Allison, Ashley and I were the tasters, with Allison's husband Anthony weighing in, and Ashley's kids Caroline and Cooper happily nabbing the leftovers.
Ashley, Melany, Allison and Anthony.
Melany showed up with two dozen (yes, two dozen) cupcakes, in lots of different flavors.
The daily eight:
(left to right, top to bottom) Sonoma valley vanilla, times square, chocolate cream cheese city, cookies and cream-capped mountains, black bottom beach, route 66 red velvet, chocolate town, I heart pbc, and some duplicates.
And...
(Left to right, top to bottom) cinnamon safari, sunshine state cake (with a lemon bar) hazelnut hotel, strawberry hill, carrot island, Havana banana with blueberries, chocolate del caramel, vanilla villa, kona kahuna, southern sour cream chocolate, sunshine state cake, and butterscotch land.
Cupcakes to Go Go has a travel theme, and even has a drive-thru, which I think is genius. How great is it to be able to pick up your cupcakes without getting out of your car? Love it. (Of course, I don't have a car and live in NYC with no drive-thru so I may be biased.) Melany explained that her business is based on the words motion, movement and travel. Her tag line is "a sweet destination," and the flavors are based on great travel destinations (Philadelphia cheesecake brownie, Japanese chocolate cherry blossoms, leaning tower of peanut butter). The pricing list is called "terms of travel!"
The Cupcakes to Go Go passport stamp.
Miss Melany is definitely an astute businesswoman. She has an MBA from University of Central Oklahoma, and runs her business, which is practically brand new, with an eye toward longevity. Her employees sign nondisclosure and noncompete clauses (something we don't hear about a lot), and she manages to raise her two young children (a three year old and a five year old) alongside her husband, who handles accounting for the business. She recounted how she knew exactly how many cupcakes she needed to sell each day to stay afloat and how many she would need to turn a profit. With a drive-thru window, a bakery/shop, and a cupcake truck, I am certain that we will be seeing more of Cupcakes to Go Go. But enough background info -- on to the cupcakes!
My go-to control cupcake flavor is always vanilla. And the vanilla villa did not disappoint.
Delicious. Light and flavorful, very real vanilla taste without being fake-extract-y. A great start. And the findings were sparingly sprinkled on top, so they weren't as annoying, nor did they distract from the taste of the cupcake. If anything the tiny crunch was a plus. I should also mention that while I was interviewing Melany, I was called upon to pacify Anthony's rumbling belly, so I sacrificed the Route 66 red velvet to him (so no pictures exist). He was suitably impressed (and loved the frosting especially) and the interview was able to continue at its previous pace.
With so many flavors (um, twenty?) to try, I wasn't certain we could get through them all. But I had a good crew and we were all willing. Next up, the cinnamon safari.
I could see actual vanilla beans in this one. All of us tasted it and we all loved it. An excellent pick. Not too spicy, so kids would enjoy it too, and the coordinated wrapper was a nice touch. Cinnamon-sugar frosting with a cinnamon-sugar cake. Win.
Then the sunshine state cake (with lemon bar topper) was our next cupcake.
The lemon bar was better than the cupcake. The bar was great, not falling prey to the overly sugary trap that most bars usually land in. It was something I craved long after it was gone. (Hm, may be time for a trip to Edmond, Oklahoma...) The cake itself we felt was too mild and not lemony enough, and we could taste lemon extract aftertaste. We felt the cake or frosting could have benefited from some lemon zest, but we agreed that it could be we were just overwhelmed with the superior lemon bar. Very refreshing and perfect for summer.
Then the southern sour cream chocolate:
Tee hee! I have to admit something that Anthony will deny. He actually moaned aloud when eating this cupcake. Moaned. Out loud. Ashley said it was fabulously light and delicious, Allison said it tasted like her mom's cake (possibly better), and I just shut up and tried to grab the last bite before it disappeared. Nothing was leftover for the kids. Sorry kids. Another winner.
Then we splurged on the chocolate del caramel.
This milk chocolate caramel frosting and caramel-filled chocolate cake (with brownie on top!) was another delight. Ashley loved it, said the brownie and cake were both good. I was hoping for a bit more caramel taste (okay, I am a caramel junkie) but this was another cupcake that didn't make it onto the kid's plate.
By the way, here's the kid's "plate:"
Allison and Ashley are sad over the cupcake carnage but I was happy knowing the kids would have lots of stuff to enjoy. If we didn't try to save them some we'd never have been able to work our way through two dozen cupcakes.
On to the Havana banana with blueberries:
This cupcake, with cream cheese frosting, blueberry toppers and filling and a banana cake, was definitely a muffin with frosting (masquerading as a cupcake). A banana muffin with frosting and blueberries. Light and kinda dry, it wasn't bad (in fact it was good) it just wasn't cake-y enough.
