The Inaugural #yegCupcakeChallenge...Crave!

In our endeavor to bring the best eats in Edmonton to our readers, we've tasked ourselves with the challenge of finding the best cupcake bakery in the city. With the help of readers and friends, we've narrowed our challengers down to these seven selections:

Crave Cookies and Cupcakes
Fuss Cupcakes
Once Upon A Cupcake
Flirt Cupcakes
Hey Cupcake
Big City Cupcakes
Whimsical Cake Studio

(If there's a bakery you love that we left off the list, let us know in the comments!)

To keep it fair, we will both order a cupcake at each location, and rate it out of five in three areas: taste, presentation, and the all important icing-to-cake ratio. The bakery with the highest overall score will be declared the champion and become our go-to location for delicious cupcakes*!


Our first contender is Crave Cookies and Cupcakes. We visited their new Edmonton location, just south of Whyte Ave on 104th St. This is their sixth location in three cities so they must be doing something right!

A creature of habit who knows what she likes, Steph ordered the Red Velvet Elvis ($3.25).

A medium sized red velvet cupcake topped with perfectly swirled cream cheese icing, she really enjoyed it. The cake was dense and moist, while the icing was a nice balance of sweet and salty as good cream cheese should be. With no extra toppings or flair, the presentation was quite simple but the flavor made up for its plain appearance.
Taste 4/5
Presentation 3/5
Ratio 4/5

Jackie was a little more adventurous in her selection, and chose the Nutty Over Chocolate ($3.25).

Peanut buttercream icing tops a dark chocolate cake dusted with chocolate shavings. Jackie liked that the icing had a light, natural peanut butter flavor but felt the cake had a nice texture but the taste was nothing special. She would have preferred a little more icing to balance out the dark cake.
Taste 3.5/5
Presentation 3/5
Ratio 4/5

Total: 21.5/30

We quite enjoyed our treats from Crave, and agreed with each other on almost all points, but it didn't really wow us. We long to find a cupcake that smacks us in the face with how amazing it is and keeps us up at night planning our next trip to get one! Perhaps that's too much to ask here in Edmonton? We aim to find out!

Tune in next week when we head to Whyte Ave to Edmonton's first gourmet cupcake shop, Fuss!




*Warning: there is a fair chance that we will never want to see another cupcake again after this challenge. We are willing to risk that for you dear reader!