Cupcakes: Little pastries with big plans

(l-r)- Pineapple Upside Down Cupcake, Red Velvet Cupcake

I don’t trust cupcakes.  They’ve got a chip on their shoulder because they want to be ‘real’ cakes.  Well I’m on to them, and now you are, too.  Plus, I’m really a pie kind of guy.  Unless you’re talking German chocolate…    but I digress.

Heedless of my feeling towards the little treats I ventured in to the new Mini’s Cupcakes at La Encantada.  My first impression was of the openness of the space.  There are a couple of tables, a bar along one wall, and the counter with its small display of cupcakes.  The colors were pleasant blue & green with natural wood floors & bar (ok – they may not have been natural wood – I just can’t tell sometimes).

The openness & counter

Walking up to the counter I asked the young guy working there what the specialty is.  He told me that it would probably be the red velvet cupcake (probably fightin’ words, eh Red Velvet Cupcakery on University?) with cream cheese frosting, but he was partial to the pineapple upside cake with buttercream.  He also listed the other flavors out right then: coconut rum, double chocolate, carrot cake, strawberry champagne, and maybe one or two more (the full range of flavors is on their website).  I wanted to try the two different types of frostings, so I went with his recommendations.

I’m really not that much into cream cheese, so I wasn’t looking too forward to the red velvet.  The cake itself was moist, not too

The bar at Mini's

crumbly, with a fairly mild chocolate flavor.  The frosting had the expected tang of the cream cheese, but it was mellower than most.  Nonetheless, the frosting kind of overpowered the cake itself, which was too bad.  Also, it looked like something had fallen on that particular cupcake (you can see the indentation going across the frosting).  That bothered me a little since I don’t like the thought of foreign objects touching my food after it’s been prepared, but I ate it up to that point anyway.

The pineapple upside down cupcake really made me happy, though.  It had a little piece of pineapple in the bottom, with a bit of melty brown sugar down

Is it gross to have pictures of half-eaten food? Let's hope not.

there, too.  Again, the texture of the cake was very nice, and so was the buttercream frosting.  It was not overly sweet, but nicely balanced.  I ate most of that one, and I only meant to have half.  I mean really, should one person order two cupcakes and just sit down and eat them?  I think not.

The service was very attentive, especially considering that it’s counter service.  Everyone was more than happy to answer my questions, which wasn’t too surprising considering that I was the only one there for a good portion of my visit.

But here’s the thing that concerns me:  $3.50 seems a bit steep for a cupcake.  I mean, they’re high-quality and baking is intense, but I’m not sure how long the market will bear that.  For their sake I hope that others find that to be a reasonable price point.  If not, I hope they have some flexibility built in.

So have you been to Mini’s?  How about Red Velvet Cupcakery?  What did you have, and what did you think about it?  Where else do you like to get treats around town?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!