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 This S'mores cupcake is comprised of vanilla butter cake topped with chocolate ganache ringed in graham cracker crumbs with a toasted marshmallow garnish. Honestly, I was hoping for something more exciting -- there are many creative ways to do s'mores cupcakes, as this s'mores roundup on Cupcakes Take the Cake demonstrates. I was also expecting something that highlights the chocolate, graham, and marshmallow components more significantly, like perhaps graham cake filled with chocolate ganache topped with marshmallow frosting. Or chocolate cake with a marshmallow baked in the center topped with graham frosting. Or graham cake with a marshmallow baked in the center topped with milk chocolate frosting. Vanilla cake with chocolate ganache and graham cracker crumbs garnished with a totally solid, not-at-all-melty marshmallow seems more like an "inspired by s'mores" cupcake, rather than a true s'mores cupcake.
Anyway, I digress. The cupcake certainly smelled like s'mores, giving off an aroma of chocolate and graham crackers. The soft, powdery cake was sweet and delicate with a refreshing vanilla flavor. It didn't taste very buttery to me, which I didn't mind at all -- I'm not a fan of overly buttery cake. The chocolate ganache was difficult to sample alone as it was spread so thinly, but from what I could tell it had a smooth creamy texture and a rich, dark chocolate flavor. Yum! When eaten as a whole the cupcake essentially tasted like the sum of its parts: sweet, refreshing vanilla and rich dark chocolate. It only tasted like s'mores about half of the time, when I got a bite of the outer edge (where the graham cracker crumbs are) and cut off a piece of the marshmallow garnish and popped it in my mouth with the bite of cupcake. The other half of the time it tasted like a regular old vanilla/chocolate cupcake.
Furthermore, s'mores are known for being extremely messy to eat, owing to their melted gooeyness. This cupcake was in fact messy to eat, but for the opposite reason; the powdery cake was extremely fragile and crumbly. It just doesn't seem like s'mores without a gooey texture. The powdery cake combined with the thick ganache and the non-melted marshmallow made for a thick, dry texture in my mouth. I'd definitely recommend eating this cupcake with a glass of milk. Overall a yummy cupcake, but the texture wasn't gooey enough and the graham, chocolate, and marshmallow components weren't substantial enough to make it a true "s'mores". | |
 Upon first glance this cupcake looks a lot like the old Dark Chocolate, but don't let its appearance fool you. The Chocolate 5-Spice is a spicy twist on its Dark Chocolate cousin, with the addition of Chinese 5-Spice to the dark chocolate cake and chocolate ganache. The cupcake smells like rich, sweet chocolate with a warm, inviting spicy aroma. The spices smelled very familiar to me, but try as I might, I just couldn't place them. It bothered me enough that I actually went to my spice cupboard and started sniffing the contents, hoping to identify the spices. I thought there might be nutmeg in it, and possibly cloves and cinnamon. (I looked it up later and the most common Chinese 5-spice blend contains cinnamon, cassia, anise, ginger, and cloves. Two out of five isn't so bad.)
The crumbly cake was super soft and almost powdery, and had the sightly annoying property of sucking all of the moisture right out of my mouth. It had a sweet, refreshing chocolate flavor that wasn't at all bitter, with a muted warm, spicy aftertaste. As far as taste goes, this just might be the best tasting chocolate cake I've ever had. The ganache was really hard to sample alone owning to its thinness, but the bit I managed to scrape off had a very strong 5-spice flavor, to the point where it was actually stronger than the dark chocolate flavor (but still not overbearing). The overall flavor of the cupcake is chocolatey, warm, and spicy. The amount of 5-spice is perfect; when the cake and frosting are eaten together the spicy flavor is immediate and bold, but not overbearing, and it blends well with the sweet chocolate. Yum! The soft, delicate cake plus the thick ganache frosting made for a thick, gooey confection in my dry mouth. I'd definitely recommend pairing this cupcake with a tall glass of milk, or in the coming winter months with a steaming mug of chai. | |
This breakfast-themed is available with or without a piece of locally produced organic bacon on top. Being a vegetarian, I opted for a cupcake sans bacon garnish. I have to admit the yellow dollop of buttercream on top of the cupcake (representing a pat of butter?) kind of weirds me out. I'm not sure what it is about yellow frosting, but it totally gives me the heebie jeebies. The cupcake gave off an aroma of pancakes. I don't just mean the smell of maple syrup, which is the aroma I normally associate with pancakes and waffles, but the actual buttery, yeasty smell of pancakes. Even the maple buttercream didn't smell like maple syrup unless I held it right up to the tip of my nose and inhaled deeply.
The pancake cake was super soft, dense, and slightly dry with a moderately sweet flavor of pancakes. How the heck did they make cake taste like pancakes?!? Come to think of it, what exactly is it that makes a pancake taste like "pancake"? Whatever it is, they totally put some of it in this cupcake. The flavor isn't "cake" at all, it's 100% pancake. Amazing.
The maple buttercream had a very smooth, light and airy texture, that kind of felt like spun powdered sugar. It had a moderate maple flavor that was exceptionally well balanced with the pancake flavor of the cake; neither flavor dominated the other. Both flavors were the perfect strength as well, not too subtle, not too overpowering. The dollop of yellow frosting tasted like regular vanilla American buttercream, sugary and sweet. Based on appearance it seemed like there might be too much frosting for the amount of cake, but it was actually a perfect ratio. It must have something to do with the denseness of the cake balancing out the mound of frosting.
The overall texture of this cupcake was amazing -- the soft cake combined with the soft and airy frosting made it seem like I was eating a cloud. The texture felt expensive and sophisticated, if that makes any sense. At the end of the day, the flavor is exactly as advertised: "pancakes with syrup". In terms of execution, this cupcake is one of Dozen's best. If I hadn't waited until the last week of the summer menu to try it, I would've gone back repeatedly for more.
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My roommate brought this mystery cupcake home from work. A coworker brought them in, and neither my roommate nor the coworker knew where it came from. (I have no idea why the person who brought it in didn't know where it came from, and I probably shouldn't have eaten it, but am I really going to say no to a cupcake, even one with suspicious origins?) As soon as I saw the frosting I knew it was from Dozen. I checked their online menu and it didn't match the pictures of any of the Wednesday cupcakes. It did, however, look like it could've been the Passionfruit Vanilla, normally offered on Tuesdays. It smelled sugary and fruity, lending support to that hypothesis.
The cake was soft, dense, and quite dry (not surprising given that it was probably a day old). It had a slightly sweet, buttery vanilla flavor that reminded me of pound cake, both in flavor and texture, just not as buttery. The frosting was initially super tangy, with a splash of fruity flavor and a touch of sweetness a few seconds later. Delicious!! As a whole, the flavor of the cupcake is predominantly tangy, supported by a foundation of pound cake. So good. The frosting totally carries this cupcake -- don't get me wrong, the cake is quite good (except for its dryness), but it is totally overshadowed by the awesomeness of the frosting.
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I'm a huge fan of pineapple so I was really excited when I finally had a couple of free minutes on a Thursday to run down to Dozen and grab this Copacabana cupcake. The Copacabana is comprised of a pineapple vanilla cake topped with mango buttercream rolled in coconut and garnished with a wedge of sugared pineapple. It gave off a sweet, buttery, coconutty aroma.
The dry, crumbly cake tasted exactly like Dozen's standard vanilla cake, but with shredded pineapple mixed in. Surprisingly it didn't have much flavor; it was a bit buttery, but that's about it. The texture of the shredded pineapple was much more pronounced than the flavor. The mango buttercream was sweet at first, but eventually it hit me with a burst of mango flavor. It wasn't a "naked" mango flavor, however, it was more like a creamsicle version. The frosting helped mask the dryness of the cake, but there was way too much it for the amount of cake, turning the whole thing into a sugary sweet confection. The strongest flavor in the cupcake was by far the coconut, and overall it tasted like generic tropical fruit, kind of like Dole Pineapple-Orange-Banana juice. I couldn't really taste the mango or pineapple unless I hunted for it. Ultimately I wish the fruit flavors in this cupcake (especially the pineapple) were stronger, and it wasn't so sweet.
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This modern and manly looking cupcake consists of Classic Coca-Cola cake topped with whiskey ganache and Jack Daniels buttercream. It had a sweet, bready aroma. The cake was moist and dense with a robust, bready flavor that was just slightly sweet. It was more "hearty" than anything else -- if I didn't know it had Coke in it I wouldn't have guessed that was the flavor. The more I thought about it, the more the subtle, syrupy flavor of the sweetness reminded me of Coke.
The sugary buttercream was sweet and had an immediate, sharp flavor of Jack Daniels. Even though I hate whiskey, I really liked this buttercream -- maybe with enough sugar, whiskey can taste good? The ganache was difficult to sample due to its thinness, but what I could scrap off seemed to have a rich, dark chocolate taste. Overall the cupcake is hearty and sweet, with a nice tang of whiskey flavor. (The dark chocolate flavor of the ganache is pretty much hidden when combined with the cake and buttercream.) The chunky sugar crystals on top of the ganache added a nice contrasting crunch to the smooth texture of the cake, frosting, and ganache. This was a super unusual flavor combo, but it was super good.
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 Reminiscent of a Hostess Cupcake, this vegan cupcake consists of chocolate cake filled with vegan vanilla "butter" cream, topped with a thin sheet of chocolate ganache and white sprinkles. The chocolate cake had a robust dark chocolate flavor, and was slightly moist. The ganache was super super thin, less than 1/16" thick, making it difficult to sample alone. From what I could tell it had a sweet, yet rich, dark chocolate flavor and smooth, creamy texture. Owing to its thinness, the ganache didn't add much by the way of flavor or texture to the cupcake.
 The vanilla "butter" cream filling was sweet and sugary with a nice mild vanilla flavor. It added some moisture and sweetness to the cake, making for a good balance of bitter dark chocolate and sweet vanilla frosting. Overall a good cupcake, though it felt like the frosting was missing. It was a shade too dry to eat alone, except for the exact center where the filling was. | |
 I stopped by Dozen today to see if they had done anything special for April Fool's Day. (Last year they served the daily selection entirely in mini-size, which was awesome as you could buy one of each flavor and still not feel guilty about eating them all.) Earlier in the morning I had checked their site for April Fool's Day news and noticed that they'd launched a new menu. Part of me suspected that the new menu could be a joke, but the flavors were far too normal sounding.
I arrived at the bakery just as it opened and discovered that the new menu was no joke, and that there were no surprises for April Fool's. A friend and I briefly pondered the new selection; he chose the neon pink Cherry Pop while I opted for the vegan Strawberry Lemonade. The Strawberry Lemonade was comprised of vegan strawberry cake topped with a lemon flavored vegan buttercream. It gave off a faint, buttery aroma. (How did they make a vegan cupcake smell buttery??)
I took a tentative bite of the strawberry cake and was blown away. Stop the presses. Dozen has finally made a moist cake. The strawberry cake was light and moist with the sweet, unassuming flavor of real strawberries. It wasn't as moist as Dot's strawberry cake but it was still quite delicious nonetheless. Yay! The lemon "butter" cream was light and fluffy with an initially sweet flavor that suddenly turned tangy after a few seconds. It wasn't "slap you in the face" tart like the Lavender Lemon, but it still packed a kick. I sure do love Dozen's citrus frostings! The flavors mixed quite well; the tartness of the lemon frosting complementing the sweetness of the strawberry cake. All in all a delicious cupcake -- I'm thrilled that Dozen finally put together a vegan cupcake that's not as desiccated as cardboard. I'll definitely be back to try this one again. | |
 The Spicy Chocolate is a specialty flavor sold only once a year, on Valentine's Day. I passed over it last year, opting to get a pretty vanilla cupcake with chocolate ganache instead. Several of my friends mentioned it was really good, and I spent the whole year eagerly awaiting the arrival of Valentine's Day so I could finally try it. When I found out I'd be traveling internationally over Valentine's Day, I tried to call Dozen and reserve a Spicy Chocolate cupcake. They told me I couldn't reserve individual cupcakes, only their Valentine's Day 4-pack (which came with three other flavors I didn't care about), so I asked a friend to go pick one up for me on Valentine's Day and keep it for me until I got back. (Thanks Bryan!) I finally got to eat this cupcake four days after it was purchased, so you should take this review with a grain of salt.
This cupcake appeared to consist of chocolate cake topped with a sheet of chocolate ganache covered with a fine dusting of granulated sugar. It smelled like rich dark chocolate ganache. The chocolate cake was soft and crumbly, reminding me of the delicate Japanese cupcakes I'd just sampled the previous week. The initial flavor was a mild, subtle chocolate, but a spicy kick eventually made its presence known, getting spicier and stronger as time passed, stopping just short of painful. The chocolate ganache was creamy and smooth with a rich chocolate flavor, though it was hard to sample alone as it was quite thin. It too had an eventual spicy kick, though that may have just been contamination from the cake.
