Cupcake Party

A while back I got to experience Jilly's Cupcakes (which you can read about HERE and HERE.) It had been something on my "to do" list for a while after hearing about St. Louis' own Jilly's being featured on the TV show Cupcake Wars. (Not just once, but twice, and they won both times, I might add!)

I naturally blogged about the experience(s) with the cupcakes since it was something memorable that I wanted to document. My sister Sharon read my raving posts and has been mighty interested in trying Jilly's Cupcakes ever since. Sharon has been trying to get to know Chandra's new-ish boyfriend, Joe, over Facebook. (He's the one who treated us to cupcakes both times) and Sharon may or may not have mentioned her desire to try those delectable cupcakes a time or two! ;)

Sharon was very much looking forward to meeting Joe when she visited over Christmas and we spent many fun evenings together. One night when Sharon was here Joe surprised Sharon (and her family) by bringing over a variety of Jilly's cupcakes for our dessert. (It was so nice of Joe to do this because a) these cupcakes are extremely expensive (just one of the large gourmet cupcakes sells for $5 or $6 apiece) and b) Joe doesn't even like sweets, so he didn't eat any!) We had so much fun tasting all of the different flavors.

He brought 12 of the large cupcakes and 12 of the mini cupcakes (which really aren't that mini since they're nearly the size of a normal cupcake) in 12 different flavors. Some of the flavors were the specialty holiday flavors, like egg nog extravaganza, rockin' hot chocolate, peppermint stick and royal fruitcake. The other ones were flavors that I've mentioned before in my other posts about Jilly's Cupcakes.

I didn't get a very clear picture of one of the trays, so unfortunately that's why the above picture is so blurry. Here they are all lined up on the counter:

Jilly's also makes ice cream in the same flavors as the cupcakes, so we tried a couple of them. I wasn't a huge fan either of these flavors, although everyone else was. I could tell that it was excellent ice cream as far as the quality goes, though.

Sometimes when I watch shows on TV where they make extravagant cakes I think, "Yes, it's a gorgeous cake, but how does it taste?!" You might be wondering something similar about these cupcakes since sometimes fancy, elaborate cupcakes look beautiful, but don't deliver when it comes to taste. Well, after having these cupcakes three different times now I can vouch for their quality. They please the palate just as much as they please the eye! The cake has a wonderful crumb/texture and the frostings/fillings are light, creamy and smooth.

Thanks, Joe, for another fun cake tasting experience!