Cleveland Food Review: Presti's

Presti's

12101 Mayfield Road

Cleveland, Ohio

http://www.prestisbakery.com/index.htm

What's better than cupcakes??  Well...nothing, really.  But, these came in a close second.  For dinner Annie, Josh, and I went out to eat in Little Italy.  Its a cute and fun area of Cleveland full of Italians (my people).  After a yummy dinner of pizza we headed over to Presti's and got some

 pretty magical Italian pastries.  We got a puff pastry that was chocolate with some super good creme stuff in the middle, cassata cake (traditional Sicillian cake..with strawberries!), and a lemon cake.  We played a game where you got one bite and then shifted the plates, Josh had a little trouble keeping up, but Annie and I were ready to go!  

Stay tuned tomorrow for more adventures!!!

cleveland cupcake review #2

Baby Cakes

4145 Erie Street

Willoughby, Ohio

http://babycakeswilloughby.vpweb.com/default.html

Ambiance: 4.5 scoops of icing.  Baby Cakes has some super cute whimsy, which every good cupcake shop should strive to achieve.  There were cute little awnings above the tables and plenty of seating.  Annie and I discussed that it would be a cute place for a party.  Downfalls include that the cupcakes were not well labeled and it seemed a little cluttered at the counter.  I would have liked a little more organization.

Customer Service: 5 scoops.  The woman who helped us was very nice.  She was super helpful (which was good since not all cupcakes were labeled--we almost missed out on a lemon cupcake!!).  Also, she was decorating cupcakes, serving hungry cupcake critique-ers, and caring for 2 small children that were in a crib...crazy.  (is that why its called baby cakes?)

Flavor Variety: 3 scoops.  There were quite a few to choose from, but all the cupcakes seemed to be chocolate or vanilla varieties.  I had a chocolate with coconut and Annie had a lemon.  One fun bonus was that some had filling in the middle.  We would have enjoyed a few more daring flavors.  

Cupcake Size: 3 scoops.  They had the basic size.  We are still in search of the elusive cupcake store that serves jumbo, regular, and mini.  Nothing super special to report here...

Quality of Cupcake: 3 scoops.  Annie was not pleased with the icing.  It was very creamy and we all know (or at least I do...) that Annie enjoys the harder/denser cupcake frosting.  The cake part of the cupcakes was pretty soft as well.  It was more like cake than a cupcake.  Good, but not as dense as a lot of cupcakes.  

Overall Impression: 4.4 scoops.  Baby Cakes was a new cupcake store for Annie so it was a fun adventure for both of us.  We never turn down a cupcake, so it was a good time, however we wish the quality of the cupcakes was just a tad higher.  But they definitely have the whimsy of what "magical cupcakes" means locked in.  Well done.

Cleveland Food Review: Melt Bar and Grilled

14718 Detroit Avenue

Lakewood, Ohio

www.meltbarandgrilled.com

mmmm... melty goodness.  what's better than melted cheese on buttery bread with french fries?  the answer:  nothing.  lexy and i both enjoyed our sandwiches from Melt-- lexy ordered the Winter Chicken (grilled 

chicken, creamy chipotle sauce, pepper jack cheese) and I ordered the Mushroom Melt (garlic portabellas, caramel port onion, provolone cheese).  lexy liked her 

sandwich so much that she ignored the pickles on the side and didn't freak out!  hooray!

cleveland cupcake review: White Flower

White Flower Cake Shoppe:  LaPlace Shopping Center, Beachwood, OH

http://www.whiteflowercake.com/

Ambiance:  2 scoops of icing.  While the big pretend wedding cakes were quite impressive, it wasn't the cozy, sit down and lick-frosting-off-your-fingers kind of establishment that a cupcake shoppe should be.  It was very white and almost sterile looking... although the smell was quite yummy.

Customer Services:  2 scoops of icing.  The woman at the desk was nice, but not super-friendly.  She seemed like maybe she could take or leave our business, and also assume that Lexy did not want a cupcake... Lexy is wondering if this means the woman thought she was too fat to eat

 cupcakes... or maybe that she was so skinny that clearly she doesn't eat cupcakes-- either way, assumptions were made, and you know what happens when people make assumptions.

Flavor Variety:  4.5 scoops of icing.  There were quite a few yummy choices-- we had a hard time choosing what we should get...  there were lots of flavors and they all looked delectable.  Both Lexy and myself chose the banana cream cupcakes, which the website describes as 

NEW! Banana Creme Pie:

Banana cake topped with custard and vanilla creme, and sprinkled with graham crumbs.

We both agreed that this was a good choice.

Quality of Cupcake:  3 scoops of icing.  Individually, all the flavors were fantastic-- the custard, the cake, the icing... however, when they all came together, it was a big sloppy mess.  The cake wasn't physically strong enough to hold up that yummy thick icing, so it kind of just became a big goopy mess-- a yummy one-- but, nonetheless, a mess.

Cupcake Size:  4 scoops of icing.  White Flower did well in this department, as they carry large SUPER SIZE cupcakes with big pretty flowers on the top (meaning lots of yummy icing).  One suggestion Lexy had was that they also carry "mini" cupcakes as well, so she could have tried more of the flavors.

Overall Impression:  3ish scoops of icing.  White Flower was an excellent beginning to our cupcake adventures in Ohio and the Banana Cream cupcake was very good-- with just a little tweaking, it could be UNSTOPPABLE!