Last year, we watched the Barefoot Contessa make chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing and thought it was a brilliant combination. We actually made them for dessert in our first post (scroll down) on the site. They were a big hit, so we made them again this past Sunday.

Although we loved Ina's union of chocolate and peanut butter, we thought her cupcake recipe had too many ingredients. I'm sure the cake part tastes great, but we would have bought sour cream and buttermilk, used half, and eventually thrown the rest away.

Instead, we turned to one of our favorite chocolate cupcake recipes by Gale Gand (BTW, her fudgy frosting is killer). We love the simplicity of the cupcake batter... no eggs, no butter, no mixer required.

After last month's NYC cupcake tour that put us in a cupcake coma, we decided to replicate the fun and go on a cupcake tasting tour in San Francisco. The cupcake scene in San Francisco is still in its infancy compared to NYC. There aren't many pure cupcakeries in the Bay Area, but the number of shops is slowly growing. After a little research, the cupcake shops on the tour were...

1. Miette Patisserie
2. Citizen Cupcake
3. That Takes the Cake
4. Kara's Cupcakes
5. Chestnut Bakery

To burn off as many calories as possible between our cupcake eating, I made the event a walking tour and chose the shops and route accordingly. The plan was to start at the Ferry Building with Miette and work our way across the city to the Marina with a lunch stop in North Beach.

We met Jane at 9:30 am at the Ferry Building for breakfast. The thought of starting the day with a cupcake wasn't appetizing, so we needed to get something in our stomachs. Hungry Bear and I chose a tasty egg, bacon and cheese breakfast sandwich from the Golden Gate Meat Company, while Jane minimized her carb intake by getting sausage on a stick.

With breakfast out of the way, it was time to start sampling cupcakes. Jane's friends, Isaac and Liz, met us at 10:00 am at Miette Cakes. Hungry Bear handed out the scorecards for ratings/tasting notes and the cupcake tasting commenced. Similar to our NYC tour, the plan was to use the chocolate chocolate cupcake as the benchmark at each shop.

Miette Patisserie

Much to our surprise, there wasn't a double chocolate cupcake available. The closest one was chocolate with coffee buttercream frosting. In total, we sampled four cupcakes at Miette. The highlight of the four was the Old-Fashioned — a chocolate cupcake with Italian meringue topped with a candy coated peanut.

Everyone enjoyed this cupcake and thought it had a great chocolate flavor. Jane and Liz declared it the best overall cupcake on the tour. They both rated it highest in terms of appearance, cake/frosting texture and flavor. The other Miette cupcakes were good, but no comparison to the Old-Fashioned.

Citizen Cupcake

The next stop was the highly anticipated Citizen Cupcake, the sibling of Elizabeth Falkner's Citizen Cake, at the top of the Virgin Megastore in Union Square. From the moment we stepped into the cafe, it was a big disappointment. It should be renamed Citizen Cafe, because the emphasis is on being a cafe and bar, not a cupcake shop.

To make things worse, the cupcakes were sub par. Once again, there was no double chocolate cupcake. The buttercream frosting on the cupcakes we tasted were entirely too sweet. And the cake was dry and too crumbly.

During our visit, we learned that the cupcakes are made at Citizen Cake and sent to this location. I would recommend just going to Citizen Cake, where you can also select from other pastries and desserts. With the name Citizen Cupcake, I was expecting a place that celebrated the cupcake, but sadly there was no cupcake love.

Lunch Break

After two cupcake stops, we walked towards North Beach and grabbed a savory snack. Hungry Bear, Jane and I shared some Vietnamese banh bao — steamed buns filled with pork, vermicelli, hard-boiled egg and Chinese sausage — from Little Paris. Liz and Isaac grabbed sandwiches at Molinari Deli. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we enjoyed our lunch in Washington Square Park.

That Takes the Cake

After lunch, we strolled over to That Takes the Cake in Cow Hollow. The shop has only been open for three weeks. It's a tiny store with a nice layout and it was all about the cupcakes! The only downside is the lack of inside seating. However, it was a nice day, so we took advantage of their two tables outside, where our friend, Brennan, was gracious enough to finally join us.

That Takes the Cake currently has thirteen flavors and serves eight flavors daily. Unfortunately, they do not offer the Double Trouble — chocolate buttermilk cake topped with chocolate buttercream frosting — on Saturdays. We did get the following...

• Gentlemen Prefer Reds - traditional southern red velvet cake topped with cream cheese frosting.
• Funky Monkey - moist banana cake with chocolate and pecan pieces topped with cream cheese frosting.
• Seasonal - strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting.
• Bunny Bites - moist carrot cake with pecans and pineapple topped with cream cheese frosting.
• Sleepless in SF - chocolate buttermilk cake topped with coffee buttercream.

