The Cleveland Cupcake Co.

Fresh banana butter cake with milk chocolate chunks, peanut butter cream frosting topped with a chocolate covered pretzel...despite the image of Elvis' swiveling hips popping into my head and Krista singing I ain't nothing but a hound dog...how could you possibly resist something as delicious as a "Silly Monkey" cupcake from The Cleveland Cupcake Co.?

Started up last summer by two Cleveland locals, The Cleveland Cupcake Co. offers an array of simple to exotic cupcakes and other "little nibbles" such as bacon chocolate chip cookies, cheesecake bites, pumpkin blueberry muffins and much more!

So my dilemma started the day before Administrative Professionals Day. What special surpreese should we order to honor our lovely administrative support staff on their special day that can be delivered the next day? Breakfast, flowers, balloons....screw that! This year we are having cupcakes! I've personally been dying to try CCC since I first saw their website featured in the weekly "Cool Cleveland" newsletter. The website by the way is very well put together, easy to navigate and allows you to order hundreds of cupcakes at home or work in a matter of seconds.

Easy right? Now the real decision started, what kind of cupcakes to get. Doesn't seem that hard a choice until you check out their website and see that instead of chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles you can custom order mocha cupcakes with dark ganache icing filled with seasonal berries and topped off with espresso beans! Not in the mood for chocolate, don't worry, you can choose from a multitude of cake flavors such as carrot, red velvet and corn. Ice it off with everything from buttercream to strussle topping. Fill it with figs, lime, jalepeno...the list is truly endless and unique. And finally, top it off with edible flowers, marshmallow, ribbon, cocoa powder or whatever else you could possibly think to place atop a cupcake.

So on the big day the cupcakes arrived right on time and in a fantastic box complete with colorful ribbon...we started off with a dozen custom ordered vanilla bean cake and buttercream icing cupcakes filled with fresh blueberries and blackberries, topped with additional fruit and nuts (I pretended these were a healthy alternative for everyone in our Biggest Loser contest). The buttercream was exactly the way it should be, sweet, sweet and more sweet. The berries were fresh and delicious and the nuts added a great crunch to the moist vanilla bean cake. The staff wasted no time digging in!

Don't worry, the feeding frenzy didn't stop there, I also ordered an other dozen of the "Hazel" cupcakes. The gooey little cupcakes have hazelnut and chocolate candy hidden inside a dark chocolate and caramel cupcake. Although many people commented they couldn't taste the caramel in the batter, this selection definitely satisfied every choco-o-holics sweeth tooth in the building with the gooey icing and crunch candy.

Next on the list to try....blackberry puff pastry tarts, pumpkin cookies, Paradise (grilled pineapple, vanilla bean cake and Hawaii 5-0 decorations) and The Rachel (cornbread, cheddar, bacon and green onion).

Need a sweet treat? www.clevelandcupcakecompany.com.

Smell ya later,

Amy