The Cupcake Gangstas HAS MOVED!!!

Hey guys,
It's been a while. We are no longer feeling blogspot, so we decided to move over to Tumblr: www.cupcakesarenotagame.tumblr.com.  Blogspot's kind of ancient; it's like Myspace. So come on yonder to our new home at Tumblr. New reviews are a comin'!

Cupcake Gangstas,
Raffeal & Toya

Congrats to Cupcake A La Mode (Kansas City) Winners of the Sun's Cupcake Wars! -Raffeal

Lisa Clark

Congrats to Lisa Clark, owner of Cupcake A La Mode (Kansas City, MO/ Leawood, KS) for winning The Sun’s Cupcake Wars! One of my favorite spots in KC! You have to try their Peanut Butter Kiss Cupcake! It is amazing! The peanut butter buttercream is not for kids......LOL! Very smooth and light! I'm dying to try their Stuffed French Toast Cupcake! If you've tried it....let me know if your taste buds were blessed.

I will continue to eat cupcakes for the Lord,  I hope you will do the same!
Ra

Peanut Butter Kiss

Weekend Cupcake Happenings: Cupcake-Palooza Benefiting Books From Birth of Middle Tennessee-Toya

This is going to be one delightful weekend, I must say. Not only am I going to see Michael McDonald play with the Nashville Symphony tomorrow with two of my favorite Michael McDonald fans but prior to that we are going to Cupcake-Palooza! Cupcake-Palooza is an event being held at Fido in Nashville tomorrow evening benefitting "Books from Birth, an organization that aims to  provide a new book to every child in Davidson County by mailing them a book every month from birth to age 5. The cost for this all you can eat event is only $10 for adults, $3 for kids over 5, and free for those under 5. Some of the best and my absolute favorite cupcake places in Nashville will be providing their bite sized treats including The Cupcake Collection, The Painted Cupcake, Cakes by Shara, Cuppy Cakes, and the one I am really looking forward to, Grins Vegetarian Cafe'. I have to see if a vegetarian cupcake can hold its own among the rest. Come out tomorrow night between 5:30 - 8:00 pm for a great cause and some delectable goodies.

Genius. Sheer Genius.

Cupcake Review #1: BabyCakes (Kansas City, MO)- Raffeal

I know, I know... you've been anxiously awaiting my 1st review. I've been so overwhelmed by the many emails and phone calls stressing the demand of my review. Even singer, Janelle Monae tweeted, "Boy, when is my boo, Raffeal gonna write a cupcake review?" Well, really, ...um...it was only one tweet demand from my partner in cupcakes, Toya. She was telling me that I was taking too long (lol). I can dream can't I?

Two weeks ago, I traveled back to my hometown, Kansas City, Mo. I always seem to come home with a hungry belly, ready to destroy all foods that dare to cross my path. My homey, Larry (aka LARS), a fellow "Cupcake Gangsta," knew exactly where to take me. He took me to BabyCakes, located in the historic River Market. We were quickly overtaken by the sweet smell of freshly baked cupcakes and enticed by the sight of delicately, decorated toppings. I promise, we stood there for about 5 minutes just taking it all in.

We were greeted by Audrey, a BabyCakes intern. She studies business administration at Baker University. She was AWESOME! She could sell me anything with that personality. She educated us on the history of BabyCakes and assisted us into making a decision on which cupcakes to try. Obviously, our inner "Fat Kid" was hindering us from making up our minds....we wanted them all. She picked out 6 of her favorite cupcakes for us to try. She's THE BEST! We ate them all...don't judge us!

We tried:
Pineapple/ w. Cream Cheese Buttercream
Banana
Strawberry/ w. Cream Cheese Buttercream
Red Velvet
Carrot Cake
Orange

Pineapple w. Cream Cheese Buttercream

What makes a good cupcake is when the flavors are not just in the icing, but in the cake too. I just hate it when folks call something a Caramel Cupcake when it's only caramel icing on yellow, boring cake. It's not a caramel cupcake, it's a small, boring yellow cake with store bought caramel icing.You can't fool me, Suckah!


I am happy to inform you that Babycakes got it right! Their cakes and toppings share a perfect union of mouth watering flavors. I enjoyed them all; I'm a sucker for buttercream! But hands down, the Pineapple with Cream Cheese Buttercream and the Strawberry with Cream Cheese Buttercream won us over! I found myself licking my fingers...and y'all know that that is a pet peeve of mine. You can absolutely taste the union of flavors (trying to be poetic) in every bite.


Next time you come to Kansas City, after devouring Gates Bar-b-q, I highly recommend you stop by BabyCakes to satisfy that sweet tooth. Tell them that Raffeal and Larry sent you. They probably won't remember who we are....so just smile and nod as if they do remember. (LOL)
Click HERE TO VIEW BABYCAKES SITE

Signed,
Raffeal "Your Cupcake Hero" Sears

Cupcake Review #2: Dulce Desserts- Toya

Umm...well...*sigh*

This is what I have dreaded all along; having to give a negative review. Now let me just say this: Dulce Desserts is not a cupcake specialty shoppe. They make some gorgeous cakes with some delicious sounding flavor combinations. I mean, you read their website and you could just salivate over their variety of cake flavors. With that being said, there is a little more grace for them. Now if they were a cupcake shoppe? Uh uh. No way and no grace extended.