The playful cupcake names are quite amusing. Isaac was thoroughly impressed with their cake/frosting combinations and relished each cupcake. We all agreed they did a good job with the flavor profiles and with the cake/frosting textures. I really liked the chunks of chocolate and pecans in the Funky Monkey and the pecans and pineapples bits in the Bunny Bites. The chunks added nice textures to the normal cupcake crumb.

Kara's Cupcakes

Next we took a short walk to Kara's Cupcakes in the Marina. The shop is very chic and sleek compared to the other stores. It was also the busiest cupcakery that we visited all day. Kara's finally had the chocolate chocolate cupcake we were hoping to taste. The cupcakes we had were...

• Chocolate Velvet - chocolate cupcake with a velvety bittersweet chocolate buttercream.
• Fleur De Sel - chocolate cupcake with caramel filling, ganache frosting and fleur de sel.
• Coconut - vanilla cupcake with a coconut cream cheese frosting.
• Kara's Karrot - moist carrot cupcake with a silky soft cream cheese frosting.

Hungry Bear and I were extremely happy to get our double chocolate fix and the Fleur De Sel cupcake blew us away. The ganache was rich with a strong chocolate taste. The caramel filling was an added bonus and didn't overpower the chocolate goodness. Finally, the salty crunch of the fleur de sel was a nice contrast to the sweet caramel. The other cupcakes also had moist textures and good flavors, but it was hard to compete with the Fleur De Sel cupcake.

Chestnut Bakery

The final stop on the tour, the Chestnut Bakery, was only a block away. At this point, we were on the cupcake edge and were ready to finish the tour. The cupcakes at Chestnut Bakery were a little odd. The cake had a super airy, spongy texture. The frosting also had a strange consistency. We barely touched the cupcakes and left unimpressed by them.

Ratings

After reviewing our tasting notes, and with much contemplation, I present the shop rankings from our 2007 San Francisco Cupcake Tasting Tour.

Cupcake Tour Rankings (1 = Best, 5 = Least Liked)

Similar to NYC, there wasn't a consensus winner. However, the clear losers on the tour were Citizen Cupcake and Chestnut Bakery, as they were rated in the bottom two by everyone. The cupcakes at both shops had major flaws and were quite disappointing. Neither shop is in the same league as the other three cupcakeries on the tour.

It is interesting to note that Liz and Jane rated Miette the best due to the Old-Fashioned cupcake. And Hungry Bear and I rated Kara's the highest in large part due to the Fleur De Sel cupcake. These two cupcakes were the highest regarded cupcakes by the group. Both cupcakes were unique and memorable.

I was completely torn between Kara's Cupcakes and That Takes the Cake, but ultimately my chocolate bias won out and I gave the nod to Kara's because of the Fleur De Sel. With that said, I think That Takes the Cake has the most original cupcakes in terms of flavor combinations and cake textures. I will have to go back another day and try the Double Trouble chocolate cupcake and see if it will change my ranking.

Summary

It was an epic day of cupcake tasting. We learned from our NYC experience and made our cupcake tour an all day activity (10:00 am to 4:30 pm). With the slower pace and planned savory lunch stop, it was a relaxing day of cupcake eating and exploration of the northeastern part of San Francisco.

We enjoyed many delicious cupcakes during our tour. After five shops and twenty-one shared cupcakes, we all said, "No mas!" As we were leaving the last shop, we were feeling a little lethargic, but grateful that we didn't completely over-indulge... no cupcake coma after this tour!

In the end, we had a very fun day hanging out with old and new friends. And we found three cupcake shops — Miette Cakes, That Takes the Cake and Kara's Cupcakes — that could easily satisfy a cupcake craving. More importantly, we discovered three places that understood and celebrated the beauty of the cupcake. We definitely felt the cupcake love at these shops!

Tour Participants: Brennan, Liz, Isaac, Jane, Hungry Bear, Chuck

Hungry Bear and I love cupcakes, but I think our friend, Aimee, is a bigger cupcake fanatic. Last month while visiting Jeff and Aimee in NYC, Aimee organized a cupcake tasting tour around five popular cupcake shops in the city. We even had a scorecard, created by Jeff, to rate the shops and keep our tasting notes.

Since we all love chocolate, and to fairly rate the cupcake shops, we agreed to taste the chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting at each store. It was acceptable, and our duty, to sample the other cupcake flavors, but the chocolate chocolate cupcake was a mandatory tasting. We also decided to prevent over eating by sharing cupcakes.

