The Sweet Smell of Air

What's a girl with loads of discretionary time and a limited "treat" budget to do? Go find some cupcakes.

Armed with only my iphone, the Cupcakes Take the Cake bakery list, my favorite orange backpack (a great present from cousin Anna) and the desire to get out of the apartment since it was a nice day - I felt like a boyscout. (I know the logical comparison should have been girl scout, but in my experience all the girl scouts ever did was paint flowers made out of wood and make pizza. Using maps and my sense of direction - that's a boy scout thing.)

My plan was to head down to the Loop to hit up Sugar Bliss and then back north to the Lincoln Park area for Swirlz cupcakes. Following, the tale of my adventure...

My day actually started at the dermatologist where I found out I have some mild exzema on my right leg. Probably not a crucial plot point, but this is my story and I'll tell it how I'd like. After that I headed to the Red Line to get to the loop. Sugar Bliss had posted excellent directions on their website. I felt confident as I walked towards Wabash. I came to a corner that I thought I was close to it and ran into a Staples (where I went in and bought a new mouse for my laptop. Those little touchpads make me nuts.) I left Staples positive that Sugar Bliss should be right around me, so I walked back up the block. When I got back, I found the street numbers too high. Trouble? Nope - not with iphone on the job. I quickly pull up the website, touch the phone number and dial for directions. I ask where they are - they tell me right next to Staples. Huh. I walk back down the block and nearly miss it again. The only thing Sugar Bliss isn't doing well is signage. Everything else they have a solid handle on.

In my opinion, the best thing about this cupcake bakery is that they offer two sizes of cupcakes - regular and mini. Mini! Perfect!
Because now I can get more than one flavor and not feel like a giant piggy eating more than one cupcake in a sitting. I also got some hot chocolate and pulled up a stool (one of three available along a window counter). I had ordered a (clockwise from left) Red Velvet, chocolate milk chocolate and strawberry dream. They were all delicious. The icing on the Red Velvet was very creamy and well done, the chocolate cake perfect and the strawberry was lovely. What a successful cupcake snack! And surely three little ones only add up to one regular size one, right?

Going, going, gone!

With a general idea of where I was headed next, I hopped on the Brown line north to Fullerton. Swirlz is located next to the DePaul campus in Lincoln Park. It was such a great day out, and with the rest of this week looking rainy, I was so glad I took this little adventure today. I got to the intersection that I thought it should be at - didn't see it. What was up with me not being able to actually see these places??!! It was an intersection with three streets crossing at one point - so I had six spokes - this confused me. No fear, I pull out iphone and use the map feature. It tells me where I am now and where I want to be going (I love this phone!!). Still being moderatly directionally challenged I start walking down Belden in the direction I think I should be, slowly my dot is moving away from the Swirlz dot on my phone. I turn around and walk the other way - warmer, warmer, hot! Swirlz is in front of me. I go in and see at least 12 different flavors of cupcakes staring at me. Sadly, no minis, which means I have to choose one.

(A rule I've learned to adopt through previous experience is that 4 pieces of cake in one day is too many. And even though the others were minis, I was going to need to find one and go with it here.)

I was torn between two, but the decoration on the Vanilla on Chocolate made my decision.
Who doesn't want a happy cupcake? In fact, their tagline is "Cupcakes make people happy." I very nearly bought one of their t-shirts with that logo on it. It's a great motto. And look how cute their logo is! This cupcake had icing like no other. It was not a sugar-y, gritty, heavy icing. It was the texture of whipped cream icing, but not exactly that flavor. The nice guy behind the counter asked how I liked the cupcake, and I asked him about the icing. It is a whipped Italian Buttercream. It had a thin layer of chocolate ganache underneath it and that was a nice balance to the lightness of the vanilla icing. It was different and the more I ate it, the more I loved it. I will be back for sure here.

After this I headed back to my place, via Walgreens to drop the prescription the dermatologist had given me off. I was so excited to tell you about my cupcake adventures. It was such a fun day and thank goodness for iphone. I feel I should give my new favorite companion a name. I mean, if it's going to be this helpful, I feel it deserves a name. Suggestions?

I should also mention that these are not the only Chicago cupcakeries I have been to. I think they may be some of my favorites though. Sweet Mandy B's cupcakes are wonderful with the sweeter, sugary icing. I was underwhelmed by both More and Southport cupcakes. I like Molly's almost more for the atmosphere than the cupcakes. Many of Molly's cupcakes are served with a crater cut out of the center of the cupcake and loaded up with more icing. That's too much icing for me - I'm in it for the cake. Molly's is wonderful though because it's the most comfortable of all of these to sit, enjoy a cupcake and a cappucinno and have a conversation - which I have done more than once. They also have a "sprinkles bar" at Molly's, and that's fun.

The best news is that there is a storefront about two blocks from me with it's windows papered over with large signs that say "Phoebe's Cupcakes coming soon!" Stay tuned!!!