OTHER CITIES: 
The Best Cupcakes in Toronto
- Posted by Catherine
- Filed in Best of Toronto
- May 23, 2008
As Mugatu famously said "Cupcakes are so hot right now." Apparently Toronto doesn't just have Fashion, Theatre and Financial districts, we also have a Cupcake district. Queen Street East is dominating the cupcake industry. Of the 10 cupcake destinations below, 4 of them, count'em, four, are located along Queen Street East. (5 if you count Dufflet's Beach location). Eastenders are a bit cupcake crazy. And that's a crazy I can get behind.
Most of these shmancy cupcakes don't come cheap. It's around a $3 minimum per indulgence. Which, big picture, isn't actually that much. If money were experiences, the cost of a cupcake would be about equivalent to a ride on the TTC. Public transit is a lot like a cupcake actually. They're both colourful, and satisfying, and, um, they smell good and. No wait. Analogy.. falling.. apart.
For full disclosure, here's my bias in judging cupcakes: I like cupcakes that taste fresh, and are soft and moist. Substance over style. Not that I don't enjoy haute couture confectionery, I do. There's an urban hipster in me trying to get out. But when we get down to it, yummy treats go in the belly, not in the eyes. (Unless someone's really mad at you and expresses it by chucking a cupcake in your face. But I digress.)
Like anything freshly baked, there are times and places to learn if you want the good stuff. To know when those times are, you'll need to get to know your supplier. A good cupcake doesn't keep. If you're in the bakery to see the icing being spread onto your cupcake, you've got it just about right. The list below is designed for more hits than misses. But if you strike out at one, you'll just have to go and try another. Darn it all.
Is your favourite spot missing? Perhaps you can find it in our list of the Best Bread or Best Baked Treats in Toronto. Photographs of It's the Icing on the Cake (thumbnail below, and chocolate cupcake above right), Life is Sweet, Sweet Bliss and Babycake courtesy of Patrick Smith. Thumbnail of Sweet Tooth courtesy of Tim Shore.
Miss Cora's Kitchen
Miss Cora's is already getting rave reviews for their atmosphere and just about anything they sell, and that extends to their cupcakes. Available in chocolate, vanilla, lemon, carrot cake (oh yes, it's cream cheese icing). $1.50 for a mini-cupcake, and worth every 150 pennies. More...
It's the Icing on the Cake
It's the Icing on the Cake does creative custom cupcakes, but if you just drop by the bakery (like we did), you can pick up your basic walk-by indulgence. The cupcakes are gooey, fresh and soft, with a deceptively generous amount of icing. Bite in and be pleasantly surprised that the cupcake is "heightening" with icing. (chocolate cupcake pictured top right) More...
Life is Sweet
They have other baked goods as well, but the byline for Life is Sweet is "a cupcake house". Like a cupcake speakeasy. An off-the-shelf cupcake will run you $2.25, and you have your choice of Vanilla Bean, Chocolate, Mint Chocolate, Lemon Drop, Butterscotch, Earl Grey, Orange, Chocolate Chip, Coconut and White Chocolate. On the day we were there, I lucked out with a Mango Key Lime (pictured above). More...
Sweet Bliss
According to the print on their window, Sweet Bliss Baking Company is "Old-fashioned baking". According to the newspaper clipping that's framed and on display, they're also celebrity endorsed by Steven Sabados, Chris Hyndman, and Rita Zekas. So that would make them ye olde au courant cupcakes. More...
Sweet Tooth Pastry Shop
Sweet Tooth is keen to satisfy yours. According to their newspaper clipping, Susur Lee's son declared Sweet Tooth Toronto's best cupcakes. So it comes down to Steven & Chris versus a palette shaped by Susur. Daytime design TV takes on the heir of one of Toronto's best-known, now departing, fancy fusion chefs. Tough call. (No, seriously). More...
Frostitution (@Beaver Cafe)
I've loved Beaver since the now-lost time when their walls and booths were covered in beaver-themed paraphernalia. A few years into their breakfast burritos, I finally got around to trying their delicious cupcakes from Frostitution (vanilla cupcake pictured top left). Carefully groomed, with the icing sheered into a neat cylinder on top, they're so soft that when you pick them up, your finger leaves an indent in the side. An excellent sign. More...
Dufflet
The bakeries are named after founder Dufflet Rosenberg, so it's not wrong or gauche to pronounce the 't'. Dufflet has mastery on all things flour and sugar, and are known for using only natural ingredients in their products. Including their cupcakes. Chocolate fudge cupcake, topped with chocolate glaze. Double vanilla cupcake, topped with vanilla bean icing. Or mini-cupcakes, devil's food or vanilla, topped with naturally coloured buttercreams. More...
The Cupcake Shoppe
The Cupcake Shoppe is about selection -- 9 flavours available in-store every day, and 17 on offer for special orders. Flavours have been given evocative names like Sleepless in Toronto (vanilla or chocolate cake with coffee buttercream), Pretty 'n' Pink (vanilla or chocolate with raspberry buttercream), After Ate (chocolate with mint buttercream). And it goes on like that. Cupcakes are nut-free. More...
Lollicakes
Sure, there's some excessive gendering in their cupcake design categories. (Who's to say little girls don't want a robot or spaceship cupcake? Who wouldn't?). But Lollicakes one-ups The Cupcake Shoppe by being certified Kosher as well as nut-free. If you have other allergen issues, Lollicakes can also (by special order) prepare cupcakes that are -- lactose free, dairy free, gluten free, wheat free, egg free, soya free and sesame free. More...
Babycake
You can find Babycake through the doors of kubo Radio in the city's East End (on Queen Street, naturally). Also with 17 flavours, the most popular are Velvet Underground, and Choco Funk. Followed by Polar Bear and Ebony & Ivory. Names aren't everything, but they sure go a long way. Put on your all-white suit and get a "Great Gatsby" to go. More...
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OHHH MAN!
on of the vendors shows up at the office with cup cakes form the cup cake shoppe....
oh yah..i cream my little donut over those