Monday, April 27, 2009

Will walk for cupcakes

Oh cupcake, how I love thee. You're so sweet and delicious, I could
just eat you up.

Last Saturday after walking/dodging raindrops at the American Brain Tumor Association 5k with my friends, we went on a mini cupcake crawl around Chicago. We overeagerly planned to walk to our destinations...all 5 of them. Unfortunately, none of us took into account how much our legs/ankles/hip flexors (in my case) would HATE us for all the walking we did (guess we forgot about that 5k earlier in the day). By the time we got to our third stop, we were literally crawling. 

But despite the minor pain and cramping, the cupcakes were AMAZING. And I think the only way to describe my euphoric frosting-topped tour would be through photos. Yikes, I might start drooling a little...

Sidenote: I am going to try my hardest to describe these cupcakes without using my least favorite words (moist, creamy, gooey). Unfortunately, those words often apply in this case. 

Stop 1: Swirlz

A delicious peanut butter crunch cupcake. Yes, the photo is a little off, but I was just so darn excited to eat it, I couldn't waste time with my silly camera. It was SO good. The perfect blend of chocolatey cake and peanut butter frosting. It tasted like a giant Reese's Peanut Butter Cup...only better.

So excited to eat cupcakes. This was the exact moment I wished I could pull a Zack Morris and call a time out to freeze the scene. I would have jumped over the counter and stuffed as many of those cupcakes into my bag as I could. Sometimes I really wish TV "special" effects applied to real life. (Please excuse the hair...it was raining and gross that day)

Stop 2: Sweet Mandy B's

The sun made a brief appearance when we got here. It was a sign that we were about to experience a little piece of cupcake heaven.

A hastily taken photo of the display case. I got one of those white ones—the Snickerdoodle cupcake. The frosting was a bit too...creamy (ugh, I had to say it) for me, but I loved the cake part of it. It was the pinnacle of cinammony deliciousness. 

Stop 3: Molly's Cupcakes

Best. thing. ever. I love sprinkles. I think they present a great philosophy for life: Sometimes all you need is a little color to make life sweeter. 
 
A glamour shot of my mixed berry cupcake. I think I fell in love with it a little bit before I ate it. It was filled with blueberry and raspberry compote and was topped with blueberry frosting. It was amazing. The frosting was so light and whippy (yes, that's a word) and it complemented the cake perfectly. 

From there, we were supposed to go to Southport Grocery and Dinkel's, but we were all way too tired. Plus, we were all spiraling into sugar-induced comas at that point. But it was so worth it. My favorite? Probably Molly's. But Swirlz was a very, very close second. And so was Sweet Mandy B's. I loved them all. 

Before we went home, we made a quick stop at Pocket Puppies, a pet store that specializes in teeny tiny dogs. The dogs were adorable, yet freakishly tiny. I was afraid I was going to break them. 

Cutest. dog. ever. This was a 9-week-old Yorkie. Normally I'm not a fan of pet store puppies (the thought of puppy mills makes me so sad), but we couldn't resist holding some of these little guys. They were so cute. I hope they all get good, loving homes soon.

So then I went home and passed out. I literally took a 3 hour nap, woke up and got ready to go out, found out my plans were cancelled due to exhaustion, and went back to bed. All that walking and sugar killed me a little bit. But I loved every sugar-coated second of it.

Hmm...now I want a cupcake.

6 comments:

j said...

apparently it was cupcake day. i stumbled upon a place called sugar mama's bake shoppe in our downtown area today. never knew the place was there. didn't want to spoil dinner so i split a chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake with my husband. i have a feeling we're goin' to be getting a little fatter everyday now, haha.

all of yours sounded good, but i think the "reeses" one would have been my favorite. me and resees are what some people might consider best friends. (:

Maureen Winston said...

1) I don't think I knew you had a blog! How fun!

2) Your blog made me hungry. We have to find that cupcake place near work. ...although we probably should wait until all the sugar gets out of your bloodstream from the last cupcake run.

Angelique said...

Hey Pam! Thanks for the "sweet" (<---get it? The cupcakes?.. haha) comment :0)

oh and this sounds like the best day ever!!

erin - heart in ireland said...

wow! sounds like a great day! i love cupcakes!

Katelin said...

oh man those all look delicious, i can't wait to have another cupcake tonight, haha.

Bayjb said...

Oh I have to go with you for the next one! I love cupcakes and you guys went to great places. Molly's in my number one fave and Sweet Mandy B's is great too.