The Last Cupcake of 2013

As the new year is approaching, I thought I'd have one last cupcake of 2013 since I can't remember the last time I went cupcake hunting.

Twin Sista and I found ourselves doing some post-Christmas shopping in the burbs and made a pit-stop to a cupcake bakery I've been eyeing for quite some time. I had some preconceived notions about the place but I'll give any cupcake bakery a chance. (What Jimmy Choo has to do with cupcakes, I'll never know...)

located at: 20771 N. Kildeer Road, Kildeer, Illinois

Couture Cupcake Café has over 125 cupcake flavors, which are proudly displayed on five of their menus: Vintage Collection, Modern Collection, Savory Cakes, Man Cakes and Kid Cakes. Several flavors are served daily. I was overwhelmed by the menus and had a hard time navigating them since they weren't organized alphabetically. (Their online menu is organized the same way).

Once I saw that they had a bacon cupcake, I knew I found my pick. Heavenly Swine is from the Man Cupcakes menu and is a buttermilk cake with bacon pieces topped with a maple frosting. Twin Sista ordered their Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcake from their Kids Menu, which is a vanilla cake with a cookie tucked in the center and topped with a vanilla icing. Both specialty cupcakes were $4.99 (by far the most expensive cupcake I've encountered).

Both cupcakes were topped with dry and overly sweet frosting. The cakes were also dry on the outside but once we got into the cupcakes a little more, the texture improved. Maybe they were both victim to the dryness of winter but if you're going to charge $4.99 a cupcake, I'd like a fresh one!

I can't say the bacon cupcake was very manly but the cake itself tasted a bit like a buttermilk doughnut. I kept finding myself avoiding the frosting while trying to eat the cupcake (the frosting was that bad). It paled in comparison to my all-time favorite bacon cupcake from the Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. in Seattle.

I'm convinced that underneath the dryness, there's a slightly better cupcake. These definitely had potential but aren't worth a second trip to the café, especially with the heavy price tag.