All photos courtesy Ryan Davies
Post by resident cupcake expert Sabrina Bowman
Although other cities have already moved on to macarons and whoopee pies, Ottawa has just recently hopped on the cupcake train (though we already have our own cupcake video). The cupcake trend has exploded in Ottawa, with three new cupcakeries opening over the past year. And why not? What’s not to like about moist, flavourful, delicate cake crowned with a royal swirl of sweet frosting?
In order to help our readers navigate the increasingly crowded sea of cupcake providers in Ottawa, Apartment613 spent two hot nights consuming many soft, sweet pillows of awesomeness from six local bakers. We tasted until the room spun and our bodies buzzed with glucose, until questions like “is anyone else having trouble seeing?” echoed in the summer evening. We sacrificed for you, dear readers.
In all, we sampled from five cupcake shops with storefront locations – The Flour Shoppe, Isobel’s Cupcakes and Cookies, Thimblecakes, Cupcake Lounge, and Glitz Cupcakes and Company. We also included Auntie Loo’s, because although it’s a vegan bakery and not a cupcakery, it’s extremely well-known for its cupcakes. As for our method, we purchased two chocolate, two vanilla, and two special-flavoured cupcakes from each, and we graded them out of five in five categories: scent, visual appeal, the taste of the cake, the taste of the icing, and how everything fit together. It was a blind taste test, so we didn’t know whose cupcake we were assessing. And we didn’t sample from online-only cupcakeries (many of whom provide wonderful products!), but we hope to consider evaluating these outlets once our temporary diabetes disappears.
So although we’d normally indulge happily in a tasty treat from any of these shops, we put on our tough critic hats and made some difficult –and sometimes bittersweet – proclamations about Ottawa’s cupcake scene. With fingers licked clean, and sugar hangovers dispersed, here are our results of our first ever Cupcake Challenge.
The Flour Shoppe
617 Bank Street
613-695-3752
Price per cake: $2.50
The Sahara Desert of cakes – gorgeous, but dry, dry, dry!
The Flour Shoppe’s cakes are beautiful to look at, but deadly dry. They broke apart when cut into and required several glasses of milk to finish. That being said, they had a lovely, natural scent, weren’t too sweet, and the clean, simple flavours stood out. This was slightly undermined by overly-generous frosting. The whole package received an ambivalent response from our testers.
Average score (out of five)
Scent: 3.9
Visual appeal: 4.3
Cake: 2.5
Frosting: 3.3
How it all fit together: 3.0
Overall: 3.4
Isobel’s Cupcakes and Cookies
117 Beechwood Avenue
613-742-0777
Price per cake: $2.50
Well-worth the trip to New Edinburgh.
Isobel’s Cupcakes and Cookies claims to be the oldest cupcakery in Ottawa. And we say: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. These cakes were seen by some as plain-looking, but others liked their “middle-class, non-uppity” look. And though they had a slightly artificial scent, their taste was completely natural. The cake was outstanding – buttery, moist and soft, and the frosting nicely-flavored, with special praise given for their delightful cream-cheese frosting. Tasters were especially delighted with the lemon curd filling in one of the specialty cakes and the rich chocolate cake. Isobel’s came close to grabbing the top spot due to her tasty, classic cakes, which shows that perhaps you shouldn’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Average score (out of five)
Scent: 2.7
Visual appeal: 3.6
Cake: 4.4
Frosting: 3.9
How it all fit together: 4.2
Overall:3.8
Thimblecakes
369 Bank Street
613-695-0109
Price per cake: $3.25
This little cupcakery needs to go back to school.
Oh, Thimblecakes. We wanted to like you. We really did. Your cupcakes are children’s bake-sale cute (complete with rainbow sprinkles!) and brightly coloured. But the cakes themselves seemed undercooked in some cases, crusty in others. While the vanilla cupcake was somewhat popular, the judges were less enamoured with the frosting across the board – simply too sweet. And in some cases, it was clear Thimblecakes had used granulated sugar, which provided a gritty texture. The flavour of the cake was mostly bland, and the cake and frosting didn’t work well together for any of the cupcakes we tried. Overall, a disappointment.
Average score (out of five)
Scent: 2.9
Visual appeal: 2.8
Cake: 2.8
Frosting: 2.5
How it all fit together: 2.6
Overall: 2.7
11 Murray Street
613-695-6122
Price per cake: $3.00
A flashy name does not an excellent cupcake make.
These cupcakes sat firmly in the middle of the pack when it came to taster appreciation. Their look is, ironically, the opposite of glitzy – in fact, they resemble bakesale cupcakes. Their cake texture was a bit chalky and underwhelming, though the creamy and dense, overly-generous frosting was well-received. But the whole package was unharmonious and lost points for saving, in the words of one judge, “unacceptable frosting management.” The sparkle of these cupcakes resides in name only.
Average score (out of five)
Scent: 3.8
Visual appeal: 3.6
Cake: 3.1
Frosting: 3.8
How it all fit together: 3.4
Overall: 3.5
Auntie Loo’s
507 Bronson Avenue (also available at various retailers around the city – check website for locations)
613-238-2566
Price per cake: $2.50 (at main location)
Overall Feeling: Vegan delights with a cartoon-like frosting twist.
Auntie Loo’s bakery is known for many treats, but their cupcakes are their most recognizable edible. The sci-fi-inspired cupcakes (complete with bright colours and swirls) look at once cartoonish and plain, but are overall visually pleasing. They were by far the most moist cakes, with a stick-to-the mouth texture which one taster referred to as a “black hole of density” (though that moistness did elicit mixed feelings). The flavours were bold and unique (particularly the strawberry-lemonade specialty cake) and were well-received. Where Auntie Loo’s loses points is for the frosting, which, while nice on the flavour scale, was way too sweet and a little bit granular in texture.
Average score (out of five)
Scent: 3.0
Visual appeal: 3.3
Cake: 4.0
Frosting: 3.4
How it all fit together: 3.8
Overall: 3.5
Cupcake Lounge
6 Byward Market Square
613-862-0926
Price per cake: $3.25
An ethereal vanilla cupcake and lovely look gives the Lounge top spot!
Despite having a name few of us liked, Cupcake Lounge came out as the winner in our challenge. This new shop in the Byward Market creates huge, refined and unique-looking cakes which wouldn’t be out of place on the serving tray of William and Kate. The pillowy and moist cake held together nicely and provided a nice texture. The frosting was stellar, not too sweet, and fully covered the surface of the cake without overwhelming it. In particular, the vanilla cupcake elicited sighs of contentment and exclamations of wonder before being crowned the favorite cupcake of all tasted. Keep up the delicious work, Cupcake Lounge.
Average score (out of five)
Scent: 3.4
Visual appeal: 4.1
Cake: 3.8
Frosting: 4.6
How it all fit together: 4.3
Overall: 4.0
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