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.).

Cannoli

Cannoli, I'd never had it before this year and now I love it, when it's made right.
I've tried it from 3 different places, and surprisingly, my favorite was from the first place I went. It had the best flavor filling with the best consistency, and the shell wasn't soggy at all.
I tried Cannoli from Kneaders, Buca di Beppo, and The Chocolate.
Kneaders had soggy shell and no chocolate chips in the filling, it didn't have as good of flavor. Buca di Beppo was ok, but the filling wasn't the right consistency.
The Chocolate I went to was in Orem (I posted about it earlier), but they have a new location in West Jordan, way closer to me. I'll have to check them out again when I want to splurge!

Elizabeth's English Bakery and Tea Shop

I've been wanting to go to this particular place for awhile, but I finally got to go today with my husband and baby. It was so cute inside, had Queen Elizabeth on the walls, and British pastries and meat pies in the display cases. It's located at 575 S 700 E in Salt Lake City.
My husband got a ginger cookie, chocolate crisp and strawberry jam tart. I tried a bite of each, and they were all super good. I got a blueberry lemon tart and a chocolate fairy cake. They were both way good. I'm so excited to come back to this place to try more things!
Sadly, I left my camera in the car, so I don't have any pictures, but the fruit on the tarts looked so perfect and pretty that I almost thought they were fake!

4

I went to the Cocoa Bean for a 4th time with my niece last week, it was our last hurrah for the summer since we moved out of my in-laws house, and they're still there until their house is finished. I'm gonna miss my chat time with her, it was fun hearing about her friends and relating to some of her teenager situations.

As per my usual, I got the cocoa bean cocoa frappe (delicious as always) and 6 cupcakes (which I cut up and shared, I'm not a piggy!)Better Than Whatever, Death By Chocolate, Vanilla Vanilla
Grasshopper, Butterfinger, Snickerdoodle

The Better Than Whatever has chocolate cake with sweetened condensed milk under the vanilla buttercream frosting and Heath bar crumbles on top. It was very moist and VERY sweet.
The Death By Chocolate confused me. I thought there'd be more to it than just chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, it was good, but I was a little disappointed there wasn't ganache or chocolate chips or something in it.
The Vanilla and Grasshopper I've already posted about, so I'll skip them.
The Butterfinger was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and Butterfinger crumbles on top. You'd think that wouldn't give it enough Butterfinger flavor, but it did, it was yummy.
The Snickerdoodle had a cinnamon/vanilla cake with frosting reminiscent of the Mexican Chocolate cupcake (only it was vanilla and cinnamon), and reminded me very much of it's name-sake cookie.

There are a few more flavors I'd love to try, but I probably won't be able to visit again for a while, so until then I'll have to find another place to frequent (which shouldn't be too hard!).

The Chocolate

I forgot to post about this when I went, I was too busy writing about my first trip to the Cocoa Bean. On that same day, my friend and I went to a place called The Chocolate. Now, with a name like that you would assume they'd make specialty chocolates and truffles and things like that, but no. It's a bakery. A uniqueish bakery. Random first impression when walking into the cafe: wow, what a low doorknob. Seriously, the doorknob was WAY low. Then the first smell you get when you walk inside...not baked goods, but old mothball lady smell (to be fair it IS a really old building). They have cute little set ups in different rooms so you can sit and chat with friends whilst enjoying your goodies, but we didn't take advantage, we were full from cupcakes, and it seemed like too much indulging to get treats there too and consume them (along with it being a bit pricey). I did buy a cannoli though, since I've never had one before and had been randomly craving them since I was pregnant, plus they looked yummy (and had a chocolate drizzle on top with crushed pistachios on the ends).Since I don't have anything to compare it with, I'll just say it was really good and had the perfect ratio of creme filling to crispy shell to chocolate. I'm planning on trying more cannolis in the future so I can know where to get the best ones.

Cocoa Bean revisited

Since my last posting, I've been to the Cocoa Bean 2 more times with one of my nieces. She fell in love with it too, especially the drinks. She got the Love Potion Frappe both times, it tastes like chocolate covered strawberries, so good. I got the cocoa bean chocolate once more, and just tried the Mint Truffle. It was ok, but I wasn't a huge fan, I mean if I'm gonna ingest the calories, they've gotta REALLY be worth it, you know?

