Blu Boy

Blu Boy Chocolate Cafe and Cakery popped up a year or so ago right downtown, next to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. It's a cute little shop with friendly employees and delicious desserts. The location is really great, right in the middle of downtown. Perfect for an after dinner treat on the weekend or a sugary snack during the day.

Blu Boy is one of the few places in Bloomington to find cupcakes. They use a very rich, creamy buttercream which, while delicious, can get a little overwhelming. In the past they swirled the buttercream super-high, but have recently downsized, in my opinion, to a more manageable and proportional amount of frosting. See these cupcakes; Blueberry vs Cinnamon Hazelnut Chocolate. My favorite cupcake ever at Blu Boy was the Banana Chocolate. The cake was a light, moist white cake flavored with banana. And the addition of shaved chocolate to the buttercream was melt-in-your-mouth amazing. I also recently had a Cinnamon Hazelnut Chocolate that was fabulous. I've had a few underwhelming cupcakes at Blu Boy, with dry, crumbly cake, but overall they've been quite good. The flavors rotate so you never know exactly what will be available, usually there are 2-3 options.

Chicago : More Cupcakes Redux

Last October I blogged about Chicago's More Cupcakes, and how I wasn't super impressed. Well, my friend Mariann got me a gift card to More for Christmas, so we decided to give it another go. And I'm glad we did! Not only was I much happier with the cupcakes we tasted this time, but the employees at the storefront seemed a lot friendlier (less pretentious!). The shop's owner, Patty Rothman, was there giving out samples and talking about all the daily flavors. She was super nice, enthusiastic and definitely made the experience that much better.

Chicago : Swirlz

For my last birthday my bff Mariann bought me a gift card for Swirlz Cupcakes in Chicago. We used it back in October and I'm finally blogging about it now. When I first read about Swirlz at Food in Mouth ages ago I got super excited about checking them out. My excitement waned a bit after visiting the super awesome Molly's Cupcakes, I figured Swirlz just wouldn't be able to measure up. Well Swirlz definitely exceeded my expectations. Where Molly's Cupcakes are decadent and rich, cupcakes from Swirlz are delicate and well-balanced.

More Cupcakes : Chicago

Savory cupcakes have been getting a lot of buzz lately and, in Chicago, More Cupcakes has been creating a lot of it. I read tons of articles and reviews of the BLT Cupcake at More. So, of course, we had to try it. Some of the yelp reviewers complained of having to wait a while but I visited (with Mariann and Ginny) early afternoon on a Friday and there was no line whatsoever.

The shop is small and very trendy, the employees wear all black and are kinda pretentious. The cupcakes are on display in a clear wall of shelves as you walk in so you can see what's available. After ogling the beautiful wall of cupcakes, I got a bit disappointed. The two cupcakes Mariann and I were most looking forward to were missing. The Salted Caramel for me and Brie Champagne for Mariann.

Chicago : Chicago Cupcakes

These posts are not in order chronologically, sorry. Technically the first cupcakes we ate were from Chicago Cupcakes. The name of the place might actually just be "Cupcakes," but that's just too confusing. All of the cupcakes we tried there were good. Several of them were fantastic, but overall I think they weren't quite as good as the cupcakes from Molly's Cupcakes. Also, I took these photos on the table at the front of the (tiny) shop and just as I was snapping the last one they told me I couldn't take pictures in there. Luckily I was pretty much finished because, although the to go boxes do a good job of protecting the cupcakes, the frosting definitely wasn't as pretty when we got the them home.

Chicago : Molly's Cupcakes

Last weekend Christine, Mariann, and I were in Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival. Well, Mariann was already there but Christine (plus Ginny and Jocelyn!) and I were just visiting. In between the music we ate some yummy food and LOTS of cupcakes. We loved Molly's Cupcakes so much that we visited twice in one day. The cupcakes are that good. Seriously.