Dallas by Chocolate Cupcake Tour

Chris, me, and our good friends, Andrew and Kendal went on a Dallas Cupcake Tour held by Dallas by Chocolate yesterday. It was a blast. We all bought tickets for $39 and had a very neat experience. They sold out, so we were lucky we bought our tickets when we did. Kendal found out about the tour and asked if we wanted to go. We said, "YES!" Chris then did some researching and found out that it was being led by Jayme von Cupcake. She hosts a blog called Confection Confessions where she writes about many local bakers/bakeries. She has been featured in the Dallas Observer. Here is her "About Me" page on her blog page. Her website is www.confectionconfessions.com. 

We met at Memoria Mini Cafe's Executive Lounge (two storefronts down from our first stop). We got a complimentary Chocolate Zado. It was this yummy coffee frappucino-type drink. 

Here's Andrew, Kendal, and Chris waiting inside the cafe for our tour to start. 

There were these cool telephone booths inside. Here's a picture of Chris being cute.

Before we went to the first bakery, we got to sample two baker's cupcakes. One of them will be opening a store front next month. The other does not have a store front either. She had a lot of personality. Her name is Keiyana Roberts and her cupcake business is called Kreme de la Cupcake. She was on Cupcake Wars. We took a picture with her and friended her on Facebook. She was so nice. The cupcake she gave to us all was called "Oh Snap!" and featured the gingersnap cookie.

This was the owner toasting Jayme and our tour. She gave us complimentary champagne and/or champagne with orange and cranberry juice - yum!

They also let us sample mini cupcakes (you can see them in the background). Chris got the oreo cookie one and ate it right away. I got the salted caramel one (you can see it with the pretzel in the background) and took it home for later.

 Here are some pictures from inside Trailercakes.

The Slap Your Momma Chocolate cupcakes looked so so yummy.

Those were the Peanut Butter and Jayme samples we tasted.

This is a picture of "Bubbles" - the trailer they started their business with. They still have it. Once they had saved enough money, they opened their business in a basement. And now, they have a beautiful store front. 

After Trailercakes, we all got on this private bus and started our trek to the next stop. It was really swanky. It had black leather reclining seats and wood floors. We were served different wines while in the van. 

Here's a blurry picture of a yummy red we sampled.

That is Jeanine from Dallas by Chocolate - she was our tour guide. 

Chris was so relaxed, he didn't even care that Andrew was giving him bunny ears. :)

Jayme was given the bus mic a few times. 

After Trailercakes, we went to Fluellen cupcakes downtown. 

They had a beautiful store front and were very organized and prepared for us. They had pre-packaged bags with two different kinds of cupcakes in each bag, as well as a cake pop and coupons. 

The owner told us how he started the business. He told us how he was a realtor and that he never really liked cupcakes until he tasted a lemon one and LOVED it. He said that his lemon cupcake is on the menu in his bakery every day. :) He bakes the cupcakes himself (working MANY hours) and has his coworkers frost them - he says that he cannot frost them. He was super nice. He actually gave us more because another baker we were supposed to visit twisted her ankle and was in the emergency room - super cool of him, right? His cupcakes are huge too! I can't wait to taste them. Since he bagged two different cupcakes in each bag, Chris and I have four different cupcakes to sample!

Here's the menu that was included in the bag. You can see the Lemon Delight on the menu. The Orange Dreamsicle sounds so good. Maple Bacon sounds interesting too.

We then crossed over the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge into Oak Cliff to go to Rush Bakery. 

The owner is known for her macaroons. She studied at Cordon Bleu in Paris, France (hence the Eiffel Tower in the background). She told us about her un-cupcakes in the jar. It was a happy accident. She told us that she's never liked how cupcakes are so dry. So as a slight knock on Sprinkles, she started building a cupcake in a jar. She put some syrup in with the cake to moisten it up. She then hollowed it out, poured ganache inside, put the whipped cream frosting on top, and voila, a new kind of cupcake was invented. She said that she was having another baker friend taste one when a marketing manager for a large company came up and inquired about the cupcake. After tasting it and enjoying all the flavors in one bite, he ordered 1,500 to send to as Christmas gifts to clients around the world. Because the jar could be sealed up, it stayed fresh. She said you can even freeze them and eat them later. Jayme confirmed this finding. She allowed us to try some of the un-cupcakes. Chris tried one, but I passed. I was having sugar-overload. She also baked mini-cupcakes for us to try.

I had to agree with her that her cupcake cake was dry. I was eyeing her french pastries though and someday will come back to sample one of those.

I like her payment method she had set up - a mounted iPad with a square. She also had a mounted iPad for customers to sign up for a reward system.

This is the sign outside her storefront.

After Rush, we went to the Creme de la Cookie Bakery (our last stop). 

Andrew, Kendal, and I could not wait to go to a restroom, so we missed the explanation about the bakery as we hunted down a bathroom in another store. We did get back in time to sample another cupcake. This one was so good. It was like chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. 

I saw that they sold Carrot Cake Pops (Chris's favorite cake is Carrot Cake), so I told Chris to buy one. Well, they didn't have any of those, but Chris bought a Wedding Cake ball and a Coconut Cake ball as well as two OMG chocolate chip cookies. And, OMG, those cookies were pretty dang fantastic!

Here's my artsy shot of the cupcake. :)

Before we left, Chris had to get his picture with Jayme - the Countess von Cupcake. 

We think this was her car in the parking garage. The bats are kinda cool.

When we got home, I laid out our loot. Pretty amazing when you consider the only things we paid for outside of our tour tickets were the OMG cookies and two small cakeballs (the ones not on the sticks). We should have gotten two "Oh Snap" cupcakes, but Chris felt weird at first grabbing two for us. He then realized later that we paid for two tickets. Oh well...

All in all it was a neat experience. We talked about possibly doing a food tour. Jeanine talked about many different tours Dallas by Chocolate does - Tacos and Margaritas, Burgers and Beer, Asian with sushi and sake, Barbeque and Beer, etc. After we had all the sugary sweets, real food sounded great. We had enough time when we got home to change and pack up our stuff to go to the Lone Star Wind Orchestra Season 8 Kick-off party at Barry and Bob's house. It was really nice. I'm so tired today though. I fell asleep many times during the Cowboys game today. Lol.