Overall the cupcake had a soft, smooth texture with a rich chocolate taste and a nice spicy punch. It was a bit on the dry side due to the crumbly cake and thin layer of super dense ganache. A glass of milk would make the perfect accessory for the cupcake, both adding moisture to the cupcake and tempering the spicy bite. In general, I find cupcakes topped with super thin layers of ganache to be too dry for my taste. Part of me wishes there was more ganache on this cupcake (which may have made the overall texture even thicker), or better yet, I wish it had been topped with the Old Fashioned Fudge or Choconilla frostings. This cupcake tasted much better than I expected a four day old cupcake to taste like -- in fact, it tasted better than several other fresh cupcakes I've had from Dozen... | |
 On first glance (and smell), the Raspberry Zinger is a dead ringer for the Snowball. The difference is that the Raspberry Zinger is topped with raspberry buttercream (instead of vanilla) and the vanilla cake is filled with raspberry preserves. It has a sweet, buttery, tangy, coconutty smell, each component of which is very faint. For the record, I despise coconut, so you should take this review with a grain of salt.
The vanilla cake is Dozen's standard recipe; slightly sweet, slightly vanilla, and very dry. The raspberry buttercream is thick and smooth with a flavor that is primarily "sweet" with a hint of fruitiness. Tasty! The initial flavor of the cupcake is generic sweetness with a fruity aftertaste that is overridden by coconut after you start chewing into the coconut topping. The texture of the cupcake is initially soft and smooth with the coconut topping later adding some chewiness into the mix.
 This cupcake really begins to shine when you reach the center and bite into the raspberry filling. The raspberry preserves are absolutely delicious -- fruity and tart with the crunch of raspberry seeds. Yum! I wonder if there's a way they could somehow swirl them throughout the batter so as to disperse the wonderfully tangy flavor (and moisture) throughout the cake. The raspberry preserves totally make this cupcake -- without them, the cupcake is mediocre, with them it's delicious. As a coconut hater, my vote would be to ditch the coconut, cut down the amount of frosting by 1/3, and increase the radius of the filling or somehow swirl the preserves throughout the cake batter. (This would also help distinguish the Raspberry Zinger from the Snowball.) Making these alterations to the cupcake and taking a bite full of raspberry preserves leaves me with a truly scrumptious confection that I would give a 4.5/5. In its original form, I'd give this cupcake a solid 3. | |
Like the Grasshopper, this elusive cupcake made a brief appearance on Dozen's menu shortly before the winer holidays when Dozen was open on Mondays. This cupcake is egg nog all the way -- egg nog spice cake topped with egg nog buttercream decorated with a fine dusting of nutmeg. The cupcake has a faint aroma of nutmeg and cream.
The spice cake is greyish brown in color with flecks of some sort of dark spice scattered throughout. It's super dry and very crumbly with a sweet, spice-laden flavor. It kind of reminds me of apple spice cake, though with a more subtle fruit flavor. I'm not really tasting any egg nog. The frosting is denser than other Dozen buttercreams, with a super creamy texture and a flavor that can be best described as "sweet". There is a hint of spice to it, probably from the nutmeg dusted on top. Upon further reflection, it does taste a bit like egg nog, but only faintly, as a kind of aftertaste. The frosting softens the dry cake and its creaminess makes the overall texture of the cupcake really smooth, though there's a bit too much of it for my liking. Overall this is a good "holiday" cupcake, though I wouldn't really say it tastes like egg nog.
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 This Grasshopper cupcake is one of Dozen's "specialty flavors", only appearing on their menu for a few Mondays prior to the winter holidays. As one could guess from its name, the cupcake is comprised of Devil's Food cake topped with mint buttercream ringed in crushed Oreo crumbs. Dozen's Mint Meltaway is one of my favorite cupcakes, so I have a high set of expectations for this cupcake. This cupcake gives off a nice, sweet, crisp smell of mint.
The Devil's Food cake is quite literally the dryest cake I have ever tasted, to the point where it sucks the water right out of my mouth. In this respect, eating the cake is not unlike the sensation of trying to eat four saltine crackers at once. It leaves your tongue dry and your mouth parched. The cake has a faintly sweet, rich cocoa flavor which, when combined with the super fine crumbly (almost powdery) texture, makes it feel kind of like I'm eating straight cocoa powder.
The mint buttercream is quite dense with a sweet, refreshing mint flavor that reminds me of an Andes mint. Yum! The frosting adds some much-needed moisture to cake, holding the powdery bits together. When combined with the cocoa cake and cookie crumbles, the overall flavor of the cupcake is nearly identical to an Andes mint! Delicious! The silky creaminess of the frosting mixes with the soft powderiness of the cake to make an exceptionally smooth and soft confection. This cupcake pretty much exemplifies my love of the chocolate/mint flavor combination. The mint buttercream is a solid 5/5, and the overall texture and flavor of the cupcake are great as well. I would totally have given this cupcake a 5 if it didn't have the dryest cake evar. | |
 This smooth little vegan cupcake is made up of chocolate cake filled with mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, topped with dark chocolate ganache. It has a sweet smell of rich dark chocolate. The cake is dry and crumbly with a fairly bitter dark chocolate flavor. The chocolate chips add bursts of sweetness and creaminess to the mix, which slightly tempers the bitter flavor. The chocolate ganache is super creamy with a sweet, rich chocolate taste. The bitterness of the ganache becomes a bit stronger as time passes. Overall this chocolatey cupcake is sweet and smooth, but the dry cake combined with the thick ganache leaves your mouth parched. Be sure to grab a glass of milk with this one.
I've eaten a great many chocolate chocolate cupcakes and I have yet to come across one that replicates the type of chocolate cake you find in restaurants. You know, the kind that's four or five layers of super moist cake coated in rich, thick fudgy icing? Is the problem that it's really hard to make such a small portion of cake retain moistness in the baking process? And how come nobody uses fudge icing on cupcakes? It's always fluffy buttercream or thick ganache.
Anyway, this Death by Chocolate cupcake was ok, if a bit dry/thick. I liked it better than the Dark Chocolate as it was sweeter and the textures of the cake and frosting were more defined. | |
A couple of disclaimers: 1) This cupcake was purchased about 30 hours ago. (A friend of mine bought a dozen cupcakes yesterday, and belatedly realized it might be a bad idea to eat them all himself. Thanks Rich!) 2) I hate pecan pie. I bet you're all wondering why I'd eat this Pecan Pie cupcake when I hate pecan pie. First of all, it was free. Second of all, I have this thing about cupcakes -- I gotta eat 'em all, even if I think I'll hate them. You never know when you'll be pleasantly surprised!
This cupcake has a sweet, caramel-like aroma. It consists of vanilla cake topped with an ice cream scoop of pecan pie filling topped with a dollop of vanilla buttercream and a whole pecan. The cake is Dozen's standard vanilla recipe; sweet with a nice vanilla flavor, but super dry and crumbly. The pecan pie filling has a sweet, ooey, gooey caramel-like base interspersed with tons of crunchy pecans that give it bursts of nutty flavor. I'm usually not a fan of nuts in my baked goods, and despise pecans specifically, but for some reason I'm not hating this. The sweetness of the frosting mixes well with the sweet cake, making the overall flavor sweet and nutty. The texture of the cake pretty much disappears underneath the topping, making it feel more like you're eating Snickers bar than a cupcake. The primary flaw of this cupcake is that the gooey topping combined with the dry cake makes for a very dry mouth. Don't attempt eating this one without a beverage.
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At first glance this confection looks more like a thick cookie or a flat bun than a cupcake. It's about an inch and a half tall and four inches in diameter, and instead of frosting the top is coated with a generous dusting of powdered sugar. The "cupcake" has a rich, buttery smell.
A bite reveals a texture that is much less dense than what I typically associate with pound cake. It's not fluffy per se, it's just not as dense as the frozen Sally Lee pound cake that I'm used to. The initial flavor is predominantly "sweet", though the taste of vanilla gets stronger and stronger as time passes. The nice flavor is stronger in the crisp, buttery "crust" on top of the cupcake. Both the flavor and texture of this cupcake remind me more of fluffy, sweet angel food cake than dense, buttery pound cake. This is more "cookie" than "cupcake", but it's still delicious.
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 With its buttery rich yellow cake topped with vanilla buttercream and a healthy coating of shredded coconut, this pale pink cupcake is nearly identical to the Toasted Coconut cupcake that was on Dozen's Spring/Fall menu. The only difference appears to be that on the Snowball, the layer of coconut on top of the frosting isn't toasted.
The Snowball has a sweet, coconut smell. The cake is soft, crumbly, and extremely dry -- you'll definitely need a glass of milk with this one. The flavor is predominantly sweet, though there's a subtle vanilla aftertaste. The pink frosting is Dozen's standard vanilla buttercream; sugary and sweet with a rich vanilla flavor. Yum! The buttercream adds some moisture and additional sweetness to the cake, with the shredded coconut topping contributing bursts of coconut flavor to the mix. The chewy coconut also adds some resistance to the soft, creamy texture of the cupcake.
The frosting solves the moisture problem of the cake, but only because the cake is drowning under the massive mound of frosting. I'd say that the frosting/cake ratio is too high, except that the dry cake needs all that frosting. If the cake wasn't already fairly sweet on its own, the abundance of sweet frosting wouldn't be such a problem. At any rate, I'm not a fan of coconut, so overall I think I'll just stick with the good old Vanilla Vanilla. | |
This modern version of a caramel apple consists of apple spice cake topped with caramel buttercream and caramel drizzles. The cupcake gives off a rich aroma of spice cake. Peeling off the paper wrapper reveals a cake that looks and feels very moist. In actuality, the cake is more mushy than moist, with a spongy texture. The amount of moisture makes the cake seem uncooked, though I know it isn't. There are small chunks of apple scattered throughout the cake, and I suspect the moisture in the apples is what's causing the soggy texture. The chunks of apple add a nice flavor and texture to the cake.
Speaking of flavor, the cake has a robust taste of autumn spices that reminds me a lot of apple cider. It's only very slightly sweet, which is kind of unexpected. Initially, the caramel buttercream tastes exactly like Dozen's vanilla buttercream, but more buttery. After a couple of seconds a strong taste of caramel swoops in, and lingers on the tongue as the taste of vanilla fades. Nice! The frosting adds a nice sweetness to the cake, though the caramel flavor (and its delayed zing) virtually disappears when eating with the cake. Strangely, the mushiness of the cake is less noticeable when eaten with the frosting. The overall flavor is very "apple pie a la mode", and when eaten as a whole the cupcake tastes much better than the sum of its parts. A solid cupcake.
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I'm a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip cookie dough, so I was quite excited to try Dozen's Chocolate Chip Cookie cupcake. This cute little cupcake is made up of old fashioned chocolate chip cake topped with three dollops of vanilla buttercream sprinkled with a pinch of grated chocolate. The cupcake gives off a strong, buttery aroma.
The top of the cupcake was really crisp, just like a chocolate chip cookie. A quick bite revealed that it tasted exactly like a cookie! Neat! The softer cake underneath the top of the cookie was still quite dense and fairly moist with a buttery sweet flavor. The numerous mini chocolate chips in the cake added bursts of creamy milk chocolate flavor. It was like eating a soft chocolate chip cookie -- delicious! The vanilla buttercream tasted like Dozen's standard recipe; sugary and sweet with a nice vanilla flavor. It had a bit of a buttery sheen that left a greasy film on my lips. The frosting added even more sweetness to the cookie/cake, and together the cupcake tasted exactly like a frosted chocolate chip cookie. So good! I can tell that this is going to be one of my Dozen favorites.
The only complaint I have about this cupcake is that the butteriness of the frosting combined with the butteriness of the cake is a bit too much butteriness. There's also slightly too much frosting for the amount of cake, but that's not a big deal. If it weren't for the slight buttery sheen of the frosting, this cupcake would've gotten one of my rare perfect scores.
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 As I've mentioned on this site several times before, vanilla cake with chocolate frosting is my all-time favorite cupcake. I was overjoyed to discover that Dozen has added such a cupcake to their fall menu, and raced over to grab the "Choconilla" on the first day it was available. I loved the decadent Old Fashioned Vanilla Fudge and was hoping the Choconilla would make me just as happy.
