A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

I had been anxiously awaiting the opening of Treat Cupcake Bar in Needham for quite some time-checking the facebook page to see if there were any new updates, driving by…hoping to see lights on….and finally I went last week! Check out this write up on Grub Street: http://boston.grubstreet.com/2010/07/what_to_eat_at_treat_cupcake_b.html

The shop is super cute, located on a Highland Avenue across the street from Anton’s Cleaners.  An all glass storefront with bright colored decals on it make it look like a fun place to be. The inside is adorable! Bright, clean, and inviting-a mix of California style meets Willy Wonka (Oh the cupcakes you could dream up!). They have an open kitchen in the back, a counter with the cupcakes displayed in a glass case with an attached make your own cupcake bar, and lots of seating by the windows!

Personally, making my own cupcake is a novelty I can do without. In fact, I’ll pay you extra so I don’t have to make my own. However, for the kids-I think it’s a great idea…I wish I would have gone to cupcake decorating parties when I was younger. When I went in, it was early afternoon, I was the only one in the shop-it was clean and everything was in its place….however, fade in dreamlike sequence: I can see this place filled with kids, like a big zoo…frosting covered fingers and faces running all about making a mess!

The cupcakes are super cute! They are large in size with a heaping ice cream scoop on icing on some of them-can you say sugar coma?

The rundown:

Red Velvet (everyday): Red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting. The cake was a little dry on the outside, like it was cooked just a minute or two too long. Nice flavor though and the inside was super moist and springy. Love the frosting, and even though it isn’t as sweet as the butter cream, I still can’t eat it all.

Lemon Drop (rotating). Gold cake with lemon frosting, sugar and candy lemon. This cupcake is so cute-my favorite one looks wise. The cake is good-especially with the hidden frosting inside the cake. The sugar crystals are cute to look at, but let’s leave those for the muffins, they made the cupcake a little weird for me. The frosting was good-not too overpowering or tart, just sweet enough!

Creamsicle (seasonal) :Ummm….I have no idea how they do this, but it really tastes like a creamsicle. The cake is swirled on the inside and just not what you expect…although I’m not sure what I expected in the first place!

The Plain Jane (everyday): Vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. Oh my goodness-the frosting! There is a huge ice cream scoop of it on top! I think that it would have been better tasting if the frosting were spread out more. The butter cream is heavy on the butter and super super sweet.

Funky Chunky Oreo: This is supposed to be a chocolate cake with chocolate oreos but this one is gold cake with gold oreos! By far my favorite-even though there was just as much frosting as the plain jane, this was full of oreo bits that cut the sweetness. Make sure you have a fork on hand for this one-there’s no lady like eating here.

Peanut Butter Overload (everyday): Chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting, ganache. The cake was more brownie like than cake like-a little denser than the other cupcakes. The peanut butter icing was good-sweet and mild, not overpowering.

All in all, I thought they were pretty good. I think that all the cupcakes were cooked about a minute or two too long, making them harder on the outside than the inside and not as fluffy as they could be. At $3.25 a pop, I’m looking for perfection! The frosting’s are dense and could use a little scaling back on the portions, but all said this ranks somewhere in the mid-range area of cupcake bakeries for me.

I think this is a great addition to Needham-a place to grab a cup of coffee and a nosh-something different-I mean, how many days in a row can you go to Starbucks? It’s in its early stages, so I guess only time will tell how successful this place will be-this girl is keeping her fingers crossed that Treat sticks around!

Ok, so I went on the facebook site again before publishing this post and found this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGmDxNP8mI0 I officially take back what I said about the potential of a mess. They mix your topping together into the frosting a la Cold Stone style and you just scoop the toppings into your plain cupcake. I have to admit I was imagining do it yourself frosting and scooping of toppings…and the topping area ending up looking like it does at JP Licks. I stand corrected.

Check out this article in the Globe: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2010/07/28/treat_cupcake_bar_in_needham_lets_you_top_off_your_cupcake/

Treat Cupcake Bar

1450 Highland Avenue, Needham MA 781.444.4995

Open Daily from 10am-9pm (I saw on facebook that they are closed Mondays for the time being until they can find another baker)

http://www.treatcupcakebar.com/

Tags: cupcakes