yummy cupcakes + a cupcake giveaway / encinitas – san diego, ca

If you know me at all, you know I love cupcakes. When I was invited to come and check out a new cupcake shop in town, I was totally on board even if I had to drive allllll the way up to Encintas to get my hands on the cupcakes! The newest shop in town is called Yummy Cupcakes, the first one to open up shop in San Diego (though they have two other locations in Los Angeles and two international locations). Yummy Cupcakes has over 400+ flavors in their repertoire with a daily calendar featuring 17 regular flavors plus an ever changing menu of special flavors, including sugar free, gluten-less, and vegan flavors. Phew!

If you’re already drooling at the prospect, be sure to check out the end of this post for a chance to win one cupcake of your choice!

In additional to all these cupcake flavors, they also mix things up with other items, such as these cupcake parfaits:

and cupcake truffles:

as well as cupcake push pops, cupcake pies, cupcake biscotti and cupcakes in a jar (which you can see later in this post)!

Also… mini cupcakes!

Menus:

I took Jake and his youngest son (S.) with me to the cupcake tasting. Initially we had one of the owners, Renato, start the cupcake tasting with us until his partner, Shannon, could come in and take over since he had to go to an event. He had us start off in a certain order – starting with the lighter, non-chocolate cupcakes first so our taste buds wouldn’t get overwhelmed with the rich chocolate goodness. Very smart!

[hula – pineapple cupcake with pineapple buttercream and rolled in shredded coconut]

We started things off with the Hula – a pineapple cupcake! I have to say that this really went for all of the cupcakes we sampled – these cupcakes are so moist! I’ve had so many dry cupcakes at various places that it was really nice to see cupcakes that were consistently moist and tasty to boot. The Hula has bits of pineapple in the batter itself and the shredded coconut on top put it all together to create a very nice and lightly tropical flavor.

[hidden raspberry (vegan) – vanilla cupcake with a tart raspberry filling, frosted with vanilla buttercream]

I’ve had kind of a mixed bag of feelings about vegan cupcakes. I’ve had some that were good – and some that were just plain bad. I’m happy to report that this one definitely falls into the “good” camp – so good I would actually consider eating it on a regular basis…

The buttercream doesn’t seem to lose anything in this vegan-ized version of it – it still very much tastes like a regular buttercream. They just use plain old raspberry jam – nothing fancy in that regard – but the tartness of the jam complimented the sweet butter quite well. It was nice to see the filling down into the cupcake as well. Plenty of buttercream to go all around!

[glute-less red velvet]

Next we tried the gluten-less red velvet cupcake. Shannon explained they call them glute-less instead of gluten free because they don’t have a separate facility at this time for making the glute-less cupcakes. They also carry red velvet with cream cheese frosting, cocoa cream cheese frosting or half and half. I love the little swirled look!

You can see that the red velvet is quite bright and red – the way a red velvet should be! The cupcake had a little bit of that mealy feel that gluten free products tend to have, but it was actually still quite nice and you could just barely discern the difference. Still moist!

We also sampled the red velvet with the cocoa cream cheese – and while it was good, I would still get vanilla over it.

Jake, my red velvet cupcake fiend, really enjoyed this version and said it was one of his favorites.

[fudge yummy – chocolate cupcake centered with chocolate ganache, frosted with a chocolate buttercream, rolled in pure milk chocolate sprinkles]

When Shannon was getting ready to cut this one open, she explained the flavor – and S.’s eyes practically popped out of his head! He was most excited to try this one!

Once it was cut open and we could see the fudgy frosting had made it’s way into the middle with even more chocolate in the middle… goodness! S. was the first to take a bite… and his eyes lit up… and he immediately took a second bite! This is definitely a dream come true for chocolate lovers. I loved the contrasting types of chocolate – from the frosting, to the ganache, to the cake base and the chocolate sprinkles on top!

[peanut butter cup – chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter center, frosted with a peanut butter buttercream]

Now… this one was my favorite. Peanut butter and chocolate is my all time favorite combination. You can ask Jake – he can totally attest to this. PB + Chocolate anything just makes my heart go pitter-patter. In the six years we’ve dated, whenever we go to Baskin Robbins I think I’ve deviated my flavor choice maybe twice… otherwise always, always going for the chocolate and peanut butter flavor just for those ribbons of peanut butter…

This cupcake has the peanut butter frosting in the middle, with a smear of peanut butter right alongside it! The little bit of pure peanut butter makes this a heavenly combination without it being overpowering, since the buttercream balances it out and adds a little creamy sweetness mixed in with the peanut butter. The chocolate cupcake base fits perfectly here, making this is a super decadent and rich combination.

[old school – chocolate cupcake filled with fresh whipped cream, topped with chocolate ganache, garnished with a “Hostess squiggle” of vanilla bean buttercream]

The Old School is a fun shout out to those packages of Hostess cupcakes. I always preferred the orange one myself, finding the chocolate one to be too rich. This version of the Old School though is a nice throwback.

I love the fresh whipped cream in the middle with the thick, rich chocolate ganache on top. Really, just so much better than those old Hostess cupcakes…

Cupcake in a Jar Demo

We asked if they had any cupcakes in a jar since we were curious what those looked like. But Shannon said they didn’t have any on hand – but that she could do a quick demo for us!

Here’s Shannon prepping to make me a Peanut Butter Cup cupcake in a jar. It uses one and a half cupcakes for the jar.

She sliced the two cupcakes in half and put one layer into the jar.

Then it gets a swirl of peanut butter buttercream on top.

And then a sprinkling of the “stuff” (a mixture of nuts and things).

Then another cupcake half is pressed in.

And repeat! And then repeat once more for that final layer.

Stick a lid on it – and you’re ready to go! I ate the cupcake in a jar maybe a day or two later – and it still tasted really fresh and delicious.

We did manage to take a few cupcakes home to eat later, but I didn’t really get to try any since they were all stolen and eaten! I think that just means that they were good.

Cupcake Giveaway

Now that you’ve seen a tiny sampling of Yummy Cupcakes’ goods, are you ready to try one of their cupcakes on your own? I’ve got seven cards to giveaway that will entitle the holder to one free cupcake of their choice! All you need to do is to comment on this post and enter to win!

Take a peek at their daily calendar or cupcake menu and tell me what flavor you’d choose if you win! (+1 entry)

Like Yummy Cupcakes SD on Facebook for another entry (please leave a separate comment) (+1 entry)

Like This Tasty Life on Facebook for another entry (again, separate comment) (+1 entry)

Like or Share the post about Yummy Cupcakes on This Tasty Life’s Facebook page (separate comment, please!) (+1 entry)

Use one of the Pinterest buttons on this post to pin a cupcake photo (separate comment) (+1 entry)

This contest is sponsored by Yummy Cupcakes. Coupons are only valid at the Encintas location. All comments/entries must be received and posted by August 23rd, 2013 at 8PM PST. 7 winners will be picked via random.org. Good luck!

Yummy Cupcakes
1514 Encinitas Blvd.
Encinitas, CA 92024
760-452-8133

Hours:
M-F / 10AM-7PM
Sa / 10AM-5PM
Closed Sundays

Disclaimer: I was invited to Yummy Cupcakes on behalf of Bam Communications. Our cupcake tasting at Yummy Cupcakes was complimentary. Gift cards were received by Yummy Cupcakes to sponsor the giveaway for this post. I was not paid for this post and all opinions here come from my own brain.