The Choconilla consists of vanilla butter cake topped with Belgian milk chocolate buttercream and a smattering of chocolate sprinkles. It had an intoxicating aroma of rich milk chocolate and butter. The vanilla cake was crumbly and soft, and was surprisingly not as dry as usual. It had a mild, sweet vanilla flavor. The chocolate buttercream was extremely light and airy with a rich, buttery milk chocolate taste. It tasted just like whipped Cadbury bars. So. Good. Alone the frosting was a bit too buttery for my taste, but when consumed with the cake it tasted just fine. It added some additional moisture to the cake, and together they had a rich, buttery sweet chocolate flavor. The taste and texture of the sprinkles was imperceptible in the mix, which was just fine by me as I despise sprinkles.
I have no idea how this is possible, but somehow the cupcake managed to be both light and airy as well as rich. I have no complaints about this cupcake -- it's super delicious. My only reservation is that in general I prefer thicker "icing" to fluffier "buttercream", and I wish this frosting had a bit more "weight" to it. | |
 I'm a huge fan of carrot cake so it's no surprise that I ran to Dozen to try their new Carrot Cake cupcake the first week they offered their new fall menu. I'd rather enjoyed their Ginger Spice Carrot Cake when it made an appearance as a Friday Mystery Flavor a few weeks ago, and I was curious to see how closely they'd stuck to that recipe.
This new iteration consisted simply of carrot cake topped with vanilla buttercream. It didn't have any discernible smell other than "burnt", which had me a bit worried. Luckily, the cupcake didn't taste burned at all. The cake was very chunky and crumbly, full of shredded carrot, shredded coconut, and chopped walnuts. It was moist and buttery; one of Dozen's moistest cakes to date, if not the moistest. At first the flavor didn't taste like carrot cake; it was more like "cake with carrots and coconut in it". It seemed to be missing the spices typically found in carrot cake. However, the more I ate it, the more I began to notice the spices, and the more it tasted like traditional carrot cake. The chunky texture was excellent, like a little party on my tongue.
The vanilla buttercream seemed to be Dozen's standard recipe, if a bit thicker than usual. It was sugary and buttery with a refreshing sweet vanilla flavor. The buttercream added some sweetness to the rich, savory, buttery cake, providing a good counterpoint to both the texture and flavor of the cake. Somehow the frosting enhanced the spiciness of the cake, making it even stronger when eaten with the butttercream. This cupcake definitely has to be eaten with the frosting...it just doesn't taste quite right plain. It still doesn't seem like a "real" carrot cake without cream cheese frosting though. I'd love to try this with Dozen's fantastic cream cheese frosting. | |
 This new addition to Dozen's fall menu consists of gingerbread cake topped with lemon buttercream. It's offered with both vegan and non-vegan buttercream. I'm a big fan of vegan baked goods so I thought I'd give the vegan version a go.
Unsurprisingly, the cupcake gave off a faint aroma of ginger and lemon. I had a bit of a hard time getting the wrapper off the cake -- it really wanted to stick to the cupcake! The super dark gingerbread cake was moist and dense with a strong, spicy gingerbread flavor that just toed the line of "overpowering". It strongly reminded me of gingersnap cookies. Yum! The buttercream was super light and fluffy with a buttery texture, which I have no idea how they accomplished with vegan ingredients. Making vegan frosting is really hard, and unfortunately this buttercream just wasn't as good as Dozen's non-vegan buttercreams. Something about the texture was a bit off; it seemed almost oily. The frosting had a strong sour lemon flavor...not "slap you in the face, pucker your lips tart" like Dozen's typical citrus frostings, but strongly sour. I prefer the tart lemon glaze on the Lavender Lemon to this sour lemon flavor.
The buttercream added some moisture to the cake, and the sour lemon flavor dulled the sharp, spicy gingerness of the cake. Surprisingly, the flavors matched quite well, which I never would have expected. (When I first saw the cupcake I was like "Lemon and Gingerbread? Really??") There's something about the sourness of the frosting and spiciness of the ginger that just worked together. The chunky sugar crystals ringing the buttercream add a nice crunch to the smooth texture of the frosting and cake. At the end of the day, the buttery/greasy texture of the frosting combined with the sharp, rich spiciness of the cake make this seem more like a "savory" cupcake -- it doesn't so much feel like a dessert. | |
This Friday Mystery Flavor cupcake consisted of pumpkin spice cake topped with vanilla buttercream ringed in crushed gingersnap cookies. It gave off a rich nutmeggy ginger aroma that reminded me of carrot cake and banana bread. The cake was neither moist nor dry with a soft, smooth texture. Its flavor was primarily "spicy" -- I could definitely pick out ginger and nutmeg, as well as something else that made my tongue tingle. I didn't taste anything that was easily identifiable as pumpkin.
The vanilla buttercream was Dozen's standard recipe; light, fluffy, and buttery with a nice sweet vanilla flavor. The sweetness of the frosting really complements the spiciness of the cake, with the crushed gingersnaps adding an extra zing to the overall flavor. The frosting adds some moisture to the cake, but the overall texture is still closer to a dense, crisp cookie than a soft, fluffy cake. Ultimately, this cupcake tastes more like iced gingersnap cookies than pumpkin pie. Either way, it's a delicious fall treat!
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Carrot cake is one of my most favorite cakes, so it was with no little joy that I eagerly purchased this Friday Mystery Flavor cupcake. James happened to be working the counter when I came in, and he explained that it featured carrot cake (made with organic carrots) topped with vanilla spice buttercream ringed with homemade gingered sugar. He warned me that the gingered sugar was a bit strong, and its taste might not be for everyone.
The cupcake gave off a faint smell of ginger and spice. The cake was crumbly and dry with a nice mildly spicy, faintly buttery carrot flavor. It was buttery rather than sweet, and more subtle than most carrot cakes. In fact, it was so mild that it seemed more like "cake with carrot" rather than standard "carrot cake". This may sound like a bad thing, but I actually liked it. It wasn't overwhelming in-your-face carrot cake.
The vanilla spice buttercream was fluffy, sugary, and buttery with sweet vanilla nutmeg flavor. It tasted like Dozen's standard vanilla buttercream with a variety of fall spices blended in. In some ways the frosting tasted more like "carrot cake" than the cake did -- almost as if all the spices were put in the frosting instead of the cake. The gingered sugar tasted like sugar crystals with a faint ginger aftertaste. Their flavor wasn't anywhere close to "strong" as James had warned. I really liked it! The amount of frosting was perfect for the size of the cake. The buttercream added some moisture and spice to the cake, making for a scrumptious, if mild, carrot cake flavor.
In general, this cupcake is all about being unassuming instead of overwhelming. It's as if traditional carrot cake's bold, sharp spices are like the girl that tries to get your attention with revealing clothing, thick makeup, and heavy flirting. Instead, this carrot cake wears demure clothing and attracts you with its shy smile and subtle wit.
The only thing I would change about this cupcake is the butter content of the cake; when combined with the buttery frosting, it makes for a bit too much butteriness. Also, it doesn't seem like real "carrot cake" without cream cheese frosting, so I'd be curious to taste this with a "spiced cream cheese" topping.
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 This monstrous cousin of the Mint Meltaway is another one of Dozen's Friday Mystery Flavors. It is comprised of dark chocolate cake topped with a maraschino cherry with kirsch buttercream on top covered in a sheet of chocolate cherry ganache with another maraschino cherry on top of that. Crazy! (When I first read the description I didn't know what kirsch was. I looked it up and it's a sweet cherry liqueur.) The entire cupcake gave off a syrupy sweet aroma of cherries and dark chocolate.
I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive about tackling this cupcake. I wasn't the world's biggest fan of Dozen's syrupy cherry frostings on their Chocolate Cherry and Cherry Sno-Cone cupcakes, and I was worried this cherry cupcake would have a similar flavor. Baron loves cherry flavored confections, so I invited him over in case I didn't like the cupcake and needed someone else to polish it off.
I am happy to report that my fears were completely unrealized. In fact, it was with great reluctance that I handed over half of this cupcake to Baron. It's a good thing I'd eaten dinner before I had this cupcake or he may not have gotten a single bite at all!
 Cutting the cupcake in half revealed the extra maraschino cherry hiding inside, underneath the kirsch buttercream. Too cute! The cake seemed to be Dozen's standard dark chocolate cake; soft and dry with an unobtrusive dark chocolate flavor. The kirsch buttercream was cool, creamy, and sweet with a burst of alcohol that quickly faded to reveal a fruity flavor. It had a slight aftertaste of alcohol and was very sweet, almost too much so. Luckily, it didn't have that syrupy sweetness found in Dozen's other cherry cupcakes. Yay! The chocolate cherry ganache tasted exactly like a cherry cordial from Harry and David. It had a smooth, rich, and creamy dark chocolate flavor with a strong cherry syrup fruitiness. Luckily it wasn't overly syrupy. Woot!
Overall this cupcake tastes exactly like a cherry cordial, but in cupcake form. This cupcake is all about balance. The frosting adds some moisture to the dry cake while its sweet cherry flavor tempers the bitterness of the dark chocolate cake and dark chocolate ganache. The dark chocolate cake balances the sweetness of the buttercream and syrupiness of the ganache, and cuts the sharp alcoholic aftertaste of the buttercream. It's the perfect mix of flavors, all of which "play nice" together. Amazing.
This cupcake would be perfect if it wasn't for the dryness of the cake. I also despise maraschino cherries, but it was all too easy to pawn those off on Baron. Lastly, this cupcake was super rich, so much so that I couldn't eat more than four or five bites in one sitting. If you're like me you'll need to bring a friend to share this cupcake with. | |
 Another one of Dozen's Friday Mystery Flavors, the Cookies and Cream cupcake is made up of devil's food cake topped with vanilla buttercream rolled in crushed Oreo cookies with a single Oreo cookie perched on top. The cake tastes exactly like the one found in Dozen's German Chocolate cupcake; soft, crumbly, and dry with a rich dark chocolate flavor. The frosting is Dozen's typical vanilla buttercream; light and fluffy with a sweet vanilla flavor. The cooke crumbs coating the top of the cupcake have been softened by the buttercream, giving the frosting a nice, chewy texture and a subtle chocolate cookie flavor.
The vanilla buttercream masks the dryness of the cake, and the crumbliness of the cake is completely hidden among the chewy, cookie-crumb texture of the frosting. Overall the texture of the cupcake is soft and creamy and the flavor is a nice blend of rich chocolate and sweet vanilla. When eaten with the cake, the vanilla buttercream tastes exactly like the creme filling found in the center of Oreo cookies. The whole cupcake is vaguely reminiscent of an Oreo, though the chocolate flavor of the cake is a bit richer than that of Oreo cookies. Ultimately, the Asteroids! tastes much more like an Oreo cookie than this cupcake.
Comparisons to Oreos aside, this light and refreshing cupcake is super yummy, though there was slightly too much frosting for the amount of cake. | |
I should preface this review by mentioning that I hate coconut and dark chocolate, and I dislike nuts in my baked goods. Given this fact it seems pretty odd that I'd buy a German Chocolate cupcake, but I have a really hard time passing up Dozen's Mystery Flavor Friday cupcakes. Dozen has surprised me in the past by making me love cupcakes that I was sure I'd hate, and as such I'm very reluctant to let any of their concoctions go untried.
Dozen's version of a German Chocolate cupcake consists of devil's food cake with a scoop of pecan coconut topping covered in dark chocolate drizzles. The cupcake gave off a rich, buttery dark chocolate aroma. The dry cake was crumbly and soft with a rich dark chocolate flavor that happily wasn't very bitter. The pecan coconut topping was sweet and gooey with a nutty, coconut flavor. Surprisingly, I didn't hate it, even though I loathe its two main ingredients: pecans and coconut. The counterpoint between the gooey, buttery caramel-like "glue" and crunchy nuts and shredded coconut was very interesting; it made for a nice texture.
The pecan coconut topping added a bit of moisture to the cake; making the entire confection thick and gooey. The balance in this cupcake was spot on-- the rich dark chocolate flavor of the cake matched well with the components of the topping, with none of the individual flavors overpowering the others. I have to admit that the overall flavor of this cupcake is not one of my favorites (unsurprising given my hatred of dark chocolate and nuts), but I do have to compliment the excellent construction. If the cake was less dry and crumbly, and the caramel in the topping less buttery/greasy, this cupcake would be perfect.
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Today's Mystery Friday Flavor was Apricot Whiskey Crumb Cake which was made up of a classic crumb cake with whiskey infused apricots topped with a single dollop of vanilla whipped cream. The top of the cupcake was covered with brown sugar crumbles and the entire confection gave off a sweet, coffee-cake type smell. I was in a bit of a rush this morning (I'm actually writing this review from the airport) so I practically inhaled this cupcake.
