Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Anatomy of a Cupcake at Yocake

Strawberry Coconut at Yocake

When I think cupcakes, I don't normally think shopping mall; so imagine my surprise when I happened upon Yocake at the Montgomery Mall food court yesterday. Amongst the ugliness of Popeye's, Sbarro and a dozen other places where I wouldn't like to eat, stood one of the nicest looking cupcake displays I've seen of late.

I had a hard time deciding between the beautiful assortment before me, but settled on Strawberry Coconut... a steal at just $2.75. Advertised as strawberry cake with fresh strawberries baked inside and coconut butter cream frosting on top with tons of coconut shavings, Yocake certainly delivers on the coconut shavings. Trouble is, it only takes one small bite to knock most of them off the top. I couldn't find much of the coconut butter cream frosting either... just more shavings. I wanted more sweet. My cake was on the dry side and lacked any proof of fresh strawberries inside. In fact, the cake itself had little to no taste at all.

The sales associate couldn't have been nicer, and was kind enough to put my cake in a thoughtful, take-away container. At $2.75, it's perfectly priced; but taste is everything, and I can't say much for that. I don't get out to Montgomery Mall all that often, but the service and selection at Yocake ensure that I'll make the effort (maybe I need to buy a scarf or something.) If I can find a cupcake that tastes as good as it looks, then I'll be writing a new review pronto.

Appearance: B (Looks delicious.)
Store Atmosphere: B (It's a mall, but Yocake stands out in a positive way.)
Cake: D (I can handle little to no flavor, but dry is a big no-no.)
Icing: C- (The coconut shavings were rich, but where's the butter cream frosting?)
Value: B (Great price, and the cupcakes are nicely sized.)
Overall: C- (I wanted to like it more, but it's hard to overlook dry cake and suspect icing.)