Spring Bookaday Interruption - Cupcakes and Shopping!

We took a trip into Chicago to do a little shopping and decided to plan some cupcake stops. The Daughter and I, ok really just me, have been obsessed with them lately.  I think it would be cool to have them at my bookstore. When I get one!

Molly's Cupcakes

Our first stop was Molly's on Clark Street.  It's a small place with lots of charm, it has swings for some of the seats!  Cupcakes are $3 for unfilled and $3.75 for filled. Jess had a chocolate one with chocolate ganache topping and chocolate mousse filling.  I had a vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting, drizzled with caramel and filled with butterscotch.  It was heavenly.  I also had the best machiatto, a dopio with crema not like at Starbucks, to wash it down.  So freaking awesome.  Plus, we were in Lincoln Park, where I lived when I graduated college and worked at an accounting firm 20 years ago! We even walked by my old apartment.

Next up was shopping at Water Tower Place.  The Jess had some specifics she wanted and she does not mess around. We shopped till we dropped then headed to our next cupcake meeting.

Sarah's Pastries and Candies

We walked about 5 minutes to Oak Street and Sarah's Pastries.  Another charming store a la Serendipity's in New York.  They had two little iron tables outside but us inside girls thought it was freezing so we skipped into the warmth.  Jess was hungry so we also wanted to get a bite to eat.  To call these cupcakes simple would be doing them a disservice.  They were $3.00 each.  I had a black and white, which had vanilla and chocolate frosting as well as vanilla and chocolate cake, while Jess had a chocolate buttercream one with chocolate cake. They were delicious! So moist and flavorful.  Jess' actually had chocolate buttercream in the middle too. To stave off our sugar high, we had a chicken pesto sandwich that came with chocolate hazelnut candy!  Sarah's was great and they had really awesome music.

Then it was back to shopping. We hit the jackpot at H&M.  Sure wish we had one of those near us. We each found a jacket we wanted and I found a nice navy blue cardigan. Can't believe I didn't already have one! I got this simple neutral colored dress and a thin belt.  It was a sweet visit.  We then headed to Filene's basement for shoes and jeans but were disappointed on both counts! Boo! We need more cupcakes!

More

This place was small and very boutique-y.  There were two people ahead of us and they were ordering the tiniest cupcakes I'd ever seen.  They were miniature versions of the cupcakes they sold there.  I was a little surprised, and put off, when she had to go in the back to get the ones they ordered, the ones up front were just for show. 

I still wanted one though.  I ordered a salted caramel with chocolate cake. It was $3.50.  There was no sitting area so the clerk boxed up the fairy cake in this cute Chinese take-out container. We took it back to Water Tower place so I could also have some coffee.  It was NOT worth the wait!  The frosting was good, even if there was only a small amount, but the cupcake itself was dry and tasteless! Jess said she'd read something about that! What, why hadn't she told me?  She knew I would have bought one anyway that's why! But, you listen to me, More is actually less and that's not a good thing when you are talking cupcakes!

All in all, it was a good trip.  Missed the Flirty Cupcakes Van but will try to catch it next time!

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