Tag Archives: Cockeysville

Groovy Girl Cupcakes

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We love getting tips and cupcake sightings from our family, friends, and readers. Without their recommendations, we’d miss out on so many opportunities to try new cupcakes. A recent “tip-off” lead us to Groovy Girl Cupcakes, a trailer fully equipped with a commercial kitchen, located in Cockeysville, MD.

We don’t typically find ourselves in that area very often, but we each recently completed an eight week beginners’ calligraphy course with CCBC. So, every Thursday after work I would head up York Road for our evening class. I’m not sure how I missed the cupcake trailer, maybe because it’s parked by a gas station and I’ve never thought to glance in that direction?

After talking with Crusaders Jenn and Elisa, I decided to get just two flavors (Elisa wasn’t joining us for class that evening). They had about 8 flavors to choose from and it was really hard to just pick two, but I settled on the Butter Pecan (that was an easy selection) and the S’mores (came highly recommended).

Jenn and I decided that it probably wasn’t the best idea to eat cupcakes in the middle of our calligraphy class (things can get messy with pens, ink, and paper strewn all over our desks), so before going our separate ways, there was a solid debate on who would take which cupcake. Normally, we would just cut them in half, but we hadn’t taken any pictures and didn’t have a knife. In the end, since I bought the cupcakes, I won with my choice of the Butter Pecan.

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(Like my fun little graphic? Learning the basics to calligraphy was so much fun! The three of us have decided to join the local guild and continue learning new techniques and experimenting with different pens, inks, and paper. We are addicted.)

Butter Pecan isn’t a flavor that I come across often, so I was really hoping this would be a great cupcake. Plus, the service at the cupcake trailer was wonderful and you could tell that the baker invests a lot of love into her treats. Giving a bad review with such good service is never fun. I wish I could say that this cupcake was amazing, but really, it was just good. Not bad, but just okay. The overall flavor of the cupcake was a nice blend of sweet and buttery with really strong pecan flavor (they do get extra points for this, I love pecans!), however the cake was a little dry.

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Jenn had similar thoughts on the S’mores cupcake. She told me that the chocolate cake had a graham cracker baked into the bottom and it was filled with a light marshmallow filling, “that was wonderful.” But like mine, the cake was a little dry around the outer edges, however she thought that the combined flavors were really good.

I wish I had taken a picture of the cupcake trailer, but it was dark and I was on a time crunch. If you get a chance, if for no other reason than to see their adorable trailer and experience their great customer service, you should definitely stop by and try a cupcake or two for yourself.

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

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Candy Bar Cupcakes at Flavor Cupcakery

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Facebook can be a dangerous, if not a fattening, thing. How you ask? Well, last week I saw that Flavor Cupcakery would be presenting five candy bar themed cupcakes as part of a contest and my interest was automatically piqued. Then, I remembered my friend, Sarah, would be coming off a month long “candy fast” on September 1st, the same day that Flavor Cupcakery would have all five candy themed cupcakes. The wheels in my head started working and I asked Sarah if she would be interested in having a girls night featuring these cupcakes as a way to break her fast. Crusader Jenn was also included in our evening festivities, but unfortunately Crusader Elisa was out of town for the holiday weekend.

After a gluttonous dinner of cheesesteaks and french fries (we decided to go all out this evening…) we started in on the cupcake tasting. This was the first time Sarah had joined us for a “Crusader Tasting” and I think she thought we were nuts got a kick when we started taking notes. We take cupcake eating very seriously.


(M&M’s cupcake from Flavor Cupcakery)

The M&M’s sparked our curiosity the most because for a chocolate candy, the cake and frosting seemed to be vanilla based; however, the surprise was in the center. Flavor Cupcakery took the idea of a candy coated chocolate literally so that the cupcake and frosting represented the candy coating and inside was a milk chocolate filling. With the crunchy mini M&M’s on the rim of the frosting, this cupcake really tasted like an M&M’s candy. The cake was moist and the frosting just sweet enough with the addition of the sweet little candies, making this a very enjoyable cupcake.


(Milky Way cupcake from Flavor Cupcakery)

The next cupcake on our list was Milky Way. Unfortunately this cupcake didn’t wow us like the first. I wasn’t a fan of the milk chocolate frosting (but that’s not a hit against Flavor Cupcakery, I have just never been a fan of milk chocolate frosting) and Jenn didn’t think the caramel had a good flavor. Then, with the cake being vanilla, it didn’t really convey the feeling of a chocolately Milky Way bar.


(Ferrero Rocher cupcake from Flavor Cupcakery)

Slightly disappointed, but already starting a sugar high, we moved onto the Ferrero Rocher cupcake. I was most excited about this cupcake because I LOVE Ferrero Rochers. There is something about the crunchy outside and gooey inside that makes me want to do a little dance. While this cupcake was over-the-top decadent, we agreed that the hazelnut flavor wasn’t present enough to really make this candy bar themed cupcake successful, however, its overall flavor was so rich and wonderful that it was still a favorite of the evening.


(Twix cupcake from Flavor Cupcakery)

The Twix cupcake had mixed reviews. Jenn, who wasn’t a fan of the caramel filling, didn’t think it represented the candy well and that the chocolate cake overpowered the other flavors. I agreed with this slightly, but thought that the cookie bottom was a nice touch and added a good texture to the cupcake. Again, it was another tasty cupcake, but slightly missed the mark when it came to representing the true flavor of a Twix candy bar.


