I hear that on some days, if you get there an hour before they close, you can be just lucky enough to get the cakes at half off. So the next time I get a craving for some really delicious cake with super sweet frosting, I'll be sure to try and go after 5pm (they close at 6!).


Baltimore Cupcake Company in Baltimore
The Baltimore Cupcake Co.
1433 East Fort Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21230

9 comments:

Rachel said...

No matter what time I've gone there, the cupcakes have been half gone (even with in minutes of opening and the place is deserted) which leads me to believe that they don't really have all of the cupcakes each day that they claim to. The icing is always crusty and the cake dry. I can't believe they are still open.

roopa said...

I totally agree with Rachel. I’ve only been there once, but the cakes were really dry (one of them managed to be greasy and dry all at once, I can’t properly explain it, but, believe me, it was gross) and the frosting was crusted so hard and tasted like sweet chalk. On top of it all, the service there was horribly rude. I walked into the empty store, the girl looked at me, I walked up to the counter, and then the girl turned around to rearrange some cupcakes. She didn’t turn around until after I said “excuse me” twice. Great service!

The cupcakes you can buy at Safeway taste better than theirs (which is not saying much), and they’re also cheaper and attitude-free.

xiao zhu said...

seems like the 3 of us are in agreement... we should look into opening up our own cupcake store!

Rachel said...

That would be awesome!

Unknown said...

I totally agree with all of you. I went to the store once and I will never go back. There is no way I am paying $3 for dry cake, overly sweet icing, and rude service. I would rather back my own!

Unknown said...

agreed. my roommate and i went to baltimore cupcake co and weren't impressed. we wanted to scope it out cause my roommate makes AMAZING cupcakes, about 15 different and unique flavors and all our friends and families are obsessed. if you want the best homemade cupcakes with great presentation contact her! pollybbakery@gmail.com!!!

Pigtown*Design said...

When I lived in LP, BCC was on my dog-walking route. I got to be friends with the owner, but rarely bought the cupcakes, mainly because paying $3+ for a cupcake seemed wrong to me. I was on the neighbourhood architectural review committee and one developer "bribed" us by providing the committee meeting with a HUGE box of goodies. They weren't all that good.

Pretty Pixies Boutique said...

I'm with you guys- I saw BCC on the internet and thought it was PERFECT for my 1 year olds Alice in Wonderland party. I purchased cupacakes at $3 a pop AND a cupcake tree that was $85. My husband picked the items up for me, and to my dismay, the $85 cupcake tree stand was made of CARDBOARD- I could have made it myself. I e-mailed them, but never received a response. Great business ethics. If you want great cakes- go to Sweet Temptations in Timonium. They are awesome to deal with. I had a $300 cake that fell under the heavy pressure of the top layers- they gave me a gift certificate for the entire amount of the cake. AND their cakes are fabulous...

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