"Chocolate enthusiast and expert" Dana Zemack of The Tasty Show did a week of Boston bakery cupcake testing and tasting last year. Click through to read all about her visits to Flour Bakery & Cafe, The Spotted Apron, Sweet Tooth, South End Buttery and Beantown Cupcakes (whose website seems to be down).
Here's what she had to say about the Simon Devil's Food Cupcake and the Madison Vanilla Cupcake from South End Buttery:
Presentation: Elegantly classic. Andrew also noted that rather than having frosting spread evenly over the surface of the cake, the frosting was applied over a smaller surface area with a higher overall volume leaving the outer edges frosting-free - different than what he usually expects with cupcakes.
Cake: The chocolate cupcake was excellent in every respect. It was dense and moist, structurally cohesive with a fabulous decadent texture. It had a deeper and more intense cocoa flavor than any other chocolate cupcake so far this week. I totally loved it. The vanilla was a whole different experience. Both Andrew and I found that the vanilla cupcake, while also dense, was kind of muffin-y. It was a bit drier with a more concentrated texture than the chocolate cupcake.
Frosting: Both cupcakes had sweet, super creamy, soft butter cream frosting (chocolate and vanilla, respectively). The chocolate frosting went extremely well with the chocolate cake. The vanilla frosting wasn't as good a match. It seemed a little too sweet and light for the density of the vanilla cake.
Overall experience: We both loved the chocolate cupcake. It was incredibly good in every respect. The cake itself was perfection. I can whole-heartedly declare that the chocolate cupcake at the South End Buttery is everything a chocolate cupcake should be. But then, in great contrast to our excitement over the perfection of the chocolate cupcake, neither of us were really into the vanilla cupcake. It wasn't all that cupcakey.
Be sure to check out all Dana's cupcake week pics and other posts about cupcakes.
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