Cupcake Confidential - Sprinkles Cupcakes Update
My post about Crave, the new cupcake shop that's opening in Houston prompted revisiting the Sprinkles Cupcake story. We've been hearing for over a year that they are opening in Houston, so where are they?
The Beverly Hills based company has five locations:
Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Phoenix/Scottsdale,
San Francisco/Palo Alto and Dallas (their only Texas store).
Houston is listed on their Web site under the "Coming Soon" section.
A Sprinkles representative emailed me yesterday to tell me:
"Unfortunately our Houston space fell through at the last minute,
but we are actively looking for the perfect location."
I've never had a Sprinkles Cupcake, but I hear they are good.
I love a good cupcake and I'm working on a story about cupcakes in Houston.
Give me a hand. What's your favorite cupcake in Houston?
The Beverly Hills based company has five locations:
Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Phoenix/Scottsdale,
San Francisco/Palo Alto and Dallas (their only Texas store).
Houston is listed on their Web site under the "Coming Soon" section.
A Sprinkles representative emailed me yesterday to tell me:
"Unfortunately our Houston space fell through at the last minute,
but we are actively looking for the perfect location."
I've never had a Sprinkles Cupcake, but I hear they are good.
I love a good cupcake and I'm working on a story about cupcakes in Houston.
Give me a hand. What's your favorite cupcake in Houston?
Cleverley,
You really need to get out there and taste some cupcakes! I consider myself a huge fan and I've tasted the best around the country: Magnolia, Billy's and Crumbs in New York, Perfect Endings in Napa, Kara's in San Francisco, and Suzie's and Sprinkles in LA.
Perfect Endings is easily at the top followed closely by Magnolia. Sprinkles in Beverly Hills is easily at the bottom with nobody else even coming close. In fact, I was in Sprinkles Beverly Hills in October and I ordered their red velvet (which is their best flavor) and after one bite, ... Disgusting!
Please, let's not encourage them to come to Houston just because they're in Star Magazine.
Houston doesn't have a great cupcake yet.
Lindsay F.
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hello cleverley,
i am looking for a cupcake shop in houston.
I want to order cupcakes for my Sex and the City party on May 30, 2008.
Can you give me some suggestions.
thank you
Barbara van Postman
p.s. we know each other from the Houston Fire Museum
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Hey Barb,
Great to hear from you.
The only cupcakes that I have tasted and liked so far enough to recommend are the ones at Hotel ZaZa.
Of great importance to me is that NO SHORTENING BE USED IN THE ICING.
I asked the pastry chef at the ZaZa and their icing is made with pure butter, sugar and flavoring.
And they are great cupcakes.
But beware: It's a common practice in grocery store and cheap bakery cakes to make icing with
shortening and sugar.
Don't eat it.
Check out www.BanTransFats.com or the American Heart Association.
Always ask your baker what their icing is made of.
If she/he says it's "buttercream" still ask exactly what the ingredients are.
I did and my (former) favorite baker told me it was shortening and sugar.
Shortening and sugar???
But they called it buttercream.
Butter and sugar are OK as far as ingredients go and you can make
your own decision whether you want to ingest them or not.
Shortening is not OK and many times we don't know that's what we are really
eating in cake icing because bakers call it "buttercream icing."
YUCK.
It's like eating a spoonful of that toxic goo from the silver can and eating it!
And that's what we are feeding our kids at birthday parties and our guests at weddings!
Truth in food labeling.
This is an issue that I will be addressing in the near future.
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I've had Sprinkles and Magnolia's and several awesome cakes. Houston, sadly, continues to have nothing to compare. I tried Sugarbabies but though they were beautiful, most were dry and bland. And customer service was terrible. My fingers are crossed for Sprinkles.
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I have to agree with Laura F. I had a taste of the "oh so famous" Sprinkles cupcake and was not the least bit impressed. I also had the opportunity to taste Kara's Cupcakes in San Fran and thought they were okay. They were leaning toward a more health conscious desert eater though ... tending to use all natural/light ingredients.
I am, however, very impressed with our very own Sugarbaby's Cupcake Boutique here in Houston. Having tried almost every flavor, I have been pleased with every option. My favorite is Velvet Rouge, the red velvet cupcake. The cream cheese icing is to die for and nothing "fake" about it! They actually use this icing on a few other flavors (banana, carrot cake, Italian cream) and it's by far some of the best I've ever tasted.
I've never been a huge fan of ANY kind of butter cream, simply because I think it's too sweet. BUT I actually like both the vanilla and chocolate butter cream that Sugarbaby's uses. I know they're using REAL butter ... it's obvious! This icing is a perfect amount of "sweet" in combination with any of their cake flavors. Nothing fake about it!
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About Sugarbabies:
You must either work there or know the owner if you believe that they have the best cupcakes in Houston.
Kara's in SF is my fav so far and the rumors of Sprinkles coming to Houston only puts the new cupcake shop, Crave, under some serious pressure to keep up their product.
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I love cupcakes!! Three Brothers and Moeller's are my all time favorites!
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I love cupcakes too, Kim.
Just an FYI, before you buy ask what the ingredients are in their cake frosting and icings.
I've become aware that in the commercial baking industry it's standard to call icings and frostings "buttercream, " but they are really made with shortening, sugar and flavoring.
Bobby Jucker, owner of Three Brothers Bakery, told me several years ago that their icings
are made with shortening and sugar. That's trans fats. He may have changed his
recipes since the trans fat issue has become so hot in the media lately.
California has banned trans fats effective 1/1/2010.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-transfat26-2008jul26,0,371203.story
This is from www.BanTransFat.com:
What is Trans Fat?
Basically, trans fat is made when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil--a process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods containing these fats.
Trans fat can be found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods, and other foods made with or fried in partially hydrogenated oils. Unlike other fats, the majority of trans fat is formed when food manufacturers turn liquid oils into solid fats like shortening and hard margarine. A small amount of trans fat is found naturally, primarily in some animal-based foods.
Trans fat, like saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, raises the LDL cholesterol that increases your risk for CHD. Americans consume on average 4 to 5 times as much saturated fat as trans fat in their diets.
Although saturated fat is the main dietary culprit that raises LDL, trans fat and dietary cholesterol also contribute significantly.
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Hard to imagine cupcakes being popular at a tea shop but they are. The Path of Tea sells cupcakes. Chocolate Chai with chai tea icing, Lemon cupcake filled with fresh lemon curd and lime-ginger tea. All made with butter. Other flavors available and change with the season. The Path of Tea is located on W. Alabama between Kirby and Greenbriar.
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Hi Cleverley ~ You can buy the Sprinkles cupcake mixes at Williams Sonoma. The vanilla and lemon are amazing. Also, check out Crave Cupcakes in Uptown Park...
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Crave is by far the best I have found in Houston.
There is also a place on Westheimer (always forget the name) that is really good as well.
They would get my vote for #2, followed by Sugarbabies.
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