I'm not sure how many cupcake aficionados who read this blog have seen http://mingmakescupcakes.yolasite.com/, but if you haven't already you have to go see it. The same friend that made my birthday cupcakes is trying out a few of Ming's cupcake recipes and made cupcake 32, the graham cupcake with key lime cream cheese frosting. My friend took some liberties with the frosting recipe, incorporating some of the rind in it, as well as making a candied lime rind garnish. It was so delicious and so beautiful, as you can see above. I liked the frosting much more than I liked the graham cupcake, but the flavors worked so well together.

My friends and I have an interesting debate going on (which started at East End Cupcakes one night), as to when is it a cupcake and when has it actually crossed into muffin territory. This cupcake was more of a muffin consistency, which was one of the reasons that I didn't like cake part as much as I had wanted to. I hope that the next test cupcake will be one of the cupcakes from 17-19, because they look amazing. Perhaps even 18 specifically...a sour cream apricot cupcake with a mascarpone frosting and toasted almonds...yes please!!!

Another interesting cupcake tidbit, I am currently watching Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. I love this show! I have always liked the food challenge shows on food network, specifically the ones where they have to build massive cakes or sugar sculptures and then move them to the display table, which resulted in at least one cake or sculpture falling over from the transport. Very sad for the competitors, but very funny for me.

My fantastic mini birthday cupcakes

They were the cutest! Vanilla cake, with strawberry puree in the middle, strawberry frosting and chocolate ganache to top them off. An amazing friend made them for me and had been planning exactly what to make for weeks. They were utterly perfect and delicious.

I apologize for the hiatus. I've been busy enjoying the summer, taking an intensive summer course and minimizing my internet time.

East End Cupcakes

Yesterday was the opening day for East End Cupcakes (formally Buttercup Cupcakes) located at 426 Fore Street. I ordered cupcakes from them for an Oscars party I was attending earlier this year. I decided that pear cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream would be a fantastic choice for such an event.

Those two photos were taken by Joel Desmond of the Maine Effect.

The pear cupcakes had a puree of pear at the bottom and the buttercream was the most amazing "frosting" that I have ever had on a cupcake. It was so good that I would just eat the buttercream off the cupcakes first. I managed to eat at least half of the dozen pear cupcakes that I ordered. It was after doing so and also the fact that I was quite upset once I had consumed the last one, that I realized just how good these cupcakes are. East End Cupcakes specialty flavors are definitely an adults cupcake or specifically aimed for those who have a higher standard in cupcake quality.

Last night at their soft opening, a friend and I shared two of the cupcakes that were available that night. I think that there were five different flavors available last night and the owner mentioned that they will normally have four standard flavors with four specialty flavors also available. We decided on trying the chocolate cupcake with salted caramel buttercream and the chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream.

Chocolate cupcake with salted caramel

Chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream

I was interested in seeing how the normal flavors were going to compare to the impressive pear with vanilla bean buttercream. Both of the chocolate cakes had a rich chocolate flavor, but were slightly dry. I preferred the salted caramel buttercream over the vanilla, which had an overwhelming butter flavor to it with very little vanilla in comparison. Both of the buttercreams were light, much lighter than I remember the vanilla bean buttercream being. I quite frankly prefer the pear cupcakes with the vanilla bean buttercream to these chocolate cupcakes, so I look forward to when they have more of their special flavors available. Nevertheless, the cupcakes were both good last night and well worth the $2.50 we spent for each one.

It will be interesting to see how the space transitions over time, but I thought that the current layout was quite adorable and it had a lot of seating available. I love the idea that there is now a shop in the Old Port that is devoted entirely to cupcakes and that it is right next to Gorgeous Gelato. I will be making frequent visits to East End Cupcakes to continue trying different flavors and highly recommend others to make the trip down to the Old Port to do the same.