Cupcakes in Miami?
After a search on the boards, I only came up with Sweetcakes Cupcakes on Biscayne and 85th. Any other bakeries that have magnolia-style cupcakes in the 305?
jessicam29
Jan 26, 2008 07:47PM
After a search on the boards, I only came up with Sweetcakes Cupcakes on Biscayne and 85th. Any other bakeries that have magnolia-style cupcakes in the 305?
jessicam29
Jan 26, 2008 07:47PM
That's the one I was going to suggest. Only other source I could think of is a baker that sells brownies at the Upper Eastside market on Saturdays. I believe her business is called Baked. I had a card but misplaced it. Not sure if cupcakes are in her repetoire but it wouldn't hurt to find out.
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Funny you mentioned that. I also got her card.
It's "Baked Miami"
www.baked-miami.com
Other information is in the website.
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There is a place slated to open next to whip n dip in South Miami called Buttercream Cupcakes.
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thanks, mike, that's right in my nieghborhood. i can't believe i didn't know about that! i'll have to check it out when it opens. any idea when its scheduled to open?
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I work right down the street from Whip n dip and I have been eagerly awaiting the openining of the cupcake store, however the space has been empty for over a year so I am not holding my breath. I was at a party a few weeks ago that had the most amazing brownies and I want to say it was from a woman named MINA, but I am not sure....I am going to ask the host in the hopes she can tell me where to get them
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There is a spa right near Sunset Tavern that carries Misha's Cupcakes and they are delicious. If you go on that website it lists the names of stores that carry her products.
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maybe call these places to find out...
http://buttercreamcupcakes.com/Site/Welcome%202.html
http://www.mishascupcakes.com/
http://www.sugargirlbakeshop.com/
http://www.stellassweetshoppe.com/
http://cupcakesnouveau.com/
http://stickyfingerscupcakes.blogspot... (guess Amate doesn't carry them anymore?)
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sugar girl bakeshop's guava cupcakes are delicious, as are her brownies and chocolate pies
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Is it common for these bakers to not have stores and just do special orders? Seems a little short-sighted to not have a store front for people to stop in to purchase?
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I was thinking the same thing...
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as a broker in the area, it's become very difficult for a lot of these boutique businesses to get started without say, 6 months to a year advanced rent. Misha has a pretty good reputation and has gotten her own location (a cart in Dadeland at that) only recently. Meanwhile she has been aggressively placing her cupcakes wherever she can. I've run across several smaller scale restaurants selling her wares.
Eventually, I imagine she can do her own full sized space, but I've seen it with landlords in the larger markets simply doubting that someone can make rent just selling cupcakes, which they translate to a gimmick. And I am not talking about misha's. I'm talking about Magnolia-sized national companies that have approached us being doubted by landlords
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I drove by Buttercream Cupcakes today. I think it is open. The white paper was off the windows and there were pink tables/chairs outside. I am going to stop in tomorrow to test and confirm.
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Have you all tried Chocolat Tango's cupcakes? I came across their site on MySpace~ they sell predominately gourmet cupcakes with exotic fillings and frostings though reasonably priced. I had the white chocolate raspberry which was awesome. You can drop by their page and ask for a menu...I think you all would be as amazed as I have been;)
Ohhh and I'll check out Buttercream Cupcakes also.
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I stopped by Buttercream Cupcakes and Coffee today. They are up and running as of yesterday. I didn't try anything, but the cupcakes look good! They have a rotating menu of cupcakes: chocolate and vanilla every day, and other flavors like mocha, latte, red velvet, etc once or twice a week. Today they had chocolate and mocha and latte flavors. Tomorrow is red velvet day so i might stop in and actually get one!
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Wow I will have to walk over there during lunch and check it out. The real question is how do you decide between a cupcake and the fantastic ice cream at Whip and Dip next door....so much sugar so little time :)
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That's easy, of course, a cupcake a la mode!
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Sun Juice is on the other side, and in my opinion, the best of all of the juice places. Since I started with them, I send my kids to whip n dip and have the juice with my wife. I'll either have to send her to the cupcake place or get another wife.
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I went to Buttercream too. Their cupcakes are the fudgey kind. They're good, tried the chocolate and mocha. The chocolate has a vanilla frosting covered with tiny chocolate squares. So you get a clean chocolate taste with every bite. I question the idea of having 2 coffee flavored cupcakes the same day. They also said that they're gonna make red velvet for Val. Day too.
I wasn't impressed with Sweetcakes. I've bought their cupcakes at the Gardner's Market in Coconut Grove. They seemed plain.
Misha cupcakes are light and moist. I've gotten them fresh from Whisk. I've also bought some once from the stand in Dadeland Mall. The coffee wasn't anything special.
I prefer Misha's, over Buttercream. But its only because I like light fluffy cupcakes more.
