Who’s the cupcake champ? Hilary Duff wraps up her hunt

Hilary has declared The Cupcake Lounge winner of best overall cupcake!

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She has officially wrapped her LTOttawa series on the hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake!

Well folks, the end has finally come.

No, I do not mean the end of my life caused by an onset of early-age diabetes, but rather the end of my four-month-long search for Ottawa’s best cupcake.

Since the end of January I’ve had the honour of trying a whopping 17 different cupcakes, made by both bakeries and private bakers from across our beautiful city.  I just performed a by-the-cupcake count, and realize that I have tried more than 40 different flavours.  Miraculously, I am still cavity free.

Cupcakes from L'Oven

Throughout my search I’ve been in great shops, met amazing people and have discovered more about my favourite dessert than I ever thought I would know.  I’ve been on TV promoting the search and have judged a cupcake competition.  It has been an unbelievable experience, and the end of my sweet journey is bittersweet.

But enough with the sentimental dribble.

As I’ve said before, it is extremely difficult for me to not like a cupcake.  Such could also be said about the statement at the opposite side of the spectrum: If I liked all the cupcakes, how was I to determine the best one?  Let me tell you, it was not easy.

In an attempt to express the diversity of combinations I’ve sampled, I’ve created a few different categories in which to award my cupcake honours.  If you’re stumbling onto my search late or want more information about each cupcake, please feel free to navigate around the links below.  Much blood, sweat and tears went into writing these reviews. (Translation: I endured many sugar-induced stomach aches for a totally worthy cause and it was awesome.)

Please note that these are just the recommendations of a lowly cupcake lover.  Try them if you will, but either way, you will be in good hands with any of Ottawa’s other wonderful bakers.

BEST OVERALL

The cupcake shops mentioned in this category all really stood out to me.  Each exceeded my expectations, and each offered something a little different than anything else I had tried.

The Cupcake Lounge

The Cupcake Lounge

My number one bakery was one of the last shops I tried.  Handfuls of people had told me that I had to try Claudia’s cupcakes, but it wasn’t until her storefront in the ByWard Market opened mid-May that I was finally able to go in and sample them for myself.  They were worth the wait and I’ve already been back to visit (and stuff my face) twice.  With the store located at the heart of Ottawa’s tourist district, I hope that locals and out-of-towners alike will help Claudia’s first summer be a successful one.

Why I liked it: The Cupcake Lounge cupcakes were amazing overall.  The excellent flavour execution, delicious (not to mention the perfect amount of) icing and the moist cake were what made me fall in love.

Honourable mentions

Isobel's Cupcakes

Isobel’s Cupcakes

The third stop on my hunt was the New Edinburgh gem, Isobel’s Cupcakes.  When I think of what a cupcake should be, I think Isobel’s.  My Boston Cream cupcake was to die for and, while some may find the cupcake too sweet, others will rejoice in the immediate sugar fix provided by a mere bite of the cupcake.

Why I liked it: They fulfilled my vision of the ideal cupcake: deadly decadence within simplicity.  Their Swiss meringue buttercream was oh-so buttery, making it completely top notch.

Auntie Loo's Treats

Auntie Loo’s Treats

Fear of vegan baking be gone!  Auntie Loo’s peanut butter chocolate cupcake combined two of my favourite things.  The cupcake was complete with a moist (but not too sweet) chocolate cake and a smooth icing that perfectly captured the flavour of my favourite sandwich topping.  Auntie Loo herself bubbled with enthusiasm, and made the visit a friendly one.

Why I liked it: The cupcake looked low maintenance, but packed a huge punch.  Creative flavour (such as peanut butter chocolate and lavender vanilla) mean that vegans can enjoy a wide variety of products.

BEST PRIVATELY MADE

The Cupcake Fairy

The Cupcake Fairy

The cupcakes I sampled from Daphney at the Cupcake Fairy were unique and delicious.  Each cupcake I tried had its own personality and was ornately topped with everything from a chocolate fondant rose (dusted with edible gold dust, of course) to a mini lemon meringue.

Perfect for: Anyone looking to try some creative new flavours – Daphney runs a “Cupcake of the Month” club, and past featured flavours have included champagne and eggnog rum.  

BEST GLUTEN FREE

Dolci

Dolci

It was impossible to tell that Joanna’s cupcakes were gluten free.  Immensely chocolatey and piled high with icing from the Flour Shoppe, these were a great indulgent treat.  Ensure you make a “cupcake sandwich” when you eat these in order to minimize mess and maximize taste.

Perfect for: Celiacs or those who are trying to cut gluten out of their diet for another reason.  Buy them for the entire family – they won’t even notice a difference. 

MOST UNIQUE

L'Oven

L’Oven

Meeting with sisters Holly and Jackie was an eye-opening experience.  For those who, like me, thought cupcakes had to be unhealthy and sugar-filled, observe L’Oven’s baking principles.  Pureed beets and parsnips replace all fats and oil, sweetness comes naturally from the extra fruits and vegetables infused in the cake and icing and all ingredients come from local producers, when possible. 

Perfect for: Those health conscious cupcake eaters who want a more nutritious alternative without sacrificing taste (case in point: their cupcakes include things like chocolate avocado icing and organic white cranberry cake). 

BEST DECORATED

Geek Sweets

Geek Sweets

The title of my review for Jenny Burgesse’s Geek Sweets said it all (“Geek Sweets’ cupcakes play dress up for Hilary).  These cupcakes were gorgeous.  The 2010 winner of Capital Cupcake Camp’s “best decorated” category did not disappoint – my four cupcakes were almost too pretty to eat. 

Perfect for: Those looking for bright and fantastically fun cupcakes or those who want to surprise their boyfriends with nerdily adorable Portal or other video game-themed baked goods.

*****

And with that, I declare the Ottawa Cupcake Challenge officially complete.

So am I sick of cupcakes yet?  NEVER.

A HUGE thank you goes out to all the wonderful people and bakeries whose cupcakes I tried (click on their name below to access their websites):

Alea from My Real Food Life

Auntie Loo from Auntie Loo’s Treats

Candace from Harmony Bakeshop

Cara Rowlands

Claudia from The Cupcake Lounge

Daphney from the Cupcake Fairy

The Flour Shoppe

Glitz Cupcakes and Company

Isobel’s Cupcakes

Jackie and Holly from L’Oven

Jenny from Geek Sweets

Joanna from Dolci

Life of Pie

Second Avenue Sweets

Shakira and Colleen from Little Cakes

Thimble Cakes

Three Bakers and a Bike

 And a huge thank you to Hilary for undertaking this tasty challenge! We’ll miss her weekly updates! Have an idea for an LTOttawa series? Shoot us a note at ltottawa@gmail.com.

From Carleton to cupcakes: Hilary Duff finds commonality with another baking enthusiast

Cara Rowlands' Strawberry Basil and Smore cupcakes

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She is currently writing an LTOttawa series on her hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake.

Cara Rowlands, baker and blogger at The Polka Dot Apron

Out of all the bakers I’ve met on my search, Cara Rowlands is probably the one with whom I can relate to the most.

Like me, Cara went to Carleton (although she studied film and art history, two disciplines that I will never be exotic or artistic enough to study) and, like me, decided she needed to learn how to cook early on in her student career.  For Cara, this recognition came at the beginning of her second year, when she moved out with two roommates.  Soon coming to the realization that none of them could cook, the three of them set out on a mission to learn how to feed themselves. 

While her roommates focused more on the main meals, Cara fell in love with baking.  Her specialty at the time was cookies and, in preparation for an annual family Christmas party, she used to scan the pages of Canadian Living’s holiday cookbook in search of new recipes.  A love for Canadian Living cookbooks … just one of the other ways I could relate to Cara.

Cara's muffins: Apple pie and Orange blueberry

Since her university days, Cara says she has come to appreciate the value of unconventional flavours and ingredients.  Example: at the 2010 Capital Cupcake Camp, Cara won the “tastiest twist on the original” category for her five spice chocolate cupcake filled with tamari caramel and wasabi buttercream.  Her love of flavour profiling has also been fueled by pastry chef Elizabeth Falkner’s Demolition Desserts baking book. 

Cara is also known around town for her muffins. 

Members of Ottawa’s online scene will recognize her as the woman with fierce pink hair who has been baking her muffins for the city’s Social Media Breakfast since October.  It was at a SMB event at the beginning of April where I actually approached Cara to be involved in the challenge, after shamelessly hovering around her muffin table for the majority of the morning.

Outside of baking for SMB, Cara is a freelance illustrator and animator.  She says a career like this gives her plenty of time for baking.  Her food blog, The Polka Dot Apron, has muffin recipes galore, ranging from apple pie muffins to gluten-free, dairy-free orange blueberry muffins (I chose to mention these ones since I scarfed down both flavours at the last SMB).  Her most popular muffin at the moment?  A maple date and bacon cupcake.  She says it’s the perfect balance of flavours and sounds like a delicious way to start any morning.

Today, however, was not a muffin-testing day.  Today, it was all about the cupcakes.

Cara brought me two very different kinds of cupcakes to sample. 

Strawberry basil lemonade cupcake

The first was a strawberry basil lemonade cupcake with a lemon curd filling.  According to Cara, a drink she once had that featured these flavours was what inspired her to recreate the taste in cupcake form.  To contrast the fruity, cocktail quality of this cupcake was a s’mores cupcake with a whole wheat flour base, a rich fudge filling and homemade marshmallow icing tinted with Lagavulin scotch (to taste like a real toasted marshmallow, Cara says).  As a bit of an aside, I’m actually surprised that this is the only s’mores cupcake I’ve had on my search – it seems like a popular flavour and I thought people would jump at the opportunity to try their hand at homemade marshmallows. 

Alex and Ariel, my cupcake-testing friends

Since my trusty cupcake testing comrades Ariel and Alex were now back in Ottawa for the summer, they jumped at the opportunity to try out Cara’s cupcakes with me. 

We started with the strawberry basil lemonade cupcake.  I really liked the lemon curd filling, and wished my cupcake could have had a bit more.  I love fillings and always think they offer a nice balance from the cake itself.  The strawberry lemon icing was whipped to perfection.  Likewise with the s’mores cupcake, the chocolate filling could have made more of an appearance.  The homemade marshmallow that was piled on top was blissfully toasted and tasted like campfire and childhood. 

S'mores cupcake

The one thing the three of us thought could have been improved with both cupcakes was the cake itself.  It was clear that Cara’s expertise is in muffins, since both cupcakes were more hearty than sweet.  The flavours in each would have worked really well for muffins, but since they were cupcakes I could have used just a bit more sweetness.  Like I said before, however, Cara gets major points for her decadent and tasty toppings.

And so, while Cara’s cupcakes were good, I think her real title rests already determined: Ottawa’s best muffin queen.

PS: she’s looking at starting to cater – keep your eyes peeled!

Cupcake personality: ***

Cake: ***  

Icing: ****

Cupcake overall: ***  

Hmmm, maybe a muffin challenge could be in the works, too. Any takers, local tourists? Thanks Hilary!

A new contender enters the race for Ottawa’s top cupcake: The Cupcake Lounge

The Cupcake Lounge is located at 6 ByWard Market Square, Ottawa

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She is currently writing an LTOttawa series on her hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake.

Ottawa’s newest cupcake venue, The Cupcake Lounge, is truly a family affair.

Inside the two-week-old ByWard Market shop, owner Claudia Arizmendi stands behind the counter, smile on face and cupcakes in hand.  Next to her are her two sons, niece and cousin, all of whom have been kind enough to help Claudia with her sweet venture.

Claudia Arizmendi and her cupcake-making family

You’d never be able to tell the shop was still in its infancy.  The glass case containing the cupcakes was only delivered last Thursday, but already looks like a permanent fixture, housing dozens of beautifully decorated cupcakes.

The rest of the shop is bright and clean, with a large skylight allowing the brightness of the day to seep in.  After searching for the perfect storefront for nearly a year, it was the luminosity of this location that finally attracted Claudia.  Like Glitz Cupcakes and Company, the other cupcake shop in the Market, The Cupcake Lounge is housed in a revamped clothing store.  The place is virtually unrecognizable now, and a warm, brown colour scheme disguises the shop’s retail past and gives the store a homey feel.

Claudia Arizmendi

Despite having just opened two Saturdays ago, Claudia isn’t new to the cupcake business.  She started selling her cupcakes to family and friends privately three years ago, before eventually expanding to sell at The Candy Store in Westboro in September 2009.

As is the case with nearly every cupcake maker I’ve spoken to, Claudia wasn’t always a baker.  Before she rekindled her passion for baking, she was a kindergarten teacher (which lends itself well to the baking’s creative nuances, she says).  After moving to Canada from Mexico in 1994, Claudia began decorating cupcakes for her children’s birthday parties.  Her talent quickly became known amongst her group of friends, and before she knew it she was decorating for their parties as well.

Just a few of the gourmet ingredients Claudia uses to make her cupcakes

The formal start to Claudia’s baking career happened five years ago when she studied baking and pastry art at Algonquin College.  With that year of knowledge under her belt, the foundation for The Cupcake Lounge was created.

Claudia has used her arsenal of culinary knowledge to create a unique product, and The Cupcake Lounge boasts a spectacular line up of flavours.

Daily and weekly specials at The Cupcake Lounge

Seven flavours are offered everyday of the week, including chocolate vanilla, maple cinnamon and red velvet.  In addition to these seven, there is a rotating schedule of flavours, meaning that customers can try a different taste everyday of the week.

Claudia’s goal for The Cupcake Lounge is to do away with all extravagances and go back to basics.  She says people like the concept of simplicity, and has aimed to make her cupcakes original, yet classic.

The Cupcake Lounge

This desire is one of the reasons she went with her unique, handcrafted icing technique.  Rather than applying icing with a piping bag, cupcakes receive a hearty amount of attention from Mr. Spatula, who spreads and smoothes the icing around the side of the cupcake in a cylindrical manner.  It’s something different, and I like it.

You want to know what else I liked?  The cupcakes.  Actually, I more than liked them.  I loved them.  I am ecstatic to announce that there is a new contender for the top cupcake spot.

The four flavours I tried were divine.

First was a raspberry almond cupcake, with ground almonds in the cake and a fresh raspberry puree-infused icing.

Rasberry almond cupcake from The Cupcake Lounge

The next two – a ginger lemon cupcake and a mango cupcake – were exactly as I wanted them to be: fresh tasting and not too sweet.

Rather than sweetening the icing with lots of sugar, Claudia says she used the natural flavours from the lemon and mango to create the icing and cake.  I could tell – the lemon icing tasted like someone had squeezed the citrusy fruit into my mouth, and the mango cupcake was like eating a slice of fresh fruit.

Mango cupcakes from The Cupcake Lounge

The ginger cake was also the perfect accompaniment to the lemon icing and, while containing fresh ginger, was not too overpowering in flavour.

Ginger lemon cupcake from The Cupcake Lounge

Last was the Claudia’s most popular flavour: red velvet.  Unlike most cream cheese icings I’ve tried, Claudia’s was not oversweet.  The cake consistency on all four was also perfect.

Cupcakes from The Cupcake Lounge

What can I say?  Best Friday night dinner ever.

To go back to the icing, the frosting technique also contributed to the overall excellence.  By using the spatula to frost around the cupcake top, the icing was better distributed, meaning that the cupcake was low maintenance and tidy.  No squishy cupcake-icing sandwich was necessary.

And so, I suggest you rush down to The Cupcake Lounge as soon as you finish reading this post (or go now, I’d forgive you).  With Claudia’s prime location and pretty shop display, she’s prone to selling out, so you better be fast (example: last Saturday they sold out of 50 dozen cupcakes before 4 p.m.).

As for a grand opening?  Claudia says it will happen, just not yet.  She wants to get accustomed to operating out of her new storefront and gather a bit of a following first.

But when the grand opening does occur – sometime in June – I suggest you shimmy on down and get your hands on what may just be the city’s best cupcake.

Cupcake personality: ****

Cake: ****½

Icing: *****

Cupcake overall: *****

Wow! Whoever is up next has a tough act to follow. Thanks for the great post, Hilary…and see you soon Cupcake Lounge!

The allergy-friendly cupcake: Hilary chats with My Real Food Life’s Alea Cardarelli

Cupcakes from My Real Food Life

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She is currently writing an LTOttawa series on her hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake.

Think you have bad food allergies? Think again.

For this week’s cupcake tasting I met with Alea Cardarelli, the mastermind behind the allergy-friendly blog My Real Food Life.

Alea Cardarelli, My Real Food Life

As Alea reviews her allergies to me, I feel my jaw dropping.  She is naming virtually all the things I eat multiple times daily – gluten, dairy, eggs, refined white sugar, etc. etc., as well as other sneaky food items that seem to find their way into several unexpected products.  In total there’s about 30 items to which she has developed intolerance.

The cruel punch line with Alea’s bouquet of allergies is that she didn’t find out she was allergic to most of these foods until last year.  She said her allergies got really bad when she was in university and went to Italy to visit her family.  The Italian pasta-heavy diet did not exactly work wonders with her health.  Alea started experiencing bad reactions to food as early as grade two.  Now in her early 30s, it’s evident that she hasn’t had the best food-related life. 

She started her blog last March as a way to keep track of what she was making herself to eat.  The blog was also a way for her to take pictures of food; an activity she says is another one of her favorite hobbies.  Despite her food intolerances, Alea still believes that cooking should be fun.  As well as catering to the gluten free crowd, Alea tries to make her blog as inclusive as possible, so that everyone can enjoy eating, regardless of their allergies.

Chickpea nacho chips, via My Real Food Life

Like so many other bakers around Ottawa, Alea also sells her cupcakes (among other things, including the chickpea nacho chips I mentioned in my ECO EXPO blog post) at a local farmer’s market.  She had her first set up at the Main Street Farmers’ Market two Saturdays ago, and will be there every second weekend.

Another unique service Alea runs is her cooking workshops.  Every month or so, around 15 people pile into her special basement kitchen, for a two hour lesson.  So far she has run workshops on general gluten free baking, Christmas baking and cooking, and hopes to expand to a regular set of classes within the next few months.

As for the cupcakes themselves, Alea brought two kinds for me to try:

A vanilla lemon cupcake with a raspberry lemon icing…

Vanilla lemon cupcake

…and chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate ganache and raspberry icing.

Chocolate cupcake

Both were vegan as well as free of gluten and several other allergens.

Since Alea’s baking caters to a specialized crowd, she brought in a few of her baking supplies to show me what was used to create the cupcakes I would be eating. 

Agar powder, solid palm sugar

The first unusual ingredient was a bag of agar powder, something she uses as a binding agent instead of eggs and xanthan gum.  The second ingredient was a block of solid palm sugar.  The sugar comes from a coconut tree and has to be grated to be used, adding on to the already lofty time it takes to make her cupcakes (about three hours to for a dozen).  Each block wields about 2/3 cup of sugar, and is bought from a special grocery store in Chinatown. 

As for the recipes, Alea said she made them up herself.  While I’ve tried a few gluten free cupcakes on my quest, I’ve yet to actually try a vanilla GF cupcake.  According to Alea, this is because it’s very difficult to create a good tasting vanilla cake.  Her vanilla lemon cupcake recipe alone took her two years to develop.

The contrast between chocolate and vanilla was quite evident when I got to eat my cupcakes.

While the vanilla lemon one was good, I much preferred Alea’s chocolate cupcake.  The chocolate was a nice foil to the powerful tartness of the fruity icing and cut the sharpness in taste.  I thought the vanilla cupcake lacked some sweetness; on the contrary the chocolate cupcake was full of the natural sugary glory that is always associated with chocolate cake.  In both, the icing to cupcake ratio was a little disproportionate, in the sense that each of the cupcakes sort of fell in on themselves.  I used several napkins, but it was totally worth it.  In the end, I was still very impressed by the cupcake that Alea had created.  Considering her ingredient limitations, she managed to bake a final product that could stand its ground next to the other cupcakes I tried.

So what comes next for Alea?  Well, she says her ultimate foodie dream is to have her own Food Network show. She already does a cooking segment once a month on Rogers Television, so she’s partway there.  

Cupcake personality: ***

Cake: ***

Icing: **

Cupcake overall: **½

How about it, blogging world – who wants to make Alea a star?

Glebe grub: Hilary Duff tries TWO bake shops in her own backyard

Chocolate toffee crunch cupcakes from Second Avenue Sweets

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She is currently writing an LTOttawa series on her hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake.

Life of Pie, located at 1095 Bank St.

In my quest to find Ottawa’s best cupcake, I have somehow neglected the two bakeries located in my very own backyard: Life of Pie and Second Avenue Sweets.

A proud resident of Old Ottawa South, many of my days have been spent wandering along Bank Street.  Life of Pie, which relocated from its Leonard Avenue location last summer, now boasts a bright and friendly storefront (complete with a sitting area by the window, perfect for people watching) on the corner of Sunnyside and Bank.

Life of Pie is one of those shops that have been trying to get connected to their client base through the online world.  It was one of these outreach attempts that brought me to finally try their cupcake this past weekend.  Since I follow the bakery’s Twitter account, I find out about any contests or promotions they are having in store. 

Low and behold, on Saturday afternoon such a Twitter contest was held. 

Twitter.com/lifeofpieottawa

Seeing that the tweet above was posted mere seconds ago, I bolted out of my bedroom, unlocked my bike and pedaled the four short blocks to Life of Pie. 

Within three minutes I was at the shop, yelling out their desired phrase like a maniac.  The girl at the cash didn’t even know about the contest yet, that’s how fast I was.  I biked considerably slower home, where I tried my strawberry cheesecake cupcake in the sunlight of my outdoor porch.

Strawberry cheesecake cupcake - Life of Pie

First impression: It struck me as far more of a muffin than a cupcake.  The consistency of the cake was notably more wholesome than the average cupcake, and was less sweet, with chunks of strawberry (and possibly rhubarb?) scattered throughout.  Compromising the healthy tasting factor was the sweeter-than-sin cream cheese icing, which delivered a sugar blast straight to my veins.  Overall, the cupcake was good, but suffered an identity crisis in the sense that it was way less strawberry cheesecake-inspired and more like some sort of strawberry explosion muffin. 

Second Avenue Sweets, located at 151 Second Ave.

The second neighbourhood bakery I tried Saturday was Second Avenue Sweets.  The only time I had seen the place was when I visited its next-door neighbour, the Urban Pear, for a mouthwateringly delicious student splurge of a meal.  After my meal I had peered inside the bakery and, with my face pressed up against the glass, swore to return one day to the colourful walls and glass dessert displays.

The time had finally come and I eagerly walked inside to see what the bakery could offer.  The strange characteristic of both Second Avenue Sweets and the Urban Pear is that their locations are hallway-like in shape, in the sense that the building is very long and narrow.  Standing in the bakery gave me the impression of being trapped inside of a giant rectangle; in front of me the narrow bakery area stretched on, past my point of view.  Horizontal stripes of coloured wallpaper lined the main bakery wall, giving the location a bright and playful feel. 

Second Avenue Sweets, located at 151 Second Ave.

The front entrance of Second Avenue Sweets is quite small, and there’s no seating area for customers to enjoy their desserts.  Not a huge deal, however, and I ended up taking my cupcake across the street, where I sat on the curb with a smartly purchased carton of milk.  I very nearly got my toes run over numerous times, but it was so worth it for a seat in the sun.

As for the cupcakes themselves, Second Avenue Sweets had a few choices for me to decide on.  Before making my final decision, I seriously considered the Cupcake of the Week, a decadent looking double chocolate cupcake.  In the end, it was my friend and bakery employee Serena who helped influence my final choice.  I had no idea that Serena was working in the shop for the summer, but when she suggested the chocolate toffee crunch cupcake, I was sold.  Three dollars and one sidelong glance towards the rest of the desserts later and I was off to sample.

Chocolate toffee crunch cupcake - Second Avenue Sweets

Sitting down and opening the cupcake box, I immediately regretted my choice to not grab a napkin.  Serena told me earlier that the icing probably hadn’t set yet, since the cupcakes had just been made that morning.  As a result, the cupcake had flopped onto its side, creating tiny hills of icing on the bottom of the box.  Not helping was the fact that the cupcake was top-heavy, and the poor thing was completely unable to stand on its own.  I felt like I was in that episode of Seinfeld where they decide to just sell muffin tops, that’s how big the upper cupcake was.  Due to these strange proportions, my cupcake had way more icing than cake.  The icing lived up to its promise of toffee flavour abound, and a few Skor bits added a crunch to the creaminess.  Midway through my cupcake, I discovered a ganache filling that was a tad more bitter than I would have liked it to be.  The surrounding chocolate cake, however, achieved high marks on the sweetness scale. 

Who needs seating with you have sunshine and a sidewalk?

Final verdict: the cupcake had a lot of homemade charm, but considering they were one of the priciest cupcakes yet, I expected the presentation to be a little less…well, homemade. 

Glebe and Old Ottawa South lovers: Second Avenue Sweets and Life of Pie really are great neighbourhood bakeries (especially if the cupcakes are free!), but they probably have other specialty products that will better satisfy your sweet tooth.

Life of Pie

1095 Bank St.

Twitter: @LifeofPieOttawa

Cupcake personality: ***½

Cake: ***

Icing: **

Cupcake overall: ***

•••••

Second Avenue Sweets

151 Second Ave.

Cupcake personality: *½

Cake: **

Icing: ***

Cupcake overall: **

Hilary’s now hit a baker’s dozen of Ottawa cupcake shops! Wow! Stay tuned to see what’s next … 

Cupcake coma: Hilary Duff puts Ottawa’s cupcakes to the test at ECO EXPO

ECO EXPO's first ever local cupcake challenge took place this past weekend, with LTO's Hilary Duff as a celebrity judge

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen.

Looking back on the reviews I’ve written as part of my search for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake, I realize that I’ve thrown around the term “cupcake coma” quite liberally.  This is the state, of course, when you are completely incapacitated by a sugary stomachache, to the point that you never want to see a dessert item again.  Dear readers, though the term has been used, I must admit that I didn’t truly know what a cupcake coma was until this past Sunday afternoon.

For more information on the ECO EXPO, visit ottawaecoexpo.com

As some of you may remember, I was asked to be a celebrity guest judge in a cupcake competition organized for Ottawa’s ECO EXPO fair.  Since I’ve been in Toronto interning at the National Post all this month, I bussed in just for the event.  I blissfully walked over the RA Centre from my house, anticipating glorious afternoon of sugary intoxication. 

Walking into the fair, my eyes darted around, quickly becoming fixated on a huge table sitting to my left.  Plates and plates of cupcakes sat waiting to be judged, beckoning me with their frosted chapeaus and sprinkled smiles.  I took a quick picture and had to walk away.  I had starved myself all morning in anticipation for the competition and would it would not be long before I would get my reward.

In the meantime, I decided to walk around.  It was nice to arrive early, since it gave me the chance to get caught up with people in the Ottawa foodie community.

I finally got to meet the famous Michael Sunderland of michaelsdolce jam, after tweeting back and forth for a while. 

Fumie, Michael and Hilary

michaeldolce jam

I swear that you cannot declare yourself a true Ottawa food lover unless you have tried his product, be it with cheese, on a cracker, or sinfully scooped directly out of the jar. 

Seriously, it’s heaven. 

Both Michael and his wife Fumie were two of the sweetest people ever, and neither tossed me a single judgmental look, even after I tried six different samples of their jam.

Across the aisle from Michael was Alea, author of the food blog My Real Food Life.

Joanna of Dolci and Alea of My Real Food Life

 Alea and I had also been in contact over Twitter to arrange a cupcake tasting (which will be coming up sometime in the near future!).  Wearing a personalized t-shirt advertising her blog, Alea was an incredibly bubbly and happy addition to my afternoon.  Also, her gluten-free chickpea nacho chips were to die for.  After shamelessly picking away at her samples, I ended up buying myself a bag for the bus ride back to Toronto.

After an hour of mingling with other foodie friends, it was finally time for cupcakes.

My fellow judges for the afternoon were Judy Field, publisher of the local magazine Healthwise Ottawa and David Chernushenko, city councillor for the capital ward.  David brought along two helpers, which was probably smart considering how many cupcakes we had to judge. 

Cupcake judges Judy Field, Hilary Duff, David Chernushenko and helpers

Sitting down at the long table, my eyes grew wide as plates of cupcakes were placed in front of me.  There were a dozen different kinds in total.  I was starting to get a sugar headache just looking at them.  And then it began.

Cupcakes!

For the next 45 minutes, the small crowd gathered in front of our table watched as I sacrificed all my healthy inhibitions and stuffed my face. 

Wanting to eat as much cupcake as possible (because hey, how often do you get to judge a cupcake competition?), I started off eating half of each, before realizing that I was being a little too ambitious.  Even for a self-proclaimed cupcake lover, six cupcakes would have been a little too many. 

My stomach rumbled in displeasure, and my eyes started to get droopy.  It was like all the sugar particles I ingested were magnets, attracting every ounce of energy I had left in my body.

Now, it would be far too difficult and unfair to say what I thought of each individual cupcake (not to mention I can’t remember details since there were far too many), so I’ll just give an overall diagnoses: Ottawa, you’re awesome. 

Every single cupcake had a unique quality, be it some unusual flavour, fancy topping, or creative serving method.

More cupcakes!

My congratulations go out to the winners: Daphney at the Cupcake Fairy, Holly and Jackie at L’Oven, and Joanna at Dolci.  I know that I’ve tried all your cupcakes in passing, but it was absolutely lovely to try them again. 

Joanna informed me that there was a slight mix up with the cupcakes that we were served, and so for those of you whose cupcakes the judges mistakenly excluded, my profuse apologies. 

Trust me, I would have eaten more.

This was just the first year for the ECO EXPO cupcake competition – who knows how many entrants there will be next year.  If nothing else, this experience taught me two valuable lessons: bring a heaping glass of milk and pace yourself.

Cupcakes from the Cupcake Fairy, winner of best decorated

Thanks Hilary! And congratulations to Heather and Michael for pulling off what looks like a successful (and delicious) event!

Dolci is ‘sweets’: Hilary explores more gluten-free cupcakes

Cupcakes from Dolci Bakeshop

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She is currently writing an LTOttawa series on her hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake.

Gluten: something that I would probably miss should my body suddenly decide to form an intolerance to this beloved wheat protein. Luckily if this did happen, I’d still have Dolci cupcakes (website/Twitter) to fall back on.

Past cupcake adventures have allowed me to momentarily glimpse into a world of gluten-free baking, even though I did so rather unknowingly last time. The Dolci cupcakes were, from the outset, the real deal, and I was given full disclosure of their gluten-free (hereon into to be known as “GF”) state.

Joanna Zappia, of Dolci Bakeshop

The baker of my GF treats and the owner of Dolci is Joanna Zappia. When translated, dolci appropriately means “sweets,” and the name was a great way for Joanna to pay homage to her Italian heritage.  Unlike some of the bakers I’ve spoken to that have stumbled into the wonderful world of cupcakes from other careers or just moonlight as bakers, Joanna says she always knew what she wanted to do. Her training began at the Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionery Arts in Toronto where she learned the nuances of cake designing and decorating. Then a few years ago, Joanna started baking wedding cakes, but wasn’t yet dedicated solely to GF items. At the time, she herself was actually on a GF diet, meaning she couldn’t eat a single bite of what she made (as a side note, this would kill me since I’m notorious for eating cake batter, ask my roommates). As a result of her inability to eat her own baking, Joanna recruited assistance. Whenever she wanted to test her cakes, she brought them to family and friends.  They kindly served as Joanna’s taste buds for the experience and, if you ask me, benefited quite nicely along the way.  Now Joanna says her mission is to make GF products that she can actually eat and that taste exactly like the non-GF desserts she remembers.

While she stuck with baking cakes for a while, it wasn’t until last May, at the Ottawa Farmer’s Market, that Joanna really got her start. As one of the only GF vendors at the Lansdowne Market, Joanna says she quickly developed a loyal following. Not only did throngs of customers come flocking to her booth, but she also had several local businesses express an interest in selling her products. Today, Dolci’s products are sold in more than five different stores across Ottawa, from Credible Edibles in Hintonburg, to Life of Pie in Old Ottawa South.

Dolci started selling at the Lansdowne Farmers Market

But the farmer’s market was just the start for cupcakes. 

Eventually Joanna says she wants to start her own shop, and the farmer’s market was just a testing ground for flavours. It was only in February that Joanna started selling GF cupcakes at The Flour Shoppe on Saturdays. Every weekend Joanna provides the cupcakes and the shop crowns them with a delightful iced topping. New this month: GF cupcake lovers can now also get Dolci’s cupcakes at Market Organics on Tuesdays, where the flavours change weekly.

I got to try two different flavours. The first was a chocolate cupcake with chocolate hazelnut icing and the second, a chocolate cupcake with a vanilla bean buttercream. Now, unfortunately for me, I had to work at the university immediately after meeting with Joanna. Since I had gotten way too into discussing cupcakes and had lost track of time, I had no more than 10 minutes to bike to Carleton from the edge of the Glebe, some three kilometres away. What comes next will hopefully impress you. Not only did I make it on time for my shift, but on my way I managed to dodge a Bank Street driver who was determined to hit me while parallel parking, and maneuver my way over speed bumps on Sunnyside, all while keeping the tower of icing in tact. Oh right, I was also biking with one hand.  Not to brag or anything, but it was possibly the proudest moment of my life.

Chocolate, with hazelnut frosting

But anyways, after the cupcakes taunted me for my entire shift, I finally got to dig in. You know that cupcake sandwich technique that I’ve referred to in the past?  I definitely took advantage of it for these cupcakes, and tore off the bottom cake, smushing it down on top of the icing. My co-worker laughed at me, but it was a completely necessary procedure.

Chocolate, with vanilla bean buttercream

The cupcakes were good, albeit excruciatingly messy (mostly my fault).  The vanilla buttercream reminded me of marshmallow fluff, and was a great contrast to the chocolate cake. For any GF clientele, you won’t be disappointed with these and, while the cupcake may taste average to everyday cupcake lovers, they would provide an exceptionally tasty treat for the restricted eater.

In the end, I think Joanna most certainly accomplished her mission of taste and dietary practicality. Dear readers, these Ottawa bakers are great – gluten free or non-gluten free, both just read as “delicious” in my books.

Cupcake personality: ***

Cake: ***

Icing: ***½

Cupcake overall: ***

Has Hilary missed a single shop yet while on her cupcake tour? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Healthy living: Hilary discovers vegetables disguised in cupcake form

Jackie Moore and Holly Hutchings from L'Oven

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She is currently writing an LTOttawa series on her hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake.

Eating a cupcake from L’Oven is a completely guilt free experience.

Okay, well almost completely guilt free.  While all the cupcakes I’ve sampled so far have had one unique selling point, L’Oven’s cupcakes are chalked full of these USPs.  In fact, they may be the most innovative cupcakes so far.

Tea Party Cafe in the ByWard Market

But before I explain more about that, let me introduce you to Jackie Moore and Holly Hutchings, the sisters behind the creation of L’Oven.  Late last month I went to meet Jackie and Holly at the Tea Party Café, an intimate and adorable teashop in the ByWard Market.  Inside, two enthusiastic blondes greeted me, both eager to explain the inner workings of their sisterly enterprise.

It started like this.  Jackie and Holly had grown up baking.  To them, baking was like a chemistry experiment, and their actions fiddling around in the kitchen with their mom and grandma’s recipes were apparently comparable to a mad scientist’s experiments.  This love for kitchen chemistry led Jackie and Holly to get their degree in health sciences and meant that the two were well on their way to continuing their lives as recreational bakers.

Everything changed, however, a few years ago when Jackie was diagnosed with colon cancer.

From this point on, baking became not just a hobby, but also a way to help keep spirits high, in and outside the kitchen.  Since traditional cupcakes weren’t the healthiest option for recovery food, Jackie and Holly put a spin on the conventional ingredients, and instead created a product meant to be both healthy and delicious.  And so the “immune boosting” alternative cupcake was born. Looking back on Jackie’s diagnoses, the sisters say their story is a true example of this “from the worst comes the best” mentality.  Jackie’s cancer is now in remission, and L’Oven has been operating their on-demand, virtual bakery ever since.

Cupcakes from L'Oven

If you’re wondering what I mean when I say “untraditional cupcakes,” let me break down L’Oven’s product for you.

Jackie and Holly take pride in their use of alternative ingredients to replace the things that make normal cupcakes so unhealthy.  For example, pureed beets or parsnips replace all fats and oils.  This means that L’Oven can also cut back on the amount of sugar they put in their cupcakes, since it comes naturally from the vegetables.  All the flour used is whole grain, which is a healthier choice than the traditional white flour.

Cupcakes from L'Oven

 

The cupcakes contain no artificial flavours or colours and the fruity ingredients contained within come from local sources, when possible.  On top of all this, half the cupcakes I tried were vegan and all were made with organic ingredients.

Crazy right?  Sustainable, healthy and tasty – these seem to be the founding principles of L’Oven’s business.

Cosmo: Vanilla organic cake with fresh cranberries topped with organic lime cream cheese icing

Speaking of taste, I wasn’t really sure what to expect of these cupcakes.  I’m a little hesitant of trying new things (even when it involves cupcakes), so wasn’t sure if I would be able to taste a major difference with the use of all these unconventional ingredients.

Luckily my worries evaporated as soon as I took the first bite of cupcake.

The ‘wow’ factor for me was the icing.  While only a small amount of icing rested atop each cupcake, the flavours were creative and delicious.  The use of natural ingredients meant that every flavour tasted exactly like it should.

Snipits: Vanilla organic cake (with pureed local parsnips), with dairy-free icing (coloured pink naturally using fresh beet juice)

Be it the dark chocolate avocado icing, maple buttercream or matcha green tea buttercream, all were unique and refreshing.  I particularly loved the lime cream cheese icing, and the speckles of lime zest gave the icing a citrusy zing.  The flavours of the cupcakes themselves were nothing to scoff at either – a dark chocolate and red wine cake (a twist on the traditional red velvet) and an organic vanilla cake with fresh cranberries from Greeley.

Cocoa-Merlot: Dark chocolate and red wine organic cake topped with cream cheese icing

All were fantastic.

The only cake that took a bit of getting used to was the vanilla cupcake with pureed parsnips.  The taste of the cake surprised me at first, and my mouth was filled with a fresh garden sensation when I took a bite.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but may be enough to turn off the picky cupcake eater and starved sugar lover.

Green with Envy: Chocolate organic cake with matcha green tea buttercream icing, topped with premium dark chocolate

If the allure of healthy desserts is calling your name, you might soon get the chance to try out Jackie and Holly’s recipes for yourself.  The sisters are currently working on their first cookbook that is meant to be a learning tool for those looking to be healthier in the kitchen.  The book won’t just be limited to cupcakes, and will contain a whole slew of new baked goods that even the most nutrition-conscious people will love.  Jackie and Holly say they’re expecting the first draft to be done in May, so keep your eyes peeled for L’Oven’s book debut sometime in the near future.

As for the final verdict on L’Oven?  It’s definitely possible to be healthy and delicious simultaneously.

Added bonus: parents can trick their health-defying five-year-old into eating vegetables disguised in cupcake form.

Cupcake personality: ***½

Cake: ****½

Icing: *****

Cupcake overall: ****

Do you know of a cupcake shop that Hilary should check out? Leave a comment below!

Geek Sweets’ cupcakes play dress up for Hilary

Cupcakes from Geek Sweets

Hilary Duff (blog/Twitter) is a quirky 21-year-old who loves multimedia journalism, cycling, food blogging, and churning massive amounts of baked goods out of her cramped student kitchen. She is currently writing an LTOttawa series on her hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake.

You know how sometimes food looks too good to eat?

This saying almost applied to the experience I had sampling cupcakes the other week (I say “almost” only because I would never not eat a cupcake…).  Put it this way: if there were a “best dressed” list for baked goods, these cupcakes would have been at the top of the chart.

