Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my beautiful mother's birthday, and since we live over 1,000 miles apart from each other I figured I would honor it with a cupcake! 

Growing up there was always some type of dessert in my house.  One of the most popular sweet treats was a batch of Snickerdoodle cookies.  So to celebrate her big day I went to one of my favorite cupcakeries - Sweet Mandy B's - and had a Snickerdoodle cupcake!  I was able to drag my dear friend Ms. Katie Brooks along with me.  This was very fitting since she was the one that introduced me to Sweet Mandy B's several months ago.  Sweet Mandy B's is located here in Chicago in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. 

Snickerdoodle

 1) The cake - The base is a cinnamon cake.  The flavor was great, but unfortunately it was slightly dry.  2) icing - AMAZING!  This cupcake had a cinnamon cream cheese icing that was outstanding! 3) presentation - simple.  Just a swirl of icing on top.  I didn't get a to-go box because we ate the cupcakes at the shop 4) creativity - pretty creative - I have yet to see a snickerdoodle cupcake anywhere else.  5) overall happiness - very happy.  I love Sweet Mandy B's, so thanks mom for giving me an excuse to go ;)

Bananas Foster

 Katie also ordered a desert with a twist as she went with a Bananas Foster cupcake!  I am so happy she chose that cupcake because never in a million years would I have walked in and ordered that.  I love bananas, but not as a dessert.  1) the cake - outstanding! It was so moist and so flavorful.  It was like banana bread sans nuts (which I loved because I hate nuts) 2) icing - mmm so good.  It was a caramel icing with caramel drizzled on top and a few white chocolate chips 3) presentation - great.  Same as the snickerdoodle, very simple.  4) creativity - I thought this was very creative.  I have not seen this flavor anywhere else, but I also was never looking for banana.  If I remember correctly I think they actually had 3 different banana cupcakes which is very unusual.  5)overall happiness - well, this was Katie's cupcake not mine, so I had cupcake envy.  Don't get me wrong, mine was great but I think the bananas foster was amazing.  They really did a great job here.  She was incredibly happy with her decision. 

If you live in Chicago and have not been to Sweet Mandy B's, get there immediately!  This is my favorite shop in the city so far.  I have only been to a handful, but I have yet to find a better cupcake.