As a cupcake geek, I was pretty excited when I saw the beginning construction for this place earlier this year. So, I take no joy in expressing my disappointment with Cupcakes By Design.
The first time I went in there, I was really surprised by what I saw. For $3.50 per cupcake, I expected a little bit of creativity in the decoration or something. Instead, I found cupcakes that were about the size of what I bake at home with what amounted to a dollop of frosting. Yes, they obviously used a piping tip but there was no sense of fun or creativity in the decoration. And for $3.50, there should be a lot more frosting. I had their banana cupcake which was OK. It was the first time I had a banana cake that wasn't like banana bread but rather cake with some banana flavoring--though I believe they used fresh bananas. The frosting was...meh. Whenever I go to another city, I always stop at a bakery. And it's rare that I've seen any place charge $3.50 for the size that this place offers. I just can't justify it in this case.
I was also a little soured when I stopped in their another time to talk to the owner about an event I was having. I wasn't even asking for any donations--only if they happened to have day-old cupcakes they wanted to get rid of. If not, no big deal. I was going to go on and explain about this community event I was putting on called CupcakeCamp and maybe ask someone to come judge and I even had a little flyer, but the owner totally shut me down before I could go further. She wasn't rude by any means. But she certainly put the curt in courteous. I understand having trepidation with a new business and it's fine to say no to me. But to not even hear me out first, frankly, kind of sucked. And if you're a new business, you'd think one would want to hear about an opportunity to freely promote to a big crowd. I probably won't be swinging by here again until I feel like all bad cupcake karma has been vanquished.