Smallcakes

My daughter is a bit of a cupcake fanatic. Really sweets in general, but she is easily lured in by cupcakes. When she saw that there was a new place in Broad Ripple, she wanted to try it right away. Sadly, the first time we went there, they were totally out of cupcakes. Still open, but no cupcakes. It was kind of a bummer. I guess they also service ice cream, but we were in the market for cupcakes only.

The next time we went early, and luckily, they were fully stocked with everything. We had people over, so we got an assortment of flavors. We had pink chocolate (which is really just chocolate cake with pink buttercream icing, vanilla and chocolate (yellow cake with chocolate buttercream icing), lemon drop, chocolate cream, a dulce du leche, and one with caramel and pretzels that was a special. Oh, and a strawberry one for the daughter’s boyfriend.

The best of the lot was probably the chocolate cream—which looks like a fancy hostess chocolate cupcake with a little cream filling inside and some on top of the fudge icing as well. I liked this one a lot because the cake was one of the moistest of them all and the icing was super rich and fudgy. My next favorite was the lemon drop because it was really fresh and lemony—I was surprised by its tartness, but it was a pleasant surprise. 

The dulce du leche was a favorite as well—I think the caramel and cream added moisture too. The regular ones with buttercream were the least exciting and also the dryer ones of the lot. They didn’t have any filling either, which added to the dryness.  I love a vanilla cake with chocolate icing, but I would have preferred a fudgy icing likes the one on the chocolate cream. 

All in all, a tasty addition to Broad Ripple, with some tasty options that I would get again. If you’ve had any of the special flavors, let me know your favorites.

Smallcakes

930 Broad Ripple Ave

Indy 46220

317/389-5447

www.smallcakescupcakery.com

Parcha Sweets

******PARCHA SWEETS IS CLOSED*********

I thought I would just throw this little mini-review in because my daughter and I stopped in to Parcha Sweets on a whim last week.  First of all, best use of an old Domino’s Pizza building.  They have moved into this space and from the moment you walk in, you are greeted with the smell of freshly baked treats.   Now I enjoy a cupcake from time to time, but I have not really followed the whole cupcake frenzy that has taken over the Country.  I know there are several cupcake bakeries in town, but I haven’t really tried most of them.

Like I said, we sort of stumbled in to this one because we needed to kill 15 minutes before we went to our next appointment.  They have set the space up with a little sitting area and even have wifi I believe. The chef is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu and according to the website, has worked all over the country and won all kinds of awards.  Anyway, I sort of let my daughter pick what she wanted, which of course was all chocolate (called chocolate passion).  I also got a couple of mini s’mores and a chilled cupcake called “sweet milk.”

So the cupcakes are quite good—I really liked the slightly chewy cake part of the s’mores one and the little lightly browned marshmallows on top of some chocolate icing that were sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs.  I think the full sized s’mores cupcakes are slightly different than these little mini ones (I think they are filled), but I liked that these were sort of like one big bite.  This one was my favorite I think.

The all chocolate one was quite rich and the cake was very moist.  It was covered with a chocolate ganache frosting and was thoroughly enjoyed by my daughter (I thought she might cry when I asked her to share a bit of it).

The “sweet milk” cupcake was very unusual and I enjoyed it as well.  It is a vanilla cake that is soaked in 3 kinds of milk—not just moist, but actually juicy—by the time we got home it was leaking a little bit.  It was topped with marshmallow fluff frosting and topped with a cherry.  Really unique and seriously, you can’t get a moister cupcake. I like that they have so many unusual flavors and offer many of them all the time (usually just a few on display at a time).

I have been back once to get my daughter another chocolate one, and both times the staff (the second time it was the Chef herself) were extremely kind and helpful in making selections.  My son has a nut allergy and the Chef went through each one telling me the ingredients.

Like I said, I haven’t really been to most of the other cupcakeries in town, but I like this one, and it is probably the closest to my house.  But I know a lot of you know more about this than I do, so please tell me which places you like and why.

Parcha Sweets

2101 Broad Ripple Ave

Indy 46220

317/254-2000

www.parchasweets.com