Sugar BakeShop - Charleston, SC

Randolph and I recently took a trip to Charleston, SC to celebrate our 5 year anniversary! Sadly after 4 days the trip had to come to an end but not before stopping by a local cupcake shop! Of course I did my research before leaving home and knew that Sugar Bakeshop was on the list of "to do's" while in Charleston. Located on Canon street in downtown, this is the sweet and charming little shop we pulled up to and I immediately jumped out of the car like a little kid anxious to go inside to cupcake heaven!

And of course I had to get a picture in front of the shop! You could say I'm a little obsessed with cupcake shops, or maybe you already knew that from this, this and this post.

Love the mural of the blueberry topped cupcakes on the side of their building! And how cute is this little popsicle cart?

As you walk inside you are greeted with cake pedestals filled with all their cupcake varieties. YUM! There were lots of delicious flavors to choose from but I finally was able to narrow it down to three.

I of course had to sample a red velvet cupcake. This is just one of my must try flavors anytime I check out a new cupcake shop. And I must say it didn't disappoint!

I loved this little rack with vintage accessories and rolls of bakers twine, and the unfinished wall texture was super cool too! What a charming shop!

Lots of bakery boxes with Sugar's logo on them! Love the name and the color!

More cupcakes and even jars of cookies! I want that green pedestal!

Love the simplicity of the chalkboard featuring their daily flavors.

I am missing this shop already. Maybe I can talk Randolph into going back again sometime soon!

Ahh yum, their vanilla bean cupcake with sugared blueberries on top! You bet I had one of these and it was AMAZING! I can't wait to make my own cupcakes with sugared berries now!

My 3 cupcakes boxed and ready to go! Randolph got a lemon curd cupcake and devoured it before we could even leave the store! I stole a bite of his too, and it was delish!

Red Velvet w/ Cream Cheese...Chocolate w/ Chocolate...Vanilla w/ Vanilla & Sugared Blueberries

I took my cupcakes to go because we had just eaten lunch at Groucho's (I highly recommend the Apollo Dipper with the Formula 45 sauce) one of our favorite Charleston sandwich shops and I thought I was too full to eat dessert. Well five minutes down the road and all 3 of these babies were half way gone...I knew I still had some room for Sugar! Thank you Sugar Bakeshop for making my trip to Charleston sweet! I will definitely be back again some day!

Chicago Marathon

As promised I've finally gotten a chance to upload some pictures of my recent trip to Chicago to share with you. Here's a quick glimpse at some of my favorite photos from the Marathon Weekend. I had an awesome view of the city right outside my plane window as we were preparing to land. Look at all those sky scrapers, what an amazing city!

Right after arriving in Chicago we headed over to the marathon expo to pick up our race packets. This is a picture of me and Thomas, one of our Mobile participants who was going to be running the race. I was the Alabama Team in Training coach for the marathon weekend so I had the privilege of running along with and encouraging all the TNT participants along the marathon course! I can honestly say this was the largest race I have ever seen, with 40,000 people taking to the streets of Chicago, it was unreal!

The day of the marathon was 10-10-10...how cool is that?

Posing for a picture with the jumbo 10-10-10 structure before leaving the race expo.

We headed to Gino's East Pizzeria for dinner. Chicago pizza is a must on every visit to the city!

We got the traditional deep dish pepperoni...YUM!

I loved the restaurant atmosphere with all the graffiti on the walls. This is a picture of my friend Jennifer, me and Thomas.

This was the view right across from our hotel, the Wrigley Building! I love how the top was lit pink for breast cancer awareness month!

Saturday morning we took a 4 mile jog and went over to the big bean. Love seeing the building reflections in this silver structure, this is such a cool piece of art.

Sunday was the day of the marathon. I don't really have any pictures from the race because I left my camera in the hotel room. So just imagine 40,000 runners and 1.5 million spectators lining the streets of Chicago for about 6 hours! It was crazy!

Dinner on Sunday night after the marathon we went to Mindy's Hot Chocolate. Just the name alone, got me excited. The atmosphere was quaint and dark, lit by candles and the menu was amazing with fresh local ingredients! I was so hungry I wanted one of everything but finally settled on...

The flank steak with applewood bacon smoked cheesy potatoes and broccoli. Delish!

And of course for dessert we had some hot chocolate. Check out all the variations.

I got the light hot chocolate....white chocolate with a touch of milk chocolate, vanilla bean and malted milk. There was even a homemade marshmallow!

Monday morning before heading to the airport there was time to squeeze in a quick architectural boat tour on the Chicago River to check out the history of all the buildings. This is the Wrigley Building again and the Trump Tower. Just beautiful!

Jennifer and I on the boat tour. She is one of my best friends in Mobile and decided to tag along for the weekend in Chicago because she actually owns a condo there. She was a great tour guide for the weekend and her condo is 1 block off Michigan Ave, so it's right in the heart of the city!

Check out the street we rode under on the boat tour...Randolph Street! I just couldn't resist getting a picture taken in front of it given my husband's name is Randolph! I swear we kept running into this street all weekend long, it was right around the corner from our hotel! And every time I saw it I took a picture!

The magnificent Sears Tour!

As our boat tour was coming to an end, we had a slight delay since the Centennial Fountain was going off. It goes off on the hour for 10 minutes so we got a great view of the arch of water.

And the last stop before heading to the airport was this fabulous little gourmet deli in Bucktown right by Jennifer's condo, The Goddess and Grocer.

I had the California Dreaming sandwich, honey maple turkey breast with avocado, swiss, sprouts, lettuce, tomato and lemon mayonnaise on multigrain. This sandwich was unbelievable and was the perfect way to gear up for my next weekend trip to San Francisco!

