So my world came crashing down on New Years morning when my aunt saw an article in the local Alpharetta newspaper for a cupcakery opening here! I was pissed, someone stole my idea to take over Alpharetta with cupcakes. This cupcakery started putting ads in the paper and I decided I needed to check them out. After looking at their website I wasn't blown away. They have the usual set up with everyday flavors and then special flavors that they rotate throughout the week. The website was fairly basic but they do have a cute cupcake graphic. Their hours are not spectacular either, I really believe that if you truly want to have a successful dessert business you should be open past dinner (aka when people want a sweet treat). To really get the best picture I needed to do some taste testing and therefore recruited Zan to go with me and step into the competitors dwelling.
The shop is still very new and has a clean design, but isn't very inviting.. they need some art on the walls and a couch and tables. The cupcakes were decorated well, some actually mimicking ones I have made in the past. Zan tried to ask the girl at the register some questions and either she didn't want to divulge any secrets or had zero social skills because she was awkward as crap, and looked like an elf lol. We took them back to my house, where my mom decided to join us in the taste testing, and dug in. Bad idea... they need to go back and revise their recipes because BLAH. The cake was dry, the icing was waaay to sweet, it felt like wasted calories (which is the worst!) Zan and my mom both agreed that I have definitely made better cupcakes, and anyone who has tried my pb&j's would probably agree.
In the end, I was not impressed. Zan looked online at some of their reviews and left one himself. I am not going to name this particular cupcakery because I don't want to give them any advertising, but lets just say if you are in Alpharetta and want to purchase some cupcakes don't look for any local store fronts, just call or e-mail me!
THE LATEST ADVENTURE
Chocolate cupcakes with caramel buttercream and sea salt.
PICTURES
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| Cupcake batter dispenser, squeeze the handle and it pees batter, much easier to dispense in the muffin cups |
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| Jumbo's and mini's, this recipe made so much batter I had to throw some away |
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| My beautiful new stand mixer, and some caramel buttercream |
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| A look inside at the frosting |
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| Finished product! |
I was very happy with how these came out, looks and taste wise. If you are a fan of the sweet/salty combo then these are for you! The bad news.. the next morning when I went to admire my cupcakes they had transformed into something that was not pretty. The caramel buttercream did not hold its shape, in fact it basically slid off the cupcake. I'm not sure what the exact reason was but the cupcakes being set in a container at a slant and the caramel topping being heavy were probably contributing factors.
UH OH
I didn't want to give any of these cupcakes away because they didn't look so great so I ended up putting them down the drain, but a major uh oh happened and a cupcake explosion happened under the sink. Aka, my garbage disposal detached and spewed bits of chocolate cupcake everywhere. It was sick, but funny so I took a picture...
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| Oops! |
