Aerin Johnson
Editor in Chief
With Valentine’s Day approaching soon, many wonder what should they do with their family, friends, and/or significant others. I say, get something sweet! More specifically, a cupcake.
St. Louis is famous for several shops that sell cupcakes and have competed on the famous baking show “Cupcake Wars.”
Here is a sampling of those cupcakes and their shops.
Smallcakes: a Cupcakery- www.smallcakescupcakery.com
Located on 343 Kirkwood Road, Smallcakes is one of the newer shops in St. Louis, but not in the nation. It has shops in 17 states and few locations internationally.
Walking into the shop is like walking into a small cafe. Pink is everywhere, from the walls to the ceiling, and the atmosphere is very inviting.
The cupcakes themselves? They are absolutely delicious. It has basic flavors like chocolate and vanilla, but they also have flavors such as hot fudge sundae and cookies-n-cream (my personal favorite). There is a delicious butter cream frosting on all the cupcakes (except for the red velvet which has cream cheese), and the cupcakes have moist centers.
None of the flavors in the frosting or cupcake are overwhelming and nothing is overly sweet. The prices are very good at about $3.50 a cupcake.
The shop is a wonderful place for friends and family or to take a date (and be sure to take some to go! You’ll want to!).
Jilly’s Cupcake Bar and Café- www.jillyscupcakebar.com
One of St. Louis’s more famous cupcake locations, Jilly’s Cupcake Bar and Cafe on 8509 Delmar Boulevard is one of the more interesting places to go.
The shop itself if very large and has quite a bit of seating, but you don’t want to get there later in the day. They run out of cupcakes fast!
Their cupcakes are some of the largest and most creative creations in the cupcake world. Jilly’s cupcakes that are sold at their shop are over half a pound (but you can special order regular cupcakes and mini-cupcakes).
Their decorations are all in the frosting that surrounds the top of their large cupcakes, and that’s what makes them beautiful and also very delicious. The cake part of the cupcake is very delicious also and sometimes has frosting inside it.
The Fireball cupcake (one of their January monthly cupcakes) is surprise to the taste buds. Swiping the frosting from the top, you expect this very cinnamony flavored frosting, but taking a full bite of the cupcake and its frosting together, you get this very tasty apple flavor along with dashes of cinnamon and a little bit of red hot flavor, which is surprisingly very good. Cupcakes costs at Jilly’s start at about $4.75. This is a great place to hang out with some friends or family or just to bring something sweet home. Jilly’s does sell cupcakes at Straubs and at certain Schnucks locations.
The Sweet Divine- www.thesweetdivine.com
“Cupcake Wars” season six winner, The Sweet Divine is another great place to get a sweet treat.
The shop is located in Historic Soulard, 1801 9th street and is very small inside. It’s not exactly a sit down place, so the only thing you can really do is order your cupcakes or go to pick up an order of cupcakes.
Sweet Divine cupcakes are pretty small and start at $2.50 per cupcake. They are delicious, though.
The most interesting flavor they have is the Drunken Pig, which has bacon on top. It’s flavoring is pretty good but is very hard describe.
The best cupcake (I believe) was the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, which had some cookie dough in the bottom of it. The frosting was sweet and had lots of chips in it, and altogether it actually tasted like a cookie!
It’s a great place to get the cupcakes but not a great place to stay and eat. The Sweet Divine is also one of the stores in St. Louis that has a food truck that travels around the area.
Overall best shop:
Smallcakes is probably the best cupcake shop to go to this Valentine’s Day. It’s a great place to go and hang out with just about anyone, and you don’t get the loud noise of a larger place like Jilly’s and has tables to sit at unlike The Sweet Divine, so go on and get some cupcakes this Feb. 14.
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