It has been over 2 years since I last did an installment of The Cupcake Chronicles but I have been inspired. During an unscheduled trip to the West Village on a Saturday afternoon, I happened upon this little gem…..Molly’s Cupcakes. Located near the corner of Bleeker and Carmine, this shop is actually in one of my favorite areas of the West Village and snuck up out of nowhere.

I was first attracted to the store by the ingenious sign in the window and once inside I was greeted with one of the most fun environments for a bake shop.

It turns out that Molly’s Cupcakes was featured on The Food Networks Cupcake Wars. This actually wasn’t a selling point for me since I have never watched the show. The very pretty looking cupcakes was enough to get me going. Since my discovery I have been there SEVERAL times for research purposes. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it

Before I get to the cupcake reviews, I wanted to note that a part of their profits go to help local schools. ***BONUS!***

*** And as always THE DISCLAIMER: The views below are purely my opinion and based on my love of baked goods and personal preference. Your tastes are different and you may choose to agree or disagree

The verdict: .

Boston Cream

Cake Batter

Pumpkin Spice

Peach Cobbler

Apple Pie

 

Okay, in case you missed it, this one is my favorite. The 1st time I ate one I sang a line of “Jesus Loves Me”. No seriously, it goes “Jesus loves me, this I know. Because this cupcake tells me so…” This cupcake is magic!

Let’s start with the apple pie crust star and the whip cream frosting that tastes like cool whip but real and better. The cake is like a really moist apple muffin. It brings to mind a loaf bread and not so much a cupcake. I can taste the cinnamon and nutmeg but it’s not overpowering. Then you hit the center and realize there is an actual apple pie filling. Sweet Glory of America! It reminds me of a McDonald’s apple pie but chunkier and more amazing. It’s not too sweet yet just sweet enough. Seriously! I think I love this thing. TOP HONORS!!!

There are MANY more cupcakes on their menu, so I think I may need to sacrifice myself and do a bit more research ]]> http://sauniellnicole.com/saunshine/2011/11/the-cupcake-chronicles-mollys-cupcakes/feed/ 0 http://sauniellnicole.com/saunshine/2011/09/what-i-did-over-the-summer/ http://sauniellnicole.com/saunshine/2011/09/what-i-did-over-the-summer/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 02:36:55 +0000 Saun http://sauniellnicole.com/saunshine/?p=785 For a time I had really gotten into a routine and realized I had closed myself off from seeing the world and really living life. Work, home, internet, sleep, repeat. Then I remember something that happened to me when I was 13 yrs old…

The summer before my 1st year in high school, I was looking forward to a summer of doing nothing. I just wanted to sit in the house & read. I didn’t have a lot of friends that lived close by, I was too young to work, and I couldn’t drive yet so this was the perfect option for me….or so I thought. I made it through 2 weeks of this plan before my mother had other ideas. SHE decided that I wasn’t going to spend my entire summer in the house and told me “I want you out of the house by 9:30am and I don’t want to see you again until 6. I don’t care where you go. Here is some bus fare”. Yup! She sure did. That set the tone for my whole summer.

So with that memory in mind I established “Field Trip Saturdays”, where I set out to do something new and different every Saturday, in addition to spend time with more people during the week.And it was a good summer. Of course that meant I didn’t give myself time to write blog posts about everything I did or post pictures on facebook. Now that the summer is over here is a quick recap of some of the highlights of my summer….

McQueen Platos Atlantis

Went to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met the first week it opened.  I missed the worst of the lines

World Wide Knit in Public Day

WWKIP Day.  Sat at the Vogue Knitting Table in support of the Local Knits book

View from Brooklyn Bridge Park

Traipsed around the city on my day off & made my way to Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Nemo Fisheys @ Mystic Aquarium

Jellyfish @ Mystic Aquarium

Took a trip to Mystic, CT to visit the Mystic Aquarium

Cupcakes @ CityCakes

Discovered City Cakes on one of my random walks through the city.

Economy Candy Store in NYC

Candy! Candy! Candy! I found my new supplier of Sixlets

Hostess in my cousin's wedding in the red dress I made 2 nights before

Had the honor of being a hostess in my cousin’s wedding.

Boat Ride to Governor's Island

Taking the ferry over for my 2nd Annual Lazy Afternoon on Governor’s Island. One of my favorite places in NYC.

Road Trips to Cleveland

I’m looking forward to the fall and seeing what else I can get into.

