I have passed by the shop many times on my way to work, but I have never really had the desire to make any purchase from them, I almost did a few days back, but no one was manning the counter at that time, probably because they were at the back baking and frosting the cupcakes, so I gave it a miss.
Today, I decided it was time to give this bakery a shot and I have to say, the service was great, I had a very good first impression, so when the lady told me to get 4 cupcakes instead of 2, I agreed and got 4 instead so I could get them in a box.
It's very cute looking, not the best presentation but that's their style, sadly, the cupcakes themselves weren't exactly fantastic. So far I have tried Mint and Red Velvet and both of them just aren't really very good and with very good reasons.
The Mint cupcake has a good chocolate sponge base, taste very much like the chocolate cake recipe I use at home, but the frosting was pretty terrible, not because there's very little frosting on it or because it's too sweet, it was terrible because it tasted like chemicals, not just an aftertaste, it tasted very bitter when I was eating it, probably either from too much peppermint extract, too much food coloring, or maybe a combination of both that made it taste that way. The little fondant ball was nice though but the frosting was just inedible, which is ironic because I ate the whole thing anyway, bite by bitter bite.
Makes me wonder if the person who actually made the frosting did give it a try first before slapping it on their cupcakes because it's just straight up bitter.... or maybe they used creme de menthe for flavoring, if that's the case then it explain the bitterness. I don't drink liqueur so I wouldn't know if it will make the buttercream bitter.
The Red Velvet was recommended to me by the shop assistant, I wasn't really interested at first because I don't care much for cream cheese frosting, but since she was so friendly, I decided to follow her recommendation and got the Red Velvet. First thing I noticed about the Red Velvet was that it was relatively lower than the other cakes, when I gave it a squeeze test to see how soft the cake sponge was, I found it to be pretty hard, like if I were to throw it at someone really hard, it would probably hurt.
Initially I thought that the texture would be similar to a pound cake since it was so dense, but after having a bite, I found out it's nothing like a pound cake, it was honestly a little bit tough bordering towards doughy, might stem from the fact that it was either not creamed long enough, that's why it's so dense or maybe too much flour and not enough rising agent in the cake batter I don't know, but the cake wasn't good, the frosting on the other hand was nice, I like myself a sweet sugary frosting, so this cream cheese frosting was great, but nothing beats Plain Vanilla's cream cheese frosting that taste nothing like cream cheese, probably why I like it so much. The little ball on this cake was a Malteser and Maltesers are always yummy.
Update After trying out all the flavors
Milo wasn't very Milo-y, it's really just a normal vanilla cake topped with vanilla buttercream and dusted with Milo powder, that's the only Milo in the cupcake, the dusting of Milo Powder. In their defense, the cupcake wasn't just called "Milo", it was a longer name I couldn't remember, but I was expecting the cupcake to at least have some Milo ganache in the core or something so that was disappointing.
The cake base itself was a little sub-par, it looks like the vanilla cupcakes I made using recipes I found online before I started working professionally at the bakery, recipes that aren't very good to be honest.
Frosting was just regular Vanilla American Buttercream dusted with Milo powder and topped with a Malteser, Pale and sugary like how an American Buttercream should be, nothing to scream about. I mean if I can replicate the recipes at home, then it's really not that impressive to me.
The one I probably enjoyed the most was the Adult Chocolate cupcake, the same chocolate cupcake base but spiked with rum. The chocolate ganache I'm assuming also has a bit of rum added in it. I normally don't pick ganache topped cupcake as my favorite because I really like buttercream frosting, but honestly, the other cupcakes were pretty sub-par for me to pick as a favorite.
The Mint buttercream was straight up bitter.
The Red Velvet cake had a dry and hard cake base that I am not a fan of. I like my sponge cake light and fluffy, not tough, I mean the whole point of a sponge cake is for it to be light and fluffy.
The Milo was just false advertising, it's just Vanilla Cupcake with Milo Powder.
So the only one that was above average was the Adult Chocolate.
I really want to like the cupcakes from this shop because the sales assistant was very nice and friendly, but sadly, the cakes just weren't up to standard, I've read reviews from other blogs as well about the shop and surprisingly, they have only good things to say about it, so maybe it was a bad day for the baking team that day or maybe the bloggers don't really have a mind of their own and just followed what everyone else was saying because there is NO WAY the red velvet cupcake I tasted could be deem "Hands down best red velvet ever", that being said, I will probably be giving Cupcakes With Love the benefit of the doubt and will give it another shot next time. For now, I will probably go back to getting my regular cupcake fix from Twelve Cupcakes because that shop is sprouting out every where, that or bake them myself when I am feeling up for it, because honestly, I think the cupcake I make using recipes I have gotten from the bakery have a much better taste and texture than those from Cupcakes With Love.
