One of the directors of my programme here had been singing the praises of Cupcake Corner, an American-style cupcake/muffin bakery right here in Krakow. The siren song reached my sweet tooth and my inner baker, and I was sucked in to the vortex of baked goods…
Cupcake Corner’s atmosphere instantly gives away its American roots – it’s the kind of place that would be at home on the LES or Hipsterville America. It’s full of smells of baking and espresso and warm lighting and a menu written on a chalkboard. There is also the ever-important free wifi. (I tried to take a picture of the menu, but it was crowded and I couldn’t get a good viewpoint.) Also, they do coffee to-go, which is still somewhat unusual here. Anyway, the cupcakes are 6 zloty and the jumbo “savoury ‘Texas’ muffins” are 8 zloty. There are also sweet muffins, but this was lunch, so I went with a savoury one.
And here we have the zucchini, tomato and cheese muffin. It was tasty and moist and a very delicious lunch. I would say the consistency was more that of a popover than a typical cakey muffin, and this is probably at least somewhat due to the moisture provided by the zucchini and especially the tomato. I would love to try the spinach, feta and tomato variety. Other muffin varieties include sausage, egg, and cheese, which would probably make a good brekkie.
The cupcakes are, thankfully, normal-sized, not the massive creations of Crumbs or other US companies. Faced with an array of options, from blueberries and cream to grasshopper (there are a few flavours that are available every day, and the rest change), I decided to go with vanilla confetti – vanilla cake, vanilla icing – since I figured vanilla-vanilla is the baseline of any cupcake company. The icing reminded me of the vanilla cream filling of the Dunkin Donuts Vanilla Kreme Filled Donut, but it was less saccharine and more homemade. In fact, the icing (buttercream) had a slight yellow tinge, indicating its from-scratchness. I am a huge icing fan, so I may have preferred a little bit more, but overall, I approved of the icing-to-cake ratio.
And then there was the cake. Oh, the cake. Those of you who know me well may recall that funfetti is my favourite cakemix flavour (especially when it has been turned into ice cream cone cupcakes with cream cheese frosting…but I digress). Well, it turns out that “vanilla confetti” means that the cake is funfetti!!! I was so pleasantly surprised. It was very, very delish and moist, which is just how I like my cupcakes – it wasn’t overly sweet and didn’t taste mass-produced, which can be a problem with store-bought cupcakes.
Cupcake Corner
ul. Michalowskiego 14
Monday-Saturday, 8am-7pm, Sunday, 9am-5pm
Cupcakes, 6 zloty, muffins, 7-8 zloty, espresso products, 5-8 zloty
