The following facts are true:
- I love pasta with cheesy sauce.
- I love cupcakes.
In the spirit of sharing our knowledge with others, I would like to discuss two important things that I have learned over the past two days:
1. Kraft Dinner’s “healthy-ish” Pasta Sucks.
Last night I tried Kraft Dinner’s Whole Wheat White Cheddar pasta. It. Is. Disgusting. I have eaten my fair share of whole wheat pasta, but this was just such an awful texture, and the sauce had such an odd taste that after a few bites I actually threw the whole pot away (knowing nobody in my family would eat it). Ew, ew, ew.
An amazing alternative? Annie’s Homegrown Natural White Cheddar Shells. I can eat an entire box by myself, and it is amazing stuff. Still in the healthy, natural range, but textured nicely and with AMAZING sauce. I ran out a few weeks ago, which is why I bought the KD as an alternative… big mistake.
2. Cupcakes Should Be Done By A Professional
Starbucks re-released their cupcake line, which if I recall correctly, we haven’t seen since I was in the 12th grade, in 2006. At first, I was excited, because the idea of cupcakes being readily available of course thrills me. I was soon backtracking on this thought, as I was underwhelmed by the tiny cake offerings at this coffee shop. They are bland and dry and I was unimpressed. Obviously, I can’t really give you an alternative that you could try, although I would LOVE to figure out who makes the best cupcake in the world, but I will share the following:
Crave, with 4 locations in Calgary, tops my list with their chocolate Princess cupcake. It is chocolate base, with pink icing (which makes it my signature colours, essentially). The frosting is butter cream, with strawberry. You can tell they use strawberry, because it doesn’t taste just like strawberry flavour, but actual strawberry.
Buttercream, with albeit a not-as-pretty website (cry), also does something amazing with their Chocolate Diva. A chocolate base with chocolate frosting? Hell yeah. And pink sprinkles? Yes, please! Over Christmas they infused the chocolate icing with mint, and I LOVED it. This is shocking, because usually I DESPISE chocolate mint.
As a cupcake expert, I beg you to see reason, and let not a Starbucks cupcake pass thy lips (unless you’re TERRIBLY desperate and in the middle of nowhere), when there are plenty of fully qualified people out there who can do a good job. In fact, you may be one of them. Jump on over to the easy chocolate cake recipe and try it yourself! ANYTHING has to be better than the icky mass-manufactured taste of the Starbucks cupcake.
The problem with ANY Starbucks product is that they’re never really “fresh.” When I worked at Caribou Coffee, we originally had products baked hours prior and then would have them delivered around 5am for 5:30am opening.. They were actually pretty decent back then especially the breads (mmm chocolate marble!) but eventually they saw that it was a waste as unused product had to be thrown out.
Now they switched to… fresh refrigerated? lol. They’ll get in a box of product (muffins, bread, scones, et al.) which is basically good for a month. Any unused product product from the night would just be refrigerated again until the whole box was sold off or it hit expiration..Which if you think about it.. product that sits in the front case (which I guess is still a fridge) goes back into another fridge if it doesn’t sell.. Not too appealing majority of the time
I can only guess Starbucks does the same with their bakery products as none of them have time/space/money to bake in store :(.
Starbucks anything is not that great. D: Homemade cupcakes (and other baked goods as well) are the best! Fresh out of the oven = mmmmm.
“In the middle of nowhere.” I don’t even have a Starbucks very near me.
I do have bakeries, though, and they have really yummy cupcakes with cream cheese frosting mmmmm.
Cupcakes are so much better than cakes for some reason. D:
I actually just had a Starbucks cupcake like 15 minutes ago. I think they’re pretty tasty. Each to their own I guess. *shrugs* Obviously nothing beats gourmet or homemade, but I think Starbucks cupcakes are much better than the ones you get at the grocery store.
The only things I’ve ever gotten at Starbucks are the fruit drinks and a pastry on occasion. And thank you for warning me about that Kraft pasta dinner. I too love pasta with lots of cheese, so I’ll make sure to avoid that one next time I see it in the supermarket. LOL
Haha quite an in-depth observation you have there!! I personally love Crumbs cupcakes, and when I visited Los Angeles, I tried Sprinkles cupcakes and they were awesome. I personally just like to make my own cupcakes from either vanilla or yellow cake betty crocker batter with pullsbury vanilla frosting. When it comes to pasta, I like angel hair pasta and regular pasta from barilla and I either use kraft powder cheese mix or deluxe cheese.
There are several renowned bakeries in my area that all sell delicious cupcakes that are to die for. I could never buy a mass-produced cupcake after tasting the cupcakes these bakeries have to offer :P
I love cupcakes. For the holidays I think we had 2 or 3 dozen cupcakes in the kitchen, it made me very full, and full of icing lol.
Have you tried Bliss yet? My list goes Crave, Bliss, Buttercream. Although Buttercream does have more flavor options.