The last time I heard someone I know comparing her own homemade cupcakes to a professorial cupcake bakery like Twelve Cupcakes, saying how hers was so much better, I couldn't help but find her to be a bit cocky, she's the same person who said her greatest weakness was her perfectionism...
..... both are pretty bold statements to make, she was blabbering on about how she thinks her cupcakes are way better whilst I was eating a red velvet cupcake from Twelve Cupcakes... really hated the cream cheese frosting though so I was having difficulty enjoying it but anyways, she actually brought her own that day and I did try it, and being the civil person that I am, I just went...
.....because it's really not that good, and while I was eating her cupcake, I kept wondering in my head why she would assume that this cupcake of hers would be considered better than Twelve Cupcakes. The flavor was alright, but the sponge cake was horrible because it was hard. I didn't really want to say it in her face because it was a little bit rude , but it was not better than Twelve Cupcakes.
My friend who was seated beside me who also had a cupcake from Twelve Cupcakes earlier leaned in to me while he was having her cupcake and went...
I mean I really do appreciate her effort in baking for us, but those kind of praises are best left for others to say.... even the perfectionism part.
Speaking of baking cupcakes at home...
I made some Rose Cupcakes today paired with Rose flavored Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I really didn't like the cupcakes though because I am not a huge fan of the Rose flavoring on cupcakes, love it in a macaron but cupcakes, I think I will stick with the traditional flavours.
The original idea was to make an Ispahan inspired Cupcake, that means a rose flavoured cupcake with raspberry swirl topped with lychee buttercream. Sadly, I didn't have raspberry jam, so I opted for the strawberry jam I had at home. The jam was so thick I couldn't swirl it properly, so I gave up after the first spoonful and just squirted the jam into the cupcake after it baked, it didn't really taste good with strawberry jam.
The buttercream was a disaster, flavour wise because my flavouring was suppose to be coming from the lychee martini my Mum got from Mauritius. The lychee flavour from the Martini was unfortunately not strong enough to be imparted into the buttercream, so I gave up on that and just made rose buttercream.
In the end, I got a pumped up rose cupcake.... and I didn't enjoy eating it. So now they are all in the freezer, awaiting to be eaten by my Mum's friend next Friday.
 |
| Flavors I got. Mint Red Velvet Adult Chocolate Milo |
It's very cute looking, not the best presentation but that's their style, sadly, the cupcakes themselves weren't exactly fantastic. So far I have tried Mint and Red Velvet and both of them just aren't really very good and with very good reasons.
The Mint cupcake has a good chocolate sponge base, taste very much like the chocolate cake recipe I use at home, but the frosting was pretty terrible, not because there's very little frosting on it or because it's too sweet, it was terrible because it tasted like chemicals, not just an aftertaste, it tasted very bitter when I was eating it, probably either from too much peppermint extract, too much food coloring, or maybe a combination of both that made it taste that way. The little fondant ball was nice though but the frosting was just inedible, which is ironic because I ate the whole thing anyway, bite by bitter bite.
Makes me wonder if the person who actually made the frosting did give it a try first before slapping it on their cupcakes because it's just straight up bitter.... or maybe they used creme de menthe for flavoring, if that's the case then it explain the bitterness. I don't drink liqueur so I wouldn't know if it will make the buttercream bitter.
The Red Velvet was recommended to me by the shop assistant, I wasn't really interested at first because I don't care much for cream cheese frosting, but since she was so friendly, I decided to follow her recommendation and got the Red Velvet. First thing I noticed about the Red Velvet was that it was relatively lower than the other cakes, when I gave it a squeeze test to see how soft the cake sponge was, I found it to be pretty hard, like if I were to throw it at someone really hard, it would probably hurt.
Initially I thought that the texture would be similar to a pound cake since it was so dense, but after having a bite, I found out it's nothing like a pound cake, it was honestly a little bit tough bordering towards doughy, might stem from the fact that it was either not creamed long enough, that's why it's so dense or maybe too much flour and not enough rising agent in the cake batter I don't know, but the cake wasn't good, the frosting on the other hand was nice, I like myself a sweet sugary frosting, so this cream cheese frosting was great, but nothing beats Plain Vanilla's cream cheese frosting that taste nothing like cream cheese, probably why I like it so much. The little ball on this cake was a Malteser and Maltesers are always yummy.
