Hanging out in the Burbs

May 5, 2012

My schedule this week has been a lil hectic. I found myself spending some extra time in two Houston suburbs. When I knew I would have time to kill there, I immediately looked up cupcake bakeries (this has now become a mild obsession).

Suburb No. 1-Sugar Land: About twenty miles southwest of Houston, it was once the home of sugar plantations and the main sugar refinery of Imperial Sugar. It also houses several cupcake bakeries. I decided to get a cupcake from the Tea Cake Factory, which happened to be conveniently located to where I stopped for lunch. 
located at: 2735 Town Center Blvd North, Sugar Land, Texas
The Tea Cake Factory has a variety of desserts but their main focus seems to be tea cakes and cupcakes. I learned from yelp that a tea cake is a soft cookie topped with icing. I know, I should have ordered a tea cake as well, but I kind of was in a cupcake only mood. Their website boasts that they have 36 flavors of cupcakes so I had high hopes for their cupcakes. 

I decided on a white chocolate macadamia nut cupcake since I've never seen that flavor before. The cupcake was $2.99, which is a newly lowered price from $3.29. They offer about 6 different kinds each day. The cupcake was topped with an abundant amount of white frosting. The cupcake itself smelled just like store-bought frosting out of a can (ie. Pillsbury white frosting). 
It's been awhile, but this cupcake was my first dry one in Texas (excluding the minis from Petite Sweets). And to make matters worse, the frosting was overly sweet and tasted just like store-bought frosting (in the worst way possible). I didn't really taste white chocolate and there was barely macadamia nuts on top of the cupcake. 

I brought the cupcake to bingo night with friends. Twin Sista and another friend took a bite and was as disappointed as me. Erin flat out refused to take a bite stating, "I'm happy with the way my mouth tastes right now," after seeing how unhappy we were with the cupcake. 

Suburb No. 2-The Woodlands: Located 32 miles north of Houston, it is the home to over 90,000 people. It will also be the home of the first Houston Trader Joe's next month. Tonight I found myself nearby The Woodlands top cupcake bakery: Frost Bake Shoppe. I decided on ordering a Margarita cupcake, in honor of Cinco de Mayo this weekend. 
located at: 25 Waterway Ave, Town Center, The Woodlands, Texas
The Frost Bake Shoppe's cupcakes are on the larger side of cupcakes so the higher price seems fitting: $3.25. They have about 8 flavors available each day and have two locations in The Woodlands.

The margarita cupcake was amazingly moist but I didn't quite understand the flavor. I was expecting a lime flavored cupcake, which it was but it wasn't quite as tart as key lime pie. The flavor was subtle and I still can't decide if I liked it. The frosting wasn't very citrusy either. The whole cupcake didn't have me thinking, "Ooo, margarita!" I'll blame my lack of excitement on I-ordered-the-wrong-thing (which happens to me all the time at restaurants). I'm still convinced there's a good cupcake underneath those flavors. I've been skeptical of cocktail-inspired cupcakes. This is my first and my suspicions were valid today. I'm not impressed. 


1 comment

  1. if you are near spring...you gotta try RJ Goodies!

    ReplyDelete