CoCo’s Cupcakes
A Good End to Any Meal
My sister, whose love for cupcakes predates the current hipster status of the diminutive dessert, celebrated her 25th birthday one week ago today. As part of the celebration, we paid a visit to CoCo’s Cupcake Cafe, one of two cupcake bakeries planned in the Pittsburgh area. The other, Dozen Cupcakes, was supposed to have opened on her birthday, but when she stopped by to check it out all she found inside were some workmen on ladders. Therefore, by merit of being the only currently functional cupcake bakery in Pittsburgh, CoCo’s won our business. By merit of their tasty confectioneries and attentive customer service, they’ve won us over as potential regulars.
We weren’t the only people interested in visiting the new cupcake shop. December 22nd was their second day of business and they sold out of their first batch of cupcakes within about three hours of opening their doors. We placed an order for a dozen to be picked up that evening. They were about 20 minutes later than they had planned in finishing our order. Though the slight delay was not something we were worried about, the folks at CoCo’s went out of their way to soothe the possibility of a problem by offering my wife and my sister, who were picking up the order, each a drink and a cupcake on the house and then added two more cupcakes to our order for free.
Their customer service continued to be phenomenal when we paid a repeat visit to their storefront last night. They once again sold out of their cupcakes—we went in looking for five; they only had two left. In the kitchen, though, co-owner Shea Mullen revealed, there were a few cupcakes they had deemed not worthy of presentation. She grabbed three of them for us so everyone in our party could have their own cupcake. Their only flaw was that some of the icing had run down the side of the cupcake onto the wrapper; a momentary stickiness of the fingers is a small price to pay to enjoy a well-made cupcake.
And CoCo’s cupcakes are well made. Their offerings consist of white or chocolate cupcakes with either white buttercream, chocolate buttercream, or chocolate ganache icing; plus two seasonal choices, currently gingerbread or eggnog. The cake part of the cupcakes is out of this world—obviously made from scratch because no mix could produce results like theirs. The gingerbread is probably the best I have ever eaten. The eggnog cake is flavored subtly, with just a touch of nutmeg—a pleasant contrast to most eggnog-flavored foods I’ve tried in the past (I normally expect a cake calling itself eggnog to inspire a gag reflex by means of overspicing). Instead, the eggnog cupcake was a sleeper hit and turned out to be perhaps my favorite selection.
The eggnog’s biggest strength, in my opinion, was its well-executed cream cheese frosting. It matched well with the cake and the total package was a crowd pleaser. The ganache icing was a thick, rich, dark chocolate layer and went well with both the white and the chocolate cake. The gingerbread cupcakes were not iced, but rather decorated with gingerbread men dusted in powdered sugar on the top in either the positive or the negative. If I had my druthers, the gingerbread cupcakes would have been iced with a lemon icing and perhaps had the gingerbread men dusted in cocoa powder atop the cupcakes, but the strength of the gingerbread itself was such that it was still delicious even not having been iced.
The buttercream icing was made with real butter, which all too often is a rarity these days because many bakeries sacrafice flavor for cost reductions and stronger icings that can be more easily shaped into various decorations. I really appreciate that CoCo’s uses quality ingredients to ice their gourmet cakes. The resulting icing was light and fluffy and not overly sweet. I can see how many people would fawn over it. My view on frostings was greatly influenced by my grandfather, who always said that the cake was just a vehicle for the frosting and, as a result, my ideal buttercream has always been thick, rich, and very sugary. Therefore, I would say that it was just short of ideal. I wish that it might have been a bit sweeter and a bit thicker; on the other hand, if they made an extremely rich frosting it might run the risk of overpowering the cake.
Having sampled everything on their current menu except for chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting (but having separately had both halves of that choice), I can say without reservation that you won’t be disappointed with a visit to CoCo’s. Both their products and their service are superb. Just get there early, before everyone else does, or they won’t have anything left.
CoCo’s Cupcakes
5811 Ellsworth Ave., Shadyside
(412) 361-2626
www.cocoscupcakes.com
January 2nd, 2007 at 2:48 pm
We love CoCo’s!The cupckes are delicious and festive . It smells like grandma’s kitchen yet the place has a hot trendy look. The staff is friendly and fun! We give CoCo’s two thumbs up!
January 14th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
We find these cupcakes to be vastly overrated– the buttercream tastes like whipped Crisco and the cakes themselves are doughy and bland. It’s unfortunate that many might consider these gourmet– Coco’s is undoubtedly using cheap ingredients. It’s really unfortunate, as my entire family are huge cupcake fans and we live in the neighborhood. Skip Coco’s and bake your own!
January 17th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Mama- i hope you will come in and introduce yourself to me. I am Shea , one of the owners… i can assure you we use very expensive European Butter (plugra) and the finest chocolate (Guittard), vanilla (Mielsen-massey) and other ingredients… There are no cheap ingredients in our kitchen.! We also have people calling us every day saying our buttercream is amazing and they love it. and we have several regulars already so I would love to talk to you. I am sorry your visit was disappointing and i’m very surprised. but, i always want you to be pleased. Please call me or stop in, our customers feedback is very important. Using the finest ingredients was very important to us… it’s something we don’t skimp on… actually there is nothing we have skimped on in our place. i hope you will try us again…. we have had nothing but raves since we’ve opened. thanks for your input.
January 19th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
I’d like to reiterate that the frosting at Coco’s had no hint of shortening to it—it was obviously whipped butter, not shortening. If you have any doubts, compare its flavor to either that of a supermarket frosting (highly sweetened shortening) or a spoonful of Crisco, and you’ll no doubt see what a huge difference there is.
February 8th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I work across the street from Coco’s and I’d like to add that the vegan cupcakes are STELLAR there- don’t miss them (especially the green tea ones!).
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:46 am
I was not overly impressed by CoCo’s. Perhaps it’s my personal taste–I prefer a sweet frosting. Those who prefer a less sweet/more buttery frosting will probably enjoy CoCo’s cupcakes . The flavor of the chocolate cupcakes was OK, but I thought they were a little dense.
I was also really distressed by the excessive packaging. Sure, it seems “luxurious” or “decadent” to get a thick cardboard box for a few cupcakes…but why is that necessary? I hope that folks are recycling.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Coco’s is obviously jealous of Dozen. I mean, look! They (or one of thier pals) have posted a link to this page underneath a review for Dozen on All Cupcakes, All the Time! Maybe they could try to focus on getting a decent webpage or perfecting thier recipes instead of worrying about Dozen.
May 11th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
CoCo’s cakes have a moist, delicate crumb, and the buttery frosting is really amazing. The packaging and attention to detail are extra special, as well as the service. I can’t go without my weekly vanilla / vanilla fix. They are also great for special occasions - cute birthday packaging and cool special offerings for holidays. I’m a believer!
December 15th, 2009 at 6:41 am
I was looking through Google doing research for a blog when I found this article and I thought it very informative and interesting even though it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, the bakery itself sounds amazing, it is very rare to find customer service like what you say is offered there! Thanks Shauna xx
January 15th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Great article, it left my mouth watering! I really want to try one now, nothing compares to real buttercream icing. Sadly, not many bakers do it now and the quality is sacrificed. Quality always sells! Michael