While I’m sorting through photos from my recent adventures in Ontario (yes, there were cupcakes) I wanted to share this short review from a surprise cupcake the Crusaders and I encountered last week. You may not know this about us, but some might consider us theater nerds. Okay, it’s true. We are total theater geeks and we love every minute of it. Last week, on our recent trip to the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore, to see the National Tour of the Broadway revival La Cage Aux Folles, we decided to have dinner at the theater’s cafe, Hipp Cafe.

Crusader Elisa was running a bit behind and Crusader Jenn wouldn’t be joining us until shortly after dinner, so I went ahead and waited in line to place our order since it was quite busy. While studying the menu and deciding what to order I saw “Giant Rainbow Cup Cake” listed under the desserts section. I thought the use of “Cup Cake” (two separate words) was a little strange, and knew I was going to be ordering one as a surprise for the girls (strange things intrigue me). When I got to the counter, I saw that it wasn’t really anything unusual at all, just a normal, but large, cupcake.

I have to admit that since I was reading off the menu, the way they used two words for “cup cake” threw me off a little bit and I actually ended up giving a pause between them while ordering. I definitely sounded a little awkward but the woman helping me didn’t seem to notice. Or she was just too kind to let on.

When the cupcake arrived it was decorated in the typical cupcake fashion except that the cupcake wrapper had already been removed and 3 swirls of whipped cream were added. I don’t think the whipped cream was necessary since the frosting was actually a whipped frosting too, but I guess they were trying to make it a bit fancy.

The frosting was almost identical to that which usually accompanies a carton of cheap cupcakes in the bakery section of a grocery store. If I recall correctly, the cupcake was about $4, so for the price, the quality isn’t what I expected.

The cake was really dense and sweet. It almost had a caramelized sugar taste, without tasting like caramel (confusing, I know, but it was actually pretty good). Elisa thought that the combination of the frosting and the cake resembled the flavor of cotton candy.

We saved a decent amount of the cupcake for Jenn, and she agreed that the frosting wasn’t very good, but she did nibble on the cake a bit before we had to head into the theater. (I had a few more nibbles too. I have no self control.)

Even though Hipp Cafe’s cupcake didn’t deserve a standing ovation, their food was actually pretty decent. Since there are a lack of restaurants around the theater (which I don’t understand at all) I think we will definitely go back again, but I think we’ll be skipping the “Cup Cakes.”

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