(Take 5 cupcake from Flavor Cupcakery)

Being big fans of the salty/sweet combo and Take 5 candy bars, we saved this one for last. The peanut butter frosting combined with the caramel filling, chocolate cake, and pretzel crumble bottom, really worked well together. While the pretzel got a bit soft due to the moisture of the cake and frosting, the flavors in this cupcake were still spot on. The only other downside to this cupcake was that the pretzel base didn’t hold together well, so it was hard to get the pretzel bits in one bite with the cake and frosting. But this was still our favorite of the group and we voted for it in Flavor Cupcakery’s contest.

Our final thoughts are that these are some of the best cupcakes we’ve had from Flavor Cupcakery, even if some were not true representations of the candy bars they mimicked. Each had moist cake and smooth buttery frosting and were a great addition to a junk food fest girls’ night. If you didn’t have a chance to try these cupcakes, follow Flavor Cupcakery on Facebook to find out the winning flavor because they will be featuring it on the fall menu as a regular item.

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

Christmas in August at Flavor Cupcakery

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When I saw that Flavor Cupcakery was doing their very own “Christmas in August” featuring their winter themed Cupcake Wars cupcakes, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to stop into their fairly new storefront in Cockeysville, MD. We visited their original location in Harford County last January (review here) but were only able to sample the one Cupcake Wars flavor they were offering at that time.

All last week they carried one of the four different Cupcake Wars flavors each day but announced that on Saturday they would have all four. This was my chance to finally try the other three flavors! I already had a busy day planned for Saturday (my niece’s 3rd birthday) so I called their shop in advance and requested that all four flavors be set aside for me to pick up about 5:30pm, a half hour before their closing time. I didn’t want to take any chances that the flavors would be sold out and was happy they took my name and order over the phone.


(Flavor Cupcakery’s new Cockeysville, MD location)

The new shop has the same feel as the original shop but is laid out a bit differently and seems a little smaller. Like the original shop, they carry cool cupcake merchandize and I spotted some new t-shirts I haven’t seen, but was able to leave with just the cupcakes I ordered. I credit this to the woman in front of me blocking all of the cupcakes and asking a thousand questions about each flavor and the attentive staff who asked if they could help me before I started grabbing any cute cupcake merchandize while I waited. Thank you inquisitive lady and friendly employee for helping me save some money.

As soon as I was handed my box filled with treats, I instantly realized that the cupcakes had been kept in the refrigerator. I understand some fillings require refrigeration but I was really hoping it hadn’t dried these tiny cakes out.


(Flavor Cupcakery’s Cupcake Wars Flavors (from top moving clockwise): Modern Fruitcake, Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Macaroon, Chocolate Cherry Wassail, and Chocolate Orange Clove Marnier)

I placed these four cupcakes in an airtight container as soon as I got home, hoping to trap in whatever moisture I could so they would be as fresh as possible to enjoy with some out-of-town friends (including Guest Crusader Marina) who were visiting the next day.

Luckily everyone agreed that they would like to share when it came time to dive into the cupcakes. The “cupcake tasting panel” consisted of five woman: Kerry (my handy baking assistant), Marina (Guest Crusader and avid cupcake lover), Jenny (good friend from elementary school), Crusader Jenn, and myself. It was interesting to hear everyone’s different opinions of each of the cupcakes:

Chocolate Orange Clove Marnier

This cupcake consists of chocolate cake, a chocolate orange clove Grand Marnier filling, a spiced tea frosting, and is topped with chocolate/orange shavings. Although this cupcake was beautiful with its edible gold glitter, I think it had the most mixed reviews. Marina thought the clove flavor left a weird taste in her mouth, Jenn though it was just okay, and I really liked it. I love cloves so thought it brought a nice spiciness to the cupcake. One thing Jenn and I did agree on was the orange flavor was not present enough. In fact, I couldn’t really taste the orange at all. But if this was just a Chocolate Clove Marnier cupcake, it would have gotten an A+ from me.

Chocolate Cherry Wassail

The group seemed most excited about this cupcake, with its chocolate cake, a spiced wine cherry reduction filling, and a wine reduction frosting. In theory this cupcake sounds amazing, but unfortunately we all felt that the frosting wasn’t sweet enough to blend well with the cherry flavor. Like all the cupcakes we tried that day, the frosting was super buttery and as a red wine lover, even I thought that it could use a little more sweetness. Crusader Elisa tends to prefer a more butter frosting though, so if she had been able to join us for this tasting, I think it might have been her favorite.

Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Macaroon

Only Kerry and I were excited to try this cupcake, comprised of an almond coconut cake, a chocolate ganache filling, a peppermint buttercream, and grated coconut on top. The cake was a bit crumbly so I ended up tasting that before taking a bite of everything all together. My first reaction was that it was really dense and sticky. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it until I tried it all together and then agreed with Kerry, this was a really good cupcake. Marina didn’t seem to dig the flavor combination, but Kerry and I really enjoyed it. I don’t think the combination of chocolate, coconut and peppermint is for everyone, but I look forward to having this cupcake again in the colder months.

The one flavor we did all agree on was the Modern Fruitcake. This cupcake was just as good as I remember it being back in January, and luckily everyone else felt the same way.

I’m still curious to try some of Flavor’s other cupcakes, like their Tiramisu, Pear and Goat Cheese, Raspberry Creme Brulee, and their Zucchocolate (Zucchini cake with either cream cheese or chocolate frosting – this is their August flavor of the month, and thanks to Ms. Questions I didn’t see it in time to add to my purchase…). With all these flavors on my must try list, I’ll definitely need to visit a few more times.

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