Cupcake Jones

My husband picked me up from work on Friday with a trio of cupcakes from Portland's new Cupcake Jones and roses (!!) 3 days before our anniversary (I was having a bad pregnancy day). He really is the best.

The cupcakes were beautiful, unfortunately I dropped them as soon as we got home. I managed to get a couple of good shots of them anyway, but they really were much much more beautiful pre-drop.

Here's what we tried:

Mimosa: orange yogurt cake pastry cream, filled with orange champagne pastry cream, topped with champagne buttercream and a strawberry "floating" on top

Downtown Chocolate Brown: delicious devil’s food cake filled with sour cream chocolate ganache, topped with rich fudge icing and fresh grated chocolate

S'mores Please: rich chocolate cake with fresh made marshmallows melted in the center, topped with rich fudge icing, graham crackers, and homemade toasted marshmallows

I really really wanted cupcakes, but I probably shouldn't have eaten any. I was having a sick day and I should have avoided heavy sweets. But I didn't, I ate the Mimosa (how could I not?). Unfortunately it's hard to review a cupcake that made you sick (which it did), but I will say this, the cake was very moist and dense (which I love) and, different. I don't know how else to say it. It wasn't your standard fluffy cake, and I loved it. Just a hint of orange, and filled with a yummy orangey filling. Now the description says "topped with champagne buttercream" but I don't know, after nearly 8 months of not drinking I think I'd be able to detect champagne, and I didn't. The frosting was really heavy and possibly what made me so nauseas, so I probably shouldn't review it at all. It tasted like cream whipped to almost butter. I would probably love it as the normal me, but the pregnant me thought it was too rich and heavy. I didn't try the DTCB but Matt declared it "super chocolatey" and "yummy." It looked it. The S'mores sat in the fridge for two days until this morning when he decided to eat it. I sliced off a little bite and will say that the cake didn't have the chocolate cake problems I've discussed in past posts, it wasn't dry after being in our fridge for two days, and the creamy filling was the way you want a hostess filling to taste (really yummy, not gross-out yummy). The chocolate fudge frosting was perfect perfect perfect, just the kind you want on top of a homemade yellow cake, which unfortunately they don't make at Cupcake Jones! Like the hostessy middle, the fudgey frosting tastes how you think the frosting in a can should taste. It's the real version of that and it is oh so good. So yeah, I'll be going back to Cupcake Jones when I'm feeling better. They're fancy and expensive, but I'm impressed thusfar and I'm really enticed by their menu (especially the Almond Joy, Black Forest, Belmont Berry and most intriguing, rose-water flavored Rose City).

they were so pretty and then...