Red Velvet Cupcake by Sophie's Mom

First blood: Sophie's Mom
Price: P50
Branch: SM Megamall

The Cupcake Project's first in line, Sophie's Mom's Red Velvet Cupcakes. I haven't done any research at all about their history or who Sophie is or more importantly, who her mom is - but if you were wondering, maybe google can help with that. But I do know that they have their main branch at a village in the south (not a south girl here, sorry). Is that enough background? Hihi. Anyway, the mandatory cupcake shots:

The first thing I noticed at first bite was its firm cream cheese frosting. It has that semi-solid cream consistency, something that won't melt or run easily. The frosting is rich and I can really taste the sourness in it, new from the default sweetness of most [red velvet] frosting.

The cake is on the dense and packed side, which I like. It also has enough moisture to make it feel soft, and the frosting's creaminess provide the rest of the needed moisture to have it melt and dissolve beautifully in the mouth. The cake isn't sweet, and contains bits of dark chocolate which are a nice touch and will be appreciated by those who prefer the not-too-sweet kind of cupcake. It's filling, really.

OUT OF 5:

Melts in your mouth: 4

Moisture: 3.5

Packed or Light: On the packed side

Value for Money: 4

Raving? It's a good one.

The Cupcake Project.

A random addiction has hit me. CUPCAKES.

I am a dessert person. My favorite would be pastries, more than ice cream or candies or chocolates - but that's not to say I don't like the others. Anything that's sweet makes me happy. Pastries just are a wide range and I really appreciate how they are made and prettified to convince dumb and low-EQed buyers like me.

And caving to the temptation isn't really an issue. I say I reason well and I can pretty much justify whatever I want to do (or eat - except for budget issues), so my indulgence guilt only wins at a rate of 1 is to 4 (useless inaccurate statistic). Because when I can no longer defend my indulgence, I just drop everything and say, demmit. YOLO. Joke.

I've been craving (and yielding to) cupcakes for some weeks now and I've decided to start documenting. I usually prefer cakes but because cupcake frostings make temptations 1000x more difficult to resist, I've recently started exploring this side of the cake.

So The Cupcake Project is all about... reviewing cupcakes.

A. I don't know how to bake. So if you guys thought I'll be baking some cupcakes, I am disappointed at myself too. *pa-cute sad face*
B. I will only be reviewing 3 kinds of cupcakes:

1. Red Velvet. (just because)
2. Any peppermint-flavored cupcake. (because I love love choco mint chocolate, choco mint ice cream, and choco mint candies. So if I come across any peppermint cupcakes, I will have to try them out.)
3. A different flavor. (When I say different, it should be different. No just-another-chocolate-twist, or some variation of everyday fruit flavors. Very subjective but i'll try to find these types.)

I only have ONE Reviewing Rule:

It's all about the cupcake.

Meaning:

1. Its mass popularity (or the lack of it) is irrelevant to the rating of the cupcake.
2. The store aesthetics, the kind of service I received, and its packaging, no matter how tempting to include in the review, will stay out of it. (but may or may not be shown in pictures)
3. Price is the only non-actual-cupcake factor to be valued.

And another list.

What I like in a cupcake:

Obviously, this review is based on satisfying my liking. So I am sorry if we do not have the same opinions, but at least we'll get to know the cupcake from 1 (out of infinite aka the world population -- because I don't want to google the world's actual population) perspective. :)

1. I like 'em rich, dense, and sinful. (we're talking about cupcakes here. hahaha.)
2. I love surprises. (still about cupcakes. ya know, after the bite. haha.)

Disclaimer: I am not a food blogger. In fact, if you backread my food-bearing posts you'll see that in describing my meals, I only use "yummy" and "delicious" and other preschool adjectives. I will now though try to be more vivid. I just love sweets and I would like to remind myself of the experience I've had in eating them by storing them in paper (internet). (Deym. Maybe this is a bad idea. Creating another venue for temptation!)


So, game na ba?


I will start, not today. But will do soon! :)


*Currently eating the cupcake pictured above. :)*

Summer where it rains.

I finally, finally got to go out of town with friends now, from since approximately... I don't know, my birth! And I mean to a place where it requires an airplane to get to -- because Tagaytay etc do not exactly qualify ---- let's say, some place like Boracay. Boracay!

I spent the last weekend of September at Boracay with girl co-workers. I am currently the unica ija of the MTs so my girl pals at the office belong to another set of friends. Anyway, they invited me to go last mid September and because 1.) I've always wanted to travel with friends, 2.) the fare and accommodations were cheap and 3.) the schedule was perfect - fit seamlessly with my work sched (only half day friday leave!) and body hormones sched (you get me), it was a no-brainer. Count.me.in!

I had the flight booked that same afternoon, and only told my parents about it the day after. They can't do anything about it that way, I guess, and it was more of an FYI than a "May I" sort of thing. Sneaky. My Cinderella days are really now ~evolving. Haha!

Here are a few (I lie. I tried to paste in only a few but...) photos from that weekend:

Of course, plenty of pics just calls for filtering. The boracay stories will stay there, and among us 5. It was a gloomy Saturday then but was followed by a scorching hot Sunday; so at least we got to experience both sky moods.

I was able to get a few things from there, 2 of which are these:

Bottled salsa and vinaigrette. I am yet to taste the vinaigrette, and the salsa's already more than halfway finished. It tastes sour and may be bordering tomato paste sour (good texture/consistency though) but I love it that way! I just add in some basil and a pinch of salt to really bring out it's flavor (I havo NO idea of what I am talking about but I add them in anyway). Next time I go there, I'll probably hoard more of these. I think this salsa cost me P165? And the vinaigrette's only P120. Not bad.

I am still missing the sand and beautiful vibes from that beautiful weekend. I truly hope that more adventures come in at this last quarter of the year.

Thank You for all these!! :)