San Antonio Slugger…

Fiesta is currently taking place in San Antonio.  This is an annual spring festival to honor the memory of the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto.  It has evolved into the city's biggest festival with over 100 events spanning 11 days.  From what I hear NIOSA (a night in old San Antonio) is supposed to be one of the best events.  It is a four night block party full of live music, great food, and cocktails.  Unfortunately I wasn't aware of this great party until this week so I did not get to partake in the festivities.  I was however able to taste a couple local cupcakes sporting Fiesta themes!  


While in San Antonio I made a stop at Kate’s Frosting (www.katesfrosting.net).  Again, Texas welcomed me with mini cupcakes!  They had a mini cake for every flavor which I greatly appreciated.  The selection wasn’t huge which is a good thing for me since I am so indecisive.  They of course had all the classics, but I decided to go with 2 of their specialties to keep in the spirit of Fiesta.  The first – MARIACHI – this was a chocolate cake with an orange flavored cream cheese frosting.  The second – THE DUTCHESS – a chocolate cake with Mexican chocolate frosting.  I know that sounds like A LOT of chocolate, but I have my reasons for the selections.  The Mariachi was the cupcake of the day, and I like to try the unique varieties each cupcakery creates.  Plus, I can’t say I have had that combination in the past.  I chose The Dutchess because I had just enjoyed some tex-mex for lunch and thought I would continue the theme with the Mexican chocolate.  The girl behind the counter informed me that it is considered Mexican chocolate because it has cinnamon in it.  That little fact also influenced my Dutchess decision, because in Cincinnati we make our chili the same way.  Skyline Chili has a hint of cinnamon in the mix! 

Yummy!

Kate's Carry Out Bag

MARIACHI  1) the cake – they did it right!  Had a perfect chocolate flavor and great consistency.  2) the icing – surprisingly delicious.  I had no clue what to expect with an orange cream cheese frosting, but the combination was fantastic.  I loved the creamy texture with the light orange taste! 3) presentation – average.  As mentioned before I love that they offer mini versions of their cakes, but the presentation was pretty standard.  Just a swirl of icing on top.  My biggest issue with presentation was that they put the cupcakes in a plain white bag.  Besides being incredibly boring it is not practical.  Icing is not durable, so as you can see in the pictures the bag got the best of my cupcakes before I even had a bite!  I can only assume this was a cost savings initiative, because they offered plain white boxes for $.50 a pop.  Even if I would have gone with the box it wouldn’t have worked with the minis.  If a cupcakery is going to offer mini cupcakes they should also offer appropriate means of transportation.  4) creativity – definitely get some creative points.  I have never had the combination of orange and chocolate before, and I think the two together turned out to be flawless.  I like what they were thinking behind mixing the 2 flavors.  5) overall happiness after indulging – very happy!  All around this was a great little cake.  Moist and flavorful cake combined with just the right amount of icing.  I would absolutely order this one again. 

MARIACHI

THE DUTCHESS 1) the cake – whoa dry.  I could not believe how dry this was after the perfection I just witnessed in the Mariachi!  I only had this one about an hour after the 1^st, and there was no way it could dry up that much.  I went back to the website and it looks like The Dutchess is actually Tuesday’s flavor of the day (I was there on Wednesday).  Now we run into 2 possible issues.  The first could be that they are serving a cupcake that was a day old when I was specifically told all cupcakes are made fresh daily.  The other issue could be that it was just a dry cake.  Either way it’s a sad situation.  2) the icing – now this was tasty.  I absolutely loved the hint of cinnamon mixed in with the chocolate.  Great combo and the buttercream texture was perfect.  Well, it was actually a little hard, but I will say that is my own fault for not eating it right at the time of purchase.  3) presentation – same as above.  Classic cupcake style with a swirl of icing on the cake 4) creativity – so, I personally thought this was decently creative.  I have never had a Mexican chocolate cupcake before, but then again I was basically on the border so this could be as common in San Antonio as Red Velvet is in Chicago.  5) Overall happiness after indulging – happyish.  I was so bummed that it was dry, because this would have been a killer cupcake.  I loved the flavor, but it wasn’t a grand slam in my book.

THE DUTCHESS

I'm new to the whole Twitter thing, but I started to "follow" Kate's Frosting (@katesfrosting) and it appears they will be hosting their First Annual Fiesta Cupcake Crawl!  It is today, so if you are down in San Antonio to enjoy the festivities definitely take part in the cupcake crawl.  The grand prize is a dozen free cupcakes a month for an ENTIRE YEAR!  


On a side note - during a previous trip to San Antonio I took the river tour (don't waste your time or money) so boring! You are better off taking a stroll down the River Walk on your own and seeing all the city has to offer.


xoxo