I love fashion and I love making clothes so I quick my lucrative career as a software engineer to do the the thing that I love. All the while not knowing that a recession would hit and affect the fashion market in the worst way. So all the ideas and plans I had for my fashion career were squashed like a bug and I have been reduce to living like a pauper trying to work in the fashion industry. I want to start my own business but, like I said, money is tight when it comes to fashion and investments are few and far between. So I work a job that mental drains me so much that when I come home all I want to do is eat and sleep. Sounds fun right? So I spend my extra time debating if I should go back into engineering (which would probably require a move to another city) so I can make a decent living and live comfortably again, or if I should stick this thing out and live like a pauper until things get better for fashion, or if I should find some new career that marries the two things together.

So why do I tell you all of this….because at the end of the day I should be posting about my exciting love for fashion and all the things I’m working on but my direction-less life is not helping me do that. I haven’t been knitting or sewing much. Or reading fashion magazines, etc. None the less I shall forge ahead and try to bring myself out of the fog ( side note: I got a Kindle for Christmas too and I’ve been reading alot so my speech may start to sound a little/lot more “literary-ish” for a while.) So if you know any good business-minded people or career counselors, send them my way. Cause I need some help getting back on track.

In the meantime, I’ll be blogging my way out of the funk. I’m hoping that it will help me figure some things out. For now I will leave you with a montage of pictures I was finally able to get off my camera phone and old camera.

These cupcakes are from Downtown Atlantic in Brooklyn.  The cupcake in the back is a Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream and coconut shavings.  It is by far my favorite “regular” cupcake.  I forgot the actually name of the other cupcake but it was good too. Real good!

The Cupcake Stop Truck!  It took me forever to finally find this truck. If I’m on the West Side, it’s on the East Side. If I’m uptown, it’s downtown.  Tasty flavors but the Red Velvet was actually a little too moist for me.

Lego Heads! I love Legos so I was only too excited when I saw this. To and from work, I use the 23rd Street stop on the A/C/E subway line here in NYC and some wonderful soul has taken it upon themselves to express their creative talents by covering faces on subway billboards with these huge Lego head stickers.

Apparently in Cleveland, this is the new and updated version of “The Club” – big heavy chain & padlock.

And finally a fashion related pic. This is a fair-isle dress I spotted in a Japanese knitting magazine at Kinokuniya. What I love is that this magazine was published before or around the same time the D&G Fall 2010 fair-isle collection hit the runway.

- I spent the winter knitting a sweater from navy blue merino wool yarn. It’s almost all put together and I don’t like it. I’ll take pictures of the pieces and then take it apart. It’s the only thing I knit all winter.

-Why is it that as the weather gets warmer I’m getting slightly more inspired to knit? Seems a bit out of order.

-I’m working on a sweater for another book project. It’s due at the end of April.

- I went to Oakland,CA last weekend for a wedding. It was my first time to the Bay Area and it was cold.  I was not pleased by this discovery. The wedding was wonderful though and I was able to see some old friends from NC.  I also saw the Golden Gate Bridge and got cupcakes.(I’ll do a cupcake chronicle’s update in a few days.)

-I wish for a new digital camera. I live in denial about the capabilities of my camera phone. Please see above pics for actual proof. Plus I have no pictures from the wedding b/c they all came out blurry. I have a digital camera which is actually pretty good but it’s too big to carry around on a daily basis. Someone please send me a camera fairy.

It pains me to write about Sweet Revenge. Not because the experience was bad, but because I love this place so much I’m afraid that it will become one of those places that’s so well known you have to wait in line and can never get a seat. After our favorite knitting cafe closed, my friends and I were on the lookout for a place that we could do our weekly sit-and-chat. I did some searching on the internet and stumbled upon this place. What convinced me to give it a try? The Happy Hour Special: A $10 cupcake and wine or beer pairing. Cupcake+wine+$10= I’m there!

This place is great. It is small cafe/bar atmosphere where you’ll be greeted by the owner or her wonderful staff. It has a wonderful menu that includes breakfast items or savory cakes, sandwiches, and various cheese/meat plates. (The Tuscan savory cake is my favorite pre-cupcake snack.) They serve tea, coffee, beer, and wine as well. And then there are the cupcakes, cakes, and cookies. Everything is fresh and made on the premises. My friends and I have been known to stop mid-conversation and exclaim “Oooooh what is that smell? It smells soooo good.” If you have the pleasure of being there in the evening you can bear witness to the sights and smells of everything baking.

And now to tell you about the cupcakes. Oh the cupcakes! They are de-light-ful! Each cupcake on the menu has a suggested beer and wine pairing which you can enjoy. I’m not sure that I take full advantage of that information since I’m more interested in the cupcakes than the beverages. Also be advised, that not all the flavors are available all the time. Certain flavors can and will sell out before the end of the day.

