St. Patty's Day Cupcake Roundup

After hitting up Cucina & Co and Alice's Teacup last week, I thought I was off my cupcake kick, at least for a few days--I couldn't never really be off the cupcakes for more than a few days--but Sunday rolled around and an opportunity to test out the cupcake offerings of Ladybird Bakery presented itself and was just too good to pass up.

Full review and more delicious cupcake pics after the



Sunday afternoon Blondie came over for a little Palm Sunday/Pre-St. Patty's day luncheon. Who am I kidding? It was more like dinner by the time everyone assembled and I actually served. But anyway, Blondie has been perfecting her low fat carrot cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, more on that from her later, and was planning on bringing it for dessert. I thought I was set on the treats front. Turned out more guests planned to come than anticipated so at the last minute Blondie and I set out on a treats obtaining mission and decided to hit up Ladybird Bakery in Brooklyn, formerly one of the branches of Two Little Red Hens.

I've often gazed longingly at Ladybird, but I've never sampled any of their goodies. Their cakes are stunning and fun. After the initial, "Mmmm, everything looks so delicious" stupor, Blondie and I decided on one small St. Patrick's Day themed vanilla cake with Buttercream frosting an filling and a selection of cupcakes. And what a selection they had!

After some deliberation we chose the Latte Cupcake, the Marble Cupcake, the St. Patty's Day Sprinkle Cupcake, the Brooklyn Blackout Cupcake and the Emerald Velvet cupcake. Emerald Velvet?! Yes, Emerald Velvet.

Apparently even the Red Velvet cake is Irish on St. Patty's day (or the day before as the case may be).

The Emerald Velvet proved to be the cupcake winner. The cake was moist and delicious, the frosting was sweet yet not over powering and bonus points for making them green yet calling them Emerald.


For me the Brooklyn Blackout cake was a close second. I love chocolate, and while I'm not a total chocoholic, this cupcake was to die for. Moist cake, rich chocolatey filling, with a thick dark chocolate frosting. What's not to love?! Blondie was a little more reserved. She liked the Brooklyn Blackout, but thinks it's a bit much and is only really good for if you are in a super chocolatey mood. I can appreciate that, but it's still a winner in my book.

The St. Patty's Day sprinkle cupcake was darling, but the cake was much more dry than the others and certainly not as tasty.

I really liked the Latte Cupcake and so did my husband, Lawman. The yellow cake was nice and moist and the filling was a rich chocolate with bold coffee accents. So good. Again, Blondie was not quite the fan. She felt the coffee was overpowering. But for someone like me with a latte problem, it would be a perfect treat.

The Marble Cake was eh. Not as good as the others. The cake was a bit dry and the frosting was more greasy than the original batch.

Of all the treats, cupcakes included and Blondie's carrot cake excluded, it was actually the little yellow cake that was the hit of the evening. My fam loved it's subtle sweetness and the moistness of the cake. Not to mention it was just darling to look at. For me the frosting here again was a bit greasy, it reminded me of the traditional Italian whipped cream frosting from my childhood that I grew up hating. Not to say that this little cake was bad, I did enjoy my taste, but if I were to analyze it critically, I'd say taste and texture wise the frosting didn't do it for me.

More cupcakes photos on our flickr. Tomorrow check back for more of a full review of the meal and of Blondie's recent baking adventures.