Friday full of cupcakes

My mini-vacation was all about two things this past weekend: friends and food. We didn't really "do" anything besides spend lots of time together and eat lots of good food. Which is exactly what I needed and wanted the weekend to be. It was so nice to see people and just visit with no pressure, no schedule, no plan. Anyway, onto the food reports!

Part 1: Friday

So I arrived in St. Louis, MO on Thursday night, after a long day of travel. LC met me at the airport, and we picked up food on the way back to her place. Needless to say, my friend LC and I didn't do much besides stay up way way too late talking!

Friday was all about the cupcakes. Seriously. We slept in a bit to make up for the late night before heading out to meet up with MM for a yummy Indian lunch buffet at House of India. I've been to their buffet before, and it's awesome. LC is a vegetarian, so we always go places that have lots of options for vegetarians and omnivores alike. House of India never disappoints. The food is consistently good, and they keep the buffet well stocked. I love buffets like this because you get to sample a little bit of everything. Usually I end up stuffing myself silly. But I resisted this time, because I knew what was coming for dessert: cupcakes.

Literally within the same little strip on Delmar is Jilly's Cupcake Bar. It's still fairly new, opening sometime in the last year and a half. So after lunch, we walked about 20 feet for dessert.

OMG. Cupcake heaven. Y'all know my love of cupcakes. I've blogged about how they are individual little packages of delicious perfection. Cupcakes are serious business. Serious. Business. I've sampled cupcakes from all over the place. Jilly's definitely makes the top three. No question.

You could smell the sweetness of baked goods wafting through the door before you even opened it. Inside, we were greeted to a case containing a plethora of delicious options, each one beautifully decorated and distinctive. No cookie-cutter cupcakes here. And in the center was a GIANT cupcake. The display alone was intense. The hard part came when we had to choose. MM, LC and I each decided to select a different flavor, and then share. This sharing thing is not easy when it comes to desserts (thanks, Mom), but in the interest of sampling as many of the delicious options as possible in the limited amount of time I had, I agreed to share. We selected two of their seasonal cupcakes and one of their regular flavors. MM chose the Irish Hopper made with chocolate cake filled with Andes' mint cream, LC chose the Bailey's made with chocolate cake and filled with a Bailey's dosed pastry cream, and I opted for the Chocolate Thunder, a veritable chocoholics wet dream with devil's food cake topped with chocolate butter cream and filled with chocolate ganache. Yes, all three were chocolate, but seriously, is chocolate ever a bad thing? All three were moist and rich and yummy. The Chocolate Thunder was almost too much it was so dense with rich chocolate flavor.

Cupcakes!

The verdict? I highly recommended Jilly's!

Once we had demolished the three chocolate cupcakes (OK, we did take about 1/4 of each one home), LC and I decided we needed to take a few more with us for later. We decided to branch out and get four, two chocolate and two vanilla. We enjoyed the Irish Hopper and the Bailey's so much, we decided we needed to get those again. In addition we decided to try the Bee Sting (vanilla cake filled with lemon and honey curd and a lemon cream cheese icing) and the Missy-licious (vanilla cake filled with vanilla cream and buttercream icing). The Missy-licious was tasty, but definitely all vanilla.

And holy moley. The Bee Sting was fantastic. LC and I split that one for a snack on Saturday. The combination of the lemon with the honey and vanilla made it super moist and the lemon kept it from being overly sweet. I could have eaten more than one of those. It was refreshing and the flavors blended beautifully. Mmm.

After the buffet lunch and all that sugar, we made a quick stop by LC's partner's embroidery/silk-screen shop. MT proudly showed off the new place, and drooled over the two cupcakes we brought him. By that point, LC and I decided we needed a nap. So we headed back to the house for some snuggle time with the cats.

After a nice rest, we woke up hungry. Next up: dinner at Shangri-La Diner, an all vegetarian/vegan diner. LC and MT go there frequently, so the owner Patrice knows them by name. She's a talker, and is as eccentric and fun as her place. I had been warned to save room for dessert as Patrice makes this amazing cupcake (the theme of the day!).

I opted for the Decadent Grilled Cheese. Six kinds of cheese all baked up and melty on whole wheat bread, served with a small bowl of freshly made homemade tomato soup. The soup tasted of tomatoes and had lots of garlic. And the cheese...mmm...melty and yummy. LC went for one of the breakfast options, the St. Louis Slinger: eggs and potatoes and cheese and vegan chili. Usually MT eats the other half, but this time LC was able to take it home and eat the leftovers. The leftovers verdict? Just as delicious the second time!

Then dessert: the Hostess with the Mostess cupcake. It's a homemade version of a Hostess chocolate cupcake only twice as big! Moist chocolate, yummy buttercream filling, and a delicious chocolate ganache icing. We ate a good chunk of it, but decided to be nice and take a good chunk of it home to MT.

A Hostess cupcake on steroids! Look at the sheen on that ganache.

After dinner we headed out to one of my favorite St. Louis bars: Absolutli Goosed. It's a martini bar with a 15 page menu that changes regularly! It was really an opportunity for LC and I to talk and catch up on all the stuff going on in our lives. And vent about how boys are dumb and some like to live with their heads up their butts. You know, "girl talk"! Over good martinis. In an awesome friendly environment. I love the variety of olives they have, my favorite being the chipotle stuffed ones. They add a nice after bite to the martini.

The day was filled with all good stuff: good food, good dessert, good drinks and lots of good talk with amazing friends. And awesome day. And I still had two more days of mini-vacation left!