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Oh yeah, I forgot. The people at Buttercreams said that they had the place for a year, but were caught up in the permit trap.
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Am I the only one who doesn't like Misha's cupcakes? I tried a red velvet one at the Dadeland Mall and it sucked! Didn't taste like red velvet and didn't have a cream cheese frosting. Maybe I should try chocolate. I've been dying for a good red velvet cupcake though.
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Don't like them myself either. not a fan of the frosting, although they are pretty
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Buttercream's red velvet was delicious. Took 2 home for my parents yesterday and my mom loved the cream cheese frosting. She is making me bring back a dozen next week. The oreo one was pretty good, but the red velvet was great. The guy said the lime flavored one (on Fridays) is his favorite.
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Ok so I tried the chocolate and red velvet cupcakes from Buttercream today. I went in around 10:30 and they were almost out of red velvet!!! There were only about 5 left, and the vanilla and chocolate ones weren't even set up yet. Both flavors were delicious! The chocolate is dense and chewy, like a brownie, but not too sweet. It has chocolate chips inside too, which i thought was a nice touch. The red velvet was also delicious. The cake was moist and a little dense, not as dense as the chocolate, though. I usually like my cupcakes fluffy too, but these were GOOD. Also not too sweet. And the cream cheese frosting was to die for! The only other things on the menu are coffee drinks. Great, having Buttercream 5 min from home is going to be dangerous....
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I'm so excited! I can't wait to try them now. Mmmm...cupcakes....
And mikek, I'm not sure if they changed the frosting or if it's different at the dadeland mall but that was NOT cream cheese frosting on mine. And I thought the cupcake part was way too dense. Red velvet has vinegar in it to make it fluffy.
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The frosting on the red velvet at Buttercream was 100% cream cheese frosting. I do not know what you are talking about.
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Sorry about that mikek, I didn't read your post properly and thought you were referring to Misha's not Buttercream. And I tried Buttercream today; I had the red velvet. I thought it was good; like jessicam29, denser than I would normally like but good. I brought home a few of every flavor they had (chocolate, vanilla, vanilla w/oreo frosting, red velvet) so my family could try them too. My brother took a bite of the chocolate and the oreo velvet and didn't like either. He thought they were too sweet.
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I thought the Oreo were ok, especially if you have a sweeter tooth. The red velvet were outstanding. However, I prefer a dense but moist cupcake
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I went to Buttercream this weekend and I had the vanilla, and chocolate. I won't lie, they were good, but definitely not worth the price. I like Misha's much better, but maybe it's because i like the fact that they're super moist and gooey. I'm also a little concerned that Buttercream seemed to copy Misha's "secret ingredient" in their vanilla cupcake - white chocolate chips. Who knows...
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The bakery Blu Dog Cookies opened a cafe in Co-Op Miami Art Gallery at 3404 North Miami Ave., Miami, FL 33127. According to their website at www.bludogcookies.com, they have homemade cupcakes.
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Morning Call in South Miami has Misha's cupcakes. This used to be Biga and they carry all the wonderful breads, pastries and sandwiches that Biga used to carry. Open until 5:00, closed Sundays.
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I really like Misha's cupcakes and I've gone to Morning Call and they run out of them very quickly. Luckily Morning Call has excellent alternatives because when I'm craving one of those cupcakes, I'm super disappointed when they've run out. I think there are a couple of other places where her cupcakes can be found. The website is www.mishascupcakes.com.
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What is the Biga connection? That was probably the greatest bakery Miami has ever seen.
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Frod, I agree with you passionately and wholeheartedly about Biga - the onion ficelles, the raisin nut rolls, the fruit tarts. I could go on forever. The one on Alton Road was the one I most frequented. I also once went to an outlet/baking facility in west Miami somewhere that was great. The Sunset Drive Biga became Morning Call as the Biga stores closed. I don't know the exact relationship between the current owners/bakers and Biga's owners. I have visited a few times and some items are similar to Biga's. If I recall correctly, Biga had been started by a pair of partners and I believe one of them died.
Miami (or maybe just me, my family and you) is crying out for something like Biga. Every major city has at least one, if not a handful, of great bread and pastry bakeries. Why can't we support this type of business?
That said, this should probably be another thread but perhaps there is some connection between the spread of these cutesy infantile cupcakeries and the lack of quality artisanal products (although many cities do support both). What gives?
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I have heard good things about the bakery Chocolate Fashions in Coral Gables. Has anyone been or describe what they have? I'm sorry I missed out on Biga.
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Chocolate Fashion has pretty good pastries, decent bread, and awful brunch. Nothing compared to Biga though. They had everything from alfajores to flourless chocolate cake (when nowhere else had flourless chocolate cake). It's one of the places I miss most in Miami. After Biga tanked, and Renaissance Bakery went away, the quality of bread in Miami took a nosedive and I don't think it's recovered (especially considering that Paul's is pretty much the only option right now).
