Swirly Girls

Once again, I had a voucher for $15 of food for $7, this time it was to the Swirly Girls Bakery. I've been there before and wasn't impressed w/their cupcakes. This time I sent my husband by himself to pick up some breakfast pastries to see if they were any good. I was pleasantly surprised!
My husband brought home cinnamon rolls, glazed donuts, chocolate croissants, and the biggest lemon bars I have ever seen/eaten. Everything was delicious! The only negative thing I have to say is that the donuts reminded me of your run-of-the-mill grocery store glazed donut, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The cinnamon rolls were big w/a cinnamon spiced frosting, the chocolate croissants were flaky and buttery and sweet w/just the right amount of dark chocolate to balance it out, and the lemon bars were so good! Sometimes lemon bars just taste....not right, but these were creamy and lemony and sweet w/a great shortbread crust and dusting of powdered sugar. I'm now hopeful and excited about having this bakery just a few minutes away again!


So sorry about the lack of pictures lately, I get so excited that I forget to take a picture or I can't find the camera. I'm going to try to do better w/the next posts!

Also, I realize I posted 3 times today, but I promise that these visits were NOT close together, I just finally got a minute to sit down and write about them!

Sweetest Confessions

I recently bought one of those daily deals, but can't remember which site it was from. Anyway, it was for $15 worth of food for $7 to Sweetest Confessions over in Sandy. I'd never heard of the place (they've only been in business since around Nov. 2010), but after looking at the menu online, I thought it might be a yummy place to try.
My husband took me and the baby the day before Mother's Day (at my request) to pick up some pastries as sort of a brunch/early Mother's Day breakfast. We picked out lots of treats and shared them at home. Among the yummy things were: chocolate croissant, lemon tart, eclair, cannoli, fresh fruit tart, pina colada bar, and I'm not sure what else (it's been a couple weeks).
It was hit and miss w/some of the pastries. I'll start w/the bad: The pina colada bar didn't have that much flavor besides being sweet (which could be good or bad, depending on who you talk to), the cannoli had the same problem as most of the cannolis I have eaten have: soggy shell and not much filling, the chocolate croissant-well the chocolate was burnt so it did not taste very good at all. I'm not sure how I felt about the eclair, the filling wasn't normal custard, it reminded me more of tapioca pudding w/out the tapioca beads in it; it was good, just ... unusual. The lemon and fresh fruit tarts were delicious! Good crust, yummy custard, great flavors.

This spot had many other offerings, these were just what we were in the mood for that day. Next time we're in the area we'll probably stop by again, it was a good experience, even if a couple things weren't quite what I was hoping for.

The Sweet Tooth Fairy

Well, I finally visited The Sweet Tooth Fairy and it was SO yummy! I was not disappointed. For my first trip I got the Double Fudge Cupcake. The frosting was rich and everything I wanted in frosting, and the cake was sweet and moist. It was the perfect thing for a chocolate attack!
I'm excited to visit again!
Funnily enough our ward gave out cookies from STF on Mother's Day (I think they were the sugar cookie w/coconut frosting), they were SO good and I didn't hear ANY complaints!

San Gelato Cafe

I recently went to the San Gelato Cafe w/a couple ladies in my ward for a belated birthday outing.
I really like this shop, it's cozy and comfortable when you walk in, and the display of gelato is big and pretty. They have a variety of cafe food, along with the desserts.
We each got hot cocoa (it was snowing, on April 13, ridiculous) and shared a napoleon (it was huge, there's no way any of us could eat one on our own!)
It was really good! The cocoa had a bold, creamy chocolate taste (even though I got it w/skim milk) and was the perfect temperature. The napoleon's pastry layers were crisp and the cream wasn't overpowering-the ratios were just right I think. My only complaint was that it was hard to eat- but that's the case w/any napoleon. The last time I had one, the pastry layers were soggy and there was WAY too much cream filling, so I was pleased with the version here.
Last summer, my husband and I went to there for gelato. I tried it at another place as well and I think San Gelato was better. So far they have better pastries and gelato than other places I've tried. I need to go back and try their cannoli, it looked delicious!

