Old Post 9: Make Dozen a Don't!

In terms of convenience, Dozen Bake Shop does have many more locations than most bake shops around Pittsburgh.

But more locations doesn't translate into best quality. 

You can find a Dozen shop in the Southside, Squirrel Hill, Lawrenceville, Downtown and on the North Shore in the Cafe at the Warhol.  The menus in each location will be, for the most part, the same each day, with the exception of the Lawrenceville location which also serves lunch and dinner.

For many people, Dozen is a cupcake bakery, although their menu far extends the cupcake selection. They also serve sandwiches, soups, quiches, breakfast pastries, etc.  However, they are one of three shops in town really diving into the fancy cupcake flavor realm and therefore maintain their reputation as a cupcake shop.

From the cupcake aspect, Dozen doesn't really compare to other shops in town, such as The Vanilla Pastry Studio.  The Key Lime cupcake from Dozen was just ok.  The icing was incredibly sweet- so much that it makes the back of your teeth ache a little, and the cake itself was just OK.  It wasn't overly dry, but it wasn't very moist either.  The flavor of the cake was really subtle; so much so that when paired with the Key Lime icing, it was hard to tell what the cake flavor was supposed to be.

In looking at the other pastries, you'll also find a strong tendency towards mediocrity.  The Red Velvet Gobb was pretty, but did not deliver on taste. The cake was dry and the filling managed to be sweet, yet have no flavor.  

The cream cheese danish with blueberries was also unsatisfying.  When you purchase a pastry toward the end of the day, you expect some fall off, but this went a bit too far.   The crust on the pastry was fantastic.  It was flaky and sweet and delicious; however the cream cheese filling was warm and melted and the blueberries were souring.   This pastry had either been out in direct sunlight for too long or the shop was too hot; either way, it should have been refrigerated prior to selling. 

It's tough to experience sweets that just don't satisfy the Sugar Love craving.  On the one hand, you wonder if it was just a bad baking day (they happen), or if you were getting the end of the stock (that happens too).  On the other hand, when you notice that their ratings across the board tend to be a 50/50 split on good and bad, it's hard to give the shop the benefit of the doubt.

Given the abundance of bakeries in Pittsburgh and the better cupcake shops just around the corner, you'd be better served to skip the convenience and buy a better pastry.

Dozen Bake Shop's Key Lime Cupcake on the Sugar Love Scale

Taste ♥ ♥
Texture ♥ ♥ ♥
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Overall ♥ ♥