Ghermez Cupcakes: Review #2
I love cupcake bakeries. I’ve recently had a fascination with Ghermez Cupcakes (read my first review on their mini cupcakes and see photos from their bakery) and have been following them on Facebook and Twitter Read more
Posts from the ‘Bakeries’ Category
Jul 9
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Ghermez Cupcakes
A couple of weeks ago, my husband, 5-year-old daughter and I were hurrying through Sydney on a chilly Tuesday morning to get to the US Embassy to renew my daughter’s US passport; we were hurrying because my husband needed to get to work and my daughter needed to get to school. Read more
Jun 1
Sweetness The Patisserie, Part 2!
Oh yes, it’s true, I went back to Sweetness The Patisserie in Epping again. There were just so many different things to try there that I couldn’t cover them all in one visit, of course, so I had to go back. I had to go back for that fudge, and more of those marshmallows.
May 18
Sweetness The Patisserie
I love being back in Sydney. There are so many amazing bakeries to explore. I’ve been back in Sydney for almost 6 months but I’ve hardly explored outside of my suburb, mostly because the most amazing bakeries are at least one hour away from me (or at least the ones I know about are!). On a recent trip to the library to borrow a back issue of delicious. magazine (November 2009) I found a photo reference to Sweetness The Patisserie at Epping. I instantly perked up because Epping is not far away from me at all. A few days later, I was standing inside of Sweetness The Patisserie with my 2-year-old son, trying to make a decision on what to buy from this beautiful shop.
The shop is indeed beautiful. I wasn’t brave enough to ask if I could take a photo inside the shop, so all you get is this sideways shot of the outside! The inside of the shop is loaded with sweet treats of all kinds, including macarons, marshmallows, fudge, toffee, truffles, or, easier yet, let’s just say that if it’s sweet, it’s in this shop!
Jan 20
Review: Bangerang Bake Shop
I have long been eyeing Bangerang Bake Shop‘s cupcakes-in-a-jar. They always looked so appealing – a large cupcake filled and frosted with creamy frosting and smooshed into a cute little jar with a ribbon! I made a goal that one of the things I had to try before I left the US was a Bangerang Bake Shop cupcake.
I placed my order in October for a Chocolate Chip Off The Ol’ Block, and a Banana Butterscotch Bad Boy. I was so excited to try them, but unfortunately there was a problem with the shipment and I did not receive it in the specified time frame of 2-3 days. I emailed customer service, and also phoned the post office. Apparently the shipment had not been scanned from the sender’s post office, so tracking was telling me that it wasn’t even in transit yet.
Bangerang Bake Shop was so kind and reshipped my order about a week later, but surprise, my first order arrived before the second did! I was a little wary about their freshness, as it had been a week since these cupcakes were shipped. I put them in the refrigerator and hoped for the best. A couple of days later, my second order arrived in the specified time frame. Now I had four Bangerang cupcakes-in-a-jar!
Aug 3
Costco Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Members of Costco look forward to their monthly coupon booklet, and if other members are like me, they get super excited when there’s a coupon for something from the bakery! Imagine how I felt when I saw a $2 coupon for Costco’s “gourmet chocolate chunk cookies” this month!
The cookies came in a pack of 24. After taste-testing one, I froze the rest of them to make them last as long as possible. The cookies are absolutely fanastic. They are soft and chewy, and the chocolate chunks are huge and delicious.
But with 24 of these cookies, I wanted to try to do some more creative things with them, rather than just eat them as is, one by one. So first I made an ice cream sandwich.
Which was great, but two of those huge cookies, plus vanilla ice cream, plus mini chocolate chips was a bit too much to eat all at once!
Next, after being inspired by a post from Our Best Bites about frozen pudding pops, I made vanilla pudding pops (using half and half) with chunks of Costco’s cookies and ribbons of fudge sauce.
Okay, so that fudge sauce really didn’t work out very well! It gets solid in the refrigerator, so I thought it would freeze up solid in the freezer, but the warm water I need to use to unmold the pops melted the fudge sauce. Despite the horrible messy look to these pudding pops, however, they tasted amazing!
You might think that the chunks of cookie that went into these pops would freeze up too hard to bite into, but you’d be wrong. The pudding actually kept the cookie pieces soft and easy to bite into.
My last creative adventure for Costco’s cookies was simply a chocolate chip cookie sundae.
I warmed the cookie in the microwave until it was really soft and the chunks were really gooey, scooped vanilla ice cream on top, as well as fudge sauce and a cherry.
But most of the cookies actually got eaten plain! I had stored in them in the freezer, but let them thaw out completely to room temperature before eating them. A quick zap in the microwave once they were at room temperature made them taste like they had just come from the oven. My crazy daughter preferred to eat them straight from the freezer!
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On a totally separate note, I’d like to say that I’m now 37 weeks pregnant. I have a habit of going early with my pregnancies, so anytime from now if you notice that I haven’t posted in over 4 days it would probably be safe to assume that the baby has arrived! I may take a brief hiatus from updating The Sweetest Kitchen for a few weeks after that, although I have a few other recipes currently waiting to be posted that I will try to go through first. Don’t worry though, because I will return! :)
Jul 28
Magic Shell: Cupcake Flavor
I’ve never really been interested in Magic Shell toppings for my ice cream because I’ve never been fond of the crunch; I like my ice cream soft, with some chocolate syrup and totally non-crunchy! However, in recent months, I’ve seen Magic Shell at my grocery store now available in cupcake flavor.