BTW, tried Buttercream cupcakes. They're tiny and expensive. Cream cheese frosting on a chocolate cupcake isn't a good idea. Orange cupcake was much better but cake itself was kinda heavy. Verdict was "eeehhh".
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I'm glad I'm not the only person who's wistful about biga and renaissance. I cry inside a little bit every time I drive past one of their old locations. Panera is doing well here. Why? Why? Whyyy?
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We had a little cupcake banquet today. First, we found ourselves near Buttercream, so we stopped in and had a chocolate. Yes, it was overpriced and small, especially since most of it was hardened and stuck to the paper, so you only actually got about half of what was in there. I'd say slightly overbaked, but moist in the center. The frosting was just ok. The worst part was the service - truly appalling. Why people open a business and then leave it in the hands of untrained help is hard to fathom.
Then we were in Dadeland Mall and had a small one of Misha's. They were much prettier, but the frosting was a little dry on the top. The cupcake itself was alright.
Hate to be a party pooper, but if you can bake from scratch, you can do better at home.
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I found no similar experiences with buttercream's service in my three visits there. In fact, they have been more than nice and helpful each time.
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well it's nice to hear that other people had better experiences than we did, however that's not the case when we went. They were nice enough, just inept in a way that was notable even in Miami. It's a shame, because they are conveniently located and we were hoping we could use them as a source of goodies for our monthly teas.
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In what ways were they inept, out of curiosity? I think there is definitely a learning curve for a new business, which is to be expected, just do not know how incompetent someone could be at taking cupcakes and putting them in a box?
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I might have higher than normal expectations because I used to run a counter service operation; they weren't expediting at all and there was a disorganized mass of people around the counter waiting for various things and whose needs seemed to be addressed at random. They were giving people the wrong items which created more confusion, and one worker was setting items on the counter in boxes without comment, so customers didn't know what was inside of the box - what it was or whom it was for. One of the girls behind the counter didn't seem familiar with the admittedly limited menu, which consists of cupcakes, coffee, tea. For example, a woman in front of me ordered iced tea and was given a cup of hot tea with some ice cubes in it. That's fairly basic stuff.
My main issue was the quality of the cupcake, which as I said above was overcooked and stuck to the paper. Those intent upon using a fork or even removing the paper would be left with little to eat based upon the chocolate one we tried. I can't serve that to a houseful of ladies, so I've had to go to Joann's for the deserts again; they're great, but we had wanted something springy and kind of girly.
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Particularly disturbing about Panera is that the bread is better than nearly anyone else's locally. I just got back from a week in Phoenix where the bread was much better than ours, another disappointment and surprise.
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After reading the varying commentaries on cupcakes in the Miami area, I, too went on a cupcake bonanza to test local cupcakeries where I could buy, from time to time, a decent cupcake.
I tried Misha's cupcakes first. I had tried her cupcakes at different gatherings, Morning call, etc. But for my experiment, I ventured to Dadeland mall. I bought 3 different flavors of cupcakes: red velvet, marble, cookies and cream. I must say that these cupcakes were inferior to the ones I had tried from other outlets. The red velvet was good--probably her best--but the frosting had a stale-milk aftertaste. Simply gross. The cookies and cream had an OK taste, but it's color grossed me out. It reminded me of the gray sponge/foam that is behind old dashboards. The marble was digusting. WAAAAAAAYYYYY too moist; it completely fell apart and the taste was not best. However, I do take into consideration that her cake at other outlets have been better. One would just expect her own outlet to have the best quality product.
Then I went to Buttercream. Cozy place, a bit cramped, but nonetheless clean and pleasant to the eye. Being it was a Saturday, I bought--at $2.75 a pop--one of each cupcake: red velvet, oreo, chocolate, vanilla. I was turned off by the way the girl behind the counter handled the cupcakes. Why? She wore only one glove, moved cupcakes around with her un-gloved hand, smeared the frosting on some of the cupcakes (within the glass case) and still had the nerve to place these decrepit cupcakes in my box. Whatever. $12 bucks later I was on my way to test out these cupcakes and hopefully be happy enough to have found a cupcake shop to stop in to indulge on these sweet little treats. Truthfully, I was not wowed. Though I have tried countless cupcakes in my lifetime, I tested each unbiasedly--using no point of reference. The red velvet was dry, out of a box and had a vanilla-bean frosting/cream concoction. The chocolate was moist, as someone else mentioned, bordering on a brownie. Great flavor. The turnoff was that it had the uniform vanilla bean frosting/cream that I was beginning to see on all the cupcakes. It was camouflaged by a uniform layer of chocolate sprinkles. But it was edible. The vanilla was topped by, yes, that same gross vanilla bean frosting/cream. The cookies and cream was too, with the exception of the oreo cookie chunks. These cupcakes were overcooked and, unfortunately, disappointing. There seemed to have been no variety in the 1/3 dozen variety box I purchased. Will I go there again? No. It's a shame. They're in a great location and have a great audience. After waiting a year or so to open, they could have come up with better recipes. Their "quality" ingredients are not enough to make a good cupcake, as obviously experienced in their over-use of the vanilla bean.