We started the cupcake tour at 4:00 PM on a warm Friday afternoon at Harlem's Make My Cake, excited and full of energy. The plan was to head south and end the tour at Magnolia Bakery in the West Village. After splitting a few large cupcakes at Make My Cake, we were all on a sugar high and headed to Crumbs Bake Shop.

After only two stops on the tour, we all hit the sugar wall and started to feel sluggish. Aimee had skipped lunch and wanted some real food. Hungry Bear and I needed something savory to settle our stomachs. Conveniently for us, we passed Gray's Papaya on our way to Buttercup. To re-energize for the second half the tour, we proceeded to each eat a hot dog at Gray's Papaya. It wasn't the healthiest thing, but we were on a cupcake tasting tour, so healthy food choices were not on the agenda.

Buttercup Bake Shop was the next destination. It was a highly anticipated spot based on its history and high rankings on all NYC cupcakery lists. At this point, there were concerns by some participants whether we would be able to complete all five tour stops that day.

We were at 72nd street and the next stop on the tour was Cupcake Cafe on 40th street. We literally stumbled the thirty two blocks down to Cupcake Cafe and barely beat the 7:00 PM closing time. After sharing a few more cupcakes, we had to call it a night. We were all tired and incoherent from all of our cupcake eating. Jeff said he felt like he had been drinking all day.

On our way back to Columbus Circle, we grabbed a Philly cheese steak and half a pizza for dinner... yes, dinner. Even though we were full of sugary cupcakes, we were still a little hungry. And believe it or not, we all felt better after ingesting some protein. Feeling better was short lived, as we all passed out by 9:00 PM while watching the Dog Whisperer on TV. The night ended with Aimee declaring that she would not eat cupcakes again for a long time.

A long time in Aimee's world must mean a couple of days, because only two days later with her relentless pressure, we completed the tour by queuing up at Magnolia Bakery. It was a strange experience at Magnolia's. First we had to wait in line before the cupcake shop bouncer let us in. Next, everyone in the shop grabs their own cupcakes in the window display and then lines up to pay. It appears to be a very inefficient process, but who's to argue with the mother of all cupcake shops.

Ratings

After reviewing the tasting notes and with careful consideration, I present to you our 2007 NYC Cupcake Tasting Tour rankings. The ratings are only from the participants who tasted cupcakes at all five bakeries.

Cupcake Tour Rankings (1 = Best, 5 = Worst)

There was no clear winner on this tour. Cupcake tasting and judging is very subjective and comes down to your preferences between the cake part and the frosting. Hungry Bear and I use the cake as the main rating criteria. We believe the frosting is there to compliment and enhance the cake, but not to over power it. With that in mind, we both chose Crumbs Bake Shop as the best cupcake shop on our tour. We thought that Crumbs had the best cake in terms of texture, moisture and chocolate taste.

Jeff favors the frosting flavor and the moistness of the cake. He is also values aesthetically pleasing cupcakes. Aimee considers the cake and the frosting equally important. However, she doesn't like cupcakes that are overloaded with frosting. Another key factor for Aimee is the coldness of the cupcake. She prefers cold, refrigerated cupcakes for some strange reason. Interestingly, both Jeff and Aimee chose Cupcake Cafe as their favorite bakery. They serve cold cupcakes.

The clear loser in this cupcake tour was Buttercup Bake Shop. It was the lowest ranked bakery across the board. Maybe it's just the 72nd street location, but the cake was dry and lacked any flavor. The killer was the overload of frosting, which was too sweet. The shop was a big disappointment given all of its hype.

We all agreed that Cupcake Cafe had the prettiest looking cupcakes and that Buttercup Bake Shop should not be on the list of on any future cupcake tasting tours. I find it interesting that given our different judging criteria and tastes, we all ranked Make My Cake as our number two shop. I'm concluding that this shop has the best combination of good cake and frosting.

Tips

The cupcake tour was very fun and the highlight of our visit to NYC. It's a great activity for people of all ages. I highly recommend conducting your own cupcake eating tour in NYC or your favorite city. Here are some tips if you plan on going on a cupcake tasting tour.

• Map out the shops and route in advance. If you are walking, the last stop should be the cupcake shop closest to your home. Walking long distances with a cupcake buzz is not fun.
• Keep a scorecard and notes. After a few cupcakes and the sugar high and crash, you'll forget everything if you don't take notes.
• No matter how hungry you are, make sure you share cupcakes, especially the large ones. I would recommend splitting large cupcakes into six portions. You'll pay the price if you don't limit your cupcake intake.
• Start early and plan the day around the cupcake tour. Visit other attractions on the route to pace your cupcake eating. Also, sprinkle in a few savory food stops between the cupcake shops. Your stomach will thank you for the salty snacks and protein.
• Don't start the day by eating baked French toast casserole, followed by a three-course lunch at Le Cirque, before your cupcake tour!