I’ve put off buying a bottle for a very long time, but intended on getting some for my daughter’s birthday, as an excuse to try it out. Luckily, it was also on sale that week, so I picked up a bottle.
If you’re not familiar with Magic Shell, it is a liquid ice cream topping that freezes almost instantly when poured on top of ice cream to a slightly crunchy texture. It comes in a variety of flavors, including the usual chocolate, as well as caramel, cherry, and s’mores.
But how is the cupcake flavor, you ask? It is quite sweet! While it might remind one of a cupcake, it tasted more like a sweet white frosting to me.
The cupcake flavor comes with its own built-in assortment of sprinkles, as well.
In summation, I liked it! My 2-year-old son does as well, but my 4-year-old says she definitely prefers her ice cream plain. :)
Dec 13
Review: Marsh Supermarket Holiday Cupcakes
I was quite disappointed today to see these pathetic holiday cupcakes from my local Marsh Supermarket. They offered a choice of either red-frosted or green-frosted vanilla cupcakes; my daughter chose green.
They were not very pretty or attractive. The frosting was strangely shiny and super soft, and extra sweet. The cake was very soft and spongey. Once again this was a case where I liked the cake, but the frosting, not so much.
Nov 25
Review: Marsh Supermarket Bundt Cake
Last night my husband stopped at our local Marsh Supermarket to pick up some things we needed and he surprised me with a special treat – a bundt cake. Because I think that our local Marsh makes some excellent sweet baked goods, I was looking forward to trying this cake.
The cake was officially called a “Rocky Road Creme Bundt Cake”. I have no idea why it would be called Rocky Road, though; the only resemblence it has to Rocky Road is the walnuts scattered on top. Nor do I understand why it’s a “Creme” cake. Anyway, the cake itself is nicely zebra-striped inside. The cake is super moist and soft. In fact, the cake itself is so nice that I prefer to eat it without the chocolate glaze.
Oh yes, the chocolate glaze. It is terrible. It’s sort of stretchy, too, which is an odd texture for a glaze to have, I think. It’s not too sweet, but it is definitely chocolately-tasting. It’s just not a great taste.
Overall, it is a nice cake and it will not be going to waste. Marsh needs to work on that chocolate glaze recipe, though!
Review: Cupcakes On Pitt
I spent some years in Sydney recently with my husband, who is a native of Sydney. Coming from a small town in Indiana, I was overwhelmed in the city of Sydney but thoroughly enjoyed it. I walked the streets as often as I could. On one of my visits I stopped by Cupcakes On Pitt. Luckily I found these photos today by accident on the computer and decided to post them. They are from early 2006.
I’ve heard mixed reviews about Cupcakes On Pitt, but I can tell you that I personally enjoyed my experience there. I chose four cupcakes and a mocha to drink (the mocha was so nice and had a nice design in the froth). No, I did not eat all of the cupcakes at once! The first one I had was the one with the flower on top.
And later I decided the dark chocolate cupcake (upper left) was by far my favorite.
Unforunately, I don’t remember much about the taste of these. I do know that I will revisit Cupcakes On Pitt upon my return to Sydney, as well as the other cupcake bakeries that have popped up in the city!
Review: Sweet Lucinda's Bake Shop
The Zionsville Farmer’s Market, in Zionsville, Indiana, runs through the months of June-September early on Saturday mornings. I’ve been trying to get there for a couple of months now, and finally woke my family up early enough this morning to go.
Why am I so interested in the Zionsville Farmer’s Market, though? Sweet Lucinda’s Bake Shop, of course! Sweet Lucinda’s is my only local cupcake bakery (thanks to Cupcakes Take The Cake for pointing this out to me) and today was the first time I have ever seen and tasted their cupcakes.
I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Sweet Lucinda’s owner and baker, Courtney Gorman, at the Farmer’s Market. She was happily standing behind a table displaying her bakery’s delicious and tempting cupcakes, cookies and other treats.
Being the chocoholic that I am, I chose to try the cream-filled chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting and a cherry on top. It was so nice! The cupcake was so soft and moist and the cream-filled center made this a cupcake to die for! My 3-year-old daughter insisted on having the cherry on top! 
We left Sweet Lucinda’s cupcakes behind to attend the Zionsville Fall Festival (which is happening this weekend), my chocolate cupcake in hand, but somehow, somehow, I found myself standing in front of those cupcakes again a couple of hours later. I just could not get the red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting out my mind!
This cupcake was, of course, delicious as well! Another soft, moist cupcake, which was a beautiful shade of red. The cream cheese frosting was coated with sugar chrystals which gave a nice sweet crunch to each bite. I shared this cupcake with my 3-year-old daughter, 14-month-old son and my husband as well, who all gave a big thumbs up to Sweet Lucinda’s red velvet cupcake!
I am so happy with my local cupcake bakery, I couldn’t even ask for a better one! Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to visit Sweet Lucinda’s actual bakery, but I hope to get back there soon!
Visit Sweet Lucinda’s website for more information.
Thank you, Courtney!
