Friday, September 5, 2008

The Elusive Starbucks Cupcake

Finally! I walked into the Starbucks in the Bethesda Barnes & Noble this afternoon to get my usual Grande Regular Coffee (I'm a simple girl), and alas! Cupcakes! I have been trying to track down Starbucks cupcakes for months now, and had come to the conclusion they were only available in late winter/early spring. I guess not.

However, I'm wondering if these are the same cupcakes I had heard about before...there were only two flavors, Chocolate Fudge and Vanilla Buttercream, and on the little signs was a Cheesecake Factory Logo. While it's news to me that Cheesecake Factory makes cupcakes, I thought the cupcakes I had heard about in the past were Starbucks originals. Interesting...

Anyway, I decided to go with the Chocolate Fudge. These cupcakes are Jumbo size, but still decently priced at $1.95. The frosting was good. It had a firm outer shell, but once you forked it, underneath laid fudgy goodness. The chocolate cake was egh, nothing special. The parts closest to the wrapper were a little dry, but the center was moist. I will say that once I cut it in half an bit into the middle, the combination was pretty good.
That being said though, I probably wouldn't have it again. The frosting was good but the cake missed the mark. And since it was a jumbo cupcake, that's a whole lotta cake. While it's better than your average grocery store cupcake, it's definitley not gourmet. I didn't exactly have high expectations for a Starbucks dessert, but I did have higher expectations for a Cheesecake Factory dessert. Maybe they should just stick to cheesecake...!

4 comments:

koprime said...

The Starbucks inside the Barnes and Noble (in Georgetown, anyway) is a "We Proudly Brew", meaning they serve Starbucks coffee, are trained by Starbucks, but are BN employees, and so they are completely in charge of their own pastry.

Danielle said...

Thanks; that's good to know! I had no idea that was the way it worked.

towwas said...

I was a big fan of the black bottom cupcakes at Starbucks, but they seem to have changed the recipe and renamed them. (Renamed them to describe more accurately what they are, but I don't know, they look less appetizing now.)

Anonymous said...

I know the original post was a while ago but....I live in San Antonio, TX and have tried the vanilla and chocolate cupcakes at one of our Barnes and Noble locations here. The first time I tried the vanilla was in Lubbock, TX, it was good there but nothing outstanding, the cake was a little dry (good enough that I thought I would give it a try in San Antonio). Now, every time I have had them in San Antonio (I am addicted to them, I get one at least once a week) they are amazing, the cake is always moist, the frosting is perfect not hard but not runny. In fact my husband will actually take the frosting off and eat just the cake. I am guessing maybe the location I go to sells them quickly so they stay fresh, and that the first one I tried and perhaps the one you tried were old.