Cupcake Chic

So I've been on a break from stopping at The Cocoa Bean. It was becoming a bad habit, once or twice a week when I'd go to Utah County w/my husband. While he went to class I'd get a cupcake and a yummy drink and walk around the mall w/my baby. Lately I've just gone to the mall. The last time I went, I looked at the directory and the name of a shop caught my eye. Cupcake Chic, located outside the mall. This peaked my interest and I had to find it, so right before we were on our way to pick my husband up from school, I drove around the mall to find the cupcake shop. It's on the North side of the mall, East of Costco and right by Pirate Island. I didn't get anything that time, just wanted to know where it was for next time. Next time was this past Thursday, and I went in and got a cupcake. It was better than the Cocoa Bean. I got the Chocolate cupcake and I could tell it was good, quality ingredients. It was fudgy and delicious. The frosting was awesome, super creamy and chocolatey and rich. I'm excited to go back and try another flavor! The only downside is that, strangely, I would go out of my way for the Cocoa Bean because of the drinks, but I wouldn't make a trip just for a cupcake at this place, even though it was awesome. Maybe if I had someone to come along (besides my baby) it would be a different story. I've heard of people going on cupcake/cookie tours/hopping (instead of bar hopping), seems like fun if you have a group of similarly-minded people. Maybe this is one of those times when a biological sister would come in handy?
I've rambled, so I'll end now.
If you're ever in Orem doing something, go check out Cupcake Chic. It's delicious!

Coming soon...

So there's a bakery I've been referred to by a couple of people. The Sweet Tooth Fairy - I just LOVE the name! I'm planning on checking it out soon, but since my hubby and I share a car, it makes it harder to go check places out. Hopefully I'll be posting about it sooner than later.
If you happen to have a place you have checked out and want it included on here, let me know.

The Chocolate WJ

My hubby was sweet enough to take me to The Chocolate in West Jordan on our way home from a disappointing Jazz game. He got a slice of The Cherub and I got a slice of The Brooklyn Blackout. The Cherub is a milk chocolate cake with yummy creamy frosting, the Brooklyn Blackout is Dark chocolate (my favorite) and the frosting was like fudge, it was so dense.
It's a little pricey there, but it's good quality cakes and they give you pretty big slices.
This location didn't have the 'old lady house' smell that the Orem location had, but it's in a cute little old house/cottage with a cute front door. I really want to go back soon and try some of their other tasty treats. So far they're 2 for 2!

I didn't want to do it...but it's the truth

I recently found out a new bakery was coming to an empty shop near me- like 5 minutes away near. I was super excited to check it out, I had dreams of it becoming a place to frequent, of my baby growing up getting treats there every so often. Of it being the awesome neighborhood bakery I've been hoping to find. They offer breakfast pastries, cookies, bars, cupcakes, cakes, dipped chocolates, and some other stuff. There's a cute back story to how the bakery came to be, too.
When I walked in with my baby in her carseat, I found it to be cute. I liked the color scheme a lot. As I was checking out the goods, I had a hard time deciding what to get, but settled on a lemon cupcake and a dipped chocolate. I took them home to enjoy there.

Well, they were ok. The cupcake was smaller than I was expecting, and tasted like something you'd get at the grocery store-not something I consider to be 'gourmet', and definitely not worth what I paid (I don't remember the price). The whole purpose in buying is to have something better than what I can make myself, right? The chocolate was ok, but I've had better.
I don't know if I'll go back. I'm a little curious about the breakfast pastries, but it'll probably be awhile, if ever, before that'll be happening.

I don't like writing bad reviews, it makes me sad and feel bad. I can only hope the owners don't read this (which, let's be honest, they probably don't.).