CakeSpy Undercover: A Cake Gumshoe's Thoughts on Indulge Cupcakes in Puyallup, WA

CakeSpy Note: This is a guest blog post from Cake Gumshoe Roxanne Cooke. Check out her website here!

Live life one cupcake at a time.
Keep calm and have a cupcake.
Are you checking out my cupcake?

Inside Indulge Cupcakes in Puyallup, you’ll find a variety of cupcake sayings, as well as a variety of cupcake flavors. Indulging here is simple.


The bakers at Indulge have the classics covered: vanilla with chocolate or vanilla buttercream, chocolate with vanilla or chocolate buttercream, and red velvet with vanilla buttercream.

Indulge also offers chocolate chip mint, lemon with lemon cream cheese frosting, cinnamon swirl, caramel macchiato, and orange dreamsicle. The lemon and orange dreamsicle cupcakes have freshly squeezed juice in their batters.

The shop sells a few specialty cupcakes, including carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, coconut with coconut buttercream, cherry chip, and strawberry shortcake.
Regular cupcakes cost $2.80 and specialty cupcakes are $3.75. The rest of the menu is devoted to drinks: espresso, tea, and smoothies. There’s a shelf full of cupcake-themed items, including cards and cupcake-shaped ceramic containers. Indulge also rents its space for events, such as baby showers.

On two separate occasions in June, I visited the downtown Puyallup shop with a friend. On our first visit, it was near closing time, and we ordered the chocolate chip mint and red velvet. Both were a bit dry, but we chalked this up to the late hour. The frosting, while beautifully done, was a bit sugary for our taste buds.

Before leaving, I bought a cherry chip cupcake to go and kept it in my fridge for a few days before tasting it. The cupcake was yellow on the outside and pink on the inside. It was moist and sweet, but not overpowering.

On our second visit, we arrived early in the day and tried the caramel macchiato and carrot cake cupcakes. The caramel macchiato (pictured directly above), featuring a coffee bean on top and caramel syrup swirled over the frosting, had a delicious coffee flavor, but the frosting was still on the too-sweet side. The carrot cake (pictured below), now my favorite at Indulge, was just about perfect. The ratio of cake to frosting was more manageable, the frosting felt smoother and tasted less sugary, and the cake was rich, moist, and flavorful. Plus, it’s just cute!


I’ll definitely be going back to Indulge Cupcakes to try their other cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and to see what other specials they come up with. The people running the shop are always friendly, there’s interesting art on the walls, and their beautiful cupcake creations are fun to try.


Indulge Cupcakes, 207 N. Meridian, Puyallup, 253-904-8234; online at indulgecupcakes.com. For more of Roxanne Cooke's work, check out her website here.

Do you want to be a Cake Gumshoe too? Feel free to submit bakery reviews or great baked good related finds (with pictures, please) to jessieoleson@gmail.com.

Snap, Crackle and Pop Rocks: Explosively Delicious Fourth of July Cookies

Sure, you can make red, white and blue treats for the 4th of July. But how can you really American 'em up for the holiday?

You need to add explosions.


Like a summer blockbuster movie, these cookies are chock full of explosions: they're both infused and garnished liberally with Pop Rocks. This not only makes them crackle like fireworks but also pays homage to that other all-consuming american obsession: truly trashy candy (and I say this in the most loving way possible).

So--are you ready to make your fourth of July extreme?

Here's how you do it.

Pop Rocks Sugar Cookies (based on this recipe from the King Arthur Flour site)

1/2 cup (3 1/4 ounces) butter
2/3 cup (4 3/4 ounces) sugar
1/4 cup (2 ounces) buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, to taste
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar till smooth. Add the buttermilk and vanilla, again beating till well-combined. The mixture may look a bit curdled; that's OK.

Add the nutmeg, flour, baking soda and salt to the wet ingredients, and beat until the mixture forms a cohesive dough.

Divide into three parts, mixing one part with blue food coloring (a lot!), one part with red (also a lot) and leave one part plain. This way, you can have a mix of red, white and blue.

At this point, you'll want to break into those Pop Rocks. I put a nice little handful of red (strawberry) and blue (raspberry) into the corresponding balls of dough (you could do a mix in the white dough).

