The last cupcake place I tried in London was Candy Cakes in the Covent Garden Piazza. Candy Cakes is a chain of coffee, cakes and shakes shops, though there are five in the city, this is the only one I ran into during my travels. The cupcake I had from here was unlike any I have ever encountered before. The topping is not really icing. It’s sticky and super sweet, but I don’t really know what it is.

I had a blueberry gourmet cupcake from there. The cake was pretty good, but I couldn’t really get over the icing. I did enjoy the cupcake overall, but I don’t know if I would have another. I like candy and I like cupcakes, but I don’t want candy melted on top of my cupcake. Candy Cakes does carry a series of more traditional cupcakes, but I didn’t try and out, though I wish I had so I could see if they were more my taste with normal icing.

The one upside about Candy Cakes is that the icing doesn’t damage despite the fact they put it in a plastic bag. I crammed mine in a bag with other shopping and it remained undamaged after a walk about to find a place to eat it (there was a eat-in price for the cupcakes I wanted to avoid.) Even though Candy Cakes wasn’t my favourite cupcake during my trip (probably ranks third out of four), I would still recommend trying it, even just for the novelty of it. It’s like The Magnolia Bakery in NYC – the cupcake isn’t the best, but you still have to try one, just because it’s Magnolia.

Cupcakes from my bake-sale fundraiser (Matt Demers)

This is kind of a random posting of cupcake links mid-week, but I’ve been pretty loaded down with school. I’ll try and get back to a regular schedule at the end of the week. Above is a picture of cupcakes I made as part of my bake-sale fundraiser for my trip to Ghana. My friends have been generously making donations to my trip in exchange for baked goods – it’s very much appreciated.

Cupcakes in a jar! I have no jars, but it’s a fun way to package cupcakes.

Magnolia bakery founder sued by others after opening an unauthorized location in Athens, Greece.

Mompreneur stigma and the Cupcake Challenge – Forbes magazine discusses how female entrepreneurs have moved past the “cutesy” businesses of baking and making things for babies. According to the article when women pitch these ideas when seeking banks from loans, they are faced with skepticism about financial returns.

Will work for cupcakes. Anyone want to buy one of these for my fridge?

A few weeks ago I tweeted about how one of my secret life ambitions is to open a food truck. I’ve changed my mind, I now want to open a double-decker food bus, which is what a woman in Albany, NY did! Bettie’s Double Decker Cupcake Stand is an old double decker bus converted into a cupcake shop. Amazing!

Cupcake and Coffee from The Magnolia Bakery

I recently took a little trip to New York City, so of course I had to try a cupcake from the world famous, Magnolia Bakery.  With three locations in Manhattan, I went to the location in the West Village, right across from the Marc by Marc Jacobs store. This is the bakery’s original location, since it opened in 1996.  This bakery has been credited with the “cupcake craze” that emerged in the late 90s.  It is also a stop on the “Sex and the City” tour, as in one episode Carrie and Miranda sample their cupcakes.  I was almost hesitant to try the cupcakes as I’d heard mixed opinions about the bakery’s most popular item.  As they also offered up many tasty looking mini-cheesecakes, I was tempted not to try a cupcake.  However, my inner cupcake connoisseur knew I had to be able to compare all other cupcakes to the one that started the craze.

Vanilla Cupcake from Magnolia Bakery (Leah Wong)

Flavour: Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream
Cake: 4/5
Icing: 4/5
Presentation: 5/5
Flavour Selection: 4/5
Location: 5/5
Total: 22/25

Initially I found the icing on the cupcake a little too sweet, and considering I have a major sweet tooth, that’s saying something.  The more I ate, the better it got.  For once, I was happy not to have the cupcake towered high with icing, as it was super sweet.  There were quite a few flavours to choose from, but they were all pretty standard.  The cake was good, but not anything special.  Overall, the cupcake was worth it, though I can’t see standing in hours for a good, but standard cupcake.  As I went first thing in the morning on a Thursday, there was no line up, but I’d been warned by friends that I should be prepared to stand in line.  I adore the location of the West Village location, it was right across from Marc by Marc Jacobs, down the street from James Perse, and a few blocks from a major sale at Olive & Bette’s.  While it wasn’t the best cupcake I’ve ever had, it’s easy to tell how they are the basis of a craze, which other bakers have built upon and improved.