Who makes the best cupcakes in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota)? Well, local food website The Heavy Table set about finding out in an extensive taste test written up by Jill Lewis. Here's how they made their way through the many cupcake offerings available:
But which cupcakes are worth your time, calories, and money? To help our dear readers find the local gems, 10 Heavy Table contributors took on the unenviable task of tasting cupcakes from the six top-ranking bakeries in Minneapolis and St. Paul in our recent reader poll. (Note: Though Winona-based Mon Petit Cupcake ranked high in the poll, its status as a special-order bakery, as well as its distance from the Twin Cities, would have made it difficult to obtain cupcakes discreetly.) Yes, it was quite the sacrifice to spend a recent Thursday evening scarfing down the frosting-topped treats, and most of us had cupcake hangovers the next day to show for it, but it was well worth the time and bloating.
Our methodology: We bought two varieties of cupcake from each bakery, a chocolate and a specialty flavor. The cupcakes were divided into quarters or eighths by our editor and labeled with a letter so we wouldn’t know from which bakery each sample came. Cupcakes were rated on a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high) for flavor, moistness and texture, and the ratio of frosting to cake, and overall averages were computed for each cupcake. We allowed for brief discussion of each cupcake sampled, and while many cupcakes brought on fierce debates about the proper amount of frosting or the richness of chocolate, the winners in each category clearly rose to the top.
photo by Becca Dilley for The Heavy Table
photo by Becca Dilley for The Heavy Table
The results are way too complex for me to detail in this blog post, except to say that I look forward to trying many of these when I'm in town this summer, so visit The Heavy Table to get a very in-depth look at the local cupcake scene, which I can say from my visits is thriving.
But which cupcakes are worth your time, calories, and money? To help our dear readers find the local gems, 10 Heavy Table contributors took on the unenviable task of tasting cupcakes from the six top-ranking bakeries in Minneapolis and St. Paul in our recent reader poll. (Note: Though Winona-based Mon Petit Cupcake ranked high in the poll, its status as a special-order bakery, as well as its distance from the Twin Cities, would have made it difficult to obtain cupcakes discreetly.) Yes, it was quite the sacrifice to spend a recent Thursday evening scarfing down the frosting-topped treats, and most of us had cupcake hangovers the next day to show for it, but it was well worth the time and bloating.
Our methodology: We bought two varieties of cupcake from each bakery, a chocolate and a specialty flavor. The cupcakes were divided into quarters or eighths by our editor and labeled with a letter so we wouldn’t know from which bakery each sample came. Cupcakes were rated on a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high) for flavor, moistness and texture, and the ratio of frosting to cake, and overall averages were computed for each cupcake. We allowed for brief discussion of each cupcake sampled, and while many cupcakes brought on fierce debates about the proper amount of frosting or the richness of chocolate, the winners in each category clearly rose to the top.
photo by Becca Dilley for The Heavy Table
photo by Becca Dilley for The Heavy Table
The results are way too complex for me to detail in this blog post, except to say that I look forward to trying many of these when I'm in town this summer, so visit The Heavy Table to get a very in-depth look at the local cupcake scene, which I can say from my visits is thriving.
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