Removing the wrapper from the cupcake revealed that the brown sugar crumbles actually comprise the top 1/3 to 1/2 of the cake. Yum! The cake is moist with an initial classic breakfast-coffee-cake taste that is slowly overtaken by a fruity apricot flavor. The small whiskey-infused apricot chunks are scattered throughout the cake, and each time I bite into one it releases a burst of apricot flavor. True to its name, the cake is definitely crumbly, and though it is moist I find myself wanting a glass of milk to wash it down with. I can't really taste the whiskey in the apricots, but I'm not exactly a big whiskey drinker so I don't really know what I'm looking for. There does seem to be a robust saloon-like aftertaste to the cake, but I might just be imagining that.
The vanilla whipped cream both looks and tastes exactly like Dozen's vanilla buttercream, but perhaps it's a bit fluffier? It has a sweet vanilla taste and a light and sugary texture. Delicious! The vanilla frosting adds sweetness and some moisture to the cake, but the vanilla flavor overpowers the natural "crumble cake" taste of the cake. I'm torn between wishing there was a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake and leaving the cupcake as-is -- I really like the sweet vanilla flavor the frosting adds to the cupcake, but I also like the natural crumble cake flavor of the cake which is overpowered by the frosting. Either way, this is one tasty cupcake.
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Today's Mystery Friday Flavor was Apple Spice, a deliciously smelling apple spice cake topped with maple buttercream and crushed walnuts. The strong aroma emanating from the cupcake most closely resembled that of pancakes, probably due to the maple buttercream.
The apple spice cake is super moist with a buttery, spicy flavor that has a subtle apple aftertaste. It tastes just like apple cider, but in cake form. Neat! The maple buttercream is sweet and sugary with a nice maple flavor. Its texture is, light, fluffy, and fairly buttery. The frosting adds a nice amount of sweetness to the not-so-sweet cake, but the maple flavor of the frosting combined with the apple flavor and nutmegy spice flavors of the cake is a bit of a flavor overload. It's like my tongue and brain don't quite know which flavor to pay attention to. As the cake is already quite moist on its own, the addition of frosting gives the cupcake a breakfast pastry/coffee-cake type feel. If the cake was a bit sweeter, it would be better off without the frosting.
The soft cake combined with the fluffy frosting give the cupcake an overall texture that is super soft. The crushed walnuts give the cupcake an additional nutty flavor and add some crunch to the soft texture. The "warm" apple-cider flavor of this cupcake makes it a bit too rich for a city in the middle of a 90+ degree heat wave. I think it would do much better on a fall menu -- with some slight modification (cream cheese frosting instead of maple?) it could be a fantastic thanksgiving dessert.
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Today was "Christmas in July" at Dozen, complete with Christmas-themed cupcakes, holiday music on the loudspeaker, and a modern, white christmas tree in the display window. Even though I've reviewed Dozen's Vanilla Vanilla cupcake approximately 30491 times, I just couldn't pass up this adorable little snowman. Seriously, I don't think I've seen a cuter cupcake. I'm such a sucker for creative decorations -- it's totally my kryptonite. I bet you could get me to eat poison if it was shaped into a cute little animal.
Anyway, the Snowman Cupcake was made up of vanilla cake topped with a thin layer of vanilla buttercream which was then rolled in tiny white non-pareils to make a layer of "snow". Perched on top of the snow was a vanilla buttercream snowman with pretzel sticks for arms and a junior mint hat. The cupcake gave off a sweet, vanilla aroma. A lot of time and love went into this cupcake! Dozen gets tons of mad props for creativity! I honestly hesitated for several minutes before eating this cupcake -- I didn't want to destroy what was basically a piece of edible art. Eventually I conquered the sinking feeling in my stomach and bit into the cupcake.
The vanilla cake was Dozen's standard recipe -- a bit rough and dry in texture with sweet, warm buttery flavor that has a subtle vanilla taste. The vanilla buttercream was excellent as usual. It was light, fluffy, creamy and super super soft with a very sweet vanilla flavor. The tiny black dots swirled throughout the buttercream make me think that there might be real ground vanilla beans mixed in. Overall the cupcake has a sweet, buttery vanilla flavor. The butteriness of the cake combined with the butteriness of the frosting give the cupcake a pound-cake like taste.
The non-pareils add a nice crunch to the soft frosting and fluffy cake. The unexpected highlight of this cupcake, however, was the pretzel arms. Initially I thought that pretzels on a vanilla cupcake would be kind of gross, so I was planning to pull them off and eat them separately. At the last second I changed my mind, and half of one of the arms snuck its way into one of my bites. O. M. G. I was totally blown away. The pretzels had been softened by the buttercream so that they had this soft, chewy, almost doughy texture. The tangy burst of saltiness somehow enhanced the vanilla flavor of the buttercream. It was the perfect texture and taste complement to the vanilla cake and frosting. I think my eyes literally rolled into the back of my head after that first pretzel-enhanced bite. The piece de resistance was the junior mint hat. I originally thought it was a regular piece of chocolate and was overjoyed to discover that it was actually a mint. I love mint. I think I moaned out loud when I bit into the hat -- good thing I was alone in my house at the time.
This cupcake could have easily won a perfect rating if it wasn't for the dryness of the cake and the slightly greasy film the butter-laden cake and frosting left in my mouth. There was also way too much frosting for the amount of cake, but that can be excused for the aesthetics of the decoration. At the end of the day, this cupcake was so good that later that night I dragged two friends over to Dozen so they could try it as well, but unfortunately Dozen had already sold out of them. Hopefully this little guy will make another appearance on Dozen's menu this December.
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Today was "Christmas in July" at Dozen, complete with Christmas-themed cupcakes, holiday music on the loudspeaker, and a modern, white christmas tree in the display window. The Mint "Haute" Chocolate cupcake immediately caught my eye. I love the mint chocolate flavor combination and I'm a huge fan of Dozen's now-discontinued Mint Meltaway. Naturally, I was thrilled to see another mint chocolate cupcake make an appearance on Dozen's menu. This festive little cupcake consists of dark chocolate cake topped with mint dark chocolate ganache adorned with blue and white sprinkles and a candy-cane colored after-dinner mint. You can smell the peppermint radiating off of this cupcake from several feet away.
The cake is soft and moist with a warm, mild chocolate flavor. I definitely wouldn't call it "dark" chocolate -- it's not sweet but it's not bitter. It's just a darn good chocolate cake. It looks like my cupcake-wish came true and Dozen started using the superior ¡Worms! chocolate cake recipe for all of their chocolate cakes. Yay!
The ganache initially has a rich, bitter dark chocolate flavor that is almost immediately overpowered by a big-bang-like burst of sharp peppermint. I think they put a bit too much peppermint extract in this ganache...it burns your tongue and mouth just like an Altoid. The strong peppermint flavor and bitterness of the ganache completely dominate the mild chocolate flavor of the cake. As I eat this cupcake my lips tingle, as if I've coated them in a menthol lip balm. (Luckily, this cupcake is much tastier than chapstick!) The sprinkles have been softened by the frosting and they add a nice bit of chewy resistance to the soft cake and smooth ganache. Ultimately, the overbearing peppermint flavor and bitterness of the ganache mask what is a truly scrumptious chocolate cake.
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I keep hoping that Dozen will add a feature to their website showing the upcoming Friday Mystery Flavor and so I often find myself checking their website on Thursday in the hopes that such a notice has been added. I literally shrieked out loud when I checked their website yesterday afternoon and discovered a cute graphic proclaiming "Wizard Cakes!" Clicking on the icon took me to a news bulletin that explained that Dozen would be selling special Wizard Cakes this Friday in honor of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Amai and I quickly made tentative plans to go to Dozen in costume during our lunch hour on Friday to get some Wizard Cakes.
When Amai informed me this morning that she wouldn't be able to sneak away from work I decided to go to Dozen anyway and bring some Wizard Cakes to her. They had three uniquely decorated Wizard Cakes in two flavors: Vanilla/Vanilla and Devil's Food/Chocolate Ganache. I've already reviewed Dozen's Vanilla/Vanilla cupcake twice before, but this time the frosting was tinted purple and covered in blue star and yellow crescent moon sprinkles, so I figured that was enough of a change to warrant a separate review. Any excuse to eat a cupcake, right?
This cute, bright cupcake gave off a sweet, buttery aroma. The cake was Dozen's usual vanilla cake: dry and a bit crumbly with a predominantly sweet taste that has a subtle vanilla aftertaste. The creamy purple buttercream was light and fluffy with a buttery, sweet vanilla flavor. Yum! There was a bit too much of it for the amount of cake, though. I removed about 2/3 of it and that seemed to do the trick. The star and moon sprinkles weren't soft and chalky like normal pellet-sprinkles, but instead were hard and crunchy like sugar candy. They added a nice crunch to the soft cake and creamy frosting. Together the frosting and cake make for a solid vanilla cupcake that is sweet, but not overly so (if you remove some of the frosting), with a mild vanilla flavor. The buttery flavor of the frosting shines through, giving the cupcake a pound-cake-esque taste.
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I keep hoping that Dozen will add a feature to their website showing the upcoming Friday Mystery Flavor and so I often find myself checking their website on Thursday in the hopes that such a notice has been added. I literally shrieked out loud when I checked their website yesterday afternoon and discovered a cute graphic proclaiming "Wizard Cakes!" Clicking on the icon took me to a news bulletin that explained that Dozen would be selling special Wizard Cakes this Friday in honor of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Amai and I quickly made tentative plans to go to Dozen in costume during our lunch hour on Friday to get some Wizard Cakes.
When Amai informed me this morning that she wouldn't be able to sneak away from work I decided to go to Dozen anyway and bring some Wizard Cakes to her. They had three uniquely decorated Wizard Cakes in two flavors: Vanilla/Vanilla and Devil's Food/Chocolate Ganache. The chocolate cupcakes were decorated in two different ways; one version was covered in blue star and yellow moon sprinkles and the other had a gold glittery lightening bolt stenciled on it. I bought one of each and Amai took the one with sprinkles while I took the one with the sparkly lightening bolt. It took me a little while to convince myself to eat the cupcake -- the lightening bolt was just so cute and perfect and I didn't want to ruin it!
This devil's food cake topped with chocolate ganache has a rich chocolate smell that belies its actual flavor. The cupcake seems smaller than normal, but that's probably because it's not topped with a towering mound of frosting. The crumbly devil's food cake is a bit dry with a very mild chocolate flavor. It's so mild in fact, that it seems pretty much flavorless. The chocolate ganache is smooth and creamy with a sweet chocolate flavor that is rich without a bitter aftertaste. I could've sworn the staff at Dozen mentioned it was dark chocolate ganache, but it definitely tastes more like milk chocolate, which is just fine by me. The frosting gives the cupcake a chocolatey flavor that is just perfect. It's not too rich, it's not bitter, and it's not very sweet which is just perfect for chocolate. Unfortunately thick ganache + dry cake = super dry mouth. You definitely need a beverage with this cupcake. I really like the flavor of this cupcake, but it's just too dry and crumbly.
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This darling little Strawberry Shortcake cupcake is one of Dozen's Mystery Friday Flavors. It consists of vanilla cake topped with strawberry buttercream (made from fresh strawberries!) ringed in graham cracker crumbs adorned with a dollop of vanilla buttercream. You can see bits of fresh strawberries swirled into the buttercream. Awesome! The cupcake gives off a wonderfully sweet, fresh aroma.
The vanilla cake is fairly dry but super super soft with a predominantly sweet flavor that has a subtle vanilla aftertaste. The texture of the cake is fluffy and airy with lots of nooks and crannies hiding inside. The fluffy, soft texture makes it feel like you're eating velvety dandelion balls. The strawberry buttercream is light and fluffy with a flavor that is initially simply "sweet", but as time passes the taste of strawberries emerges and slowly grows stronger. Happily, this fruity frosting actually tastes like real strawberries! Yay! The graham crackers add a nice texture to the frosting, but their purpose is primarily aesthetic -- you can't taste them at all and their texture is not noticeable when you take a bite of the whole cupcake. The frosting is a hair too sweet -- the cake is already sweet on its own, so it doesn't need too much extra sweetness from the frosting. The dollop of vanilla buttercream adds a burst of vanilla flavor without tipping the frosting ratio too high.
The frosting adds some much needed moisture to the cake, and the frosting to cake ratio is perfect. Overall the cupcake has a subtle strawberry flavor that is best described as "light" and "refreshing". It tastes like an early summer morning. If I ever convince Martha Stewart to plan my fantasy tea party at the gardens of Versailles, this cupcake (along with CoCo's Angel Food cupcake) would definitely be on the menu.
