Tag Archives: best cupcakes in kansas city

Guest Post: Third-Favorite Bakery in the Kansas City Suburbs | Sugar Rush | Olathe, Kansas

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We are excited to share this guest post from fellow cupcake addict Kim of kimberlyloc.com. Every Tuesday for the month of November, check out Kim’s guest posts as she names her top five favorite cupcakeries the Kansas City suburbs. Visit kimberlyloc.com every Tuesday in November to see our top five picks for our favorite cupcake shops in Baltimore City.

While I live within walking distance of three cupcakeries, I do spend a lot of time a few miles down the street at my boyfriend’s (aka “the teacher man”) place. His apartment straddles the Overland Park/Olathe, Kansas, line, so it’s not uncommon for me to sometimes hungrily roam about the Olathe strip malls in search of food.

During one recent hunting and gathering session, I found Sugar Rush and was eager to see what the new shop had to offer.


(Sugar Rush is located at 138th and Black Bob in Olathe, Kansas. Photo Courtesy KimberlyLoc.com)

When I walked in, the perfectly frosted cupcakes greeted me. Each cupcake was labeled with an adorably handwritten nameplate, and I was impressed by how many flavor options were available. I chatted with the girl behind the counter and chose four cupcakes to take home and share with the teacher man.


(I ooooed and awwwed over the cupcake display at Sugar Rush. Photo Courtesy KimberlyLoc.com)

Because I’m a die-hard chocoholic, I couldn’t resist trying the Sugar Rush’s triple chocolate cupcake. Rich chocolate cake and milk chocolate frosting topped with chocolate chips made for a triple threat to my taste buds…and boy did my taste buds like it!


(Sugar Rush’s triple chocolate cupcake packs a 1-2-3 punch — in a good way! Photo Courtesy KimberlyLoc.com)

This cupcake rocked. If you’re a chocolate lover, get this cupcake! It’s not overpowering — the different layers of chocolate, from the luscious dark chocolate cake to the smooth, milky chocolate frosting and bits of chocolate chips, give your mouth different flavor sensations instead of chocolate overload. Just make sure you have a tall glass of milk to wash it down.

In between sips of milk (you know, to cleanse the palate), I tested the other cupcakes. I alternated between chocolate-heavy and other cupcakes (yes, in my world, there is “chocolate” and “other” flavors!) so I could fairly judge the chocolates and not go into sugar shock. To balance out the decadence of the triple chocolate, I moved on to the snickerdoodle cupcake, the perfect balance of cinnamon and sugar.


(Swirls of cinnamon and sugar make Sugar Rush’s snickerdoodle cupcake a delight. Photo Courtesy KimberlyLoc.com)

As you can see, this snickerdoodle cupcake is loaded with frosting — which is a bonus to me — but what I think even non-frosting fanatics could like about this cupcake is that the icing is faintly flavored. Yes, the cinnamon and sugar shine through, but it’s not so sickly sweet that you just can’t eat it. It’s a perfect match to the moist, flavorful cinnamon cake and, just to be honest, I’d like to have this for breakfast as often as possible!

If cupcakes for breakfast just aren’t an option (fine!), then how about a cupcake inspired by one of my favorite snacks? I had to get a peanut butter cup cupcake from Sugar Rush because peanut butter and chocolate goes together way better than peanut butter and jelly.


(Nothing beats a cupcake with a piece of candy on top! Photo Courtesy KimberlyLoc.com)

Chocolate cake, whipped peanut butter frosting and a Reese’s on top made this cupcake heavenly. The cake was perfect like the triple chocolate’s. I liked the fluffy consistency of this frosting — how’d they get peanut butter to seem so airy instead of sticky? If you’re a pb&c kind of gal or gent, get this cupcake.

So with three spot-on reviews so far, and no criticism about the cake or frosting, why is Sugar Rush at No. 3 on the list?

Blame the carrot cake.


(Carrot cake is a classic — but this one just didn’t do it for me. Photo Courtesy KimberlyLoc.com)

The girl behind the counter told me that the carrot cake cupcake were great and also lasted a little longer than the other cupcakes (I was taste-testing over the weekend and worried that I’d need to save a cupcake to taste for later, which I didn’t), so I decided to try it.

When I first dove in to the carrot cake cupcake, I was pleasantly surprised by the smooth cream cheese frosting and light carrot flavor. But, something was off about the cake.

Most carrot cakes I’ve had have never had an issue with dryness — and Sugar Rush even said that the carrot cake cupcakes typically last longer — so this just didn’t add up to me. I had a few more bites of cake only, and even throughout the middle of the cake, it was just not as moist as it could have been.

