The 5 best cupcakes in Atlanta

Meredith Ford at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution blog Table Talk has searched far and wide to come up with the top 5 cupcakes in Atlanta.


photo by Joey Ivansco

Pictured is the red velvet:

How wonderful to open this month’s Bon Appetit to find Buttersweet Bakery in Hapeville featured.

The little bakery that could, Buttersweet owner Charlita Varner’s Key lime cupcake with cream cheese frosting is featured in a piece that’s all about the best of the bake shops across the United States. Atlanta is home to lots of “cupcakeries,” where smallish is best and flavors from funky monkey to plain old vanilla will make every day seem like your birthday.

Here are five spots that bake up cupcakes better than best:

Buttersweet Bakery’s red velvet cupcake is the moistest, reddest, most luscious version of this Southern favorite ever.


The other chosen bakeries are:

Little Cake Bakery

Sweet Pockets

Atlanta Cupcake Factory

Sugar Mama's

Readers are weighing in (and disagreeing) in the comments:

I would like to respectfully disagree with the comment/review posted for the Atlanta Cupcake Factory. I am a frequent visitor to this shop and I have tried all of their flavors. I would describe their Dulce de Leche’ frosting as not so sweet but as extremely rich. “Make your teeth hurt” seems a bit extreme for such a delicious experience. They told me it takes 3 hours to make that frosting. WOW! It has a sweetness to it for sure, but is not what I would call “sugary”. In my opinion the most “sweet” of their frostings would have to be their Chocolate Buttercream, which reminds me of my grandmother’s chocolate frosting.

Comments

Donna A. said…
After reading your article, while googling for the best cupcakes in Atlanta, I decided to give your list a try. Today, I began with Sweet Pockets, since it is closest to where I live. Well, hopefully it gets better as I go along. The first thing I notice is the icing is glossy and almost looks like it will be sticky. I'm not sure what makes it that way but I prefer an icing that is almost crisp on the outside and creamy in the middle. Next,I notice the taste of the the icing. It tasted as if it was not made with real ingredients, almost burned my throat. I can tolerate not so good cake if the icing is super delicious. This was not. The cake was too crumbley for my taste. I like a dense cake. And what is it with people thinking white cake means non-choclate cake?! There is white cake and then there is yellow cake. When I called to see if they had white cupcakes they said yes. But they were made with yellow cake! It was a nice place. Service was great and the place is really cute. Just not one of the best cupcakes I've tasted. I am picking my sister up from the airport next week and i plan to try Butter Sweet.