Cupcake Craze

When Magnolia Bakery began serving up cupcakes made from leftover batter in 1996, they probably didn’t realize they’d be starting a passionate, and at times maniacal, love for these miniature goodies in New York. Little did they know that the cupcake craze would travel all the way across the Atlantic to take hold of Cairo with just as much fervor. To help you make informed cupcake decisions, Egypt Today crisscrossed the capital and sampled the ever increasing options. NOLA Cupcakes NOLA has quickly made a name for itself in the market, serving up beautifully decorated and impeccably packaged gourmet cupcakes. What NOLA does best is deconstruct classic tastes and desserts and make them its own, creating the most creative flavors in town. However, the classic flavors leave a little to be desired and the frosting to cake ratio is slightly heavy on the frosting side. This is a double-edged sword as NOLA’s frostings are unequivocally the best we tried due to their variety, flavor and extraordinary ability to never harden. The vanilla cupcake (LE 8.50) is dry with a decent vanilla buttercream frosting being its only saving grace. The carrot cupcake (LE 11) has a great cream cheese frosting, but the cake leaves you wishing they’d gone a little easy on the spice and heavier on the carrot. The red velvet (LE 10.50) is solid in terms of the cream cheese frosting, color and texture, but lacked the twang of buttermilk typically used in red velvet. The chocolate (LE 12) is probably the best of the classic flavors with a good chocolate cake base topped heavily with a swirl of thick ganache, a mixture of chocolate and cream. We recommend the more creative offerings. The candied chestnut cupcake (LE 15) is heaven in cake form with a pillowy chestnut frosting, chunks of chestnuts in the cake and a candied chestnut wedge on top. The tiramisu cupcake (12 LE) is a wink at the Italian classic with a fantastic coffee-soaked vanilla cake and a creamy coffee-sprinkled frosting. The apple (LE 11) and banana (LE 10) cupcakes were some of the best takes on fruit cupcakes we’d ever tasted. The cinnamon-laced cooked apples and smooth cinnamon frosting took this cupcake nod at an apple pie to the next level. The chewy banana cupcake is chock full of fresh banana flavor, which together with the ribbons of butterscotch frosting reminded us of a cross between banana bread and banana cream pie. But perhaps the most interesting cupcake NOLA has to offer is their cookies and cream (LE 13). This cupcake has an entire Oreo at the bottom and is topped with a soft Oreo frosting that together taste exactly like a McFlurry. We tip our hats to NOLA’s creativity and innovation, which might just keep it afloat if cupcake mania ever dies down. Don’t know which to choose? They offer boxes of your choice of nine mini (LE 40 total) cupcakes so you don’t feel too guilty trying everything. NOLA Cupcakes • 4 Brazil St., Zamalek • Tel: +2 (02) 2736-6494, +2 (011) 112-7738 • Delivers to downtown areas only • Open 10am–11pm • www.nolabakery.com Crumbs This small, decked-out-in-pink Zamalek bakery has become a favorite due to its more rustic take on cupcakes. It may not have NOLA’s variety, but Crumbs’ cupcakes (LE 9.50 for regular, LE 3.50 for minis) ooze with homemade charm. The first thing you need to know about Crumbs is that their frosting is extraordinarily sweet and their cakes are surprisingly savory. It sounds strange, but the mix really works. The downside is that their frostings harden over time, so eat up fast! The vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream tasted just like you’d popped it out of your own oven, with the frosting providing a powerful vanilla hit and the cake retaining a crumbly texture. The chocolate cupcake is a bit on the dark side with a dense, deeply chocolatey cake and a sweet chocolate buttercream. Their red velvet is as close to traditional as you’ll get in Cairo, but because it’s light on the sugar, some may be put off by it. Thankfully, the sweet cream cheese frosting pulls it together. The carrot and pumpkin cupcakes excelled, with both carrying just the right amount of spice to complement the cream cheese frostings. The carrot also provided a powerful carrot punch, being packed with carrots deliciously sweetened by the surrounding cake. While we wanted so badly to love the chocolate mint cupcake, it tasted a little toothpastey. The chocolate chip cookie cupcake is a better option with a moist chocolate chip cake and a buttercream frosting topped with a chunk of Crumbs’ chocolate chip cookie. But if you’re looking for a real treat, order a chocolate peanut butter cupcake. The creamy, thick frosting gives way to a delicious chocolate cake and they come together to form the cupcake embodiment of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Crumbs also serves up great whoopie pies (LE 5.50) — two small round cake disks with frosting sandwiched in between — and chocolate chip and ginger cookies (LE 4.50). If you take only one thing away from this article, let it be this: Do not walk out without at least one chewy, spicy ginger cookie. They are some of the best we’ve ever had. Crumbs • 5 Ibn Nabih St., Zamalek • Tel: +2 (02) 2736-6494, +2 (010) 211-5455 • Delivers to downtown areas only • Open 8–12am • www.crumbsegypt.com Sugar ‘n Spice This bakery and bistro was the first free-standing store to sell cupcakes in Cairo. Cupcakes, however, are only one of their many offerings, which include sticky buns, quiche, breads and soups. For the purposes of this review, we tried their vanilla (LE 10), chocolate (LE 10) and red velvet cupcakes (LE 15), which were the only varieties available at the time. Served with a sweet and hardened buttercream frosting, the vanilla and chocolate cupcakes tasted unmistakably like a boxed mix, which might have been ok if they hadn’t been so stale. The red velvet, which should have been called pink velvet due to the lack of dye, was essentially the vanilla  with food coloring added. Sugar ‘n Spice’s saving grace may just be their vegan desserts. However, with no delivery option and subpar cupcakes, they may not be worth it with NOLA and Crumbs just a stone’s throw away. Sugar ‘n Spice • 6 Brazil St., Zamalek • Tel: +2 (02) 2735-6236 • www.snsbistro.com Frostbite It seems like a new Facebook cupcake store opens up every other day. With well over a dozen to choose from, we picked Frostbite for owner Farida El Zayat’s stunning fondant and piping skills and the variety of flavors on offer. If you’re expecting an amateur baker’s cobbled-together attempt at cupcakes, you will be pleasantly surprised. Arriving in a branded box tied together with a satin bow, Frostbite cupcakes are so beautiful you feel guilty eating them. Be forewarned though, they do pack a very sweet punch. The vanilla and fudge cupcake (LE 8) is the best vanilla cupcake we tried. Topped with a heavenly vanilla buttercream and dotted with miniature squares of vanilla fudge, the cake is moist and flavorful and boasts more chunks of fudge. You wouldn’t expect a chocolate buttercream to be as rich as a ganache, but the one topping the chocolate cupcake (LE 8) is just that, making for a deliciously simple treat. Like NOLA’s, the cookies and cream cupcake (LE 8) is baked over an Oreo and topped with an Oreo-flecked frosting. The cookie was soft to bite into, complementing the cupcake well. The cappuccino cupcake (LE 7) knocked our socks off with its creamy coffee frosting that perfectly straddles the bitter/sweet divide. The apple cupcake (LE 8) was full of cooked cinnamon apples and topped with a cinnamon frosting. But the best part was that it had a perfectly shaped fondant apple on top, which was just too adorable to eat. But the lemon cupcake (LE 7) was hands down the winner, with the cake’s subtle tanginess and flecks of lemon zest really complementing the sweet lemon frosting. The downside: You have to drive to Al Rehab City to pick these cupcakes up, but they are definitely worth the trip!