Suburban Sweets

My friend Dave caught wind of the blog and declared that the best cupcakes were located in the burbs of Chicago.  Since I rarely make it out of the city he surprised me one day by bringing me a dozen cupcakes.  Clearly he wanted to make sure I had enough variety to give a fair review!  Luckily the ones on the right are doubled so I technically only sampled 9.  I will also preface this by saying I did not eat 9 cupcakes in 1 sitting!  I tried a small portion of each over 2 days. 

Don't they look amazing?!

The cupcakes came from Baker Boys (bakerboysbakery.com) in Highland Park.  I love that it is run by 2 dudes because most bakeries have a lady behind the mixer. 

Peanut Butter Cup

My first choice was Peanut Butter Cup - a chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream frosting.  Cake - good flavor and very moist. Frosting - couldn't taste the peanut butter at all.  If I was blindfolded you could have easily told me that this was just a chocolate cake with plain frosting.  As you can see it was then topped with a peanut butter cup, but I clearly know what that tastes like so I left that part for Dave. 

Banana Chocolate Chip

I then moved on to the banana chocolate chip, which surprisingly has been a favorite flavor over the last couple months.  This was a banana cake with chocolate chips topped with a vanilla/chocolate swirl butter cream frosting.  Cake - AMAZING.  the flavor was great and I loved the chocolate chip banana combo.  Frosting - delish.  They have a great buttercream recipe and I love the vanilla chocolate twist combined with the banana.  I am so glad this one was delicious, because I was slightly nervous after the peanut butter cup. 

Cookies N Cream

Next was Cookies N Cream.  Chocolate cake, filled with pastry cream, topped with a vanilla buttercream frosting and crushed cookies.  Cake - good.  Same as the peanut butter, so not much surprise there.  The custard filling was just ok - not my favorite.  I loved the vanilla buttercream and cookie topping.  Overall I liked it but could have done w/o the filling. 

Peach Cobbler

I followed that with the peach cobbler.  Yellow cake, peaches in the middle, vanilla buttercream, cinnamon crumble topping, and a little dulce de leche on top.  Cake - perfect.  This was a delicious yellow cake and I LOVED the peaches in the center.  Icing - the buttercream combined with the cinnamon crumbles and dulce de leche was outstanding.  The overall combination of this cupcake was perfect.  I had a very difficult time not finishing it off.  

Lemon Meringue

Staying within the fruit category I moved over to the Lemon Meringue.  A vanilla cake filled with lemon curd and topped with a meringue frosting.  Cake - so, for some reason I didn't love the vanilla cake on this one.  I am assuming it is the same recipe used for the Peach Cobbler, but it wasn't as good.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't terrible - just not great.  I enjoyed the lemon curd filling.  It had a good flavor and pulled the whole cake together.  Icing - super fluffy.  I personally think meringues are quite tricky, but this was done right.  Overall I liked all of the flavors mixed together.

Red Velvet

I then moved over to the classics starting with Red Velvet.  It had been awhile since I had a red velvet so I was pretty excited.  Cake - spot on.  The consistency and flavor were great.  People tend to add too much cocoa to red velvet, but these guys know what they are doing.  The cream cheese icing was also really good.  It was the perfect thickness to top this cake. 

Chocolate Chocolate

Cake - had a good flavor, but was slightly dry.  I did have this one on the second day, so I bet it would have been a little better if I tried it right away.  Icing - a little too rich for my personal preference.  This statement might come as a shock, but I am not a huge chocolate lover.  I really don't like dark chocolate and I only like milk chocolate in small doses.  So I would never personally order a choc/choc cupcake but I am glad I had the opportunity to try it.  Now, someone like my father who could eat straight chocolate all day every day would probably love this one. 

Vanilla Vanilla

Last but not least - the vanilla/vanilla.  Cake - Again, it was dry, but that is my fault for the delay in tasting.  It did have a nice buttery flavor that I enjoyed.  Icing - The vanilla buttercream was so good.  It wasn't too sweet which is important when pairing it with the vanilla cake. 

If you are still paying attention that was only 8 cupcakes.  There was also a turtle cupcake in the box, but I hate nuts.  I temporarily let go of my inner selfishness and let my friend Matt have the turtle.  His thoughts "half cupcake, half gooey goodness in the middle".  I will take that as a positive review. 

On a side note I should mention that Dave was intently watching as I took each bite.  I felt as if I was under so much pressure to love each one.  Overall I really enjoyed Baker Boys (good thing or he might have slapped me)!  After looking at the website I am bummed I did not get to try some of their other specialty flavors (apple pie, blueberry pancake, peanut butter & jelly, and pumpkin pie).  Unfortunately, I don't make it out to the suburbs often, so Dave when you read this please bring a second batch (wink). 

If you are in the Chicago area I would absolutely recommend a trip out to Highland Park for these cupcakes.  My top 3 picks are the Peach Cobbler, Banana Chocolate Chip, and Red Velvet.