Mini vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing

Things have gotten desperate. I was only half an hour away from having lunch and I found myself in dire need of a cupcake. This time I decided to try The Cupcake Bakery, one half of the cupcake duopoly in Sydney’s city centre (the other half being Cupcake on Pitt). Unlike Cupcake on Pitt where there are over two dozen flavours, there are only 12 flavours on offer at The Cupcake Bakery, predominantly the perennial favourites such as vanilla on vanilla, chocolate on vanilla, chocolate on chocolate, etc. They are perhaps not as creative or as prettily decorated as the cupcakes offered at Cupcake on Pitt, but a cupcake is a cupcake after all, and I was unable to stop myself, lunch or no lunch.

Giant cupcake to fill your hand

If you really feel like a splurge, you can purchase the maxi giant cupcakes on offer at The Cupcake Bakery, so giant they fill your entire hand. They feed about 20 people or just you if such is your inclination. However I think what makes cupcakes cute are their teeny-weenie stature, not an oversized duplication of one. Aimed at the corporate crowd and priced at a not-to-be-sneezed-at sum of $55, I declined to partake, instead opting for the coffee and cupcake offer for $5 which I thought was good value when you consider that cupcakes alone are priced at $3.50 and coffee is about $3.

I settled on a couple of their quirkiest flavours: the sticky date pudding (akin to sticky toffee pudding) and the chocolate on chilli chocolate cupcake. The sticky date tasted as a good sticky date should, the icing of rich caramel had the right balance of sweetness and thickness in the butter cream icing. The cake was moist, although I somehow could not help but wish for it to have been warmed through with lots of runny caramel sauce and vanilla ice-cream.

Chilli chocolate and sticky date cupcakes

The chilli chocolate was, well, spicy. It was not unexpected, but truth be told, curiosity had gotten the better of me in this instance for it wasn’t really what I would have wanted in a cupcake. Still, I couldn’t fault the nicely balanced texture of the icing or the moistness of the cake. However, the outright winner of the day was the mini chocolate on vanilla cupcakes ($1.50). These miniature sizes are not a regular staple but happened to be available today. Deliciously flavoured with vanilla and light and fluffy, I only lamented the fact that I had not purchased the giant sized version in the first instance.

So how does The Cupcake Bakery compare to Cupcake on Pitt? On presentation and variety, I think the latter wins out, but on quality of both the icing and the cakes, then I think The Cupcake Bakery reigns supreme. The texture of their cakes was moister and finer, and their icing simply more delectable. There isn’t an overwhelming amount of choice at The Cupcake Bakery, especially when you consider the range at Cupcake on Pitt, but there’s sure to be one that will grab your fancy.

The Cupcake Bakery at:
320B George St, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2000; and
438 Oxford St, Paddington, NSW, Australia, 2021
Web: http://www.thecupcakebakery.com.au

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