There were a couple of cupcakes I couldn't or wouldn't eat, the cookies and cream-capped mountains and strawberry hill. The Oreo one:
...because I don't care for Oreos, and the strawberry hill:
...because it was made with gelatin (an animal-based product not suitable for vegetarians like me). The cookies and cream-capped mountain was a chocolate cake with cookies and cream frosting and topped with a cookie. Allison and Ashley liked the cake a lot but commented that they thought it would be better with a cookie baked into the cupcake, at the bottom of the pan. Or that the frosting needed more Oreo in it. But in general, a good cupcake.
The strawberry hill (strawberry cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting) on the other hand had the sad distinction of being the worst and only bad cupcake of the bunch; the only one that everyone hated. The comments I received were, "tastes like strawberry jelly" and "overcooked" and "artificial tasting." Allison said the chemical taste was so bad she didn't want to finish her bite. So, Cupcakes to Go Go, ya may want to work on that one.The only dud of the bunch; one out of 24 isn't bad.
We all agreed, however, that the I heart pbc was a delight. I heart this cupcake. It's a peanut butter and milk chocolate frosting with chocolate cake and a (partial) peanut butter cup on top.
...because I don't care for Oreos, and the strawberry hill:
...because it was made with gelatin (an animal-based product not suitable for vegetarians like me). The cookies and cream-capped mountain was a chocolate cake with cookies and cream frosting and topped with a cookie. Allison and Ashley liked the cake a lot but commented that they thought it would be better with a cookie baked into the cupcake, at the bottom of the pan. Or that the frosting needed more Oreo in it. But in general, a good cupcake.
The strawberry hill (strawberry cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting) on the other hand had the sad distinction of being the worst and only bad cupcake of the bunch; the only one that everyone hated. The comments I received were, "tastes like strawberry jelly" and "overcooked" and "artificial tasting." Allison said the chemical taste was so bad she didn't want to finish her bite. So, Cupcakes to Go Go, ya may want to work on that one.The only dud of the bunch; one out of 24 isn't bad.
We all agreed, however, that the I heart pbc was a delight. I heart this cupcake. It's a peanut butter and milk chocolate frosting with chocolate cake and a (partial) peanut butter cup on top.
Oh my goodness was this cupcake ever delicious! It was exactly what you'd want in a peanut butter and chocolate cupcake and nothing you wouldn't want. Just...zen pbc perfection. So good! I'm glad this cupcake is made daily (as opposed to the rotating seasonal flavors, of which there are something like 40+) because it is something I think I could eat every day and never get tired of it. So damn good.
The troops were getting full but we managed to try a couple more flavors before giving up. We had the butterscotchland:
...which surprised us by being a filled cupcake. A vanilla cake with butterscotch filling and butterscotch and vanilla frosting. And some minichips on top. We all felt this cupcake was a bit too sweet for our tastes but good for kids or those who like the extrasweet.
And our final tasting was the hazelnut hotel, a hazelnut chocolate cake with Nutella and vanilla frosting.
Allison loves Nutella so this cupcake was pledged to her. I admit to being oversugared so I wasn't the best judge but the consensus on this was that it could have used some more hazelnut or Nutella taste. A good cupcake, perfectly baked with good crumb, but probably would have has a stronger taste if we hadn't just eaten twenty other flavors.
All in all, we all loved Cupcakes to Go Go and Melany, and there was even talk about the Texas delegation driving the many hours north just to get another fix of the Oklahoma deliciousness. We talked about how impressed we were with Melany and her cupcakes, and how glad we all were to have had the chance to taste so many of her yummy baked treats. Melany even snail-mailed me a lovely thank you card after our interview, which touched me. If you are near Edmond, Oklahoma, or even happen to be in a 100-mile radius, you owe it to yourself to drop by. Tell them Stacie from Cupcakes Take the Cake says hi!
Cupcakes to Go Go
2524 West Edmond Road
Oklahoma, OK 73012
405.330.2190
Store and Drive-thru hours:
11am - 7pm
Monday - Saturday
Closed Sunday
Cupcakes are $2.25
minis and jumbos available upon request
frosting shots 75 cents
orders [at] cupcakestogogo.com
Flickr/Twitter/Facebook
See the rest of my Texas cupcake shots here, all images by Stacie Joy for CTTC.
;)
2524 West Edmond Road
Oklahoma, OK 73012
405.330.2190
Store and Drive-thru hours:
11am - 7pm
Monday - Saturday
Closed Sunday
Cupcakes are $2.25
minis and jumbos available upon request
frosting shots 75 cents
orders [at] cupcakestogogo.com
Flickr/Twitter/Facebook
See the rest of my Texas cupcake shots here, all images by Stacie Joy for CTTC.
;)
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