January 30, 2013
I really love cupcakes. They are special little personal sized cakes. I much prefer a cupcake to just about any other desert type of treat. It beats cookies, ice cream, and certainly brownies. I actually do not care for brownies at all unless they are crunchy edged and paired with vanilla ice cream, but that’s beside the point. Sure I enjoy fruit. There is nothing quite like a perfectly ripe banana or the first crisp bite of an apple. But there is something just extra fantastic about cupcakes.
So when the new cupcake store opened up near my home, right on Rt33 in Penn Laird, Virginia, I had to check it out.
The store front is simple, in a stand alone building with a large sign on the front and a Cupcake Company vendor van out front, it’s still easy to miss in the rather noncommercial area it is in.
Inside is simple with a clean fresh design. There is an L shaped glass display counter full of cupcakes, and a tall bar type of table for eating in.
Now lets talk business, the cupcakes. I have tries a good selection and each one has been nothing short of AMAZING. I consider myself a bit of a cupcake connoisseur and these cupcakes are hands down, and by a long shot, the best cupcakes I have ever had.
I find a good judgement can be made by trying the basic Vanilla or Almond cupcake at most cupcake boutiques. Since these flavors are generally simple and clean, with no toppings to shadow out the basic perfection, or lack of perfection, in the standard recipe.
At The Cupcake Company I tried the basic vanilla cupcake. The cake is extremely moist, and just slightly sweet. It is topped by a perfectly fluffy, and shaped vanilla butter cream icing, that holds it’s shape without getting stiff or crisp. The vanilla cupcake is topped off with a light sprinkling of colored beads sprinkles. Perfection.
I have also tried an array of other cupcakes from this location, and been wowed by all of them. This includes their Saturday morning special, the bacon maple pancake cupcake. The cake in this cupcake is sticky and very pancake like, with a maple butter cream icing, topped with bacon crumble and maple syrup drizzle. It might sound like an odd combo, bacon and cupcake, but hot-damn, it will knock your socks off. And I say that as a person who is not particularly enthralled by bacon.
Another of my favorite cupcakes is the nutty buddy. It is a chocolate based cupcake with a nutty butty top consisting of vanilla butter cream icing completely covered in mushed peanuts. I am generally not a big fan of chocolate cake, but this combo could not have been better put together.
I highly recommend a stop by this neat little shop, that is becoming a treasure of the valley. For anyone visitors to Massanutten resort or anyone coming off Skyline Drive, grab yourself a treat.
*Find them on Facebook and get updates on the current seasonal flavors!
All Things Krista 