Monday, September 7, 2009

In Review: 1st Annual Indianapolis Cupcake Crawl = NOM!

The wonderful blogger from The Queen of Free had the FABULOUS idea of putting together the 1st Annual Indianapolis Cupcake crawl - and, of course, I was all in!!



Our first stop, Our Bake Shoppe, located less than ten minutes from my house in Olde Towne Greenwood!



Here a peek of all the cupcakes and a snapshot of the participating bloggers! Had so much fun with you ladies!! (Top row left to right: Joanna from Keeping Feet, Punkinmama from More on the Other Side, myself and Shireen from Just Shireen. Bottom row left to right: Cherie from The Queen of Free, Emily from designhermomma, Casey from Moosh in Indy and Shelli from The Worgress Family.)




My cupcake of choice at Our Bake Shoppe - the Smore! Chocolate cupcake with marshmallow on top and a dusting of graham cracker crumbs with the finishing touch of a Hershey chocolate square. My review? Loved the marshmallow on top - but was hoping for a bit more of pizazz - maybe toast the marshmallow a little or have a marshmallow or chocolate "surprise" in the middle of the cupcake - maybe have chocolate chips mixed in the batter. It was delicious - but needed something. Had the pleasure of tasting a little of each of some of their custom icings as well from the "make your own" station - love, love, love the icings. Chocolate chip cookie dough - icing? Yes, please!




Our second stop was the Flying Cupcake - if you've never been - you must. This place is as much a feast for your eyes as it is for your taste buds! Gorgeous retro shabby chic motif - just love it!



My cupcake victim at the Flying Cupcake? I normally go with the Red Velvet Elvis if we make it up that direction - but since we were trying different cupcakes - I thought I'd go with something different and try the "Here Comes the Bride" - an almond flavored cupcake with almond icing. It definitely tasted like wedding cake - it was good but the icing a little too rich - probably would have been able to handle it easily if I just hadn't mauwed down on the Smore cupcake just 20 minutes ago. :) Love how the Flying Cupcake's batter tastes so good - yum! The flavorings don't rely on the icing alone.





Stop numero tres, Holy Cow, Cupcakes....almost missed this one. In fact we drove by it twice! Kinda hidden as it is saddled up with a gas station - so if you're headed in that direction remember that tip!



Was a little cupcaked out by this point (having just been at the Flying Cupcake no more than 10 minutes ago) - so I ended up getting a vanilla cookie dough cupcake with chocolate icing to take with me (not pictured - obviously) but had to snap a pic of their Maple Bacon cupcakes - might just have to try one next time. And P.S. the vanilla cookie dough was great. Love how the cookie dough in the center of the cupcake was still a little gooey - and the vanilla cake had a great taste - good icing as well. Though, as they warned us, the icing is made of real chocolate, so if left in the car it melts...and yup it melted off the cupcake by the time we got home.



Fourth and final stop was at Paradise Cafe where we met up with the icing co. to try a few of their cupcakes (no store front yet). Here's a glimpse of a few of the flavors Katy brought us to try - you're looking at the classy carrot, the ganache, and lemon drop dots.




And here you're seeing dots of peanut butter explosion, pumpkin and strawberry (I think). Aren't they gorgeous? I love the tiny bits and the detail!



Definitely nommed up my fair share of these tasty treats - was able to revv up my cupcake appetite once again after lunching on some Paradise Cafe! Icing was superb, attention to detail with the little sprinklings of chocolate chip, chocolate shavings and dashes of nutmeg or cinnamon made these cupcakes glorious to look at as well as eat! Loved the lemon drop - it was like a lemon-shake-up in cupcake form! And the pumpkin was nice and fall-like! The peanut butter was amazing too - and the strawberry - so sweet and summery!

You can see all of my photos from the crawl here on Facebook!

And I already had a question or two about which was my favorite but honestly, how can you choose when it comes to cupcakes?? We're talking about C.U.P.C.A.K.E.S. here people. They all had things about them I loved - but a favorite - don't make me choose! Try them all yourself and you will see what I mean! :)

5 comments:

Momma Val said...

Whoa Momma! Now this I could do! Not being a drinker for quite several years, I never got the whole pub crawl thing but this looks pretty fabulous! Everything is mouthwatering. Never heard of such a thing until of course I read about it here :)

a/k/a Nadine said...

This looks awesome! (Well, all except the bacon.) I wish we had a single cupcake shop where I live.

Joanna said...

So glad I was able to hang out with you again, and meet Matt! The whole event was a blast. And, Nadine, from firsthand experience- if you like your syrup and bacon to mix at breakfast, you'd like the maple-bacon cupcake. Tasted just like a pancake!

corrin said...

That looks like so much fun. I hope you guys do it again - I'd love to drive down and spend the day with everyone!

Amanda said...

How fun! Might try it with my friends... what a novel idea! I've been "lurking" on your site and love seeing what creative new posts you have. If you do the cupcake crawl again, add Sweet Lucinda's in Zionsville to your list! No store front yet- but sells from Ballerinas and Bruisers on Main Street. Enjoy!