I'm not so much a cupcake person, but Fraîche Bakery & Cafe in Evanston (used to be Kim's Kitchen) has decent ones that we've ordered for student events--consistently moist and a nice cake:frosting ratio. They have cupcakes in their pastry case every day.

Fraîche Bakery & Cafe
815 Noyes St
Evanston IL 60201
847-475-5467

Fraiche has awesome whoopie pies, my favorite of which is the pumpkin with their delicious cream cheese frosting! These whoopie pies are rich and sweet!

I tried their vanilla cupcake with coconut cream cheese frosting. I liked the frosting, but I thought that the cake part was a little too dense/hard.

I know Sweet Mandy B's has its fans, but I've never been one of them. I don't think their stuff is bad, I just think it's mostly ordinary and too many items overly sweet. I don't think there is anything they make that cannot be made as well or better at home (can't say this about a place like Hoosier Mama for instance, and I probably couldn't say this about Pheobe's on Broadway). I much prefer a cooked buttercream and although I like the texture of Sweet Mandy B's frosting, it's just way too sweet for me. I also find their carrot cake to have much to much spice mixture and the spice flavor just overwhelms the cake. Complaints aside, I think the texture of their cupcakes is excellent. However, after a couple of visits to Phoebe's, I would say there is no competition between these two places.

Pie Lady wrote:There's a new place on Waukegan south of Oakton in Niles called Le Sucre.

I went in today to take advantage of my Discover Card bonus deal: $5 cashback if I spend it at Le Sucre! So basically, my pumpkin cupcakes were free. Anyway, considering the size of other cupcakes in town, these were pretty squat for $2.50. The cake was very dense and heavy and quite mild in flavor, but the cream cheese frosting was tangy and not at all sugary (a good thing, for me). All the cupcakes were very attractive—especially the Espresso: mounds of ruffly buttercream, chocolate filigree decoration—but I hope my next one is better in the taste department. Not bad, just too light in taste and too heavy in texture. The service, however, was delightful and they gave me a free chocolate chip cookie (soft), which I will report on somewhere on this board, as well as my second cupcake taste test.
http://www.lesucrecakes.com

7962 N Waukegan Rd
Niles, IL 60714
(847) 967-8427