Restaurant Review: Cakes By Sam

When one of the ladies I work with told me about Cakes By Sam, I was really, really excited. I had driven by it a few times, and say the large tiered cake on their logo and assumed they only did wedding cakes, or big party cakes. But then I was told they also have cupcakes. Lots and lots of cupcakes. So, I decided to stop by there and try out a cupcake immediately. I went by on Monday, and they were closed. So I stopped by Tuesday for a treat on my way to the office I work at in the afternoons.

There weren't very many people in there, so I perused the display case for a few minutes. They offered a lot of options, and also some other non-cupcake baked goods.

I love lemon, so I went with a "Luscious Lemon" cupcake for myself, and a Banana-Caramel one for my husband to eat later on.

Neither cupcake was anything special, and while the banana one was flat out bad, the lemon one was good. The frosting was delicious. My only complaint is that it didn't extend far enough to the edge of the cupcake. But it was excellent frosting. It was light and not overly sweet, and they had tinted it a pale yellow color. And they should have put the food coloring down and stopped there. But instead, they loaded the cake itself up with yellow dye, which I find incredibly unnecessary. It irritates me how so many bakeries (cute shops and grocery store bakeries) feel the need to dye lemon cakes yellow. You can tell it is lemon from the scent, the taste, the yellow frosting and the cute little lemon candy used as a garnish. There is no need to dye the cake. Because it was very unappetizing. It made me think of processed, full of preservative loaf cakes you buy at the grocery store. The cake itself was okay. I really couldn;t taste much lemon in it. They should have added a little more extract or lemon zest, and a little less food coloring.

But while the lemon one was good, and had potential, the banana-caramel one was gross. I only had one bite of the cupcake and that was more than enough. It tasted grainy. I'm not sure if someone doesn't know how to make caramel sauce, or if it was the frosting, but it was not smooth or creamy. I'm guessing it was the frosting. It tasted so artificial, as if someone dumped a box of instant banana pudding into the frosting to give it "banana" flavor. If I ever decide to give this place another shot, I will stay far, far away from this cupcake.