Portland’s haute cupcakes

Cupcakes are all the rage right now, and with good reason. Luscious, frosting-smothered personal cakes are sure to make people smile, and Portland has several excellent cupcake bakeries ready to help you with your craving. After sampling a few of Portland’s finest, I discovered that there is no bad cupcake and that each bakery has its own strengths from which to choose.

Best vegan: Piece of Cake
8306 SE 17th Ave.
Initially, owner and cake designer Marilyn DeVault didn’t know how incredibly good vegan cakes would taste, but after a positive experience with them, she started experimenting with nontraditional cupcake recipes. The results are her delicious spelt-flour vegan cupcakes.

The vegan frosting is creamy and flavorful, and actually tastes better than the frosting offered on the nonvegan cupcakes.

The Irish oatmeal cupcake was delicately spiced and moist—you would never know that this cupcake conformed to any dietary restrictions if someone didn’t tell you.

The standard cupcakes were less inspired, particularly the Chantilly, which is chocolate cake with white frosting. It was good, but the frosting was hard on the outside and the cake was nowhere near jaw-droppingly tasty.

The drawbacks to these cupcakes include their nonstandard shape and high cost.
Instead of a firm little dome on top, these are flatter and resemble a hand-held cake, which subtracts from the cupcake experience but is very worth it if you want a wheat-free or vegan dessert.

Best fancy: Cupcake Jones
307 NW 10th Ave.
Cupcake Jones offers a wide selection of flavors, with a different menu each month. Their cupcakes are beautifully decorated and would be a great pick for a fancy occasion, such as a wedding.

“Eating a cupcake should always be an event,” said owner Lisa Watson.

With all of their flavor options and pretty frosting toppers, including an opalescent white-chocolate pearl for their vanilla cupcake, and a hand-sugared petal for their red velvet, they are sure to be a feast for your eyes and stomach.

Occasionally a cupcake is a bit dry, with a crumbly texture that could be a result of overmixing, but most of the cupcakes did not suffer from this and were moist with a pleasingly firm texture.

Added bonuses include that all cupcake flavors are available up until closing and leftovers get donated to the homeless agency Blanchet House.

In the fall, a nice choice of seasonal cupcakes is available, including pumpkin cheesecake and the incredible molasses spice. The molasses spice is a grown-up cupcake comprised of a not-too-sweet molasses cake, contrasted with a sweeter cream cheese frosting and your very own tiny molasses cookie.

Best homemade taste: Saint Cupcake
407 NW 17th Ave.
Saint Cupcake offers consistently delicious cupcakes, including their vegan options, every time. They taste homemade and offer cute decorative touches like multicolored sprinkles on top of the frosting.

They are also the least expensive and don’t sacrifice flavor or frosting. There is also a seating area.
According to Jen Endicott, director of cupcake affairs, there is good reason for Saint Cupcake’s homemade goodness—the recipes all come from the owner’s grandmother.

“You can taste that the recipes didn’t come from a test kitchen [because] they were designed with love in mind,” Endicott said.

The only drawback to Saint Cupcake is that the variety runs low as the day wears on, which can be a bit heartbreaking if you drove across town to eat your favorite flavor.

They have a large menu which includes the malt ball and a vegan cookies and “cream.” Toasted coconut cream is offered daily and is heavenly—it is soft, flavorful, loaded with cream cheese frosting rolled in coconut flakes and is definitely not to be missed.