Cupcake capers
For anyone around my vintage (sixty-something) cupcakes used to be patty cakes in an earlier life. That was until some cretin decided the American cupcake sounded better. But isn’t that the norm now? You need to travel out past Mt Isa to hear a fair dinkum Aussie accent nowadays. Anyway, I’m wandering a bit here, let’s get back to the patty cupcakes. (I’ve added some comments of my own).
Have you seen the price they charge for these little cakes? A food critic road tested three of the little devils recently and came up with some mouth-watering facts. Apparently they did the rounds of three Brisbane cake shops (whoops, have you also noticed there are no ’shops’ left anymore, they’re all ’stores’)? Let’s see them try ‘cake store’ or ‘coffee store’ on the general public!
Okay, here we go with the Shingle Inn jam coconut patty cake. This one’s actually called a patty cake, surprise! surprise! Here’s the spiel: This little gem is small in stature but has a lot going on inside it’s frou frou facade (Lord save us). The icing is sugary and topped with toasted coconut, and a bite into the vanilla cake centre reveals a jammy filling, the kind you might see atop a cream bun (or better still a scone with cream). Shingle Inn’s atmosphere coupled with this handmade treat gives a fun, just-been-to-a-bake-sale experience. (And yes, that IS what it said). All they want for this almost orgasmic experience is a measly $3.50. For 6? No, each.
Next in line is Poppy Cakes red velvet cupcake. Get a load of this: For cupcake connoisseurs (they’re good with words, aren’t they) the arrival of Poppy Cakes (the shop) in Brisbane earlier this year was a whole new reason to love. (Heavens above)! The signature red velvet intrigues most with it’s deceiving colour - the flavour is a light chocolate but has a rich buttermilk taste and vanilla butter cream that’s not rot-your-teeth sweet (or much more to the point, does-my-bum-look-big delicious). Perhaps it’s the stylish presentation or the perfect proportions of creamy cupcake to fluffy icing, but these delicious cupcakes have the town talking. (Listen for a moment and you can hear the buzz)! These little devils are a steal at $3.25 a pop. Whew..!
Last but not least (in price, anyway) comes the Nourish vanilla caramel cupcake: The vanilla caramel cupcake is beautifully presented in a takeaway box wrapped with twine (apparently it’s a gift shop store as well). The cupcake itself is a nice light texture and the sugary icing isn’t too sweet. The coffee-caramel flavoured filling as well as the dollop (I love ‘dollop’, don’t you?) on top was a little too much, (I’m not surprised after the other two cakes) but it’s a good size to take home (so is a meat pie and cheaper to boot) or sit in-store and eat with a coffee. (So it is actually a ’store’ but they didn’t mention ‘cake’ and ’store’ together in the one sentence. No, because it would sound bloody stupid, wouldn’t it?) Another bargain at $3.50. That’s only for one.
However, they don’t come close to a certain coffee outlet in Caloundra. How’s this for a good idea to get rid of your stimulus payment? A cup of latte (with a cunning false bottom) costs $4.40 and a patty cupcake runs out at $5.50 per cake. You Brisbanites never had it so good!