I decided to treat one of my favorite people, Abbie, and some of her friends from Team Betty to some cupcakes. That's Abbie on the far left...

According to Abbie "Team Betty was formed by a group of New Kids on the Block fans wanting to make a difference in the world. They were  formed in memory of Betty Wood, mother of Danny Wood, member of New Kids On The Block. In her memory, Danny created The Betty Wood Breast Cancer Foundation. The foundation has since been rolled in to the Susan G. Komen Foundation." I am so proud of what she and Team Betty Nashville have accomplished as they have raised over $65,000 for breast cancer research. Those girls deserve some cupcakes...just not Dulce cupcakes.

With Abbie's friends Katy and Diane, in town, I thought this would be a perfect time for a cupcake review. I have decided the best way to do this is to buy four and share amongst friends. I bought Red Velvet, Chocolate Chocolate, Vanilla Sprinkle and their Cupcake of the Month, Baja Chocolate. Now prior to meeting Katy and Diane, I didn't know that they were some Cupcake Gangstas as well. I discovered that they were REAL quick however when we started tasting some of these cupcakes. These girls were not playing.

The Red Velvet was not a hit at all. For some reason, it tasted like a spice cake; almost like pumpkin which was rather odd. Being from New Jersey, I had no idea that Red Velvet cake is a southern staple. "You don't mess with a Red Velvet cake below the Mason Dixon line." Diane pointed out, schooling me on the seriousness of a Red Velvet cupcake in the south. "This is too spicy. A Red Velvet cupcake shouldn't taste like pumpkin!"

Okaaaaaaaay... well what about the Chocolate Chocolate cupcake? Abbie thought it tasted like coffee and the icing tasted like store bought cupcake icing. I thought it was a little on the dry side. "It tasted like a Hostess cupcake." I said. "Hostess is better" Katy replied. Moving on...

It seemed that the Vanilla Sprinkle was the best received even though Katy said it tasted like it came out of a box. "I can't bake and I could make this" she responded. The best part of the cupcake to the group seemed to be the sprinkles.  We got to the Baja Chocolate which was a chocolate cupcake with a bit of a hot kick to it. I didn't hate it, per se but someone (I think it was Katy) said that it tasted as if someone accidentally spilled pepper into the Chocolate Chocolate cupcake mix and tried to pass it off as something different. I hate to say it but unfortunately these cupcakes were not a hit for Abbie's visitors and I so wanted them to be.

Like I said, these girls are some Cupcake Gangstas so they had already hit GiGi's up for about a dozen before I arrived. Not happy that I wasted some calories on some cupcakes I didn't particularly care for, they offered me one of their Gigi's cupcakes. I had the Wedding Cake and for once didn't complain about their infamous overwhelming 1:1 frosting to cupcake ratio. I almost felt like I deserved an overload of icing after the cupcakes we just tried. *Sigh* Better luck next week I hope.

If you would like to donate to Team Betty and would like more information, please check out the following websites:

Team Betty Nashville - http://nashville.info-komen.org/goto/TeamBetty

Official Team Betty Websites - http://www.teambetty.org/ and theangelseffect.org

Our First Review! The Painted Cupcake-Toya

No lie, I was sitting at my desk one morning and I asked God to bless me with some joy for the day. Not even ten minutes later, this little bundle of joy from The Painted Cupcake pops up in my office...

The Lord works in mysterious and delicious ways.

A few weeks later I was able to get four more of these super cute cupcakes and share them with some friends who were having me over for a dinner date.

No wonder they are so cute; the owner Tracey Davenport is an artist turned baker who craftily designs a wide variety of cupcakes. (From the top left, Strawberry Fields, The Traditional,  Coconut Standoff &The Bugsy carrot cake). My dinner guests were all too willing to help me with my cupcake "research" as we split the four cupcakes between the four of us. The winning cupcake of the night? The Bugsy carrot cake, hands down. It was moist and not too spicy which for me was a plus. I find that some carrot cupcakes make the mistake of being borderline carrot cake muffins with just too many raisins, pineapples, etc. Carrot cake has NEVER been my flavor of choice but this had great flavor with just the right amount of cream cheese frosting and I'd get it again. The Coconut Standoff coconut cupcake came in second and was also delicious.  I think I stole someone's piece just to umm... "gain more clarity" on my decision.The Strawberry Fields strawberry cupcake was the most aesthetically pleasing to me but then again I am partial to the color pink. It was delicious and had a yummy strawberry center with a very creamy strawberry icing. With my personal favorite type of cupcake being a vanilla cake with vanilla icing, I was a little disappointed that The Traditional  cupcake came in fourth place. We debated whether the Coconut Standoff cupcake was the same cake as The Traditional cupcake and I said it wasn't (according to their website, I was correct). I wasn't crazy about the texture of the cake or the icing, which was somewhat grainy in texture and seemed to be not much more than powdered sugar.

Overall though, I thought the cupcakes were rather good and I look forward to visiting the shop to taste more flavors.  If I worked in downtown Nashville by the Arcade where they are located I would be in a lot of trouble. The Painted Cupcake is open on Tues-Thurs 9-4, Fri 9-5, Sat 10-5. Be sure to stop by and tell them that The Cupcake Gangstas sent you.