This past weekend I visited my parents in Waldorf, MD, and came across Safeway’s Gourmet Cupcakes in their Bakery section. Instantly intrigued, I bought three: Mint Chocolate, S’mores, and Vanilla Pineapple (they were $2.99 per cupcake).
After leaving the Vanilla Pineapple with my Mom to try, I brought back the other two to share with Crusaders Jenn and Stacy!
After making glass bowls at McFadden Art Glass (yes, on top of eating lots of cupcakes the three of us also love doing artsy things like blowing glass!) we stopped by McDonalds to try said “gourmet” cupcakes. McDonalds happen to by close by and we had decided coffee would be a good companion to our cupcake sampling.
The Mint Chocolate cupcake was covered in mint and cookies butter cream icing with a chocolate covered Oreo on top – which we all agreed were the best parts of this cupcake as the cake was dry, almost tasteless and just plain dull. I could have eaten the icing all day, with it’s not-too-sweet minty cookie deliciousness, and did finish all of it, including what was stuck to the container.
I’ve been waiting to try a S’mores cupcake FOREVER and was very excited by the ganache covered icing with gram cereal and marshmallows on top. It looked better than it tasted, period. The cereal was very chewy, the chocolate overpowered the marshmallows, and again the cake was dry and tasteless. The three of us agreed – the silver lining of this cupcake was again the icing. Stacy, who is not a huge chocolate icing fan, really liked it, and that’s very impressive for grocery store icing! It was smooth, chocolatey, and not too sweet. I really like when chocolate (or cocoa) is allowed to shine in its own glory and not sweetened to the point of being unrecognizable. This icing allowed for that and we all went scraping for a little more of it – leaving the left over cake naked of it’s icing.
I’m not sure I would spend that much on Safeway cupcakes again – now, if they start selling just containers of the icing, count us in!
– Review by Cupcake Crusader, Elisa (Baltimore, MD)
Cupcake Crusaders 
I have to say that $2.99 really is too much for these cupcakes, especially considering that Starry Night’s “Quirky” cupcakes are only $2.50 and their regular selections are $2.00!
I just got 5 of these cupcakes (1.99 each) and I have to say that it was the best $2 I have ever spent! It was heaven in my mouth, not dry at all and the creamcheese icing with the chocolate shell was AMAZING!! I WILL be buying again! LOVE LOVE LOVE them..
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Hi Laura! Did you go to the exact same Safeway? I’ve had others at different Safeway’s since this review that I actually really liked. Especially a Cherry Cheesecake one. Just curious if it was the same or different location? Have they lowered their prices? The ones we purchased were $3 each. Even if it was at the same location, unfortunately that’s one of the things about cupcakes, sometimes the quality control isn’t there so it just depends on what day you go. Thanks for reading!
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