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To be honest, the reference to "gross vanilla bean frosting" at buttercream weakens your rant a bit since it is not gross vanilla bean frosting at all, but rather cream cheese frosting on their cupcakes. In the south it is traditionally served with red velvet cake, hence the combination. I actually found it quite good the two times I went. The lime with lime flavored frosting was great. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.
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Red Velvet always has cream cheese frosting. We know that. But when your red velvet cupcake is topped with a gooey cream colored black-speckled concoction whose hint of cream cheese flavor is quickly overpowered by vanilla beans--and looks like the frosting on all other cupcakes--its hard to call it cream cheese frosting! Mikek, I was truly cheering Buttercream on...I was excited to go. But I'm disappointed. It isn't a rant, but a real commentary on what my friend and I experienced. I don't worry about paying for quality or variety, but it's painful to pay $2.75 per cupcake when I can get cheaper and better at a local school bake sale. It is obvious that you love their cupcakes. Unfortunately, I won't be investing in more cupcakes at Buttercream's but I do wish them continued success. When you've experienced the goodness of Eleni's, Magnolia's, Sprinkles, and even some of our own local "made at home" cupcake mavens, you, too, may understand my disappointment.
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Sprinkles website has a "vote for the next location", but you need to give an email. I don't know if it's an actual vote or just a gimmick to get your email and add you to their mailing list. Looking at how slow their expanding (1 this month and 1 over the summer), I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't open a store here until next year.
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I agree some of their flavors leave something to be desired, no questioning that. I actually got a strong CC frosting, but as I said. Different strokes for different folks, hopefully someone will come along and be uniformly successful.
As an aside, I have also found Misha's at the mall to eb far inferior to those at the various spas and restaurants around town. Hopefully Stella's will start branching outside of the custom-order business.
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I agree with you, as a future business owner trying to start my thing up and working for my mother who owns her own businesses I agree, that these people have guts and its not an easy thing. I admire people like Buttercream and Mishas. I think its great what they do. I am a baker and I have to agree, all these cupcakes are high quality, everyone just has different tastes
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Chloe26,
Id have to agree with you on most of your comments on Buttercream, except that I think the service is excellent. I have been there three times and have tried the chocolate, the oreo, and the vanilla. First off, it seems that they are a bit underprepared product wise, the first two times I went they didnt have vanilla cupcakes, only 2-3 flavors on display, the case looked empty but the girls in the back were preparing more. Another thing, I dont know about the rest of the week or if they had just closed for a few hours but I went on a saturday and they opened at 12pm. I almost didnt stop b/c I thought they had somehow gone out of business. I finally did go in right after they opened to find that they only had 2 flavors of cupcakes ready to go, which was kind of disspointing. If they open at 12pm I would think they would have all the flavors ready to go by that time, I mean, theyve had all morning.
Anyways, the place is really cute and somewhat charming. Its clean and the employees are very nice. The chocolate cupcake is my favorite from them. Its moist and almost brownie-like, really yummy. I just wish they would put another type of frosting on it. The oreo one was good but VERY sweet and the vanilla one was good too, very dense and i did not like the combination with the cream cheese frosting. I do like the touch of the vanilla beans, I didnt think they were overpowering but I do think that they overuse cream cheese frosting. It seems like they use it on every cupcake, although I think the oreo one had buttercream on it. I love cream cheese frosting, but not on vanilla or chocolate cupcakes.
I had Misha's cupcakes at the mall, vanilla and chocolate. The cupcakes were really cute, I tried the mini vanilla and chocolate. I thought they were great and her frosting is pretty good, it is a sweet buttery flavor. The only flaw I saw was that the cart was a little dirty, crumbs and greasy fingerprints everywhere and the kid who was working the cart was playing with his cell phone, she should consdider hiring someone a little more responsible.
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Misha's Cupcakes were at the Best of the Best at SoBe Food and Wine on the Friday night and I thought they were great! Sweetcakes I tried to utilize for a special event and they never got back to me for pricing so I had to scramble at the last minute and run to Publix for cupcakes and bought a 3 tier stand for displaying...
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Sorry this is off topic, but how was the best of the best? Was it worth the cost? I had a wedding weekend up in Palm Beach but that was one of the events I definitely want to attend next yr.
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