Friday, February 20, 2009

Occasionally Cake's Cupcakes!

Last weekend I finally caught up with the lovely and talented ladies of Occasionally Cake, Sabrina & Marcia, and had the opportunity to taste their Valentine’s Day Cupcake Box. Where have these girls been all my life!? These bigger than average cupcakes are so delicious and sweet, you won’t know what you’ve been missing until try them!
The first flavor I tried was the Pomegranate Cupcake with Pink Champagne Frosting. This Pink Champagne Cupcake is their signature flavor, and one of their most popular. When I pulled the cupcake from the box, the sweet smell jumped out and had my mouth watering in seconds! The fluffy pink cake was fruity and sweet, and the champagne frosting was the perfect pairing. This is the kind of dessert where you take one bite and think, ohmygosh, and just want to dive in. BUT, I refrained from over indulging – I had 3 more flavors to go!
Next up was their Chocolate Overload Cupcake. The chocolate ganache cake was so rich and moist, and that frosting, wow. It was a light and fluffy swirl of chocolate buttercream atop a layer of dark chocolate ganache. I think the layer of ganache underneath the buttercream adds a level of flavor that helps give this cupcake such great flavor. Chocolate lovers would go nuts for this cupcake!
You might be thinking it couldn’t get much better, but oh, it did! The third cupcake was definitely my favorite. It was a White Orange Sour Cream Cake with Ginger Orange Buttercream. Sometimes people hear Ginger (myself included) and get a little skeptical, but oh no my friend, not here. I forked into the cake by itself first, and to say the least, it was fantastic. The flavorful dense cake has a tart tang to it, a lot like lemon, but the taste is not too strong at all. It’s just right. The frosting had a wonderful tangy kick to it as well. Take a bite of the frosting and cake at once, and Wow – you have one amazing cupcake. I could have probably consumed this whole thing if I didn’t exert a little self control!
The last cupcake of the group was a Fresh Strawberry Cake with Chocolate Buttercream - their Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcake. The thing that made this cupcake good was that it wasn’t one of those overly sweet box mix fruity strawberry flavors – you know the kind? Not at all. This cupcake had a very, very light fruit flavor to it that paired with the chocolate buttercream was something that you could easily eat all of. Not too heavy at all, and doesn’t leave you feeling in sugar shock afterwards.
Another nice thing about the size of these delicious cupcakes is that you can eat half and be completely content. Put the other half in an airtight container and have it later! You’re definitely getting a lot for your money considering they're only $2.75/each (which if you're familiar with the area's cupcake prices, this is on the cheaper end of the spectrum). Cupcakes with special decoration start at $3.50/each.
The ladies are working on getting into their storefront (they have a space! But as you have seen with the delays of other bakery openings – think Hello Cupcake, Nostalgia Cupcakes, etc. – these things take time!) but in the mean time you can place an order by emailing or calling them. Occasionally Cake offers 12 different flavors, with a large number of filling options. I cannot say enough nice things about these girls and their cupcakes – you’ve got to try them!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had the champagne and the chocolate for Valentine's Day(a gift from my daughter)and I couldn't agree more with you this cup cakes were out of this world.I want more!
Susana,Bristow Va

gage said...

Occasionally Cakes made my daughter's First Communion Cake last year. It was absolutely gorgeous AND delicious. We haven't even TALKED about the cookies! Everything they make is MOUTHWATERING!!! Please get that store front open soon!

Danielle said...

I'm happy you ladies agree! I haven't had the chance to try their cookies, but now I really want to! Their decorative cakes look amazing; I'm sure the Communion Cake looked out of this world!

The Tones of the Zarcone's said...

Thank you for taking the time to review and give such a great shout out to Sabrina and Marcia. They work very hard to make sure that their product is not only appealing to the eye, but delicious to eat.

We can only hope that they continue to be successful as they go forward opening their bakery. They are going to make a lot of clients very happy!

Cindy in Frederick, MD