Update After trying out all the flavors
Milo wasn't very Milo-y, it's really just a normal vanilla cake topped with vanilla buttercream and dusted with Milo powder, that's the only Milo in the cupcake, the dusting of Milo Powder. In their defense, the cupcake wasn't just called "Milo", it was a longer name I couldn't remember, but I was expecting the cupcake to at least have some Milo ganache in the core or something so that was disappointing.
The cake base itself was a little sub-par, it looks like the vanilla cupcakes I made using recipes I found online before I started working professionally at the bakery, recipes that aren't very good to be honest.
Frosting was just regular Vanilla American Buttercream dusted with Milo powder and topped with a Malteser, Pale and sugary like how an American Buttercream should be, nothing to scream about. I mean if I can replicate the recipes at home, then it's really not that impressive to me.
The one I probably enjoyed the most was the Adult Chocolate cupcake, the same chocolate cupcake base but spiked with rum. The chocolate ganache I'm assuming also has a bit of rum added in it. I normally don't pick ganache topped cupcake as my favorite because I really like buttercream frosting, but honestly, the other cupcakes were pretty sub-par for me to pick as a favorite.
The Mint buttercream was straight up bitter.
The Red Velvet cake had a dry and hard cake base that I am not a fan of. I like my sponge cake light and fluffy, not tough, I mean the whole point of a sponge cake is for it to be light and fluffy.
The Milo was just false advertising, it's just Vanilla Cupcake with Milo Powder.
So the only one that was above average was the Adult Chocolate.
I really want to like the cupcakes from this shop because the sales assistant was very nice and friendly, but sadly, the cakes just weren't up to standard, I've read reviews from other blogs as well about the shop and surprisingly, they have only good things to say about it, so maybe it was a bad day for the baking team that day or maybe the bloggers don't really have a mind of their own and just followed what everyone else was saying because there is NO WAY the red velvet cupcake I tasted could be deem "Hands down best red velvet ever", that being said, I will probably be giving Cupcakes With Love the benefit of the doubt and will give it another shot next time. For now, I will probably go back to getting my regular cupcake fix from Twelve Cupcakes because that shop is sprouting out every where, that or bake them myself when I am feeling up for it, because honestly, I think the cupcake I make using recipes I have gotten from the bakery have a much better taste and texture than those from Cupcakes With Love.
The last time I heard someone I know comparing her own homemade cupcakes to a professorial cupcake bakery like Twelve Cupcakes, saying how hers was so much better, I couldn't help but find her to be a bit cocky, she's the same person who said her greatest weakness was her perfectionism...
 |
..... both are pretty bold statements to make, she was blabbering on about how she thinks her cupcakes are way better whilst I was eating a red velvet cupcake from Twelve Cupcakes... really hated the cream cheese frosting though so I was having difficulty enjoying it but anyways, she actually brought her own that day and I did try it, and being the civil person that I am, I just went...
"Mmmm, it's not bad."
.....because it's really not that good, and while I was eating her cupcake, I kept wondering in my head why she would assume that this cupcake of hers would be considered better than Twelve Cupcakes. The flavor was alright, but the sponge cake was horrible because it was hard. I didn't really want to say it in her face because it was a little bit rude , but it was not better than Twelve Cupcakes.
My friend who was seated beside me who also had a cupcake from Twelve Cupcakes earlier leaned in to me while he was having her cupcake and went...
"Better than Twelve Cucpakes meh?"
I mean I really do appreciate her effort in baking for us, but those kind of praises are best left for others to say.... even the perfectionism part.
Speaking of baking cupcakes at home...
 |
| Rose Cupcake with Rose Buttercream Pipped Rosette Style. |
I made some Rose Cupcakes today paired with Rose flavored Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I really didn't like the cupcakes though because I am not a huge fan of the Rose flavoring on cupcakes, love it in a macaron but cupcakes, I think I will stick with the traditional flavours.
The original idea was to make an Ispahan inspired Cupcake, that means a rose flavoured cupcake with raspberry swirl topped with lychee buttercream. Sadly, I didn't have raspberry jam, so I opted for the strawberry jam I had at home. The jam was so thick I couldn't swirl it properly, so I gave up after the first spoonful and just squirted the jam into the cupcake after it baked, it didn't really taste good with strawberry jam.
The buttercream was a disaster, flavour wise because my flavouring was suppose to be coming from the lychee martini my Mum got from Mauritius. The lychee flavour from the Martini was unfortunately not strong enough to be imparted into the buttercream, so I gave up on that and just made rose buttercream.
In the end, I got a pumped up rose cupcake.... and I didn't enjoy eating it. So now they are all in the freezer, awaiting to be eaten by my Mum's friend next Friday.
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