Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake and I decided to check out Batch as neither of us had been.

Batch has a cute storefront and inside has a small place for a couple people to sit and the aroma is appetizing. There's chandeliers for sale and behind the glass are the yummy treats.

I chose first to have the Chocolate Dragon Devil's Food cupcake, which quite honestly is one of the best cupcakes I've ever had in my life. The cake was moist but not wet, the frosting was quite creamy and atop were crunchy chocolate bits. Inside was a caramel surprise that complimented everything quite well. It was rich and sweet and right up to my lines of "too rich" and "too sweet" without going over. They nailed it. If I threw a cupcake party in New York, I'd just get a bunch of these. Wow.

One of the others I sampled was their vanilla bean cupcake, which appeared unsuspecting and simple, but this cupcake is a secret sleeper -- a yummy taste of lemon awaits inside.

Service was fantastic too, although it may not be fair to judge as we were treated like rock stars when they quickly realized who my cupcake eating partner was.

We tasted a few other cupcakes as well but I'll letand Rachel do did a more formal review on Cupcakes Take the Cake. I'll update this page when she posts it. In the meantime, g Get your mouth watering with this yummy slideshow too.

I love this place. If I'm in the area before I leave New York I'm getting another cupcake here.

Batch
150 W 10th St
New York, NY 10014
212-929-0250

Rachel Kramer Bussel of Cupcakes Take the Cake is in town this weekend tasting cupcakes as well as doing a couple seminars at Smitten Kitten. I got to introduce her to Sheela Namakkal of Miel y Leche and some of the best cupcakes Minneapolis has to offer.

More cupcake photos and if you're interested in hearing Rachel speak she will be doing a free erotica reading at Smitten Kitten on Sunday at 6:00 - 7:30 P.M.

Can't stop with the cupcakes today. Anna and I decided to play some Scrabble over at Cupcake on University. You can't miss it, they have a big cup on the corner of the building. My camera battery died so I wasn't able to get decent photos, but I enjoyed a S'mores Cupcake which was very tasty and looked fantastic but got sticky marshmallow all over my face. Added to the experience. Anna enjoyed a Chocolate Pistachio which she described as "mainly just a chocolate cupcake with a pistacio frosting." She liked it.

The Scrabble game was rough and hard fought. When I unloaded my Q at the end she was able to finish up using it as well and won. So it goes. By the time we were done the place was empty and they were seemingly ready to close up.

I picked up the Raspberry Lemon cupcake above to enjoy tomorrow. Looks really tasty.

A few more shots of Cupcake are in this Flickr set.

Cupcake
3338 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
612-378-4818

Bo and I decided to run down to the Franklin Street Bakery to pick up a couple Saturday snacks. If you haven't been before, go. They have a ton of bread products, a bunch of other baked goods and of course, cupcakes. I brought home a yummy Chocolate Filled Ganache cupcake that was creamy, moist, rich and overall very, very tasty. Check out their pastry menu (PDF).

Strongly recommended.

Franklin Street Bakery
Humorously at
1020 Franklin Avenue East
Minneapolis, MN 55404
612-879-5730

After seeing a bunch of yummy cupcakes show up almost weekly in Sharyn's Photostream on Flickr I finally broke down and suggested with that whatever this cupcake thing is that they do it at my house sometime! I was naïve -- I should have looked harder and figured out what it's really all about:

She pointed me to Sheela Namakkal of Miel y Leche, who in addition to catering creates the cupcakes for Cupcake Saturday at Letterbox Creative in Uptown. Cupcake Saturday is simply a bunch of yummy cupcakes that Sheela creates, only available at Letterbox Creative starting at noon on Saturdays. You can also follow her blog to find out what kind of cupcakes are coming up next!

Brian and I decided to head down and nab a few. I got a couple of the S'mores and Chocolate Chip Gingerbread. Brian nabbed a Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake.

Yummy!