Cupcake Emporium

Well, it only takes about five to six years for a food trend that's hot in the civilized world (you know, New York City, London, Los Angles, hell, even Atlanta), to make it to the Florida Gulf Coast. Cupcakes, apparently, have arrived. Late last fall two cupcake bakeries appeared on the scene within weeks of each other. Now, I've been reading about this trend and wondering, cupcakes? really? who cares? But apparently our little village has enough support to keep two cupcake bakeries in orders. So far.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Swirl

This past Saturday, I visited one, Cupcake Emporium. They had a small shop that seemed largely family run - a plus if you ask me. There were about eight cupcakes available including ones just being frosted that I could see over the counter. 
I purchased a carrot cake, a red velvet, and a chocolate cream cheese swirl (which probably has another name, but that was how it was described). For $8.25, the three seemed like a pretty good deal considering the size and the obvious attention that went into making the cake and the frosting. Ingredients aren't cheap people - who has baked lately and not noticed the prices of butter, cream cheese, etc.? 

Carrot Cake

I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but the chocolate, cream cheese swirled cupcake was really lovely. The chocolate flavor was clear, but not overly done. The cream cheese swirl was a great contrast. The cream cheese frosting was good, but perhaps a bit to sweet for me. The Boy thinks it was too much frosting, but that's hard to imagine. Too much frosting? really? um.  
The carrot cake cupcakes had a subtle spice that wasn't overpowering. It was flavorful, and moist. The cream cheese frosting was a good complement. The best frosting/cake duo according to the Boy. 

Red Velvet

Red velvet cupcakes seem to be everywhere you turn these days. These cupcakes were so beautiful that I hated to have to eat it - though I only had a bit. The Boy seems to be Chief (Cupcake) Eater of late. He thought this was good, but too sweet in total.


One of the things I value most is locally-owned businesses. To me, they deserve our support and we do support them as a family and also in any way that I can through my job. Chains have their place, I suppose, but I'd much prefer local original stores, restaurants, shops, etc. We're really pretty fortunate that we have several locally-owned/operated shops in our part of town and the Cupcake Emporium is one of them - I look forward to going back again.