North Suburban Cupcake Challange

THE CHALLENGE

Determine who in the Highland Park area makes the best cupcake. The contestants for this challenge were the following:

Deerfield’s Bakery - Deerfield location

The Bent Fork – Highwood

Dominick’s – Bannockburn location

Jewel – Highland Park location

Sunset Foods – Highland Park location

This test is and was purely a matter of personal taste (much like any food recommendation). In an effort to make the results a bit more “scientific” all participants were blindfolded while tasting.

We decided to try yellow cakes with white frosting and if available a chocolate / chocolate cupcake. If chocolate / chocolate was not available, we purchased chocolate cake with white frosting.

The cupcakes were purchased Saturday morning from each of the locations and the taste test took place at approximately 3:15. The cupcakes were refrigerated until approximately 2:30 this afternoon.

The tasters were myself (ME), my wife (MW), my 6 and 9 year old daughters (D6 and D9) and my mother (MM). I will admit that going into this, we are all big fans of The Bent Fork.

And the results are…………………





Deerfields Yellow cake

ME 5, MW 5, MM 6, D6 1, D9 6.

Several people felt the frosting had an odd taste to it. It seemed to me that it was a strong smell and taste of butter, perhaps artificially so. MW also felt the frosting was a bit grainy. Overall the cake was moist and had a decent taste.

Deerfields Chocolate Cake

ME 3, MW 2, MM 2, D6 10, D9 6

The adults all felt that the frosting and the cake were completely flavorless, with the exception of the same bad “butter” taste of the frosting. This was by far the most disappointing of all the cupcakes we tasted.





Bent Fork Yellow Cake

ME 8, MW 7, MM 6, D6 6, D9 7

This was a strong cupcake, but the cake seemed a bit on the dry side. The frosting was very creamy and had good flavor although D6 felt there was too much frosting in her taste. MM also felt there was an aftertaste to the frosting that she did not like.

Bent Fork Chocolate Cake

ME 9, MW 10, MM 10, D6 5, D9 8

This was the best of the bunch. Great butter cream frosting and by far the best cake. MM who does not like chocolate cake said she would give this 100 points and immediately put in an order for a chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting for her birthday cake. Her birthday is not until November. This was the cupcake deemed “most worth going off your diet for”.





Dominick’s Yellow Cake

ME 4, MW 4, MM 3, D6 7, D9 6

The frosting was OK and the cake was dry. Not surprisingly given the source, this cupcake was a very middle of the road product.

Dominick’s Chocolate Cake

ME 1, MW 2, MM 1, D6 6, D9 6

Another disappointing chocolate cake. No flavor to either the cake or the frosting.





Jewel Yellow Cake

ME 4, MW 2, MM 3, D6 5, D9 8

All agreed that the frosting on this cupcake had a bad taste. The cake was OK but the taste of the frosting really pulled this one done. I was actually quite surprised by this because Jewel is our non-bakery go to spot.

Jewel Chocolate Cake

ME 4, MW 5, MM 3, D6 5, D9 7

Not too many comments on this cupcake. Seemed to be a decent product. MM felt that there was a bad taste which brought the score down.





Sunset Yellow Cake

ME 2, MW 6, MM 7, D6 5, D9 9

I did not enjoy this cupcake at all. I felt both the frosting and the cake had a bade taste to them. Others felt it was a decent product but nothing exceptional.

Sunset Chocolate Cake

ME 2, MW 5, MM 3, D6 5, D9

Another disappointing chocolate cake.


All in all we had an enjoyable afternoon making ourselves sick eating cupcakes. Generally speaking the chocolate cupcakes did not have a strong enough chocolate taste in either the cake or the frosting.

Of the five locations, the only bakery that gave any indication on how to store and serve the product was The Bent Fork. While I wouldn’t expect the grocery store to give information, I was surprised that Deerfield’s Bakery didn’t say anything given their use of butter cream frosting. The Bent Fork made sure to indicate that the cupcakes should be refrigerated until about 30 minutes prior to serving to allow the frosting to slow come up to room temperature.

Perhaps not surprisingly I came out of the experience with the same bias I had going in. Grocery store product is decent and acceptable for “every day use”. Deerfield’s Bakery just doesn’t do anything for me and The Bent Fork makes a superior product.

The Bent Fork may not have the variety of products that Deerfield’s Bakery or many of the top notch bakeries of Chicago have, but the product that is offered is outstanding.

Perhaps someone with more desire than I have will put The Bent Fork product up against some of Chicago’s top contenders.

Keep in mind that this was an unscientific process and very subjective to personal opinion. As always, your mileage may vary.

jtm1631 wrote:Keep in mind that this was an unscientific process and very subjective to personal opinion. As always, your mileage may vary.

Thank you for the side-by-side comparisons of these products. While it is subjective, it was still quite informative. You learned a lot as well as we did because you took the effort to spend your time, money and palate to compare apples-to-apples. I was also impressed by your efforts to avert prejudice by wearing blindfolds. Taking away the visual cues for food heightens your senses.

I also sense this was also a good family acitvity. Did your daughters appreciate the assignment?

Again, my thanks to you and your family for taking one for the team!

Regards,

Thank you for the information!

We did purchase a cake at Deerfield's recently but it had a whipped cream frosting and fudge filling. It was good.

We like a place called A La Carte in Wilmette. They don't always have the same items in the case as far as desserts. I think their cupcakes are big and I haven't tried them there.

Cathy2 wrote:

jtm1631 wrote:Keep in mind that this was an unscientific process and very subjective to personal opinion. As always, your mileage may vary.

Thank you for the side-by-side comparisons of these products. While it is subjective, it was still quite informative. You learned a lot as well as we did because you took the effort to spend your time, money and palate to compare apples-to-apples. I was also impressed by your efforts to avert prejudice by wearing blindfolds. Taking away the visual cues for food heightens your senses.

I also sense this was also a good family acitvity. Did your daughters appreciate the assignment?

Again, my thanks to you and your family for taking one for the team!

Regards,

We all had a great time with the taste test. It was a fun way to spend some time together and we look forward to doing more taste tests in the future.