A large part of my 2013 was going to 42 different cupcake shops in the greater Charlotte area, sampling over 60 different cupcakes and somehow preventing a sugar overload.
The result of all of that (besides a lot of exercise ahead for 2014) is an end to my search for Charlotte's best cupcake.
Actually, I got more than I bargained for.
9 different cupcake shops had cupcakes that I gave over 4-and-a-half cupcake star ratings to.Cupcake Delerium’s Aunt Jemima cupcake (complete with bacon on top) was incredible! Big View Diner’s amazingly delicious chocolate cupcake is any chocolate lover’s dream come true. Cupcrazed has a lot of amazing cupcakes, but I enjoyed the maple bacon quite a bit.
Maddy’s Fatty’s cannoli cupcake brings a bit of New York City into the Queen City.
And then there’s The Polka Dot Bake Shop’s red velvet cupcake (pictured on the right), the cupcake that got my 2013 cupcake obsession going.
Of all the cupcakes I sampled, I think Granny Mac's cupcakes were probably the biggest. For that matter, they may give you the best deal for your buck.
As much as I wasn't a fan of the Kimberley's Bakeshoppe red velvet cupcakes that you can find in four-packs at various grocery stores, their cupcake was not the worst one I tried.
Unfortunately the bubblegum cupcake from Splat! Cakes n' Such, located in Gastonia, got the worst ranking with just one-and-a-half cupcake stars. They had a lot of very delicious cupcakes too though. Their strawberry cupcake got 4-and-a-half cupcake stars.Strawberry was the flavor I tried more than any other. The strawberry cupcakes from Splat's and Decadent Design's Bakery were the two best.
Other cupcakes I didn't like too well included Earth Fare's vanilla cupcake (two cupcake stars) and Earth Fare's red velvet cupcake (two-and-a-half cupcake stars).
Also getting two-and-a-half cupcake stars were Cloud 9 Confections' vanilla/chocolate cupcake and Granny Mac's Peanut Butter cupcake. I appreciated the effort from Granny Mac's, but it didn't work.
Just like Splat!, Cloud 9 and Granny Mac's weren't all bad. Cloud 9 makes an incredible raspberry cupcake (four cupcake stars) and Granny Mac's had a really good (and enormous!) pumpkin cupcake.