Monday, August 23, 2010 @ 8:57 PM

cupcakes for lunch? don't mind if I do!

When I venture home to Connecticut, I like to stick to tried-and-true standbys when it comes to eating out. I usually dream of restaurants and comfort foods that I can't find in the Philly area. When I was last home, however, my sister mentioned that a new cupcake shop was in town and, if you know me, you know I can't resist the calling of cupcakes.

So, with very little coaxing, I brought along my best friend to try out Mr. D's cupcakes in the center of Wallingford. I have to say, after visiting cupcake places in Philly, this place was HUGE! It not only sells cupcakes, but it has Praline's ice cream, coffee, toys and old fashioned candy. If I were a little kid and my mom took me there, I would be in heaven. Heck, I'm 25 and I was in heaven.






I'll start off simple. When I asked Lynette to accompany me, it was to catch up over coffee. Actually, that's a lie. I wanted chai. I was hesitant to get some at Mr. D's, as I figured their specialty would be cupcakes, but I was pleasantly surprised.


My chai was even more delicious than I had imagined in my head. The temperature was hot enough that I couldn't drink it right away, but it stayed warm almost to the end of the cup. It was frothy and perfectly spiced (I can't stand a chai with a biting spice flavor or one that's too watery and bland). It was an excellent choice for a cold, rainy day.

Now, onto more important matters.

Allow me to introduce you to the stars of this post, my friends the cupcakes.

Lynette and I shared our cupcakes. We started off with the cannoli cupcake: a moist cake with chocolate chips frosted with a traditional cannoli cream. The cake itself played a supporting role to the cannoli cream, which was sweet but slightly textured (thanks of course to ricotta cheese). Overall, this cupcake was a great place to start on our cupcake eating adventure, as it was tasty, but the flavors were not terribly rich or overwhelming.



Next we moved on to carrot cake. For Lynette, this is a litmus test of a baker's skills in the kitchen (this is why we're best friends). I must say that Mr. D's passes with flying colors. The cake was moist and spicy. Though it contained nuts, they were cut on the small side so they didn't distract from the texture of the cake. The cream cheese frosting was not overly sweet (a pet peeve of mine) and balanced out the spice quite nicely.


Next we met the salted caramel chocolate cupcake. (I'll let that sink in for a minute. Go on... )

All set? If you were imagining a decadent, moist yet soft cake with a salty sweet and slightly sticky caramel surprise center, you were pretty darn close to what this cupcake tasted like. The chocolate cupcake alone was delicious (even without the chocolate frosting). Taking a bite of it by itself, it was exactly what I crave when I get a sudden urge to eat a chocolate cupcake. Topped with a light whipped chocolate buttercream, it became even more luxurious and a touch sweeter. Once I got a bite of the caramel, chocolate frosting and the cupcake, however, the whole flavor profile changed. The salty sweet flavor took away from the richness of the cake and balanced out the sweetness of the frosting. It was an outstanding bite.


Last, but certainly not least, we tried the peanut butter cup cupcake. I love peanut butter and chocolate. It is my hands-down go-to flavor combination. I just recently finished off a half gallon of dark chocolate ice cream and every time I sat down with a bowl of it, it was covered in melted peanut butter. This cupcake had amazing flavor. The cupcake was a similar (if not the same) recipe as the salted caramel chocolate cupcake. However, the peanut butter frosting was much thicker than the chocolate buttercream and had a much more prominent flavor. It would have been the winner of the best cupcake had we not had trouble with the texture. The flavor was incredible, but having split the cupcake in half (and unevenly at that), the frosting was a little too heavy for the light, fluffy cake and made the cupcake topple slightly. A small flaw, but nothing that would stop me from ordering one (or a dozen) in the future :)


If you're in central CT and you have a hankering for cupcakes (and I'm not home for the weekend), head on over to Mr. D's in Wallingford for some chai, cupcakes, some rock candy and maybe a jumprope (how else are you going to burn off all those calories?).




Mr. D's
83 N Turnpike Rd.
Wallingford, CT 06492

Labels: CT food, cupcakes

1 Comments:

I am definitely going to go there

By  Megan, at August 25, 2010 at 12:55 PM  

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