If I were to live my life as a confection I’d definitely choose to be a cupcake. They’re cute, everybody loves them, and because they’re the perfect size you never hear, “Ugh, I really shouldn’t have eaten that. It was just tooooo much!” Unless you’re me, who gluttonously ate three of them the other day. But that’s what happens when:

1) you love cupcakes,
2) you stumble upon a bakery in your new neighborhood that just happens to specialize in cupcakes,
3) you decide your readers need to hear -more than anything else- about said bakery’s fabulous cupcakes.

So I blame my dessert debauchery on Cupcake Royale. It’s simply their fault that they had so many delicious cupcakes from which to choose and make myself happily sick.

The flavors we chose for our dutiful experiment were:

• Lavender: Real lavender buds in vanilla buttercream on vanilla cake,
• Coconut Bunny: Vanilla buttercream topped with coconut on chocolate cake,
• Peppermint Party: Minty green peppermint buttercream on chocolate cake,
• Triple Threat: Chocolate buttercream with dark chocolate bits on chocolate cake,
• A seasonal strawberry buttercream on chocolate cake,
• A specialty Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

Cupcake Royale was voted Seattle’s Best Cupcake 2008 and I gleefully concur. Their three Seattle-area bakeries whip up their diminutive sweeties bright and early each day. As they say, “Shelf life = Today!” Their “Rules of Cupcake Goodness” simply state: no preservatives, no box mixes, use only top-quality ingredients from local or sustainable sources, no shortening, hand frosted, and make them with lots of love.

Just like mom used to make!

I’ll be back soon for another round of “testing.”

Possibly Related Posts:

• The Ultimate Holiday Cookie Contest!
• Pumpkin Pie vs. Pecan Pie
• What to Wear to Your Next Dinner Party
• Macarons are the new cupcakes
• The Importance of Pie Crust