Bovella's Pastry Shoppe

A new-to-us Italian cookie source in New Jersey:
Bovella's Pastry Shoppe

The first boxful:
raspberry bar, pignole macaroon, walnut macaroon
lemon drop blueberry, lemon drop raspberry, almond S macaroon, almond crescent macaroon
raspberry italian cookie

Five days later, the second boxful:
lemon drop, pignole macaroon, almond S macaroon

And don't forget about the Large Macaroon Almond Horns!

Conclusion of the March Austin Cupcake Orgy

Nothing like a cupcake cliff-hanger...
I last wrote on March with a "to be continued..."
Life (and the SpyGirl fashion blog) took over. Not that I went on any sort of cupcake hiatus! I just haven't had time to write them up.

So, to continue on the cupcakes we ate in Austin...
Our pal Debonee drove down from Dallas, a rather hellish drive in the rain. After a large feast at The Boiling Pot, and bunch of social activities, we returned to our motel, making a stop at Quack's en route. Quack's makes a "Texas sized" lemon meringue cupcake and we wanted to do a lemon taste-testing. I think maybe they were out and we had to return later... because our tray of sweets was very brown in hue:

I don't remember what flavor that cupcake was... peanutbutter? (I don't like peanutbutter but The Enabler does). In the middle was a cake ball of some sort (fantastic!).
The cookies were: molassas, salty oatmeal (perennial fave), and cranberry pecan (new-to-us, great). We sent Debonee into a real sugar coma (she was having palptations!) but she was able to make it home before her sugar crash.

I spent the next couple of days attending TxSC events. The enabler went shopping for baked goods! We had a tower of bakery boxes by the end of our trip:

One of our carry ons was all food!

And the lemon test?

Clockwise from top:
Quack's Lemon Meringue
Sugar Mama's Hemingway
Hey Cupcake's John Lemon
Sugar Mama's Jack's Lemon

Quack's did not disappoint, the Hey Cupcake was good, but up against tough competition. Sugar Mama's came in with the most lemony (Jack's Lemon) and the most bland (Hemingway -- it was supposed to be lime). Funny how a place can get one so right and another so wrong.

Sugar Mama's in Austin makes the BEST Lemon Cupcake

Sugar Mama's, 1905 S 1st St Suite A  Austin, TX 78704, 512-448-3727 is a new favorite! The Enabler found it through an online article in the Austin Chronicle.

oh, the choices!
click on images to see bigger 

The Pinup - choc/vanilla
James Brown - choc/choc -- YEOW!

Jack's Lemon - lemon/lemon
Marylin Monroe - vanilla/vanilla

we opted for lemon flavors,
the cupcake (THE BEST) and
the lemon bar (meh)

we worked on our shopping list...
The Hemingway not available until the next day

1st take home box of many:
Marylin (just OK)
Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Bar (OMG!!!!!!)
JB (fantastic - their best chocolate cupcake)
Iced Molassas (OK)

Odd Couple: choc/salted caramel and vanilla cream (OK)

Coconut Cream Pie -- OMG, the best I've ever had

The enabler returned the next day and got the items on the list... to be continued...

older cupcake sketches

I had been telling everyone that my first cupcake sketch was of the ginormous Quack's Lemon Meringue:

not true! an earlier sketch appeared over on my sketch blog that I'd forgotten about, a Yummy Vanilla/Vanilla:

4/26/09 is the first cupcake sketch

do cupcakes cause insomnia?

"lemon tart" from yummy

they sure do when one has bought 4 and then gone to bed without tasting any!
I had the above with a cup of warm milk and well, I DID eventually fall to sleep.
VERY tasty -- lemon frosting, vanilla cake

field trip to yummy (santa monica)

lemon tart]  [chocolate covered macaroon
strawberry brown sugar]  [vanilla/vanilla

frosted lemon

frosted cupcakery

we weren't even finished with the magnolia vanilla vanillas and the Enabler brought more cupcakes home

oh, what is the sweet torture this time?

lemon/cream cheese][royal white/vanilla buttercream

royal white/coconut vanilla buttercream][royal white/vanilla buttercream

magnolia vs frosted

can't decide! may I have 2 more?

verdicts

vanilla: the magnolia specimen was six days old at this point, too hard to judge which was better. the cake on the frosted was more eggy, the icing more something, not sure what (besides fresher)

coconut: even better (as a vanilla) than vanilla. I don't really like sprinkles -- distracting. as a coconut, not enough coconutness to it.

lemon: nice and lemony. still like quack's (austin) the best

dots: lemon drop

 

4.26: I finally ate this, not waiting to share with the Enabler. (He didn't like the lime so why "waste" this on him?). I liked it -- nice and lemony and tart. MUCH better than the lime one. I would get this and the vanilla again.

I'm liking how the colored pencils are working for my cupcake portraits. Can't use them on shiny box lids, for that pens seem the best. 

dots, pasadena

While walking to the Apple Store in Pasadena, I spied a cupcakerie with a line out the door (auspicious omen). I decided to visit Dots on my way back to the car.

They have an interesting assortment of full-size and mini cakes. I opted for a selection of minis (descriptions from website):
 •coconut lime -- vanilla coconut cake with lime zest and cream cheese frosting loaded with lime and coconut combination (no photo or sketch)

•lemon drop -- tart lemon cake with cream cheese frosting

•vanilla2 -- madascar vanilla cake and vanilla bean buttercream 

as you can see, the box design
does not lend itself to my
"sketching on the lid" concept

Opinions

•coconut lime -- description so enticing, alas, a disappointment. Not limy enough. The Enabler said the frosting "tasted chemical" (cream cheese vs buttercream, methinks).

•lemon -- TBD

•vanilla -- YUM! this one gives sprinkles and yummy a run for the money (imho)

lemon meringue from quack's bakery (austin, tx)

the sketch:
the model:

the link