I really wish I knew how to make one of these frappes at home though, I want them way more than I should, and way more often than I want to drive to Provo for.
On the first trip I got these (sorry the pic isn't the best):Love Potion with pink frosting, Coconut Lime with green frosting and Ultimate Brownie.Love Potion is so good, I've already stated that in an earlier post, the Coconut Lime was... ok, and the Ultimate Brownie was delicious!
The Coconut Lime was Lime cake with Coconut frosting. The frosting MADE the cupcake, the cake alone was sorta bizarre tasting, though not awful. If you got a good ratio of frosting to cupcake it was really good.
The Ultimate Brownie is brownie with cheesecake cake and mini marshmallows and chocolate frosting on top. I'm not a cheesecake person usually, but this was an awesome cupcake!

On my most recent trip I got these:

Madagascar Vanilla Vanilla, Mexican Chocolate and Grasshopper.

I didn't eat the Vanilla one, though I had a crumb and taste of frosting, VERY vanilla and very sweet, another one of my nieces said it was the best though, she really enjoyed it.
The Mexican Chocolate was good. Mexican Chocolate, as I understand, is chocolate with cinnamon. It had a very warm flavor, I don't know how else to describe it. I really enjoyed it, and it was a pretty chocolate cupcake with ganache and cinnamon/vanilla frosting sprinkled with shiny mini chocolate chips on top. The only downside was the weirdish dry feel in your mouth when you've had cinnamon, but it wasn't strong. I tasted most of the cinnamon in the frosting, but it wasn't overpowering, it was just right.
The Grasshopper was yummy, though I did scrape a little frosting off, it seemed to be too much for me. For those who don't know, grasshopper is a mint chocolate flavor. This had chocolate cake with mint frosting. It was really good, I believe it had a bit of ganache under the frosting, which I wouldn't have minded more of.

I was hoping to get more followers, but maybe in time that will happen (providing I post more often).

That's all for now.

DQ

I had to post about this because so far, it's my favorite ice cream treat, and with it being summer, we ALL are into ice cream, right?
It's the Midnight Truffle Blizzard at Dairy Queen, and it's a chocolate lover's heaven. Vanilla soft serve, mixed with fudge so it's chocolate ice cream, with fudge swirls and truffle pieces throughout. It makes my mouth happy, even if I do have to exercise a little extra to eat it. I think I crave it more than once a week, but I don't give in, luckily for my waistline.

I'm really interested in gelato, I've never had it before and heard it's super yummy, and since we moved I've found 2 shops pretty close to us and I can't wait to try them out to find out which one's best. Stay tuned.

Let me know what your favorite ice cream treat is and where you got it, and maybe some suggestions of places to check out for ice cream/gelato/frozen custard (mmm, Nielson's Frozen Custard!)

Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe

Last week I went to the Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe in Provo with my lovely friend and our daughters. It was a cute, modern little shop, with plenty of choices for drinks, and a good selection of cupcakes. They even make drinks with cocoa beans like coffee joints do with coffee beans. I got a cocoa bean cocoa latte (I think that's what it was called?) It was a cold, yummy chocolate drink with really good cocoa flavor, I've been wanting another one ever since, maybe even in a different flavor (they have lots, and it was better than chocolate milk). To go with my tasty drink I had a Love Potion cupcake. When I asked what was in it, they had me at 'ganache', I love GANACHE! It's a chocolate cupcake with cream filling, ganache on top with strawberry frosting. SO tasty. I'm planning on going back to this yummy spot, hopefully sooner than later.

If you've been there, let me know how you liked it and what you got!

Why?

You may wonder why someone would have a blog about their bakery visits... I kind of wonder that too but I thought it might be a fun new 'hobby' to make my tasty bakery search more worth it. If you want to help with the blog in any way, let me know, I'd love to have other taste bud's points of view.
Bakeries I'll be visiting will be for the *sweet* baked goods (not necessarily greasy though), and usually in Utah, although there may be posts from other locations if I go anywhere; for example an establishment which hasn't made it to Utah yet, Sprinkles, now there's a GOOD cupcake, I haven't found any to top them yet.

So to summarize, I like baked goods, if you want to help let me know, I'm random and if you have suggestions of where I should go next please share!!!

P.S. I may post about delicious desserts I've found which aren't from bakeries as well.

Under construction...

I'm still working on the layout of this blog, but I'll still try to post things now and then anyway.