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I must admit that I was expecting something a bit more doom-and-gloom for today's Mystery Friday Flavor, owing to the fact that it's Friday the 13th. When I read "Summer Sno-Cone" on the chalkboard outside of Dozen, I wasn't exactly sure what would be awaiting me inside, but when I saw the cupcakes in the display case I had to laugh out loud. Lined up in neat little rows were what looked exactly like perfect sno-cone domes perched on top of vanilla cupcakes. Further inspection revealed the glittery "ice" to be a thick coating of translucent, chunky sugar crystals. Tall straws poking out of the tops of the domes completed the illusion. Dozen wins mad originality points for this one!
The Summer Sno-Cone frostings come in three flavors: Cherry, Blue Raspberry, and Lemon-lime. I knew I'd never be able to choose between them, so I bought all three.
I wasn't exactly thrilled with the cherry glaze on Dozen's Chocolate Cherry cupcake, so I was a bit apprehensive about tackling the Cherry Summer Sno-Cone. I postponed sampling the frosting to take a quick bite of the cake. The cake is extremely soft, to the point where the texture feels like velvet gliding across your tongue. It is fairly crumbly and a touch dry, with a sweet vanilla taste. Before moving on to the frosting, I stopped to admire the genius of its artful decoration. I absolutely love the coloration of the sugar crystals coating the dome of frosting -- the chunky translucent crystals allow the pink color of the frosting to shine through while still providing an "icy" appearance. The dark pink crystals scattered throughout glitter like rubies, giving the frosting an extra sparkle. Shiny!
Unfortunately, my worst fears are realized and the frosting does not taste nearly as good as it looks. The texture is light and fluffy, though a bit on the buttery side. The flavor is nearly identical to that of the glaze on the Chocolate Cherry, though not as strong. It tastes like artificial cherry syrup, reminiscent of children's medicine and bubble gum. On the plus side, it has the same jolly-rancher-esque taste as cherry sno-cone syrup. On the minus side, it's gross and evokes strong memories of choking down Robitussin cough syrup in my childhood.
The frosting adds some moisture to the cake, and the super crunchy sugar crystals add a nice contrast to the soft, fluffy texture of the cake. Overall, the cherry flavor of the frosting dominates the vanilla cake, to the point where you can't really taste the refreshingly sweet flavor of the cake anymore. There's also too much frosting for the amount of cake, though I suppose that was necessary to achieve the perfect sno-cone-dome aesthetic. Ultimately I ended up scraping off most of the frosting and eating the yummy cake alone.
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I must admit that I was expecting something a bit more doom-and-gloom for today's Mystery Friday Flavor, owing to the fact that it's Friday the 13th. When I read "Summer Sno-Cone" on the chalkboard outside of Dozen, I wasn't exactly sure what would be awaiting me inside, but when I saw the cupcakes in the display case I had to laugh out loud. Lined up in neat little rows were what looked exactly like perfect sno-cone domes perched on top of vanilla cupcakes. Further inspection revealed the glittery "ice" to be a thick coating of translucent, chunky sugar crystals. Tall straws poking out of the tops of the domes completed the illusion. Dozen wins mad originality points for this one!
The Summer Sno-Cone frostings come in three flavors: Cherry, Blue Raspberry, and Lemon-lime. I knew I'd never be able to choose between them, so I bought all three.
The cupcakes were wrapped in pieces of waxed paper for transport, and when I removed the waxed paper from the Blue Raspberry cupcake I discovered that butter/grease from the frosting had soaked through the paper. This has me a bit worried as I'm not a fan of overly buttery frosting. As with all of the Sno-Cone cupcakes, the glittery coloration of the sugar crystals on the Blue Raspberry Sno-Cone is absolutely beautiful. The dark blue sugar crystals shine like sapphires interspersed among the thick layer of chunky translucent sugar crystals. The bright blue color of the frosting shines through the thick layer of sugar crystals, which give the frosting an "icy" texture. It really does look exactly like the top of a fresh sno-cone. Crazy!
The vanilla cake has the same soft, fluffy texture as the one in the Cherry Sno-Cone cupcake, but the sweet vanilla flavor is much more subtle. The cake is also a bit drier, and fairly crumbly as well. The frosting is light and fluffy with a buttery/greasy texture. It's fairly sweet and tastes exactly like cotton candy and blue Blow-Pops. Weird! I'm not exactly a fan of the taste -- it's a bit too buttery for me, and in general I don't like artificial fruit flavoring. I guess I was expecting these cupcakes to taste more like fresh fruit, rather than their artificial-candy equivalents.
The frosting adds some moisture to the cake, and the super crunchy sugar crystals add a nice contrast to the soft, fluffy texture of the cake. Though the flavor of the cupcake is predominantly "cotton candy", you can still detect a hint of the vanilla flavor of the cake shining through. Yay! There's too much frosting for the amount of cake, though I suppose that was necessary to achieve the perfect sno-cone-dome aesthetic. After a couple of bites I removed about half of the frosting, but found that the remaining frosting was still too much. Overall, the blue raspberry flavor isn't as dominating as the cherry flavor was, but the frosting is a fair bit greasier and the cake isn't as good.
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I must admit that I was expecting something a bit more doom-and-gloom for today's Mystery Friday Flavor, owing to the fact that it's Friday the 13th. When I read "Summer Sno-Cone" on the chalkboard outside of Dozen, I wasn't exactly sure what would be awaiting me inside, but when I saw the cupcakes in the display case I had to laugh out loud. Lined up in neat little rows were what looked exactly like perfect sno-cone domes perched on top of vanilla cupcakes. Further inspection revealed the glittery "ice" to be a thick coating of translucent, chunky sugar crystals. Tall straws poking out of the tops of the domes completed the illusion. Dozen wins mad originality points for this one!
The Summer Sno-Cone frostings come in three flavors: Cherry, Blue Raspberry, and Lemon-lime. I knew I'd never be able to choose between them, so I bought all three.
Dozen's greatest strength is definitely its tart frostings -- the lime-based Cosmo and Key Lime frostings as well as the lemon glaze on the Lemon Lavender are probably the best frostings I've ever sampled. As such, I was really looking forward to eating this Lemon-Lime Sno-Cone, especially after the disappointment of the Cherry and Blue Raspberry versions. Dozen's other strength, modern and artful decorations, was also evident in this cupcake. Like the other two Sno-Cone cupcakes, the sparkling dome of frosting was both gorgeous and eerily accurate. The thick layer of chunky translucent sugar crystals give the frosting an "icy" texture, while still allowing the bright green color of the frosting to shine through. The dark green sugar crystals scattered throughout glitter like emeralds, adding a bit of "bling" to the cupcake. Pretty!
The fluffy vanilla cake is drier and more crumbly than the cake in the Blue Raspberry, and its vanilla flavor is more subtle as well, making it nearly flavorless. This cake is definitely the weakest of the three. I'm guessing the refreshingly sweet vanilla flavor of the cake in the Cherry Sno-Cone was a fluke, which is super sad as it was quite delicious. The light and fluffy Lemon-Lime frosting is really good -- it's sweet and tart, though a little bit buttery. It's more sweet than tart, which is a bit disappointing as I was hoping for the "slap you in the face" tartness of the Cosmo and Key Lime frostings. Perhaps the thick layer of sugar crystals coating the frosting is masking the tartness?
The frosting masks the dryness of the cake, and the sweet lemon-lime frosting gives the bland cake some much needed flavor. Like the other two Sno-Cone cupcakes, there's too much frosting for the amount of cake, though I suppose that was necessary to achieve the perfect sno-cone-dome aesthetic. Unlike the other two Sno-Cones, the lemon-lime flavor seemed a bit more natural and not quite as artificially caustic. Despite the poor quality of the cake, this was my favorite of the three.
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This cupcake evokes fond memories of a childhood birthday party I attended where instead of serving birthday cake, my friend's mother brought out two huge terra cotta pots full of chocolate pudding topped with a generous layer of crumbled Oreos. Gummi Worms were scattered throughout the pudding, and after singing to the birthday girl we were encouraged to dig in with our hands and begin eating. I've always been an excessively clean person, so I stood transfixed, both horrified at my friends for scooping pudding out of pots and licking it off their hands, and slightly curious, wondering what the muddy concoction tasted like. I couldn't find the courage to bring myself to join my friends, so I watched and laughed as they devoured the pots. Well today, twenty years later, Dozen gave me the opportunity to go back in time and join them.
Today's Mystery Flavor Friday cupcake, ¡Worms!, is comprised of chocolate cake topped with chocolate buttercream, rolled in crumbled Oreos with a couple of Gummi Worms peeking shyly out of the top. When I arrived at Dozen to pick up the cupcake my stomach gave a little twinge -- I think I'm still recovering from Sunday's chocolate overload caused by Yummy Cupcakes' Fudge Yummy and Blackout cupcakes. The thought of eating another super chocolatey cupcake made my stomach turn, despite the fact that I'm a total chocoholic. This cupcake was way too cute and fun to pass up, so I bought one anyway and decided to postpone eating it and save it for dessert.
The cupcake had an intoxicating aroma of Oreo cookies. In a totally shocking turn of events, the chocolate cake was very soft and moist with a slightly sweet mild chocolate flavor. Absolutely delicious. I pray that this isn't a fluke and that Dozen has permanently changed their chocolate cake recipe to this scrumptious confection. The chocolate buttercream was smooth and fluffy with a sweet chocolate flavor that's not too buttery and not too sweet. Together the cake and frosting have an amazing chocolate flavor that's sweet and mild, like a comforting, unimposing friend. The Oreo crumbs add a nice texture to the super soft cake and super creamy frosting, and add a nice subtle Oreo aftertaste to the cupcake. "Gummi" and "chocolate" aren't exactly two flavors that go well together, but gummi worms are one of my favorite candies and I was only too happy to eat them separately. It was a like a bonus treat for finishing your cupcake!
The frosting to cake ratio was perfect, and I can't think of a single thing I would change about this cupcake. With it's mild chocolate/Oreo flavor, I'm sure this cupcake would appeal even to non-chocoholics.
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This brightly colored bumpy cupcake is the last cupcake on Dozen's menu that I haven't tried. As my midsection can attest, after I eat this cupcake I'll have reviewed every cupcake they offer on their menu. And what a fun looking cupcake to close out on! Woot!
The awesomely named Meteors! is made up of vanilla cake topped with vanilla buttercream, carefully adorned with a handful of old-school Trix cereal spheres. (Remember in the early nineties when they switched from spheres to fruit shapes? I was so disappointed! They never tasted quite the same...)
The cake is Dozen's standard vanilla cake, rather dry and extremely crumbly with a subtle vanilla flavor. The vanilla buttercream is smooth, creamy, and soft, with a nice vanilla flavor that is also sweet, but not overly so. I love how you can see flecks of vanilla bean swirled right into the buttercream. The Trix meteors add a nice crunch to the soft texture of the cake and smooth texture of the frosting. There's a bit too much frosting for the amount of cake -- when combined with the frosting it's a bit too sweet. This cupcake is a lot of fun to eat, but ultimately it simply tastes like a vanilla cupcake covered in cereal. Meteors! is a yummy breakfast treat, but it's nothing special.
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I was either looking at a 4th grade science fair project about "The Cell", or about to eat a Meteors! cupcake from Dozen. These colorful cupcakes are adorned with Trix cereal, glued on to a (dry) vanilla cake with vanilla icing. The cake was really dry this time, leaving an almost chalky taste in my mouth. I had to stop for water a number of times. My first bite yielded an audible WTF. The smooth texture of the cupcakes was ruined by the crunch of the cereal. The crunch was not evenly distributed, and made eating it a chore. It also seems that the cereal really doesn't affect the taste in any way, acting purely in a cosmetic role. There wasn't enough icing to affect the dryness of the cake, although like most Dozen cupcakes, the icing was quite good on its own. I wouldn't recommend this cupcake for anyone, not being sweet or enjoyable.
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The nearly fluorescent pink icing on this cupcake rivals the Margarita in luminosity. I'm worried if look at it for too long it'll burn an imprint onto my retinas! One of the two vegan cupcakes on Dozen's Spring/Summer menu, the Chocolate Cherry cupcake consists of a chocolate cake with real cherries baked in topped with a cherry royal icing glaze and a smattering of chocolate sprinkles. It has an intoxicating sweet chocolatey aroma.
The texture of the chocolate cake is amazing -- it's the perfect amount of moistness (yay!) and super soft, though a bit crumbly. Unfortunately, its taste leaves something to be desired. The rich chocolate flavor is fairly bitter, and the cake has a sweet fruity aftertaste that tastes like maraschino cherries soaked in alcohol. The fruitiness is almost too sweet, like cherry pancake syrup. The smooth cherry royal icing is extremely sweet with a very dominating cherry flavor. It tastes almost exactly like cherry flavored BubbleYum bubblegum. The strength and sweetness of the cherry flavor gives the icing an almost candy-like (or medicine-like) taste. Odd.
