Cupcake Critique: Matty Cakes (Atlanta, GA)

Nice texture and crumb, but the icing didn't blow me away.

So I've driven by Matty Cakes hundreds of times, but had yet to try out this Best of Atlanta bakery. Finally on one of my tasting spree Saturdays (sure beats the gym folks), I was able to stop in. While intent on trying their red velvet, I found myself completely awestruck by a designer purse cake they were making. These fondant covered cakes looked better than some of the bags I've seen on Canal Street. As tempted as I was to order a $140 purse made out of cake, I had to remind myself that I was there just to try their red velvet.

The one thing I like about Matty Cakes is that their prices are super reasonable. Their large cupcake is ginormous and only $2.95. To give you an idea of scale, I took a picture of it on top of a quart of paint, and as you can see, it takes up the majority of its surface area. What they call their "mini" cupcake, is in fact a regular sized cupcake that sells for $1.95.

Now for the red velvet. The cake itself was quite good - the flavor was nice, the texture was moist and the color was a beautiful shade of crimson. I found myself a little disappointed however with the icing. It had a very light whipped cream cheese flavor. It would've been fabulous atop a strawberry shortcake, but it didn't quite stand up to the red velvet for me.

A large cupcake from Matty Cakes is almost equivalent
to the circumference of a quart of BEHR paint.

What I consider to be the ideal color for red velvet.

Red Velvet: It's Not Just for Dessert Anymore

So my first attempt at red velvet pancakes (technically my first attempt at pancakes, ever) and they were actually quite successful. I started with two different recipes, but thought they had too much cocoa and not enough buttermilk, so I ended up just scrapping both and winging it. I was pleasantly surprised that they turned out and were actually really good. Fluffy with a nice velvety texture and not too sweet. Next time I'll probably add some cream cheese to the topping (in lieu of the creme fraiche), but was a little too impatient to wait for it to soften. Try them out and let me know what you think.






Teen's Red Velvet Pancakes
Yields about 16 pancakes

For the Red Velvet Pancakes:
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted twice after measuring
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup creme fraiche
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnuts (or pecans), toasted

For the Mascarpone Topping:
1/3 cup softened mascarpone
1/4 cup creme fraiche
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cook walnuts in a skillet at medium-high heat for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently. In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, creme fraiche, melted butter, red food coloring and vanilla extract. Add in the dry ingredients and walnuts (reserve some for garnish) and whisk until combined. The batter will have a thick consistency.

Heat a frying pan or griddle over medium heat. Add butter to grease, followed by a small scoop of the batter. Wait for the pancakes to bubble, flip and cook for another minute or two. Meanwhile, mix all of the ingredients for the mascarpone topping together and garnish along with maple syrup and remaining walnuts.

Red Velvet Meets Breakfast, Lives Happily Ever After

You have to imagine my surprise when I discovered this whole red velvet pancake phenomenon. I mean, how could I not see this one coming? They have so much in common that one day they were just destined to meet and hit it off, right?

Well, it sounds like a viable reason to bake again this weekend. Red velvet flapjacks anyone?

 Red Velvet Pancakes with Mascarpone; thekitchykitchen.blogspot.com

With Whipped Cream Cheese & Butter Pecan Syrup; thebreakfastcook.com

Study Shows Ad Execs Prefer Younger Cakes

For my latest baking adventure I decided to pit two recipes against each other. Both were featured in the New York Times, but published 30 years apart. I wanted to see if people preferred the younger, more contemporary cake (circa 2007) to the older, more traditional one (circa 1977).

As prefaced in an earlier post, today I brought both cakes into my office to conduct a 'taste' study. As part of the survey, I asked that all participants taste both cakes and rate them on a scale of 1-10. Of the 35 advertising executives included in this study, the vast majority preferred the younger (2007) version.

First Runner Up: Circa 1977 Cake (pictured top left)
The older cake hailed from Alabama and was published on April 25, 1977 in an article entitled Red Velvet Cake Returns, Tomato Paste Lingers On (I assure you the recipe has nothing to do with tomato paste). The icing called for a very unique frosting made of butter, sugar, egg yolks, chopped pecans or walnuts, raisins and bourbon or rum. While I planned to make this frosting all along, I hesitated to remember buying bourbon until Sunday. At that point, no matter how good my intentions, Georgia state law simply wouldn't allow me to make this frosting. So I opted for a more traditional ermine (boiled milk) frosting. Overall feedback was that this cake wasn't as moist as the 2007 cake, but still very tasty. This is not surprising considering the 2007 cake had 2 cups of oil, while this one only called for a 1/2 cup of shortening. Next time I'll probably increase it to a full cup of shortening, or replace it with a cup of vegetable oil. And while I do like the ermine frosting, I would opt for a nice cream cheese frosting (like the one in my first recipe) instead.

Better with Age?

I simply couldn't decide on a single recipe for my next baking challenge, so instead I chose two.

Since many of the contemporary red velvet recipes differ by only a few ingredients, I thought it would be interesting to juxtapose it with an older, and hopefully more traditional recipe.

I went to the New York Times archives to do some digging, which by the way, is an amazing resource for baking cakes. Not only are their cake recipes some of the most popular, but you can search their archives back to 1851. You won't have any luck finding red velvet until the 20th century, but a good resource nonetheless.

Cupcake Critique: Gigi's Cupcakes

Today at lunch I ran over to Gigi's Cupcakes for my first of many cupcake critiques around Atlanta. Gigi's is a chain, so right off the bat I had some preconceived notions. They have a wide variety of cupcakes from Italian Cream Wedding Cake, Peach Cobbler and Cherry Cordial, but I of course was interested in none other than Scarlett's Red Velvet.

The ECD (that's Executive Creative Director for the non-ad folks) at my agency @carlrwarner said to me that Gigi's has the perfect icing-to-cupcake ratio, but I respectfully must disagree. If there is enough icing on one cupcake to wallpaper a 10'x12' bedroom, that is too much. Surely from looking at the pictures it may seem I'm exaggerating, but keep in mind this cupcake suffered quite a bit of shrinkage on the ride home in this Atlanta heat.

In critiquing this cupcake I examined several key factors: appearance, flavor, texture and color.