H and I visited Bobbette & Belle last week. I meant to try their cupcakes and macarons for quite some time. We were at The Tulip Steakhouse for breakfast, and Bobbette & Belle was just down the street.
The store was beautiful, and as H described – very girly and chic. While we were looking around, Allyson (Bobbitt) brought out a gorgeous wedding cake. I was admiring it, and asked her permission to take several pictures. She was very gracious and friendly, even allowing me to take pictures before she took her own. We chatted for a few minutes about our love of blogging, and how busy she would be in the coming weeks and months. Thankfully the store only had 2 other customers, and I was able to take some quick shots.
The cupcakes are $2.95 each and we chose mango passion fruit, cookies & cream, apple spice, espresso, lemon and strawberry. When we arrived home I took the cupcakes out of the container, and I already knew they would be very dense. My fingers did not sink in as they would with a moist cupcake. We purchased our items before noon, so I had hoped for a fresh batch. I cannot discern if they were slightly stale, or just as they should be. I read several disappointing reviews stating the cupcakes were dry, but I really wanted to see for myself.
All of the cupcakes with the exception of the chocolate and cookies and cream were dry. The strawberry cupcake had only a hint of strawberry flavor. We liked the lemon curd in the center of the lemon cupcake, but it did nothing to compliment a dry vanilla cupcake. The apple spice cupcake was overly spiced, and I couldn’t taste the maple syrup in the buttercream. The cupcakes were all frosted with a Swiss meringue buttercream.
H was not impressed. He said he preferred my cupcakes, and was not being biased. He had only two words to say – dry and dense. I have made many cupcakes that are dense; coconut cupcakes for example, due to the addition of coconut milk, but a dry cupcake in my opinion is a huge disappointment! I’m not sure if I would purchase them again; $2.95 is a bit steep for a less than perfect cupcake.
I thought we might like the macarons better. They are priced at $2.00 each and we chose cassis, passion fruit, pistachio, chocolate, milk chocolate caramel and raspberry.
The macarons had perfect feet and were crispy with just enough chew. However, there wasn’t enough buttercream and fruit puree in my opinion. You can see from the pictures, at first glance they seem to be empty shells. The only exceptions were chocolate and pistachio; both had a generous portion of ganache and paste. Our favorite flavours were pistachio and passionfruit.
We have tasted macarons from Daniel et Daniel, Patachou, Ruelo (both locations), Rahier, Julio Bonilla, Bobbette & Belle, La Bamboche, Petite Thuet, Patisserie La Cigogne, Butter Avenue and Lemon Tree Patisserie. Our favorite macarons are from Lemon Tree Patisserie; unfortunately Kelly is on a blissful maternity leave. H also likes macarons from La Bamboche; I find they can be inconsistent at times.
H also picked up a cute container of coconut marshmallows for $4.95. The marshmallows were soft, but very chewy. H liked them more than I did.
I’m sad to report that in our opinion only, we would not visit again. We’d like to try some other places, and in the meantime, I think H is craving macarons and cupcakes (mine).
I really like your pictures
Ahhh, thanks