In a strange role reversal, the sweetness of the frosting tempers the bitterness of the cake, for an initial flavor that is simply sweet and chocolatey. However, the cake leaves a cherry aftertaste in your mouth that is too sweet and intrusive. I only noticed a single piece of cherry in the cupcake, and it and the sprinkles had no noticeable effect on the texture of the cupcake. The technical execution of this cupcake is great -- the cake was the perfect moisture level and the soft texture of the cake and smoothness of the icing were quite nice. I just don't like the bitterness of the chocolate cake or the strength and flavor of the cherry icing.
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The bright green frosting accented with pink sugar crystals makes me want to grab a sombrero and start dancing around my kitchen table! This loud and funky margarita cupcake has a vanilla cake base topped with a square patch of a green tequila-lime glaze that is so bright it could attract passing aircraft. A ring of chunky pale pink sugar and salt crystals completes this modern take on happy hour.
The cake is Dozen's regular old vanilla, super dry with a subtle vanilla flavor. As always, Dozen continues to excel at creating phenomenal lime-based frostings. The glaze is extremely tart, more so than the Cosmo and Key Lime, but sugary and sweet as well. There is a very, very subtle tequila-like aftertaste that is only noticeable if you sample the glaze alone. The cupcake as a whole is initially quite tart (yum!!!), but the fading tartness is replaced by the warm vanilla taste of the cake, whose flavor is enhanced by the sweetness of the frosting. I was initially worried that the small square patch of glaze wouldn't be nearly enough frosting for the amount of cake, but that fear turned out to be completely unfounded. The frosting to cake ratio is pretty much perfect. In fact, the dryness of the cake isn't very apparent under the thin sheet of glaze. Weird. The salt and sugar crystals add a nice crunch to the texture, serving as a good counterpoint to the softness of the cake and smoothness of the frosting.
This cupcake doesn't really taste like a margarita (except for the rare occasions when the saltiness of the crystals peeks through) -- it's more of a lime cupcake, which is just fine by me. Too bad all the tequila in the frosting is cooked off...I'd love to get drunk off these cupcakes!
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One of the two vegan cupcakes on Dozen's menu, this rich looking cupcake has a base of almond cake covered with a thin sheet of chocolate ganache, topped with a couple of almond slivers. Like other vegan cupcakes I've sample, the cake is incredibly moist, a little bit spongy, and has a sweet, nutty flavor. It has the same peculiar aftertaste that I've recognized in other vegan baked goods, which I think may be soy milk. The more I eat the cake, the more overwhelming its flavor becomes. It's not too sweet, and it's not too almond-y, but there is another flavor in the mix that becomes increasingly oppressive. My inability to place the offending flavor frustrated me so much that eventually I put down the cupcake, went to my kitchen, and began sniffing all of my spices to see if I could identify it. Aha! The offending flavor has the same taste as the pungent, alcoholic sweetness of the smell of vanilla extract. Perhaps the too-strong flavor was caused by too much almond extract?
The chocolate ganache is extremely thin, so much so that I can barely scrape off enough to sample it separately. It's smooth and creamy and has a sweet, yet dark, chocolate flavor. The ganache adds some resistance to the spongy cake, making the entire cupcake thick and gooey and in your mouth. The taste of the chocolate, however, is completely lost amidst the too-strong extract. I think this cupcake could benefit from slightly less extract and slightly more chocolate. It's a tricky problem -- too much ganache, and the cupcake becomes too thick to eat, like plain peanut butter, but switching to a buttercream might make the already-moist cake cross the line to wet and soggy. Perhaps the fudge-like frosting on the Morrissey could solve this problem! Ultimately this cupcake was great for the first two or three bites, but the more I ate, the stronger and more offending the extract-like flavor became.
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As I've previously stated, I'm not the biggest fan of nuts (including coconuts and peanut butter), marshmallows, or non-melty chocolate chips in my baked goods. (Yes, I'm a little high-maintenance when it comes to cupcakes.) I normally avoid Rocky Road ice cream like the plague, but this odd little cupcake was just too cute to go untried.
The ebony-colored chocolate cake is topped with an ice cream scoop of a concoction consisting of chocolate frosting swirled with pecans, marshmallows, and chocolate chips. The super crumbly chocolate cake is a smidgen dry with a deep dark chocolate flavor. It tastes more like pure cocoa power than chocolate. The chocolate frosting is sugary and sweet with a mild milk chocolate flavor. The sweetness of the frosting tempers the rich cocoa flavor of the cake, while the blending of the hard chocolate chips, crunchy pecans, and chewy marshmallow provide an interesting palate of textures in your mouth while giving your tongue and jaw a pleasant activity to work through. The frosting-to-cake ratio is nearly perfect, if you can manage to evenly distribute the scoop of frosting throughout.
The crumbliness of the cake and height of the frosting make the cupcake difficult to eat, even with a fork. After two bites the cake just completely fell apart into several large chunks. Utensils are definitely a requirement for this one. The cupcake gods must have been smiling upon me because I only tasted one solitary pecan in the entire mound of frosting. Score! Even though I hate Rocky Road ice cream, I'd definitely buy this cupcake again.
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Dozen was giving away these adorable little Cosmo minis today when I stopped in to grab the Mystery Friday Flavor. The golden cake looks a bit muffin-y in texture and you can see the chopped cranberries hiding inside it. It's topped with a perfect star of pink frosting covered in a sprinkling of green sugar crystals adorned with a solitary dried cranberry. The cake is moist with a subtle buttery flavor, and the dried cranberries add a fruity taste to the mix. I'm not entirely sure if I like the chewy texture the cranberries add to the soft cake, but I definitely like their flavor. The frosting is Dozen's ever-fabulous lime icing -- it's super tart, super sugary, and super good. Together the cake and frosting are amazing. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but its almost as if the soft, moist cake envelops the tart, sweet frosting in your mouth. The contrasting flavors and textures of the cake and icing are like a party on your tongue, with the sugar crystals adding a nice crunch to the mix. If only they could make the cake in the full-sized Cosmo as moist and soft!
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This brooding Mystery Flavor Friday cupcake is made up of dark chocolate cake covered with a thing orange glaze topped with a scant scattering of chunky white sugary crystals and a disc of orange dark chocolate. The cupcake has a heady chocolatey smell. The cake is very dry and crumbly with a rich dark chocolate flavor that isn't overly bitter. You can see the orange zest peeking through the orange "glaze", which is really more of a ganache. It's thick and sugary and hits you with an initial burst of sweetness followed by a splash of citrusy orange flavor. When the cake and glaze are eaten together the cupcake is nice and sweet (but not overly so), though the orange flavor of the frosting is pretty much lost in the dark chocolate cake. Dry cake + thin frosting = dry mouth; bring a glass of milk! The glaze is sweet enough all on its own, but there's not enough of it to moisten the cake -- I almost wish it had been an icing instead of a glaze.
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First of all, "Asteroids!" gets recognition for its funky look and fun exclamatory name. These details are important to me. They endeared the cupcake to me even before I took the first bite.
As for the cupcake itself, do you remember the late 80's? Nabisco came out with a genius snack- the GIANT Oreo cookie. These were like 3 inches in diameter with an inch of frosting inside. The cookie parts were a bit softer than the normal oreo cookies, lending the whole thing a sort of room temperature ice cream sandwhich taste that was yummy. Who knows why they don't make them anymore?
Well never fear, child of the 80s, Dozen's Asteroids! has inadvertently captured the flavor of the giant oreo. The cocoa puffs on top soften under the influence of the frosting, giving almost the same chewing consistency of the cookie part of the giant oreo. The bottom cake is neither overly moist nor too dry and has a fluffy texture that soothes your mouth and folds nicely into the frosting.
I really wanted the cake to have a slightly more chocolately taste to it. It was too mild. The buttercream frosting had a delicious sugary flavor that complimented the chocolate top and bottom quite well but, as usual, there was just a bit too much of it for my palate. Perhaps if the cake had been of a stronger flavor, it could have balanced out the frosting better. Also, on a minor point, the height of the frosting made the Asteroids! quite difficult to eat without sending cocoa puffs rolling everywhere. I have a small mouth and I want my cupcakes to fit inside!
Altogether a fun and yummy cupcake but I think there's a little room to grow for the cake flavoring and cake to frosting ratio.
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I've never been cuckoo for cocoa puffs, or chocolate cake for that matter, but this funky little cupcake was just too cute to pass up. The Asteroids! (yes, the exclamation point is an integral part of the name) is comprised of chocolate cake topped with vanilla buttercream covered in crunchy cocoa puffs. It has a rich smell of chocolate and that distinctive scent of chocolate cereal. The chocolate cake is very crumbly -- large chunks of cake stuck to the wrapper as I peeled it off the cupcake. The cake is extremely dry with a very slightly sweet, rich chocolatey taste. It's not at all bitter, which is great. The vanilla buttercream is super sweet and super sugary and tastes exactly like a softer version of Oreo cookie filling. Crazy! The frosting flavor is primarily "sweet" -- you can't really taste the vanilla. When combined with the chocolate cake, the overall flavor of the cupcake is remarkably similar to an Oreo cookie, and the added crunch of the "asteroids" only serves to make the texture more like an Oreo. The frosting-to-cake ratio is nearly perfect. The only downfall to this cupcake is the dryness of the cake and the severe structural problems. The cake virtually disintegrated after I cut off a piece with a fork, and the asteroids had a tendency to fall off and roll away. If the cupcake was so messy with a fork, I can't even imagine how hard it must be to eat it without utensils.
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Looking at the Morrissey, your mental tastebuds are immediately drawn to the frosting. It is supposedly buttercream but it has a look and smell more akin to the deep richness of a stiff ganache. If you're a a curious child like me and like to try the frosting and cake seperately, you might take a scoop of some of the frosting with your finger. It's very thick but smooth and giving. The flavor to me was almost fudgelike and the texture was complimented cleverly with a few tiny crunchy beads of nonpareils. All in all, the frosting of the Morrissey has everything going for it.
The bottom cake however is outwardly underwhelming. It has a mixed grain look that says 'muffin' more than 'cupcake.' It also claims to incorporate tea- a claim I've seen in cupcakes several times lately but I've found is seldom followed up with a noteworthy flavor. Peeling off the wrapper, my fingers found the cake dry and crumbly on the exterior. I plucked off a small piece and took a taste. It wasn't too bad. In fact.. it was strangely good...
Leaping in, I took a bite of the whole cupcake- cake and frosting merged in my mouth. The intense chocolate frosting completely drowned out the cake and I found myself suddenly repulsed by the strong flavor, and wanting more of the cake. The frosting was like the popular outgoing child who knows she gets all the attention and is always vying for more. But I was drawn to the queit wallflower hanging in the background. My tiny taste had hinted at a deeper, more pleasing flavor than I had been expecting. I removed the dollop of frosting and set it to the side. Then I took a full bite of the cake. Ahh. There it was- more intense now when coming from the softer center of the cupcake- a delicious unassuming flavor and texture that made me think of shortcake and cinnamon and sugar cookies. This is a cake you can let linger in your mouth as your physical tastebuds try to puzzle out the subtleties. Thank goodness I had pulled away the frosting or I would have missed the beauty of the cake completely.
Overall I loved the Morrissey. My one regret is the frosting to cake ratio. The real unique prize here is the amazing cake underneath if you can get past all the chocolate to truly enjoy it.
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This little cupcake is made from Earl Grey Tea infused vanilla cake topped with dark chocolate buttercream adorned with a couple of tiny white non-pareils. It has a strong smell of rich, dark chocolate. As I peel off the wrapper I can see that the cake both looks and feels moist. The first bite reveals that the cake is actually a bit dry (though not as much as is typical with Dozen's cakes), with a sweet, unique flavor. I can taste the vanilla in the cake along with another flavor. It doesn't immediately shout "tea", but it definitely tastes British and evokes images of Sherlock Holmes and antique libraries, so maybe it is tea... It's definitely subtle, and good, though the cake is a bit dry. The chocolate buttercream is simply magnificent, though I don't think it could be considered a buttercream by any sort of classification. It's deliciously creamy and sweet with a rich dark chocolate flavor that isn't super bitter. It's very thick -- not as dense as ganache, but definitely thicker than regular frosting. I make fondue fairly often and it has both the texture and flavor of fondue chocolate that's been allowed to cool. Amazing. The sweetness of the frosting enhances the sweetness of the cake, and adds enough moisture that the dryness of the cake is no longer noticeable. When eaten together, the rich chocolatey flavor of the frosting dominates, though the subtle flavor of the tea lingers in the aftertaste.
