Thursday, July 16, 2009
Bubblecake: Aren't you a sweet little cupcake?
Larry Bly
Larry Bly runs an ad agency and does freelance writing in the Roanoke area.
Recent columns
Judging from the line of customers waiting to point out their favorite cupcakes in the display case, I'd say that Bubblecake in South Roanoke is open and none too soon.
It's certainly very special that we have a LOCAL bake shop again in Roanoke. At this point I'd usually wax eloquently about my memories of Bowle's Bake Shop downtown and all the sugary memories it evokes. Well, I guess I just did!
Once upon a time you could stop at a nearby bakery on your way to work (or going home) and buy a pie, cake, cookies or Danish that had been in the oven only moments before. Alas, no more. The closest we come now is the bakery at your local grocery chain, if indeed that.
Bubblecake has set up its operation in a former restaurant location on Crystal Spring Avenue, and I think this one may stick. For starts, it’s only selling cupcakes, with an eye to perhaps expanding later to breakfast items and coffee in the dining rooms. But first things, first: It's all about cupcakes.
I've thus tried a goodly variety and there are NO disappointments. A pistachio was finished off with a nice cap of gooey-yet-slightly-crunchy pistachio icing. Now that's my idea of "going green.” It was unbelievably moist and delicious.
In fact, Bubblecake may have just changed my mind about cupcakes being boring, except for the icing. To my notion, it was ALWAYS just about the icing. But not so fast -- obviously I know not from whence I speak. Bubblecake nicely matches the cake to the icings that go on them, with equal thought to both.
The strawberry cupcake must have been picked off the vine. Minus the seeds, you've got a sweet proposition with this one!
The red velvet cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting were flying off the shelves the day I was there. My red velvet treat to a fellow worker was met with the initial assessment: "the cake's a little dry.” Then she fell all over herself proclaiming the virtues of "the best, creamiest and not gritty" frosting she had ever tasted. I personally think that it's the nature of red velvet cake to be on the dry side, but I don't know why. (And who ever came up with the dim-witted idea of starting with chocolate batter and turning it red with copious amounts of red dye in the first place? Huh? But oh, boy, they came up with it against all odds.)
Bubblecake’s flavors offered "to order" (not necessarily in the case daily) are just awe-inspiring. Consider one of these unique cupcakes for your next "do": Triple dark chocolate, lemon drop, coconut, key lime, chocolate chip, cinnamon roll, pink lady (vanilla cake, strawberry fluff and coconut), mint chip, peanut butter cup, bananas foster, Oreo, caramel apple, and others.
The price is right, too, considering that you're getting a bakery-fresh, gourmet cupcake: $2.25 each for "standards," or $22 a dozen. You can get something called "jumbos,” which I think I'd like to have right this minute, for $4 apiece.
You can get them by the gazillions if you order in advance for weddings, holiday parties, corporate parties, etc.
I don't make cupcakes at home -- too time-intensive filling those little cups and then having to make up the icing and attach it to each little mound of cake. But I sure love it when someone else is doing the honors.
Consider "accidentally" wandering by Bubblecake one day after lunch, as a dozen or so of us did recently, for a little something to sweeten an otherwise sour day at work. Or better still, do it on purpose.
Bubblecake bake shop
2123 Crystal Spring Ave. (next to Fork in the Alley), Roanoke
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (or until it runs out of cupcakes) Monday through Saturday
343-CAKE (2253), www.bubblecake.com
It's certainly very special that we have a LOCAL bake shop again in Roanoke. At this point I'd usually wax eloquently about my memories of Bowle's Bake Shop downtown and all the sugary memories it evokes. Well, I guess I just did!
Once upon a time you could stop at a nearby bakery on your way to work (or going home) and buy a pie, cake, cookies or Danish that had been in the oven only moments before. Alas, no more. The closest we come now is the bakery at your local grocery chain, if indeed that.
Bubblecake has set up its operation in a former restaurant location on Crystal Spring Avenue, and I think this one may stick. For starts, it’s only selling cupcakes, with an eye to perhaps expanding later to breakfast items and coffee in the dining rooms. But first things, first: It's all about cupcakes.
I've thus tried a goodly variety and there are NO disappointments. A pistachio was finished off with a nice cap of gooey-yet-slightly-crunchy pistachio icing. Now that's my idea of "going green.” It was unbelievably moist and delicious.
In fact, Bubblecake may have just changed my mind about cupcakes being boring, except for the icing. To my notion, it was ALWAYS just about the icing. But not so fast -- obviously I know not from whence I speak. Bubblecake nicely matches the cake to the icings that go on them, with equal thought to both.
The strawberry cupcake must have been picked off the vine. Minus the seeds, you've got a sweet proposition with this one!
The red velvet cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting were flying off the shelves the day I was there. My red velvet treat to a fellow worker was met with the initial assessment: "the cake's a little dry.” Then she fell all over herself proclaiming the virtues of "the best, creamiest and not gritty" frosting she had ever tasted. I personally think that it's the nature of red velvet cake to be on the dry side, but I don't know why. (And who ever came up with the dim-witted idea of starting with chocolate batter and turning it red with copious amounts of red dye in the first place? Huh? But oh, boy, they came up with it against all odds.)
Bubblecake’s flavors offered "to order" (not necessarily in the case daily) are just awe-inspiring. Consider one of these unique cupcakes for your next "do": Triple dark chocolate, lemon drop, coconut, key lime, chocolate chip, cinnamon roll, pink lady (vanilla cake, strawberry fluff and coconut), mint chip, peanut butter cup, bananas foster, Oreo, caramel apple, and others.
The price is right, too, considering that you're getting a bakery-fresh, gourmet cupcake: $2.25 each for "standards," or $22 a dozen. You can get something called "jumbos,” which I think I'd like to have right this minute, for $4 apiece.
You can get them by the gazillions if you order in advance for weddings, holiday parties, corporate parties, etc.
I don't make cupcakes at home -- too time-intensive filling those little cups and then having to make up the icing and attach it to each little mound of cake. But I sure love it when someone else is doing the honors.
Consider "accidentally" wandering by Bubblecake one day after lunch, as a dozen or so of us did recently, for a little something to sweeten an otherwise sour day at work. Or better still, do it on purpose.
Bubblecake bake shop
2123 Crystal Spring Ave. (next to Fork in the Alley), Roanoke
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (or until it runs out of cupcakes) Monday through Saturday
343-CAKE (2253), www.bubblecake.com
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