I have a confession to make. I tried to cheat on cupcakes with another sweet treat… ice cream. While I adore cupcakes, my sweet tooth does not discriminate. So last Thursday I thought I would try to mix it up a bit, but the cupcake gods would not allow this. I headed to an area in Baltimore called Mt. Washington to visit an ice cream parlor that I’ve been wanting to try for a while. Well, online their hours say they open at 12pm, but their storefront said 3pm. As I sadly left empty handed, I noticed that Charm City Cupcakes has apparently opened a small shop in Mt. Washington. This info is still not on their website or on the info section of their  Facebook Page, but I did notice a wall graphic that mentioned it was coming soon. Since I didn’t know this, and I had not been able to satisfy my sweet tooth, I was ecstatic to see their cute little shop. I wish I had gotten photos of it becuase it’s was so quaint with just enough room for a display case and a small counter. The gentleman working there was so friendly too. He asked about my day and described all the cupcakes they had there. It was a tough choice, but I made my final selections:

Mint Chocolate and Chocolate Turtle. After my less-than-fantastic Chocolate Turtle cupcake from IcedGems (read more here), I was really excited about this one. Charm City Cupcakes is probably the longest, still running, cupcake place in Baltimore City. I’ve had their cupcakes several times over the years, so I knew these would not disappoint.

My co-worker and I had just been talking earlier that day about cupcakes becuase she was thinking about stopping to get some after work. I was really hoping that she would share at least one of these with me, and as soon as I said, “Chocolate Turtle with Caramel and Pecans” she did not have to be convinced.

I already knew that when I cut into this there would be a caramel filling, since the nice man at the shop told me about that. The chocolate cake was moist, the caramel was nice and gooey, and the frosting was light and smooth. The pecan/caramel mixture that tops the cupcake was very similar to what you might find on a Cinnabon pecan stick bun. This entire cupcake worked well. It was decadent while not being overly sweet.

I decided to save the Mint Chocolate for the following day. Since I was at work, I didn’t have any Tupperware to keep it in, and was worried about it drying out, but figured I would take the risk instead of taking it home just to bring back the next day. I was glad I saved it, becuase the next day Cupcake Crusader, Jenn, and her little Leah came in to visit and were able to share it with me.

I’m a big fan of chocolate and mint together, so right away I was really excited about this one. The cake did end up getting a little dry, but I know that was because I left it in it’s box, and not becuase of Charm City Cupcakes since the chocolate cake from the Turtle cupcake had been perfectly moist. That didn’t stop this from being a fantastic cupcake though. The mint frosting was light and fluffy and full of minty goodness. It had a chocolate ganache filling, which I wasn’t expecting but was a nice touch.

All in all, this was a very wonderful unexpected cupcake surprise! If you would like to try any of their cupcakes, you can visit one of their 3 locations:

– Mt. Washington, Smith Avenue
– Downtown, Charles Street
– John Hopkins University (Blackstone Building), Charles Street

– Posted by Cupcake Crusader, Stacy (Baltimore, MD)