Cupcake Digest: National German Chocolate Cake Day

Second Edition

German Chocolate Cupcake
from Confections Cupcakery

Here at Cupcake Correspondents we are counting down the days until National German Chocolate Cake Day on June 11th! So give yourself a break from your summer diet and indulge in a German Chocolate Cupcake! Yummy! Now before you break into a sprint to your local cupcakery, we are pleased to give you some calorie free food for thought :)

If the thought of German Chocolate Cake has you conjuring up mental images of Oktoberfest and all things Deutschland, well you would be mistaken... It turns out that German Chocolate Cake is about as American as apple pie! Welche? (What?) Ja! (Yes!) Turns out this luscious concoction of moist chocolate cake and smooth coconut pecan frosting emerged in 1957, after a submission by Mrs. George Clay to The Dallas Morning News. It ain't German it be Texan ya'll! YEEHAW!

This clever housewife used a sweet baking chocolate manufactured by the Walter Baker's & Company, called Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate, to make her famous Sweet German Chocolate Cake. Newspapers around the country quickly started to print Mrs. Clay's recipe as it's popularity began to be as big as the Texas sky.

The German's Sweet Chocolate baking chocolate was the creative brain child of a Baker's & Co. employee named Samuel German. He developed this semi-sweet baking chocolate in 1852 with it's wonderfully sweet and deep chocolate flavor that boast 46% cacao. What makes baking chocolate special is it has been tempered to melt smoothy and evenly while baking, thus creating a flavorsome chocolate taste.

So it your haven't already guessed by now, the namesake for German Chocolate Cake is not the homeland of bockwurst, but a pioneer in baking chocolatier Samuel German. Not many chocolatiers have a renowned cake named in their honor. So hats off to Mr. German and his semi-sweet baking chocolate breakthrough!

We have witnessed great entertainment pairings over time, like: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Lucy and Desi, Thelma and Louise, Tom and Jerry, Pinky and the Brain, and the list goes on... BUT no pairing entertains better than German Chocolate Cake and Coconut Pecan Frosting. YUM!

Coconut Pecan frosting is a cooked frosting that end up like a thick and spreadable caramel with coconut and pecans mixed in. Cooked or boiled frosting is sometimes referred to as poor-man's frosting.  For example, like buttercream frosting, cooked frosting achieves the same smooth texture, but without buying excessive amounts of expensive butter or cream. Mrs. Clay turned this simple inexpensive frosting into a fancy southern classic by adding an exotic ingredient like coconut with traditional southern pecans. Thus creating one of my favorite guilty pleasures... thanks Mrs. Clay!

So make sure you honor National German Chocolate Cake Day on June 11th, and head on down to your local cupcakery and get yourself a German Chocolate Cupcake!

Happy National German Chocolate Cake Day!

From your friends @ Cupcake Correspondents

P.S. Don't forget to Like us on Facebook and wish your friends a Happy German Chocolate Cake Day!

Sweet Reasons Cupcakes: Fredericksburg, VA

Sweet Reasons Cupcakes
Regular: $2.75

It is summer for sure here in Virginia! Even though the weather is hot and humid, to us at Cupcake Correspondents every season is cupcake season! So we ventured out to Fredericksburg in search of Sweet Reasons, and to discover all the buzz surrounding this rising star of the cupcakery world.

The location is a prime spot for any bakery since is it located near a Starbucks :) There is seating inside, and there were even samples of their cheesecake brownies :-p Yum... The inside isn't your typical small town cupcakery, but it is clean and all the cupcakes were displayed.

They only sell gluten free cupcakes on Friday and Saturday, so plan ahead if you require some of those. We decided to try the Velvety Red, Cookies & Cream, Peanut Butter Cup, and the Black & White.

Let's start with the bad news... The Velvety Red is not a fine crumb cake (see Cupcake Digest: Red Velvet for explanation), and the flavor of the cake was slightly bitter. The Velvety Red was moist and there was coco powder in the recipe, but the crumbs were just not fine enough to be "velvet", and the flavor could have been better.The frosting was definitely cream cheese, but there could have been more of it. All the cakes were "deep" and all the cupcakes could have supported more frosting. The cupcake to frosting ratio was off balanced.

The Peanut Butter Cup cupcake was cute but to salty, which is a common sin in most "peanut" themed cupcakes. Although, the peanut butter chocolate chip center was yummy, and again the chocolate cake was moist.