This cupcake isn't shockingly good in a traditional, obvious way. You don't take a bite and immediately think "Oh my gosh, this is the best cupcake EVAR!" However, the exotic flavor of the cake paired with the smoothest, creamiest, richest chocolate frosting I've ever sampled slowly and steadily win you over. I would have never guessed that such an unorthodox cupcake would win my first 5/5 for Dozen, but this cupcake is definitely a winner.
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This adorable Mystery Flavor Friday cupcake is constructed from vanilla cake topped with a glaze made from freshly squeezed orange juice, orange zest, and peppermint, all topped with a striped after dinner mint "straw". The cake is Dozen's standard vanilla cake -- super dry and crumbly with a moderate vanilla taste and a hint of sweetness. The glaze is exotic and simply amazing. It's super thick, almost like a ganache, with a sugary texture. You can see the tiny shreds of orange zest peeking through it. It has three distinct flavor phases, starting with a strong orange burst that fades into a tangy citrus which is overshadowed by an increasing peppermint flavor. It culminates by leaving a strong mint aftertaste in your mouth. Awesome. The glaze tastes great with the vanilla cake thrown into the mix, but the dry cake plus the super dense frosting make for a thick taste in your mouth. A glass of milk (or OJ!) is a required accessory for this cupcake.
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Although chocolate and peanut butter are my two favorite foods, I'm not a big fan of the flavor combination, especially in baked goods. I have, however, enjoyed several peanut butter cupcakes I've had in the past, so I decided to try Dozen's version of this cupcake. The chocolate cake is extremely dry and crumbly, to the point where it completely fell apart when I tried to cut the cupcake in half. The cake has a strong dark chocolate flavor, which is accompanied by the expected bitter aftertaste. The peanut butter buttercream is extremely fluffy, buttery and not sweet at all -- it tastes like regular peanut butter that has been whipped until light and airy. I don't like it at all, I guess I just expect cupcake frosting to be sweet. The frosting adds some moisture to the cake, but without any sweetness to temper the bitter dark chocolate, the overall flavor is buttery and bitter. The only good thing about this cupcake is the chocolate covered peanut adorning the top.
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I hate coconut, but I'm running out of flavors to try at Dozen and with its towering mound of frosting, this cupcake just looked too yummy to pass up. The cake is dry and crumbly, and is sweet with a subtle vanilla flavor. The frosting is Dozen's standard vanilla buttercream -- light, fluffy, and sweet, with black specks of vanilla bean swirled right in just like french vanilla ice cream. The frosting is covered with toasted coconut that's not quite crispy enough. As a result, the coconut gives the frosting a chewy texture. Together, the cake and the frosting are nice and sweet, but not overly so, with a slight buttery aftertaste. There is way too much frosting for the amount of cake, but once the extra is removed the sweetness of the frosting doesn't overpower the cupcake. Fortunately for coconut haters like myself, the taste of the coconut is subtle, and only comes through when you chew the shreds.
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With its chocolate cake topped with a swirl of vanilla buttercream, the Black & White cupcake is pretty much the antithesis of my favorite cupcake combo: vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. I don't like chocolate cake and vanilla isn't exactly my favorite frosting flavor, but there are only a handful of Dozen's flavors that I haven't sampled yet so I decided to go ahead and give this one a whirl. The chocolate cake is fluffy and slightly moist, yet extremely crumbly. It has a rich chocolate flavor that is slightly sweet, and seems to be the same cake found in the Cafe Mocha. The buttercream is fluffy and sweet with a mild vanilla flavor. It also has a strong buttery flavor, and leaves a sort of filmy/greasy aftertaste on the tongue. I love how the frosting has tiny black flecks in it, just like french vanilla ice cream. In fact, this buttercream tastes exactly like a buttery version of Breyers French Vanilla. The sprinkles add a nice crunch to the light texture of the frosting, but they have that chalky flavor that I loathe. Together the vanilla and chocolate flavors complement each other well, though the sweetness of the frosting dominates.
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I hate dark chocolate so it's somewhat odd that I decided to try the Dark Chocolate cupcake as it consists of dark chocolate cake topped with dark chocolate ganache and chocolate sprinkles. I'm only about five flavors away from having tried Dozen's entire regular menu, so I decided to give this cupcake a shot. The chocolate cake is dry and crumbly and has a somewhat odd flavor. It doesn't really taste like chocolate so much as cocoa powder, and instead of the bitter aftertaste that typically accompanies dark chocolate, this cake has a sour bready aftertaste, almost like an irish soda bread. The dark chocolate ganache is super thick, and has has the same unusual flavor as the cake. The texture of the chocolate sprinkles is completely indistinguishable from the ganache, almost as if the sprinkles have melted into the frosting. Overall, the word that best describes this cupcake is "consistent" -- strangely, the cake and ganache don't just have the same flavor, but the same texture as well. As you eat the cupcake, it's difficult to distinguish the ganache from the cake.
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This cupcake has the unique and refreshing quality of tasting almost like a tart candy. It threw me for a loop at first, with its powerful citrus flavor hitting my taste buds where a normal cupcake would have placed a subtle chocolate or vanilla.
The cake is a standard Dozen vanilla cake, but it has lavender infused throughout it. While aesthetically pleasing, it has no discernible effect on the flavor. Which is good. Luckily, the dry cake is masked by the rich flavor of the lemon topping. On a sweeter cupcake, the topping would be far too sugary, but its thin layer coupled with the dry cake ends up working just right.
The thin but intense layer of icing leaves the cupcake feeling 'lighter' than one with a whipped topping; A perfect snack for a summer afternoon.
This was a free cupcake. This review may be slightly biased.
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I should probably preface this review with the fact that I strongly dislike the flavor of coffee. Nevertheless, the dark brown cake topped with swirls of mocha colored frosting kept calling to me until I finally gave in and decided to try this cupcake. The cupcake has a strong coffee smell, probably stemming from the coffee-flavored frosting. The cake is soft, moist, and crumbly, with a rich dark chocolate flavor. It's not as bitter as I was expecting, and in fact has a very slight sweet aftertaste. The light and fluffy frosting initially has a robust coffee flavor that quickly fades to reveal a strong sweetness. Together the rich chocolate flavor of the cake and strong coffee flavor of the frosting work very well. The sweetness of the frosting tempers the bitter coffee and dark chocolate flavors, and the moisture of the frosting helps hold the crumbly cake together. Even though I hate coffee, I find myself having to give this cupcake a high rating -- the balance of the flavors and proportion of frosting to cake is nearly perfect. My only complaint is the low structural integrity of the cake.
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I think my girlish squeals of delight startled the nice man who answered the phone at Dozen when he told me that the Mystery Friday Flavor today was Old Fashioned Vanilla Fudge. This cupcake's marbled cake topped with chocolate fudge frosting is a modern update to my all time favorite cupcake -- good old vanilla/chocolate. The marbled golden brown top of the cupcake can be seen peeking out from underneath the fudge frosting, and though the chocolate swirls are clearly visible on the top of the cake, the inside of the cake is a solid, pale cream color. The cake is more flavorful than usual with a sweet, vanilla flavor, though it is still fairly dry and crumbly. The fudge frosting is rich and gooey with a decadent dark chocolate flavor. It has a slightly bitter aftertaste, just like a good dark chocolate. The sweetness of the cake tempers the bitter aftertaste of the frosting, and the fudgy frosting provides some additional moisture to the dry cake. This is hands down the best "all-around" cupcake at Dozen. The frosting is incredible and the cake is pretty good too -- each provides an integral contribution to this cupcake's tastiness. If it weren't for the dry texture of the cake, this cupcake would have easily acquired one of my elusive perfect ratings. I really hope it makes a permanent appearance on Dozen's menu.
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This cupcake is dainty, feminine, and oh so pretty. The Emily is comprised of vanilla cake and blue lemon royal frosting, adorned with tiny, delicate white non-pareils. Unsurprisingly, the cake is dry and crumbly, with a very subtle vanilla flavor -- typical Dozen. It has very low structural integrity, virtually disintegrating when I attempted to eat it with a fork. The frosting, on the other hand, is amazing. It's sweet and thick with a sharp lemon zing, very similar to the frosting on the Lavender Lemon cupcake. The frosting completely hides the fact that the cake is mostly flavorless, transforming it into a "lemon cupcake" that is actually quite tasty. The non-pareils add a nice crunch to the mix, when you eventually make your way to the side of the cupcake they're on. This cupcake is delicious and would've gotten a much higher score if it weren't for the problems with the cake.
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One of Dozen's Mystery Friday Flavors, the Angel Cake cupcake consists of an angel food cake topped with a pink glaze, adorned with pretty little white non-pareils. Initially, I was a little bit nervous about the cupcake, as the top of the cake looked to be very hard and crusty. As I peeled off the wrapper I was shocked to discover that the bottom half of the wrapper was empty; I have no idea what kind of bizarre chemistry would result in cake rising downwards, but at any rate, the cake is only half as tall as a normal cupcake. The taste of the cake was incredible, with a sweet, slightly vanilla flavor. The silky smooth texture was amazing, but the cake was denser than typical angel food cake, and way too spongy. The pink glaze didn't have any discernible flavor other than sweet, and it was too much so. When combined with the already sweet cake, the overall taste was far too sweet. This cupcake definitely needs a couple more iterations of development.
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I don't typically review the same flavor twice, but Vanilla Vanilla was the first cupcake I ever had from Dozen and I thought it would be interesting to review it again, after I'd sampled nearly every other flavor Dozen offers. This cupcake is a perfect example of modern simplicity, its plain vanilla cake adorned with a single dollop of cream colored frosting. I love how the vanilla frosting has tiny flecks of black vanilla bean in it, just like french vanilla ice cream. What little flavor the cake contained was found in its top, the crust of which had nice crispy texture. The rest of the cake was dry, crumbly, and mostly flavorless, and every so often I could taste a salty tang. The top of the cake was much better than the bottom; in that sense it suffered from "muffin syndrome." The frosting was rich and sweet (but not overly so), with a robust vanilla flavor. It was my favorite type of frosting, thick with the texture of sugar crystals, but there was slightly too much of it. Together, the frosting and cake come off as rather bland; the cupcake lacks Dozen's typical pizzaz.
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This yellow glazed cupcake is quite the interesting concoction. The plain white cake contains flakes of lavender, the taste of which is oddly reminiscent of potpourri. It's fairly dry and crumbly, and its lack of structural integrity makes it difficult to eat. The lemon frosting is amazing; it doesn't even pretend to hold its punches as it kicks you solidly in the face with its tart lemon flavor. It made me pucker my lips and screw up my face -- I love it! Surprisingly, despite its strong flavor the lemon frosting doesn't mask the lavender, which at times shines through with a hippy-like vengeance. I would rate the lemon frosting a 4/5 and the lavender cake a 2/5; combined they average out to a 3/5. The cupcake is fairly good, when the "potpourri" isn't overwhelming.
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Like all of Dozen's cupcakes, this mango confection is so pretty. The pale cake is covered with a swirl of cream icing that has a hint of an orange blush, which is ringed in lavender and white chunky sugar crystals. Dozen excels at creating truly magnificent frostings, and I love mango, so it was with great anticipation that I took my first bite of this beautiful cupcake. The cake was Dozen's standard fare, very dry and slightly flavorless, but sweeter than normal. The cake also had a subtle vanilla aftertaste. The frosting, unfortunately, was a huge disappointment. It was sweet and creamy (and good!) but didn't taste like mango at all. There was a hint of a robust fruity aftertaste, but it was barely perceptible even though I was looking for it. At the end of the day it tasted like a sweet vanilla cake with a sweet creamy frosting -- not at all what I was expecting. As always, the sugar crystals added a nice crunchy texture to the mix.
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On paper, the Elvis sounds like an incredible culinary concoction -- banana bread cake filled with a chocolate hazelnut spread, topped with a generous dollop of peanut butter buttercream. According to the owners of Dozen, the Elvis is one of their bestsellers, and so I was excited to finally sample one. (In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I don't like things that are peanut butter flavored. However, I do looove banana bread and Nutella.) I wasn't surprised when I discovered that the Elvis suffers from Dozen's standard weaknesses. The banana bread was disappointingly dry (banana bread is supposed to be super moist!), but it had a nice rich banana flavor with a nutty aftertaste. The buttercream, unfortunately, was not to my liking at all. It tasted like straight peanut butter that had been whipped until fluffy. The flavor was overpowering and not at all sweet, which is what you usually expect of a frosting paired with banana bread. Strong flavor aside, there was too much frosting for the amount of cake. The hazelnut spread filling at the center of the banana bread was extremely thick, to the point where it didn't mix well with the light and fluffy buttercream. As such, instead of the chocolate flavor smoothly combining with those of the peanut butter and banana to create a perfect triumvirate of flavors, it stood apart and ended up feeling out of place. It was as if my tongue was in the middle of the battle of the too-strong flavors and everyone was losing.
