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

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Old Post 6: Vanilla Pastry Studio- cupcake heaven!

Have you ever heard of the Vanilla Pastry Studio?  If you haven't, it's probably because the noise of the other cupcake shops in town has filled your ears until there is no room left to hear of another.

Located on Centre Ave, next to Kelly's Bar and just past S. Highland Ave, Vanilla Pastry Studio is easy to find and centrally located near Shadyside, East Liberty, and Highland Park.  Aside from the adorable interior that's light and airy and fresh, the welcoming atmosphere that says, "Come, try our delicious treats!", and the quaint kitchen seen through double french doors, the cupcakes and pastries are out of this world.

It's nice that's it's not just a cupcake shop as well- they have a decent selection of cookies, brownies, and other delights such as the apricot mango "pop-tart".  If you have 5 extra minutes, order the pop-tart and sit in the window to gobble it up as quickly as possible.  It's almost too good to savor.

Although that pop-tart might steal the show, the cupcakes are your main event.  On Tuesday, they had a great variety of flavors from Vanilla Caramel to Chocolate Espresso to Champagne to Berry Limeade to Lemon.  The icing topping isn't overdone and unapproachable and they don't kill you with sprinkles.

Speaking of icing- Sugar Love has rated a lot of buttercream, but to date, this buttercream is the favorite.  It's not too light, not to dense, whipped to perfection and the flavor is intense.  They also seem to focus a lot of the flavoring in the icing, not the cake. So for instance, on the lemon cupcake, you get a vanilla cupcake with a lemon icing.  It's a delightful combination and different then other lemon cupcakes which tend to be a lemon cake with a lemon icing or a cream cheese icing.

The cupcake of the day though, went to berry limeade.  The cupcake is a limeade cake and the buttercream is a pink berry flavor.  The berry icing shoots straight to the back of your mouth and then is balanced by the limeade cupcake.

Cupcake lovers of Pittsburgh, and I know there are so very many out there, you have to take a trip to Vanilla Pastry Studio.  And try a pop-tart too!

Vanilla Pastry Studio's Berry Limeade Cupcake on the Sugar Love Scale

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5 ♥'s and a kiss for good measure (because it was that delightful)