eat: crave cupcakes

My love affair with Crave spans almost eight years. Two sisters opened the Calgary-based bakery in 2004 in the Kensington area and I was lucky enough to be living there at the time. If you have yet to try a Crave cupcake -heed my words - these sweet and colourful concoctions are worth every single calorie. The icing is buttery and delicious, the cake is moist and decadent and the selections are plentiful. What more could a girl with a sweet tooth ask for?





When we moved back to Edmonton a few years ago, I pined for Crave's melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness. Trips to Calgary always included a stop at Crave so I could get my fix. I can't begin to fathom how many A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts I've consumed over the years. It's probably a figure best left to the imagination. (:

So, I was beyond delighted (and excited) when Crave opened an Edmonton location earlier this year. Happy dance time! 3 hour drives to Calgary were no longer necessary. My friend Angela, who lives in Calgary, joked that she would never see me again now that Edmonton had its own Crave. Ha!

In addition to offering more than a dozen tasty cupcake flavours (available in regular & mini sizes), the bakery also offers a feature "craving" ever month. Lucky for us, August happens to have two specials, s'more cupcakes and cookies! I tried the cupcake last week and was in ecstasy. Rich chocolate cake infused with chunks of chocolate and topped with homemade ooey-gooey marshmallow, a graham cracker and more chocolate. This is the perfect taste sensation when camping is just not in the cards.

Take a gander at its loveliness.

If you're more of a cookie monster, they have those too (hello ginger creams!) plus cakes and ice cream sandwiches. Their newest sweet treat? Old-fashioned whoopie pies. Please try the raspberry chocolate - rich, raspberry buttercream stuffed inside delicate chocolate cake. Oh. my. goodness.

And guess who else loves Crave? Why my ladyfriend Christine, of course! She and I met up recently for some of those aforementioned sweet treats and an impromptu (and utterly hilarious) photoshoot. Be sure to check out her take on the mini doughnut cupcake at her gorg blog, just bella. The lady is quite the photographer and the owner of the cutest baby bump ever!




Happy Friday, friends!

Hope yours includes sharing cupcakes and sugar-induced shenanigans with a good friend, too.

Dajana (: