Cupcake Showdown!
[ 5 December 2007 ]
As we start ramping up towards Christmas, it seems inevitable that our sweet tooths start begging for attention, too. As you may know by now, my sugary treat of choice is a cupcake. Big, little, lashed with icing, dusted with sugar — I love them all. In Melbourne, it seems as if there are charming little cupcake bakeries opening up all over the place. It’s like a plague of loveliness. I’m not complaining!
From what I’ve seen, there are three major contenders on the Melbourne cupcake scene, though I know there are a multitude of options for the really cupcake-obsessed. The first is the long-standing, original trail-blazer, Crabapple Cupcake Bakery. The second is Little Cupcakes, which opened a couple of months ago in the city. & last but not least is Sugadeaux, another newcomer with great promise.
But all this choice does, of course, leave you with a few questions. Those questions are: Which outlet should you patronise? What flavour is the tastiest? Where do you get the most bang for your buck? Who does the chocolatiest smack in the kisser? Where are the best exotic flavours? & how many should you order for Christmas?
Pictured: “Willy Wonka”, vanilla cream, cappucino cream, “girlish”, strawberry mudcake, peppermint chocolate-chip.
Location: Shop 6, Prahran Market, 163 Commercial Road, Prahran. Also available at Switchboard, Shop 11-12 Manchester Unity Arcade, 220 Collins St.
Flavours: White chocolate mud; jaffa; strawberry mudcake; hummingbird; orange & almond; orange blossom; lavender blossom; passionfruit; chocolate fudge; cappuccino; carrot & cream cheese (& the list goes on…).
Price: From $4 depending on flavour. (Discounts available for bulk orders.)
Review: Crabapple Cupcakes are the original monolithic cupcake in Melbourne. They are big & sweet & beautiful. Opening in 2001, its founder Jennifer Graham actually started off selling cake stands at markets. She would bake cupcakes just to fill up the stands as a demonstration, but soon she realised that cupcakes were what people really wanted. Her whole family got involved — her husband quit his job & her three daughters started experimenting with different decoration styles. Years later, in Melbourne, the word “Crabapple” is synonymous with cupcakes.
I have eaten more Crabapple Cupcakes than I would like to keep count of. 20 is probably a conservative estimate. (Eep!) Some of my favourites are lavender blossom, carrot & cream cheese, peppermint chocolate-chip & strawberry mudcake. The flavours are rich & tantalising, the size is perfectly satisfying & the icing… Oh, the icing. It is pure magnificence. It is so thick & generous that you can skim some off the top with your fingers & have plenty left to spare. It is light & fluffy & drool-inducing. It swirls around the top of the cupcake like a crown & melts on your tongue. It is sticky & fabulous.
I think Crabapple have the sweetest cupcakes I’ve ever tasted. This is marvellous if you are a raging sugar-fiend, but I know that not everyone is! I also believe that they have the monopoly on most incredible flavours — I think that the fact that they’ve been doing this for 6 years probably helps them out there. Crabapple make the best-looking cupcakes, too. They use a lot of food colouring, as well as decorating with sugar flowers & other accents. Crabapple Cupcake Bakery is an excellent choice for anyone wanting a pretty little cake.
Pictured: creamcheese chocolate.
Location: #7, 250 Flinders Street, Melbourne. (That’s their official address but they’re actually in Degraves Street.)
Flavours: Red velvet; banana; mint; creamy coconut; dark chocolate; creamcheese chocolate; strawberry; white chocolate.
Price: $3.70 standard, $2.50 miniature. (Discounts available for bulk orders.)
Review: Little Cupcakes’ offerings are on the expensive end of the scale, so you would expect a really supreme flavour sensation. Unfortunately, you are left with very little bang for your buck. Of course, Little Cupcakes are situated in the city & therefore subject to premium rental, but you just don’t get what you pay for. On the plus side, the shop is very cute, with a high table in the middle, & they have a range of tea which is presented in good-lookin’ teapots on wooden trays. It would be a nice place to stop in at the end of a day’s shopping.
I have tried their creamy coconut, creamcheese chocolate & strawberry flavours, all with varying degrees of success. Any of the chocolate-flavoured cakes are just that — flavoured. From the taste, I don’t think they use real chocolate in their mix. It’s more like cocoa, very rich & not very sweet.
However, the icing on their creamcheese chocolate cupcake is totally yummy — vanilla-flavoured & very sweet & thick, sprinkled with chocolate hail. If the actual cake was of a better calibre, this would be a great cupcake. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think I make better cake than this. The strawberry cupcake is pretty good, it tastes quite genuine (rather than that insanely overly-sweet faux-strawberry flavour that you sometimes get), but doesn’t turn my crank too much. I actually got bored halfway through my creamy coconut cupcake (sacrilege!), & didn’t finish it.
Little Cupcakes gives you the least icing of any of the three bakeries, which is sad. The icing is the best bit! I really get the impression that the founder of Little Cupcakes is just trying to capitalise on the cupcake trend, as opposed to doing it based on passion or excitement. That’s just the feeling I get from walking into their shop, though I could be mistaken. Usually, when someone does something because they love it, you can feel that radiating from every corner. That’s not the case here. Everything about it is just okay — there is nothing groundbreaking about their business. Boo!
Pictured: mocha (back) & peanut butter choc (front).
Location: Retail location TBA; pick-up from South Yarra or available by delivery.
Flavours: Cinnamon sugar; passionfruit; chocolate; key lime pie; coconut; chai latte; sweet vanilla; caramel toffee; orange poppy; baci; mint slice; peanut butter choc; cookies & creme; cherry vanilla; white choc pistachio; raspberry white choc; mocha; cosmopolitan. (Other flavours available by special request.)
Price: $3.00 standard, $1.70 miniature. (Minimum order of 12 regular or 24 miniature.)
Review: Sugadeaux is owned by a woman called Jess whose acquaintance I made recently. She is a super-cool & vivacious girl whose passion for cupcakes has lead her to start her own bakery. She is constantly thinking up new flavours & trying different things, which is fantastic & really proves her enthusiasm.
I have personally sampled the mocha & peanut butter choc flavours, as well as a Turkish delight cupcake prototype! When I spoke to Jess, she warned me that her chocolate flavours were intense. “I’m throwing down the chocolatey creamy goodness gauntlet!”, she said. I was happy to take on the challenge, but she wasn’t kidding. The mocha & peanut butter choc cupcakes are a chocolate lover’s dream. They are both rich, moist, dense & fabulous — not to mention incredibly filling. The peanut butter choc cupcakes are my favourite, with a big gooey whorl of sweet peanut butter in the centre. So tasty. Painfully tasty!
Some cupcakes are like an aperitif, while Sugadeaux’s offerings are like a main course. If you can eat more than one in a single sitting, I will shake your hand. You will need to use a plate — they are quite crumbly but it all adds to the experience, you know?! The Turkish delight cupcakes are smaller & hold themselves together better than the others. They are delightfully (ha!) rose-flavoured, the cake is marbled pink & white, & they are sprinkled with edible pink glitter. Swoon!
Sugadeaux’s cupcakes get my strong seal of approval. I love them. When it comes to appearance, they are more modern-looking & less frilly than Crabapple’s offerings, but when it comes down to taste, they are both really excellent & it’s hard to say one is better than the other. You can actually taste the quality of Sugadeaux’s ingredients, while I think Crabapple tends to use so much sugar that you can’t as much. Sugadeaux cupcakes also last for an exceptionally long time. They probably shouldn’t be kept for as long as we had them — which ended up being about a week — but, incredibly, after all this time, they were still deliciously moist & soft. I don’t know how she does it, but wow!
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala 
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This makes me want to bake a batch of cupcakes. Now I’m hungry and my sweet tooth is aching.
Me too. I found an amazing baking supply shop today, full of edible glitter & pretty stuff. So exciting. I am still on a mission to make lavender-flavoured cupcakes.
Yummmm…..let me wipe the drool off my laptop. Ahem. I think I’m with you, Gala – it’s a tie between Crabapple and Sugadeaux! I love Crabapple because their shop in Prahran Market is so pink and cute, plus they’ve got great flavours, but Sugadeaux was literally the richest cupcake I’ve ever tasted! After one of those little bombs, I couldn’t eat my dinner!
Yes, I was a bit disappointed with little cupcakes, too. I was really excited when I saw they were opening, because it’s the most perfect spot for a cupcake shop, and the cakes I’ve tried were quite nice, but nothing amaaaazing. I mean, cake will always be nice (!) but they didn’t knock my socks off. Crabapple Bakery, on the other hand, is divine! The Turkish delight cupcake sounds amazing, by the way, I love Turkish delight and would definitely buy that!!
I also have a cookbook of 100 cupcake recipes, so I’m also slowly working my way through those, lol. Yum!
I. want. cupcakes.
yum! Do you know about this lovely blog http://www.cupcakeblog.com/
?
I don’t see it in your link list and I have made the most divine cupcakes with recipes from there … I even had a ‘Let them eat cupcakes’ party for my birthday this year (http://nicolachampagne.livejournal.com/103651.html) my birthday is Bastille day!
Lavender cupckes would be great.
My friends mum used to always give us lavender lollies after a big night and they make you feel so good.
Yum, I wish I lived there so I could visit those bakeries!! :)
I’ll have to console myself by making my own…
Gala, what else do you like to cook besides cupcakes? I’m in culinary school so food is a major part of my life. I’m always interested in what other people are cooking. I don’t know anything about Australia’s or New Zealand’s regional cuisine, except barbecue and vegemite…
ahh, my favourite subject! i’m super excited to somehow go to all of these places when i’m down in melbourne next week :)
Sarah — Yeah, I had really high hopes for Little Cupcakes as well. I just don’t get a great feeling from the place. :(
nicOla — I had never even seen that, how is that possible?! Soooo cute. Makes me wish I was super cupcake girl!
Ruth — Hee! The only things I make in the kitchen are cupcakes & guacamole. A strange duo, perhaps. I eat out most nights & when I don’t, all I do is heat up soup or make a vegetarian hot dog or something. I am just not that competent in the kitchen!
nico — It’s totally worth a trip out to Crabapple, their shop is adorable. You just catch a tram from Swanston Street, it’s very easy to get to!
i think i just figured out what i will do all day tomorrow: bake cupcakes.
exams are over and it is time for tasty treats!
Im thinking that I must consume some of these on Tuesday…
Yum!
this post has made me want 2 go make some cupcakes
tho i will settle for bought ones hehe
you should fly around the world tasting cupcakes
and become a proffesional cupcake connisuer!!
teehee
xx Emma xx
Oh goodness, I’m drooling over those pictures!
I think I should go check out Crabapple one day soon.
I want some Lavender cupcakes!
Lavender chocolate is also delicious. I tell people this and they look at me weirdly. I think they get ther mental image of me sitting in a garden, chewing on a lavender flower, hee!
I kind of want to make Christmas-themed cupcakes now, somehow..
Can you get good vegan cupcakes in Melbourne?
EmmaRose — Haha, I would be the size of a house! I would need my own plane!
Miri — I loooove lavender fudge SO MUCH!
jojo — I have no idea. I know that there are lots of organic bakeries & the like around, so you would assume so. Maybe someone who reads this will have some idea!
Oh, man! Now I really wish you lived out here in LA so you could inform me about marvelous cupcake places out here :3 now I have to do all the research myself, boo.
Anyway, this was still fun to read, omg, cupcakes are so nice!
hey sweetie!
i’ve seen a pic (which i cant find for the life of me!) of THE MOST INCREDIBLE cupcake wedding cake….SQUEAL!!!!
now i want to get married just so i can have one of my own!
xxx
hey sweetie!
i’ve seen a pic (which i cant find for the life of me!) of THE MOST INCREDIBLE cupcake wedding cake….SQUEAL!!!!
now i want to get married just so i can have one of my own!
xxx
I would recommend the Sugadeaux Cosmopolitan flavour also. The lime cupcake with pink icing…just heavenly! You can also get the crap apple cupcakes direct from their warehouse which is on Burwood Highway in Ferntree Gully for non-city dwellers and Xokolatl chocolate shop is Canterbury’s Mailing Road has them also. They also have a cook book out.
The Kalamunda Markets here in Perth have the best cupcakes I have ever tasted, and they are sinfully cute!
pictures:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1213/744335265_fe5c5d9409.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1251/744334587_18da0b6abc.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1283/745203364_1a93549f79.jpg
Oh my goodness Sugadeaux sounds phenomenal, so creative & original. Cosmopolitan flavour? Edible glitter? Sounds absolutely out of this world!
Why did I move to Perth oh why why why. When I am back home in Melbourne in January I will be hitting Crabapple & Sugadeaux in a bad way. And call you for medical advice when I fall into a cupcake coma!!
they need to start selling vegan cupcakes, arr.
Now you are talking my language. I’m so busy at the moment with my cupcakes I don’t even get a chance to take pics, tonight it was oh so nice spice cupcakes with white chocolate and creamed cheese ginger frosting and bright as bright beetroot cupcakes, sounds strange, but you could almost trick yourself into believeing its healthy. Thanks Gala for putting your health at risk to bring us such an in depth cupcake analysis.
Ok, I’m moving to Melbourne Period.
o my god.
those cupcakes are amazing!
i wish we had a somewhere where they sold cupcakes like that here in oslo…
it’s actually a little dream of mine to someday own a cupcake bakery/café, or at least work in one !
Oh my! Those Crabapple cupcakes are adorable. They look like they should be for display purposes only, not for consuming! Maybe I should open a little cupcake shoppe in England…
What a great run-down of cupcakes! If only I lived in Australia . . . The ones in the top image are the prettiest, but the creamcheese chocolate sounds divine! Yum!
i had a cupcake party and the attendance was mostly male. how funny is that?!—they all acted like their ‘gf’s’ dragged them there hahah
my favorite place to eat cupcakes is in burbank, ca @ YUMMY CUPCAKES.
it’s to die for.
here’s their link: http://www.yummycupcakes.com/
CARROT AND CREAM CHEESE!!! I’m looking for a recipe right now!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥
Oh my god I now feel like cupcakes and sweet baked treats big time!
This town I live in has no bakery!!!!! Maybe I will have to invest in some supplies to make some myself mmmmm
Oh so not fair – it’s only 10am here & I’m craving cupcakes! Gala, you are a very bad person to blog about such tempting treats :-)
There’s a fantastic cupcake bakery for the Sydney readers: http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/2005/11/cupcakes-on-pitt-sydney.html
I go there all the time (I work at David Jones, so it’s a short stroll) and I’ve heard it likened to the Crabapple Bakery in terms of style. But they’re not overly sticky sweet. My favourite would have to be the Jaffa one, with the carrot with cream cheese icing coming a close second. But really, every one I tried, apart from the peppermint iced chocolate one, has been quite good =)
i live in Brisbane – i ordered a whole bunch of cupcakes for my best friends 21st from http://www.cupcakesbyk.com.au/
MY. GOD. they were incredible.
i highly recommend them!
when i went to pick them up, she even invited me in the share a cupcake with her!
oh man, those look lovely but I CAN’T stop reading for the life of me Crabapple as crappable! very disturbing.
Gala, I hope you aren’t straining yourself too hard. You push yourself a lot with these assignments…
cupcaketastic — I would totally have featured you as well if I thought you did cupcakes-for-cash, but you don’t, right?
