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!)