Jenny Burgesse, Geek Sweets

The cupcake designer extraordinaire was Jenny Burgesse from Geek Sweets, another small, privately operated home bakery.  I first began talking with Jenny over Twitter after we both baked for Capital Cupcake Camp last September.  It was also around this time that Geek Sweets first began selling to the public.  At Capital Cupcake Camp, Jenny’s “Death by Chocolate” cupcakes won the best decorated award.  Looking back at my iPhone pictures from last fall, I noticed that I still had the photos of Jenny’s chocolate cupcake saved to my album.

Little did I know that I would have the chance for a second tasting…

Meeting Jenny gave me the chance to combine my love of cupcakes with one of my other favourite hobbies: riding my bike with one hand while carrying baked products. This may sound like a strange and overly specific hobby, but I’m actually quite good at it.

With the thought of cupcakes fueling my ride home, I don’t think I’ve ever biked faster.  As a safeguard to a potentially cupcake-harming bike ride, I took pictures of the cupcakes at the park bench where I met Jenny, an action that garnered several suspicious sidelong glances from the folks sitting in a local pub.

Learn more about Geek Sweets at http://www.geeksweets.net

In regards to a unique selling point, dessert lovers need not stray far to discover what makes Geek Sweets special.  Let’s start with the name.  Just as “Geek Sweets” alludes to, Jenny considers herself to be a bit of a geek.  She caters to those who want something a little different, be it superhero cupcakes to Call of Duty cupcakes.  Jenny’s creativity doesn’t stop with cupcakes, however, and she also sells an assortment of intricately decorated cookies and cakes.  The cupcakes she brought for my tasting were a little less geeky than her normal fare, but no less dramatically decorated.

It seems to me like Jenny’s decorating abilities can be attributed to her background as a freelance graphic designer.  As a side note, she’s currently working on some new graphics for Ottawa’s favourite food blog, foodiePrints, which I am very excited to see!

Out of the four different cupcakes Jenny brought, they all had a unique personality.  I felt as though my cupcakes had played dress up, each picking out the perfect outfit for our tasting.  They even had four different kinds of cupcake liners – the perfect finishing touch for an already beyond-adorable cake.  Of course with such elaborate outer garments, the cupcake innards had to be just as impressive.

On that note, check out these mind-numbing cupcake flavours:

Chocolate Cherry Bomb: devil’s food chocolate cupcake filled with cherry pie filling with cherry buttercream and topped with a maraschino cherry.

Chocolate Cherry Bomb from Geek Sweets

Secret of Monkey Island: spiced rum banana cupcake with caramel cream cheese, topped with toffee bits and a chocolate dipped banana chip.

Secret of Monkey Island, from Geek Sweets

Strawberry Shortcake: vanilla shortcake filled with strawberry whipped cream, topped with a white chocolate vanilla buttercream.

Strawberry Shortcake from Geek Sweets

Raspberry Tart: lemon cake filled with raspberry citrus coulis and topped with raspberry and lemon frosting.

Raspberry Tart from Geek Sweets

So were Jenny’s cupcakes as delicious as they were visually stunning?

Simply put: yes.

Out of the four cupcakes, my favourite was the strawberry shortcake.  The flavours were light, flowery and fruitful, and it was the perfect cupcake for an early spring day.  I had also been craving a chocolate covered strawberry, and the one topping this cupcake was perfectly dipped.  As for two of my other roommates, they preferred the banana cupcake, a special creation Jenny had made for the weekend.  The icing in that one was decadent, although more butterscotch than caramel.  The raspberry tart cupcake provided a jam-filled explosion, and tasted exactly like the cake my mom used to make for my dad’s birthday.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the chocolate and cherry cupcake, but this was likely due to personal flavour preferences.  My roommate Ariel, on the other hand, loved this one, and proudly considers herself to be a cherry and chocolate-aholic.

Check out that filling!

For me, the really great part about Geek Sweets’ cupcakes was the filling.  I think fillings are the perfect way to add another dimension to a cupcake and create a delicious surprise for the eater.  They can be a little messy though.  Halfway through my barbaric handfuls of cupcake, I guiltily remembered that Jenny suggested I eat them with a fork.  Oops!  Words of wisdom for next time.

There are only two words that can describe these cupcakes, and those words are “fantastically fun.”  If you plan on having any sort of theme party, want to please your video game loving child, or have the urge to experience art in the form of baked goods, give Jenny a call.  I promise she won’t disappoint.

Cupcake personality: *****

Cake: ***

Icing: ***½

Cupcake overall: ****

Okay Hilary.  We’re officially jealous. And hungry.

Hilary Duff takes her cupcake challenge to the TV airwaves

Hilary Duff (centre) on Daytime Ottawa

More exciting news! The very lovely Hilary Duff will be a judge in the Ottawa Cupcake Challenge next month as part of the annual ECO EXPO!

Well, we’ve all been following Hilary’s hunt for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake for a while now — sometimes only salivating *slightly.* But it turns out that LTOttawa and its readers aren’t the only ones watching! After the organizers of ECO EXPO contacted her recently about her tasty challenge, she was asked to serve as a judge for their 1st annual Ottawa Cupcake Challenge.

AND … she appeared yesterday on Daytime Ottawa, a Rogers Cable talk show, to talk about the event and her general love of cupcakes!

Check out her appearance here!

We’ll be telling you more about the ECO EXPO — a local food fair and health & wellness show — in the coming days, but mark on your calenders that it takes place on April 23-24 at the RA Centre, featuring about 100 local organizations and businesses.

For any bakers out there taking part in the challenge. Hilary described on the show what she wants out of a cupcake — and it’s pretty simple.

“I really look for the perfect proportion of cupcake to icing … I do sometimes make sort of cupcake sandwiches so I can get a bite of each.”

Local Tourist Ottawa will be at the ECO EXPO. Will you? Stop by for a treat or two!