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This extremely classy version of a classic red velvet cake is simply beautiful. The cake is a deep blood red color and is covered with a smoothly perfect dollop of frosting, accented with a whole walnut. A dusting of a finely ground dark brown spice (nutmeg?) completes the picture. I'm not too familiar with red velvet cakes; this one tasted like vanilla cake dyed red, with a hint of an unidentifiable aftertaste that is very slightly salty. I was pleasantly shocked to discover that this is Dozen's moistest cupcake yet with a perfect texture that is both fluffy and slightly spongy. The cream cheese frosting was excellent: sweet, smooth, and much more creamy than any other cream cheese frosting I've ever had. Ultimately, this cupcake tasted like vanilla cake frosted with a hybrid cream cheese/buttercream frosting -- yummy, but kind of bland.
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For April Fool's Day Dozen offered their usual Sunday lineup, but entirely in mini-size. The baby cupcakes were oh so cute! The Key Lime Pie mini looked to be a vanilla cake decorated with a dollop of frosting, dusted with graham cracker crumbs. I've had their regular-sized Key Lime Pie cupcake in the past, and was curious to see how the mini-size compared. Unfortunately, it was worse than I had remembered. Dozen's cake is typically on the unpleasantly dry side, but this was far worse than usual. The cake was extremely dry, very crumbly, and mostly flavorless, though I thought I detected a slight hint of vanilla in the flavor. The frosting, on the other hand, was just as astounding as I'd remembered. It was light and fluffy, creamy and sweet, with a tart blast of lime -- exactly like the Key Lime Pie I enjoyed during my childhood in Key West. The graham cracker crumbs added both a nice texture and flavor. Unfortunately, the amazing frosting didn't cover up the dryness of the cake. In fact, the cake was a distraction to the frosting, the texture of the dry flavorless crumbles marring the frosting's perfection. I would've given this mini cupcake a lower rating if it wasn't for the sheer brilliance of the frosting.
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For April Fool's Day Dozen offered their usual Sunday lineup, but entirely in mini-size. The bite-sized cakes were artfully decorated in miniature versions of their larger brethren, very modern and classy! The Cafe Mocha mini was simple and chic -- plain chocolate cake decorated with a swirl of coffee colored frosting. The cake was pretty dry and crumbly, which is fairly standard for Dozen's cupcakes. The bitter chocolate flavor wasn't as strong as expected, and there was a slight salty aftertaste to the cake. I'm not a fan of chocolate cake in general, and this one certainly didn't win me over. The frosting, on the other hand, excelled, which is unsurprising given Dozen's skill in crafting amazing frostings. It was light and fluffy with a strong coffee flavor. The frosting was sweeter than I was expecting, but it was a good counterpoint to the bitterness of the coffee flavor. The frosting hid a lot of the cake's dry, crumbly texture and the time-tested pairing of coffee and chocolate worked well.
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This mini cupcake sounds delicious! I hope it meets expectations! The pound cake is rich, and much moister than the typical Dozen cupcakes. You can definitely taste the butter, but the ginger is a bit hard to locate. The strawberry buttercream is more buttery than sweet, with a smooth creamy texture. The strawberry flavor is very subtle, which I personally love (as I'm not a huge fan of strawberry flavored things). This frosting is simply divine. Together, the flavors of the frosting and the cake mix very well. No individual flavor stands out from the crowd (or is even identifiable), but combined they leave an overall taste and sensation of something intriguing and exotic. I would love to try this in a full-sized cupcake.
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I am SO excited about this cupcake!! I LOVE root beer, but I must admit I'm a bit dubious about root beer flavored baked goods. Even though root beer is my favorite carbonated beverage, I've always hated those hard root beer candies. The cake is moister than the average Dozen cupcake, but still a bit crumbly (keeps falling apart on my fork). The root beer flavor is very subtle, not at all overpowering like I was expecting, and quite nice. The vanilla whipped icing is the perfect amount of sweetness, and moistens the cake quite nicely. However, at 2" tall, there is a bit too much of it when you get to the middle of the cupcake. When eaten together, the frosting and cake combine to form a taste that is fairly close to a root beer float, but not as perfectly spot on as the Chocolate Raspberry Truffle cupcake. This is in no way a bad thing, the overall flavor is rather good. Once again, Dozen excels at presentation; I love the sparse modern look of the plain cake covered with the perfectly smoothed frosting, and the "straw" is a cute touch that adds some nice texture to the cupcake.
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I'm a little nervous about this cupcake -- I love pomegranates, but the only things I really associate with chamomile are tea and lotion. I'm not sure how these flavors are going to go together... The cake is very dry, as is typical of Dozen, and tastes faintly of vanilla. It's very crumbly and has a very low structural integrity. The initial taste of the frosting is sweet, creamy, and fruity, though it doesn't immediately shout out "pomegranate"! There's a strong, unidentifiable aftertaste in the frosting that is slightly sour (the chamomile?). The dryness of the cake isn't so apparent when paired with the icing. After further exploration, I notice that the frosting goes through three distinct flavor stages, initial sweet fruityness, followed by the mild taste of buttercream, followed by the strong and somewhat confusing aftertaste. The chunky sugar crystals give a nice crunchy texture to the mix. Overall, the cake was pretty bad, but the frosting was perplexing enough to make me want to try another. I love how pretty this cupcake is.
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With its delicate swirl of cream colored frosting and lovely lavender colored sugar crystals, this is one beautiful cupcake. Initially the cake seems to be the same as the Pomegranate Chamomile, but this time it's completely flavorless. Like the Pomegranate Chamomile, it has very low structural integrity. Was it no-butter day at Dozen?? At first the frosting is generically sweet, but as time passes the tangy tropical flavor becomes stronger and stronger. I really like the tart, zippy aftertaste, but again, the dry cake drags down the experience. This may perhaps be the best flavor of frosting I've had from Dozen so far. It would be great to taste it with a moister cake, perhaps one that has it's own complimentary flavor to add to the mix. I like the crunch of the sugar crystals. The only reason this cupcake's rating isn't a couple notches lower is because the frosting is so damn good.
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I absolutely LOVE the presentation of this cupcake. The contrasting colors of the pink frosting and green sugar crystals, combined with the double cranberry and lime garnish make the cupcake look oh so sex-and-the-city chic. Very trendy, very pretty. Definitely the most sophisticated looking cupcake Dozen has to offer. On first glance, the cake appears to be a cranberry muffin. That has me worried...
It's the same dry, crumbly, flavorless cake as the Passionfruit, only this time it has chopped cranberries in it, which add a tad of flavor to the cake. The frosting is fantastic -- it's a sweet fruitiness with a strong lime flavor, only without the bitterness typically associate with limes. The cranberries in the cake add an interesting texture; the chewiness of the dried cranberries makes it feel like I'm eating a muffin. On the other hand, I like the flavor they add to the cake, and the contrast of the chewy cranberries and crunchy sugar crystals provides for an interesting culinary experience.
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The first thing you notice about this cupcake is its sleek, modern appearance. The combination of the plain cake adorned with a swirl of frosting ringed with thick, crystallized sugar comes across as very clean and classy. It smells of rich butter, with a hint of citrus. The cake is soft but dry and tastes slightly of vanilla, with a faint citrus after-zing (like an aftertaste but sharper). The icing is sweet, but not overpowering, and tastes strongly of orange; the sugar crystals provide a nice contrasting texture as well as a fun crunch. Ultimately, the blandness of cake is hidden underneath the strong flavor of icing, but the dry texture is still noticable. I really like the flavor of the frosting, and it would be great to taste it paired with a moister cake.
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I approached this cupcake with some hesitation, as I don't usually like raspberries and I hate dark chocolate. At first glance it doesn't look like a cupcake, until you realize it's upside down. The top of the chocolate cupcake has been cut off and there is a layer of raspberry icing between top and bottom. The entire cupcake is covered in chocolate ganache. It tastes exactly like a chocolate raspberry truffle which is both amazing and disconcerting. How did they do that!?!? Unfortunately, I don't like berry flavored truffles. The cake is dense and moist, with a rich chocolatey flavor. The ganache is very very dark, too bitter for my tastes, but the texture is thick, creamy, and rich. The raspberry icing is sweet and has an extremely strong raspberry flavor. The sweetness of the icing helps temper the strong bitter taste of the chocolate. Eaten together, the ganache, icing, and cake taste well balanced, and exactly like a truffle. At all but the exact center of the cupcake, the frosting/cake ratio is a bit too high. The execution of this cupcake is flawless, but unfortunately I just don't like the taste of raspberry or dark chocolate.
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For St. Patrick's Day Dozen offered a specialty cupcake that paid tribute to Ireland's two most famous alcoholic beverages, the dark stout and the irish cream. The East End Chocolate Stout cupcake consisted of chocolate stout cake covered in a layer of chocolate ganache topped off with a dollop of Bailey's buttercream. The cake was slightly dry, but had a really good subtle flavor. I couldn't really identify the stout, which was great since I'm not a beer fan and I was worried there might a be a beer aftertaste to the cake. The cake was pretty dense, which was a nice texture match for the fluffy and fairly sweet buttercream. The ganache was very dark and way too bitter for my taste, but was slightly tempered by the sweetness and vanilla flavor of the buttercream
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I had been eagerly anticipating sampling Dozen's famous Mint Meltaway for nearly a month before I was finally able to get my hands on one. Upon first glance, the Mint Meltaway appears to be some sort of cross between a deformed cupcake and a chocolate creature (Cookie Monster's best friend?) Further examination reveals it to be an upside down chocolate cupcake sliced in half with a layer of mint buttercream, completely coated in a sheet of chocolate ganache. Mint chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations, and the Mint Meltaway did not disappoint. The chocolate cake was moist with a rich chocolatey flavor. The buttercream was sweet and creamy with a strong burst of mint. The ganache was rich and creamy and very very dark, much more bitter than my taste prefers. Together, however, the flavors worked in concert to provide an amazing culinary experience. The sweetness of the frosting tempered the bitterness of the chocolate, and the dense cake added some texture to the fluffy buttercream. The Mint Meltaway's only flaw is its richness, I could only eat about four or five bites before I'd had enough. A glass of milk is a must-have accessory to this cupcake.
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The first thing you notice about this cupcake is the modern simplicity of its design. The plain chocolate cake is decorated with a perfectly sculpted mound of smooth milk chocolate frosting, adorned with a single milk chocolate shaving. Very minimalist trendy. The dark chocolate cake is moister than Dozen's standard vanilla cake, but still a touch dry. It has a rich and yet somehow subtle chocolate flavor. The milk chocolate frosting is smooth and creamy with a classic chocolate taste.
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There's not much to say about this classic cupcake. As is typical with most of Dozen's cupcakes, the vanilla cake was on the dry side. The chocolate ganache was rich, thick, and creamy, but unfortunately I'm not a fan of dark chocolate and this ganache is chocolate at its darkest. The combination of the thick ganache and dry cake requires an accompanying glass of milk; the cool refreshing sweetness of the milk is a perfect counterpoint to the bitter chocolate and dry cake. Dozen excels at decoration which was evident in this cupcake -- the dark brown ganache garnished with tiny silver non-pareils was very classy.
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I was incredibly delighted when I walked into Dozen's one evening and discovered that they have a Key Lime Pie cupcake. I grew up in Key West and my family had a Key Lime tree in our yard. My mother wasn't one for baking pies, but every spring our lovely neighbor would pick all of our limes and return several days later with a couple of Key Lime pies in exchange. She baked the very first Key Lime pie I ever tasted, and to this day nobody has been able to beat the memory of that first bite.
Imagine my shock when I bit into the frosting of Dozen's Key Lime Pie cupcake and was instantly transported back to my childhood. The frosting was sweet and creamy with an incredibly familiar bold tart lime flavor that just slaps you in the face. The cake, however, was a bit disappointing. It was on the dry side and was fairly lacking in flavor. The frosting more than made up for the failings of the cake, and I was also impressed by the artistry of the cupcake's decoration. The plain cake was adorned with a generous dollop of icing, which was ringed in graham cracker crumbs and adorned with a single curl of lime peel. Very classy and modern. If it weren't for the cake, this cupcake could have easily won one of my elusive perfect scores.
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Before leaving for New Year's Eve festivities, a friend presented our group with the cutest white box. "Did you hear that a new cupcake place just opened in Pittsburgh?," she asked? "You're kidding!", I shrieked! And so it was that my first Dozen cupcake was the Vanilla Vanilla. I was intrigued by the simple and modern design, which promised the taste of sophistication. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed. The frosting was fabulous; smooth, creamy, unadorned vanilla at its best. The cake, however, was a bit dry and flavorless.
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