Post 100: A Quartet of Cupcakes from Wonderland Custom Cakes (LA-SGV: Pasadena)

After finishing up a post on macarons from Old Town Pasadena, I thought it would be fitting to continue posting on sweets from this same neighborhood.  This post features a quartet of cupcakes from Wonderland Custom Cakes.  WCC is one of the newcomers in Old Town Pasadena, an area which has no shortage of cupcakeries and shops that specialize in sweet treats.  However, Wonderland seems more like a seasoned veteran rather than a rookie in the cupcake business.  They are two-time winners of Food Network's batter battle bonanza Cupcake Wars, and it is clear why.  The flavors they feature are distinctly unique, and the taste is neither too sweet nor too greasy.  My cousin Emily brought me some of their champion cupcakes for my birthday recently, and they soon won me over.

The first cupcake I tasted was the chocolate bacon.  Most cupcakeries have thought it quite avant-garde to pair the flavors of bacon and maple.  Wonderland, on the other hand, pairs the flavor of bacon with chocolate instead.  Even better.  The pairing of bacon with chocolate cake tasted less sweet than the typical pairing of bacon with maple syrup frosting.  The pieces of salty, rendered bacon were crispy and provided great crunch against the softness of the cake itself.  In short, it was awesome.

The next cupcake I tried was the biscotti.  I was quite impressed with the idea of a biscotti flavored cake and frosting... the cupcake really did taste like biscotti.  In fact, the cupcakery got the authenticity of the flavors so spot on that the anise seeds are dotted throughout the cake batter.  For those who are not found of licorice flavor, this biscotti cupcake has what seems like a minefield of anise seeds.  Although it brings the cupcake a genuine biscotti taste, the remarkably sparsely added anise seeds gave a startling explosive taste of potent licorice against the background of a mild tasting cake.  For licorice lovers and true biscotti aficionados though, this is the cupcake for you.

After the biscotti cupcake my roommate and I dug into the smores cupcake.  What was really unique about this cupcake was that the frosting was not just marshmallow flavored.  It was actual marshmallow... color, taste, texture and all... white, airy, fluffy, meringue-like, sweet marshmallow.  The center of the cake had a chocolate filling, and the graham cracker was dusted as crumbs.  It was like a childhood campfire in cupcake form.  Oh, what nostalgic genius.

The last of the quartet of cupcakes was the black + white, one of the flavors on the menu of daily produced cupcakes from Wonderland Custom Cakes.  It was a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting complete with little specks of vanilla bean.  The moist chocolate cake and creamy vanilla frosting was a even balance of cocoa sweet and sugar sweet.  It was one of the best standard black + white cupcakes I have ever had. 

A visit to WCC is now in the works after being won over by these cupcakes.  Okay, that is all for now.  Eat more cupcakes.  Sugar high.  Whoo! Until next time let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

ML - 20121202