In the realm of food my favorite thing is dessert.  Now I’m all for a good cookie or some tasty ice cream but when it comes down to it my favorite things are cakes and pies. Love! them! Truly I do. I’m the type of person that goes to a wedding just for the cake. So when it comes to cupcakes my heart skips a beat. It’s like a perfect little portable bit of sunshine covered in frosting.

Cupcakes are now a phenomenon and  cupcakes shops and bakeries specializing in cupcakes are popping up everywhere. Each one touting that they have the best.  Well I’ll be the judge of that!  I’ve made it my mission to try every cupcake in New York City or any city for that matter. I’ll share with you my adventures.


My Rating Scale
Before I get started I have to clue you in on how I judge a cupcake.The cake:: Cupcakes are “mini” cakes and because of their size, unlike a large cake, they will dry out and get crumbly and hard faster. Any cupcake that last more than 3-4 days probably has preservatives. A cupcake in it’s first 24 hours is it’s moistest. If a cupcake is dry it’s either a really bad cupcake or is going on it’s 2 or 3rd day. A good bakery doesn’t let you go home with a cupcake past it’s 2nd day. The icing::A perfect icing is hard to achieve. It’s all about the perfect balance of butter, milk, sugar, and flavoring. It seems simple but it’s not. Some people will try to take a shortcut using shortening or miss the mark with too much sugar or not enough.The flavors:: The key to this cupcakes craze is offering classic flavors like vanilla or chocolate and then expanding to some more adventurous flavors like red velvet or german chocolate. Right now there is a big competition on who has the best red velvet cupcake. I’ll try different flavors and judge them independently of a classic flavor.

Just for fun I’ve instituted by own rating scale

Bad cupcake::Don’t even bother
An Okay Cupcake::If you’re there and you’re hungry, give it a try
Your Average Cupcake::Not bad, but not the best
A Tasty Cupcake:: You won’t regret trying it
The Perfect Cupcake::Pure cupcake genius

First up in the queue:: Eleni’s New York and Billy’s Bakery.


After another soul-depleting job interview, I dragged myself down 9th Ave in Chelsea and decided to cheer myself up with some cupcakes. Not as good as the new riding boots I’d like to get to put a smile on my face but definitely much cheaper. First I happened on the Chelsea Market, which houses many cute restaurants and bakeries including the well-known Fat Witch Bakery who are known for their brownies. But today was not a brownie day.

Eleni’s
75 Ninth Ave at 15th Street (in the Chelsea Market)
Prices: $2.95-$3.95

This was my first time to Eleni’s. From the look of the shop and the website, Eleni’s is trying to make a name for itself based on the cookies. They have pre-packaged themed decorated cookies, as well as, plain sugar and chocolate chip cookies. There was actually a lot of things to choose from. Regardless of this fact I focused on the goal….cupcakes. The website shows of a list of fancy names for the cupcakes but I didn’t see these names on display in the store. They kept it basic and to the point. “Chocolate with Chocolate Buttercream” or “Oreo Explosion”. Since it was my first time I decided to stick to one cupcake just to get a sense of their taste, texture, and icing. I chose the chocolate with vanilla buttercream and coconut.

Billy’s is my type of bakery….cupcakes, cakes, & pies. They have brownies, breakfast items, and coffee but really it’s about the cakes & pies. My first time at Billy’s was a little overwhelming. It was crowded and there was so much to choose from that I just bought 2 basic cupcakes and kept it moving. This time I decided to try 3 cupcakes: A classic chocolate with chocolate buttercream, carrot cake, and red velvet. As far as the interior goes, Billy’s is a small place with a few tables and 2 benches outdoors. It’s welcoming. For your viewing pleasure, they ice the cupcakes in the window.

Carrot Cake It has a nice cream cheese icing. It’s sweet and balances nicely with carrot cake which in true classic form is not too sweet. The icing however is sweet enough that given the amount on the cupcake, over the course of eating the entire cupcake it may get to be a bit much. Take off half the icing and you have a perfect balance. The carrot cake is great. Moist, flavorful, and filled with carrot, walnuts, and raisins. The balance of these things in one little cupcake is on point.

Classic Chocolate w/Chocolate Buttercream I have to say this is one of the best buttercream icings I’ve ever had. It’s well blended and light. And unlike many, this chocolate buttercream actually tastes like it has chocolate in it without being overwhelming and fudgey. The cake is moist and has a very light sweetness which is best since the majority of the cupcake’s sugar content comes from the icing.

Red Velvet This cupcake is a cross between the previous two; chocolate cake and cream cheese frosting. Overall a good cupcake but just like the carrot cake cupcake, just a tad too much frosting.

Hope this is helpful in your cupcake adventures. Until the next cupcake ………