While there is obviously room for improvement here that could eventually catapult Sugar Rush to the top, I think that the one common thread between my No. 2 and No. 1 picks (coming in the next two weeks) is that they are both consistently delicious in all their flavors. Sugar Rush is new, small and family-run, so I think it’s a great accomplishment to begin turning heads so quickly in the competitive KC cupcake business. I’ll definitely be back to get another sampling of the 20-something flavors offered…and yes, I’ll take another test run with the carrot cake.

What classic cupcakes do you always expect consistency from? What makes or breaks it to you when it comes to choosing your favorite cupcakeries? Tell me what you think in the comments section.

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Guest Post: Fifth-Favorite Bakery in the Kansas City Suburbs | Best Regards Bakery | Overland Park, Kansas

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We are excited to share this guest post from fellow cupcake addict Kim of Kimberlyloc.com. Every Tuesday for the month of November, check out Kim’s guest posts as she names her top five favorite cupcakeries the Kansas City suburbs. Visit Kimberlyloc.com every Tuesday in November to see our top five picks for our favorite cupcake shops in Baltimore City.

Kansas City is known as the “City of Fountains,” but pretty soon, KC and the surrounding suburbs could become know as the “City of Cupcakeries.”

When the Cupcake Crusaders and I decided to guest post about our favorite cupcakeries in our respective areas, I bit off more than I could chew. My Kansas City cupcake hit list grew to more than 20 bakeries, mobile units and traditional cupcakeries that I knew I would need a little more time (and some bigger elastic waist pants) to eat my way through all this frosting and cake.

Because I live in the KC suburbs (hello, Overland Park!), I thought it’d make sense to name my top five suburban cupcakes to narrow it down a bit.

The basis of my very-scientific methodology stems from reviewing only cupcake shops that call the suburbs of Overland Park, Leawood, Lenexa, Olathe and Prairie Village, Kansas, home. That means that if the shop’s original location is in Kansas City proper, and then opened up another shop outside of KC, the cupcakery was denoted as “Kansas City” and was not included in this lineup.

Number five in my lineup, Best Regards Bakery in Overland Park, Kansas, is tucked away at 119th and Glenwood, just west of the massive Cheesecake Factory and Whole Foods Market.

A traditional bakery serving fresh-made breads, breakfast pastries, cookies and cupcakes, Best Regards’ main focus isn’t on its cupcakes — which is a shame, because the little cakes I tried were tasty, but there’s a little bit of room for improvement that could really take this local bakery to the next level in the competitive Kansas City-area cupcake market.

Though Best Regards offers about 10 different cupcake flavors a day, I chose to sample a few traditional flavors — chocolate decadence and red velvet — in addition to the rockstar raspberry limoncello that made Best Regards’ own “Top 5 Goodies” list.

At the shop, I dug in to the chocolate decadence cupcake, a chocolate cake topped with a dreamy chocolate frosting made from high-quality European cocoa and a few chocolate chips.


(Chocolate Decadence. Photo courtesy Kimberlyloc.com)

For a frosting fanatic like myself, I can attest to the deliciousness of the icing on this cupcake. It was smooth, velvety and rich — yet not overpowering — and really made the chocolate decadence cupcake a gem. The cake, however, was a tad bit dry. Nothing that a glass of milk couldn’t help, but I think the amazing frosting on this cake seriously made me consider Best Regards Bakery for my top five list.

The next cupcake I sampled, the time-honored red velvet, had a reverse problem from the chocolate decadence cupcake. While the cake was extremely moist, the frosting was so sugary sweet (and I’m addicted to sugar) that it was just too overpowering for even my taste buds to handle.


(Red Velvet. Photo courtesy Kimberlyloc.com)

I’d be willing to give this red velvet another shot if the sugar content of the frosting tones down so that the cream cheese can really shine through — and those sprinkles can stay, too.

After sampling two just-fine cupcakes with minor, easily fixable issues, I moved on to the much-anticipated raspberry limoncello cupcake. This sweet and sour cupcake reminds me of sunny summer days and fresh fruit from the farmer’s market.


(Raspberry Limoncello. Photo courtesy Kimberlyloc.com)

If the frosting from the chocolate decadence cupcake is what made me put Best Regards into my “to consider” slot, the raspberry limoncello cupcake is what secured the bakery a slot on my top five list.

The combination of perfectly moist tangy, tart lemon cake with a dollop of slightly sweet raspberry frosting had me smacking my lips and scraping the bottom of the cupcake wrapper for every last bit. The lemony cake, made with real lemon juice, tasted like summer. I imagined fresh-squeezed lemonade and sugar cubes when I bit into this cupcake. The raspberry frosting added a subtle sweetness to really balance out the tart cake. Bonus points for the dash of glitter on the frosting

How do you judge the perfect cupcake? Are you a frosting freak? A cake connoisseur? Tell me what makes or breaks a cupcake and a bakery in the comments section.