Megan — Oh wow, thank you for that recipe! I was thinking I would have to get some actual lavender & boil it in milk etc. etc., but gee, using an essential oil is SO much easier! Yay, thank you, you’re a life-saver!
eugeniah — I do the exact same thing! It’s also really easy to typo the name as “Crapabble”. :\ !!!
Jules — Haha. I suffer for my art, truly! xx
Well on my quickly approaching trip to your neck of the woods, I will be spending a day sampling cupcakes on commercial road, maybe a few candy flavoured cocktails will go down well with my newly acquisitioned cupcakes. They look so delicious! i am supposed to be eating well until Christmas, and now my will power is waning!
Ooooh – thanks Gala – just about to order some from Sugadeaux now! Jess from Sugadeaux is allowing me to order two flavours from the same base and the chocolate ones are tempting me (especially after this review!)
if you ever find yourself in the U.S. you MUST try ‘sprinkles’ (assuming you haven’t already). they ALWAYS have a line out the door. sooooo amazing! and they load up the frosting. i had never had ‘red velvet’ before and started with their cupcake, lets just say i ll be having 3 tiers of that cupcake instead of a wedding cake. oh! and they’re expanding ….here’s a link:
http://www.sprinklescupcakes.com/locations.html
Ever since seeing your wonderfully yummy looking cupcakes in previous entries I had to find my own cupcake places.
I live in the Chicago-land area and I didn’t think I’d be able to find fun cuppiecakeness…buuttt
Over at Bake and Destroy (http://nataliecakes.wordpress.com/), Natalie has listed a couple places of numminess (
http://www.thebleedingheartbakery.com/ is just an example). Not only that but she has wonderful recipes of her own and lots of pictures!
Yay!!
OMG – you make me want to move to melbourne just to sample some of these incredible cupcakes! I think I am going to have to make a trip to my local cupcake shop verrrry soon :)
SO JEALOUS of you and the p-b-choc cupcakes! I am not usually a big cake fan, because I like the darker, richer type of treats…but that sounds like my type of cupcake!
I know we’re spoiled here in L.A. with SPRINKLES, DAINTIES and also LARK (right around the corner from my house, yum!) supplying us with cupcakes all over town…but none are as good as Sugadeux sounds!
xx RR
Reading this actually inspired me to go out and get cupcakes today. Cookies and cream from cupcakes on pitt st… yum yum!
Gala I know, but cupcakes for cash would get me into serious do do. So I do cupcakes for love! If anyone wants to set me up in business, please do so.
ohhhhhh…droooool. These look real good. >.< im gona copy down the addresses and visit these shops on my next trip to melbourne!
Thanks Gala.
to add to the addiction? fyi the aromatherapy company has a range of, thats right, cupcake soaps, there are 3 different kinds ( strawberry shortcake [light pink], cookie mints [light mint green] and vanilla buttercream [light yellow]) and each one is shaped like a cupcake with a red cherry ontop – total supercuteness! almost too cute to use – you can get them in a trio box which has super cool packaging to boot + shower gels and writing paper, journals etc – from nz of course ;)
all I can say is:
swoon swoon swoon!!!
yummy yummies!
Oh my golly!
I just found Vegan cupcakes recipes and they are iced with marzipan yarn knitting wool and knitting needles!
http://veganyumyum.com/2007/06/knit-night-cupcakes/
and others like the mojito! and bananasplit. ooohla-licious!
Shes from boston I found out about her through Yen magazine- thanks yen!
She has some aaamazing looking recipes.
Well! I suppose this gives me another to-do when I get around to Melbourne! :] As far as Sugadeaux is concerned, I believe I’ll want to order one of everything and try it for myself!
This post has given me cupcake cravings so bad I may need to bake a batch before bed tonight. Do any of these companies deliver to Scotland, by any chance? ;D
I saw these and thought they just screamed Gala. :D
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?...