Cookies & Cream Yummy-ness

The Cookies & Cream is my favorite rendition of this flavor combination so far! I normally don't go for a vanilla based cake when I consider something that should be inspirited by an Oreo, because I believe the cake should be chocolate flavored in order to best represent the chocolate cookie portion of an Oreo. However, this cupcake mocked my theory with it's prefect interpretation of Cookies & Cream. The cake was moist and had bits of Oreos running through it, and the frosting tasted just like the inside of an Oreo (always a good thing)! Still could have used more frosting though...

The Black & White was a good cupcake version of their delicious cheesecake brownie. The chocolate brownie cake with it's wonderful chocolate chip cheesecake center was divine, and almost erased the "velvety" red mishap ;)

If you are in Fredericksburg and needed a cupcake fix, well... Sweet Reasons would be a good place to go. Here is our summary...

Black & White and Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Gluten Free: Available (Friday & Saturday only)
Vegan: Not Available
Sugar Free: Not Available

Cupcake Atmosphere: 4 out of 5 (it was nice and clean but not impressive)
Flavor Selection: 3.5 out of 5 (could have been more unique but the flavors were trendy)
Customer Service: 4 out of 5 (acknowledged us and answered our questions)

Overall Quality: 3.5 out of 5 (still disappointed about the red velvet but the Cookies & Cream redeemed them... ALL of the cupcakes required more balance between cake and frosting... more frosting ya'll!)

Cappellino's Crazy Cakes: Charlottesville, VA

Cappellino's Crazy Cakes

Regular: $2.75

Surrounded by history and the blue ridge mountains of Shenandoah, we find the cupcakes of all cupcakes; Cappellino's Crazy Cakes.

We fell in love with this cupcakery because of the first thing that grabbed our eye... The cupcake of the day, "Carrot Cake." Let's just say carrotcake was more than honored. It was like they knew we were coming. But, for the record we did not let this sway our judgement on the cupcakes we were about to try.

We did some research on Crazy Cakes before we came and we were happy to hear (words from their website) that they
"do not use preservatives or additives of any kind." Also another thing was they do not refrigerate their cake, because they found out it dries out the cake and makes the decorations very soft. Something carrotcake and I now find to be the problem with the Cake Love cupcakes. Also they are known for their poundcake cupcakes. So, out we went and drove for an hour plus.

The New Yorker poundcake, Chocolate with buttercream frosting,
Red Velvet, and Carrot Cake

The store was lovely and the staff very happy and smiling. I love happy people who work with sweets. They should be happy, because they make so many people happy with all of their sweet nothings. We saw the owners there and were glad not to find them yelling or walking around with unhappy faces. They clearly love what they do and it shows!

The selection of cupcakes were amazing! The names cute and clever, we wanted them all. The only downside was no gluten-free cupcakes, but they do have a gluten-free chocolate haystacks. They had a sample and it was amazingly good! I'm sure if they did make gluten-free cupcakes they would be amazingly good too. *hint, hint Cappellino's Crazy Cakes.

The New Yorker

Ok, now for the sweet-goodness-nothings of cupcakes that we bought this time around. I mean this time around, because we will be back. We bought four this time: The New Yorker poundcake (and yes I ordered it with the NY accent), Chocolate with buttercream frosting, Red Velvet, and Carrot Cake.

We will spotlight two from this trip, and hope you will make your way to this shop. The New Yorker was light, fluffy, moist, smooth and felt like being on stage on broadway. With all the glamor and joy of having a standing ovation. The blue eatable glitter and chocolate candy on the top was amazingly good. The one thing that both of us really agreed on was the smoothness and lightness of all the frostings. They complimented each cupcake, and didn't over power them or make them feel heavy. Really enjoyed this cupcake!

Red Velvet

We are giving the award of "Best Red Velvet Cupcake," so far, to Cappellino's Crazy Cakes! This was really really amazingly good! It's a true red velvet. When your taste buds say "wow" after the first taste something yummy is happening!

Here's our cupcake score for Cappellino's Crazy Cakes:

Gluten Free: Not available

Inside the Red Velvet goodness

Sugar Free: Not available
Vegan: Not available

Cupcake Atmosphere: 4 out of 5 (simple and to the point)
Flavor Selection: 5 out of 5 ( had a lot to choose from.)
Customer Service: 5 out of 5 (smiled when we came in, happy the whole time, eye contact, and said hello and have a nice day)

Overall Quality: 5+ out of 5 (amazing cupcakes!)