Tour Participants: Aimee, Jeff, Ava, Hungry Bear, Chuck, Kurt, Craig, Nicole

As I mentioned in the last post, our friend Jane made chocolate devil's food cupcakes for dessert last Sunday. She has made these cupcakes for us in the past and we love them. Jane uses a devil's food cupcake recipe from the Food Network. The cocoa powder and chocolate brand used is Valrhona, so the cupcakes are pure chocolate delights.

In the process of making the ganache, Jane overheated her cream and broke it. The chocolate separated and became grainy, then I made it worse by overheating it more. None of us had broken a ganache before, so we were at a loss on how to fix it. Fortunately, we were able to find a remedy from The Secrets of Baking...

If your ganache looks broken or feels grainy, there is still hope for it. To repair a broken ganache, divide it in half. Warm one half over a double boiler to a temperature of 130 degrees F. The fat will melt and pool at this temperature, making the mixture thinner. Cool the remaining ganache to 60 degrees F by stirring it over a bowl of ice. The fat in this portion will begin to solidify, causing the ganache to thicken.

When both halves have reached the desired temperatures, slowly stream the hot ganache into the cold and stir to combine. You can use a food processor for this step by placing the cool ganache into the bowl of the food processor, turning on the machine, and streaming in the warm ganache. The mixture will not fall below 90 degrees F during this procedure, so there is no risk of creating a grainy texture. Combining the two portions of ganache in this way averages the temperature into the optimal working range, and the fat droplets will be suspended evenly in the water.

We followed the directions and were able to save the ganache. It would have been sad to discard the Valrhona chocolate but thankfully we fixed it and topped the devil's food cupcakes with the ganache. The cupcakes were fantastic!

My girlfriend, a.k.a. Hungry Bear, and I hosted Sunday Nite Dinner (SND) today. I had a craving for a big hunk of braised meat so we decided to make pot roast. Our friend, Jane, can devour a lot of red meat, despite being a small 5'5" woman. The last time I cooked a pot roast, Jane and I downed 4 lbs of roast between the two of us.

(We documented the making of SND. Just click on the large picture to advance to the next one.)

Since there were going to be 7 people at SND, I picked up 8.5 lbs of chuck roast from my butcher, Antonelli's in Cal-Mart. Yes, that's a lot of roast but I had to account for Jane's freakish red meat eating capabilities. I originally planned on going on a bike ride while the chuck roast braised in a crock pot, but there was no way the crock pot could accommodate an 8.5 lb roast. So I had to braise the chuck roasts the traditional method (stove top then oven).

The menu for today's SND was...

• Pot Roast with potatoes (fingerling and red), carrots and peas
• Stir fried Chinese long beans with shiitake mushrooms and garlic
• Fresh corn salad with red onions and basil
• Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

The pot roast recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, The New Best Recipes cookbook by Cook's Illustrated. I liked the results of recipe but I would use all beef stock instead of a combination of stock and water in the future. I think the pot roast would have been a little bit more flavorful with all stock.

The long beans were a simple stir fry with a little oil, garlic, shiitake mushrooms and salt. Jane made the corn salad, which is always light and refreshing. It's a simple recipe with fresh corn off the cob, red onions, basil, extra virgin olive oil and cider vinegar. The fresh corn salad recipe is by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa.

My favorite part of the meal was dessert. Hungry Bear and I were watching the Barefoot Contessa and saw her make chocolate cupcakes and peanut butter icing. The peanut butter icing was something different than the traditional chocolate or vanilla frosting.

After looking at Ina's recipe, we decided to use Gale Gand's chocolate cupcake recipe instead. Gale's recipe has fewer ingredients, particularly no butter or buttermilk. We did use Ina's peanut butter icing recipe, but reduced the sugar and heavy cream.

I like reducing sugar whenever possible. I prefer tasting the main ingredient, in this case peanut butter, in the icing instead of sugar or sweetness first. I really hate it when I buy a chocolate brownie and it tastes like pure sugar without any chocolate taste. Everyone really enjoyed the peanut butter frosted cupcakes. It's definitely something different to try.

Overall, SND was very good and we had a lot of leftover pot roast. Hungry Bear and I love eating leftovers, so we were pleasantly surprised. This was also the first Sunday Nite Dinner in over a month so it was good catching up with everyone.

SNDsters: Chuck, Hungry Bear, Jane, Mark, Garry, Karen, Ed