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| - This cute little walk-up cupcakery is a recent expansion of Let Them Eat Cake (http://www.letthemeatcakeaz.com/), the bakery located next door. The refrigerated display case across from the entrance is full of delicious looking cupcakes. The bright colors and custom painted walls make for a welcoming atmosphere while the checkerboard floor and retro barstools give the cupcakery a 50s feel. I would say that the "Cafe" in the name is a bit of a misnomer -- though there are a couple of tall tables and barstools, it's not exactly a "sit down and sip a hot drink while reading a book" kind of place.
During my visit I got the Orange Whiz (vanilla cake with lemon filling topped with an orange buttercream) and the CCC (lemon cake with raspberry filling topped with a chocolate cream cheese frosting).
Orange Whiz: The cool, refreshing cake has a tangy lemon flavor and the lemon filling is smooth and creamy with a strong lemon flavor that is more bitter than tart. I wouldn't call it bad, but it's not good either -- I'm not a fan of the bitterness. The orange buttercream is light and fluffy with a sweet, buttery flavor. I guess the "orange" was a descriptor of the color, not the flavor. The frosting adds a greasy quality to the already sweet cake, diminishing the cake's quality. There's about four times as much frosting as you would need for the amount of cake, and I think the cupcake's better off just ditching the frosting entirely.
CCC: The lemon cake is neither moist nor dry with a slightly sweet flavor that has a subtle lemon taste. I hate raspberries, but even I have to admit that the raspberry filling is freaking good. It has a nice tart, berry flavor full of crunchy raspberry seeds which means it was made with real fruit. Yay! I've never had chocolate cream cheese frosting before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It turns out that the frosting tastes exactly like regular cream cheese frosting; it's thick and sugary with a sweet cream cheese flavor. Despite the fact that it looks like a chocolate icing, I can't taste any chocolate at all. Weird! The cake is cool, light and refreshing while the frosting is rich and indulgent, which makes for a neat contrast, but like the Orange Whiz I think I'd prefer this cake without the (chocolate?) frosting.
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