Drop the dough in round blobs onto a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet. They should be a bit bigger than a ping-pong ball, a bit smaller than a golf ball. Using a cookie scoop (or, if you have one, a small ice cream scoop, one that will hold about 2 level tablespoons of liquid) makes this task extremely simple. Leave about 2 inches between the dough balls, as they'll spread as they bake.

Bake the cookies in a preheated 350°F oven for about 12-14 minutes, or when they are just starting to brown. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack. While you're waiting for them to cool, you'll want to take a small bowl and mix the leftover pop rocks with whatever red, white and blue sprinkles you've got around. Once cool, either top with a generous dollop of frosting (I used cream cheese, below) or put a dollop between two cookies for a sandwich. If you've just frosted the top of the cookie, apply sprinkle mixture to the top or dip it into the bowl if the frosting consistency allows for it; for the sandwiches, you can dip the sides in the bowl so that they pick up the sprinkle mixture.


Cream Cheese Frosting (from Slashfood)

Beat 8 oz. cold cream cheese (not rock solid, but it means you can use it straight out of the refrigerator) with 5 Tbsp. softened butter and 2 tsp. vanilla until combined. Gradually add 2 c. powdered sugar that has been sifted after measuring. Continue to add more sifted powdered sugar until you reach a consistency and sweetness that fits your taste.


Sprinkle mixture

I used two half-pouches of Pop Rocks (what was left after I folded some into the dough) and a mix of some other red, white and blue sprinkles I happened to have around.

Mmm, tastes like America.

Sweet Art: Shaky for Illustration Friday

This week's Illustration Friday theme is Shaky, which got me thinking about the strained relationships between other baked goods and trendy cupcakes. How do other sweets feel about the little cakes' popularity?

Could Cuppie be on shaky ground with these tough cookies?

Update: Reader Response! Meaghan of The Decorated Cookie and Edible Crafts has made a sweet commentary on the issue of cupcakes' popularity! Read about it here.

Cake Poll: Baking Vs. Eating Preferences

It's July, and high time for a sweet giveaway! This time, Carolyn's Kitchen, a very cool company which designs retro-inspired aprons and kitchen accessories, has kindly donated one of their fashionable aqua cupcake aprons (retail value $42!) for the giveaway. I hope I don't need to tell you that this is a totally awesome prize.

How do you put your name in the running? It's easy. Just satisfy my curiosity about sweet preferences. Is what you like to bake the same as what you like to eat? Or are they different? Just answer the following in the comments section below and you'll be entered in the running!

*Please note this giveaway is only open to US Residents. The Cake Poll will close on Monday, July 6 at 12 p.m. PST, and the winner will be contacted for their size/address/info shortly thereafter. If you'd like to shop at Carolyn's Kitchen in the meantime, click here!

• What is your favorite baked good or dessert to make?
  
• What is your favorite baked good or dessert to eat?
  

Good luck!

CAKE POLL UPDATE: WE HAVE A WINNER! Christina of the lovely and amazing blog She Runs, She Eats was chosen at random from over 350 entrants (between emailed responses and comments). Thank you to everyone who entered!

Berry Delicious: Cupcake Royale Debuts the Strawberry 66 for July!

Let's get excited about Cupcake Royale. Why? Well, beyond the obvious (they are a shop that sells cupcakes), here are two very exciting reasons this month:

#1: Their new flavor for July, the Strawberry 66. Why 66? Well, it's made with 66% local ingredients. That is no small feat! So not only is it sweet, it's a great way to support local farmers and vendors. Here's their description:

Sweet and summery strawberry buttercream swirled atop our delicious, NEW More Moisty-er! vanilla buttercake. Made with strawberries from Skagit Sun Farms, eggs and dairy from Meadowsweet, and flour from Shepherd's Grain, this cupcake is 66% Washingtonian! It's like an old-fashioned strawberry shortcake. Only better.

#2: Their long-awaited Capitol Hill location is set to open this month! Also per their newsletter:

You've waited, anticipated, and salivated. Now, the wait is over. The cupcakes are coming to Capitol Hill. We open this month at 1111 E Pike, just in time for Block Party! Watch our blog for updates. And we'll see you on the Hill!

Looks like this summer is going to be totally sweet!

To obtain one of those delicious Strawberry 66 cupcakes, you can visit any of the three (soon to be four!) Cupcake Royale locations all July long; for more information, visit cupcakeroyale.com; for instant updates, follow them on Twitter!