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One of Dozen's Mystery Monday flavors, the Caramel Macchiato consisted of espresso cake topped with caramel buttercream, with drizzles of caramel and white nonpareils decorating the top of the frosting. It gave off a faint aroma of coffee.
The black fleck speckled cake was soft and fairly dry with an unassuming espresso flavor that was slightly sweet and not at all bitter. As far as "coffee" flavored things go, this cake is one of my favorites -- usually I hate the bitter taste of coffee. The frosting was somehow both fluffy and gooey in texture, with a sweet buttery flavor that was neither too sweet nor too buttery for my taste. Yum! The predominant flavor of the cupcake was sweet vanilla, with hints of espresso and butter. Super delicious -- I was a big fan of the subtle cake and frosting flavors. My only complaint was the slight dryness of the cake, though I really enjoyed its soft texture.
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I love mint and I'm a big fan of supporting vegan baked goods, so when Dozen debuted their new fall menu the vegan Peppermint was my first pick. This cupcake is comprised of vegan vanilla cake topped with vegan peppermint "butter" cream. It gave off an aroma of bread dough and peppermint candies.
The smooth, non-porous texture and matte finish of the cake made it look like a Bisquick dinner biscuit. It was soft and slightly moist with a sweet, salty, subtle biscuit flavor. Didn't really taste like vanilla. Weird. The more I ate the cake, the more it tasted like a dinner biscuit. The frosting had a super thick, smooth texture that was very paste-like. Its flavor was initially salty with a splash of peppermint a few seconds later. The combination of the salty, mint flavor and the thick, smooth texture made it way too close to toothpaste for my comfort. I was only able to get through a few bites of the frosting before I had to scrape it all off and eat the cake/biscuit alone. At the end of the day, this isn't one of Dozen's finest vegan samples.
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This modern twist on the red velvet consists of red velvet cake topped with vodka-vanilla buttercream and a dollop of white chocolate buttercream. The red velvet cake was nice and moist (a rarity for Dozen!) with an almost savory milk cocoa flavor. The frosting was sugary with no discernible flavor other than "sweet". I strained my tastebuds trying to detect the vodka, and might've tasted an alcohol aftertaste, but it's just as likely that was my imagination. The chunky sugar crystals added a nice crunch to the texture, but tipped the sweetness balance a bit too far. Overall the cupcake had this awesome sweet/savory thing going on, with neither the savory cocoa cake nor the sweet buttercream overpowering the other. Although you'd never guess from the huge tower of frosting, the cake to frosting ratio was spot on.
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 Apparently I've reviewed Dozen's Root Beer Float before, about eighteen months ago, but somehow totally forgot about it. Oh well; the cupcakes look sufficiently different that I suspect they might have changed recipes, so I'll go ahead and review it again.
This cupcake gave off a sweet aroma that gave no hint as to its root beer flavor. The cake was crumbly and dry with a root beer flavor that started out subtle, but delivered a bit of a kick after a few seconds. The frosting was standard American buttercream; thick and sugary and very sweet with a moderate vanilla flavor. The sweetness of the frosting dominated the cupcake, hiding the root beer flavor of the cake. At the end of the day a tasty cupcake, though I wish the flavor of the cake had been stronger and the frosting hadn't been so sweet. | |
I've only had Thai Iced Tea once, so I didn't really have much of a reference point for this exotic cupcake. The cupcake smelled like spices, and consisted of a golden brown cake flecked with black dots topped with a large dollop of cream-colored frosting. The cake was dry with a slightly sweet, almost orangey spice flavor. It didn't match my vague memory of Thai Iced Tea, which I remembered as being creamy and very sweet. I discovered that Dozen uses real tea in their batter after I removed a teeny tiny piece of bark from my mouth. Some people might have found that annoying, but I found it amusing and authentic. The frosting tasted like vanilla buttercream, sweet and sugary, with a citrus spice aftertaste like the cake. Overall the cupcake was pretty sweet (like southern iced tea), but (to me) tasted more like orange spice than Thai Iced Tea. Still yummy, though. I shared a couple bites with a friend who drinks Thai Iced Tea fairly regularly, and he said the flavor was in fact quite similar.
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