Cupcake Royale!

Andy knows I love cupcakes (and of course he loves em too) so on his way home from the DMV a while back he brought home a box of treats from Seattle's Cupcake Royale.

They were supposedly ranked in MSN's Top 10 Cupcakes in the Country. I like them better than Sprinkles in LA, but maybe that's because I hated all the hype and long lines. I think these were also better than the ones at Lark in Silverlake, but not as good as some giant ones Jean once had or some that Ben shared from a place down the street from his house.


Andy picked on appearance only, just like a boy. He got me one with lavender frosting and himself a red velvet (of which I am not a fan) and a mini baby vanilla one to share.


I think Cupcake Royale mostly makes very tasty vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and focuses their flavoring attention on the frostings, which to me makes a lot of sense, from an information architecture point of view. Simplicity is good.


The thing that made these cupcakes so great though was the oversized muffin-tops. I think they protect the bottom part from drying out somehow. The bottom cake part is nice and moist with a lot of good vanilla flavor and just sweet enough. And the muffin top is a nice size with a little bit of carmelizing of the sugar in the batter, so that each bite can stand on its own and has just enough frosting. I always felt like they overdid the frosting at Sprinkles.


The lavender frosting was delicious and somehow really worked, flower bits and all. Plus it was adorable. Andy's red velvet was okay, but I've already established my dislike for red velvet. Seeing the pile of empty food coloring bottles after a friend made some red velvet was enough to turn me off for good.


All done!

Delicious, but not so sugary that you feel gross afterwards. Just sweet enough to make your day happier! I think I'm now a fan of the Cupcake Royale.