And in case you are wondering, there were of course tons of cupcakes on this trip when I visited the famous Sprinkles Cupcakes shop. These cupcakes deserved a post all of there own, which you can check out here if you haven't seen it already.

So as you can see Chicago was fabulous, I absolutely LOVE the windy city, there is just never enough time to see and do everything the city has to offer. I'm already trying to figure out how I can go back soon!

Next up a recap of my weekend in San Francisco!

Cupcake a Week: Miette Patisserie, San Francisco

Hello friends! I'm back! I feel like I have left you all hanging in what has been a hectic whirlwind October with so little baking...which I am not happy about! I have been traveling for 12 days straight, to Chicago, Cincinnati and San Francisco with hotel stays, multiple airport layovers and delayed flights in between...so sadly that means my Kitchen Aid mixer and oven have been deprived of sugar and butter.

Although I had so much fun on all my travels I sure am happy to be back at home in Mobile for awhile now! So much has been going on and I promise to post some updates and photos of my recent trips over the next few days! Unfortunately minimal baking has occurred this month, but I promise to completely make up for that this weekend and hope to have some new fun fall recipes for you next week. I can guarantee they will probably include some pumpkin, my favorite baking ingredient this time of year!

So now that you know what's been going on with me, its time to get on with more important things...cupcakes! While in San Francisco last weekend for the Nike Women's Marathon I found a charming little pastry shop, Miette Patisserie at the Ferry Building in downtown.

There were so many gorgeous sweets to look at, I just couldn't make up my mind what to buy, but when it was all said and done, of course I went for some cupcakes!

I got two cupcakes and check out the adorable package they came in!

I decided on the Old Fashioned, a chocolate cupcake with a marshmallow meringue and a Carrot Cake cupcake. They were both fabulous! I loved the Old Fashioned because the frosting was so light and fluffy, it paired so well with the moist chocolate cake.

A peak inside the display case. Those little chocolate pies looked delish...I'm kicking myself now for not getting one!

A beautiful assortment of mini cakes and jars full of macarons.

These gorgeous chocolate wafers are what first caught my eye and brought me into the pastry shop. I absolutely love the way these are packaged!

So if you live in San Francisco or are heading out there soon, be sure to check out Miette at the Ferry Building it is so worth it!

Check back soon for more of my time spent in San Fran!

Cupcake a Week: Sprinkles

The moment I have been waiting for a very long time finally arrived this week...I got to visit a Sprinkles Cupcakes shop! The original Sprinkles is in Beverly Hills, CA but lucky for me this shop in Chicago opened just a few months ago and I was there this past weekend for the Chicago Marathon.

I am absolutely in love with the building! How cute are all those multi-colored cupcake sprinkles!

Peeking through the window, I'm about to step inside to cupcake heaven....

The sweet smell of sugar definitely greets you as you enter the shop. There were 12 flavors to choose from and I just couldn't make up my mind. So I paced in front of the counter for literally about 10 minutes as customers continued to walk in and out ordering cupcakes. I wanted to try them all!

So many great flavor combinations, so I decided what the heck I don't know when the next time I will get to visit a Sprinkles shop is so I'll order a dozen!

Here's their signature and most famous cupcake, red velvet.

The next most popular flavor (and my personal favorite) the black & white

And you can't go wrong with good ole vanilla

Here's a picture of me and my friend Jennifer...this cupcake shop is literally right around the corner from her condo. If I lived so close, I think I would be visiting here every day!

I just love the decor throughout the shop and all the fun colors!

Super cute custom made cupcake tiers and colored trays.

And in case you wanted to bake your own Sprinkles Cupcakes they sell mixes in all their flavors! YUM!

Here's the seasonal flavor, Caramel Apple...Oh my goodness this was amazing! The cake was so moist and delicious and the caramel frosting was unlike anything I have ever tasted!

The cutest single serving cupcake box ever!

A look from inside the shop out to the street.

Their counter seating area was all decked out for Halloween and perfect place for people watching!

Some of the sweet Sprinkles cupcake girls behind the counter! They let me take a zillion photos of the shop and helped pack up all my cupcakes for my flight home! They really know how to package some cupcakes for safe travels!

I just love the Sprinkles logo...this was the cutout shape on their frosted glass door. And when the door is closed you see the "Sprinkles cupcakes" logo from the glass panel of the cupcake counter through the hole in the door...this is just genius!

I am one happy girl with my dozen cupcakes! Visiting Sprinkles was the highlight of my entire weekend in Chicago!

Here's a peak at their daily cupcake flavors. The way they created their 2-color signature circle sprinkles to garnish the tops of their cupcakes was such a clever idea!

Not only were my cupcakes packed safely inside of 6-compartment boxes, but they were even placed inside of ziploc bags to ensure the freshest cupcakes while I traveled!

These cupcakes walked the streets of Chicago, rode in a taxi, rode the L-train, traveled through the airport and flew on a plain tucked safely beneath the seat in front of me and still arrived safely home 10 hours later as beautiful as they were when I bought them!

I can't take it any longer I am ready to sample. I ended up getting a dozen cupcakes, with 9 flavors total (I doubled up on 3 flavors).

So here's the run down of the cupcakes you see here from top left to right and row by row.

Top Row: Red Velvet, Vanilla, Carrot, Cinnamon Sugar
Middle Row: Black & White, Chocolate Marshmallow, Caramel Apple, Vanilla Milk Chocolate
Bottom Row: Red Velvet, Vanilla, Banana, Vanilla Milk Chocolate

The moment I got home from the airport the cupcake tasting began around 10PM with me and my mom tasting every flavor one by one! I have to say my favorites were the banana, black and white and caramel apple. But honestly no matter what flavor you pick you can't go wrong with a Sprinkles cupcake!

Have you ever been to a Sprinkles Cupcakes shop? If so which location and what's your favorite flavor?