Cupcake Camper
Hubby and I took a four day weekend to go visit my family in Illinois. It was a rainy chilly weekend in the Midwest so our original plan of going apple picking got foiled. Instead, we decided to head to the Shoppes at Grand Prairie to do a bit of shopping. It was a very successful shopping trip, especially since we saw this when we walked out of our last store.
That’s right! A cupcake camper. I know some of you have seen the cupcake trucks that go around NYC selling cupcakes, but this camper was at an outdoor mall in Peoria, Illinois.
We decided to wait outside in the misting rain to grab two cupcakes to split between the four of us. First the girl wasn’t there, so we waited a few minutes and she returned. During that time we decided on our flavors to try. We wanted to try a chocolate cupcake with pink frosting and a spice cupcake with orange frosting.
All of the cupcakes were in the camper in plastic boxes behind the counter. It appears that the cupcakes are baked somewhere else and then sold from the camper. When the girl came back, she gave us our two cupcakes. I asked the girl who baked the cupcakes (hoping that she would give me the name of a bakery or something), she said “I dunno, bakers?”.
When I looked down at the two cupcakes, I asked if the one with orange was in fact a spice cupcake, and she reassured me that it was a spice cupcake. I didn’t believe it at first since the spice cupcakes I’ve made are always a dark brown color and this one was clearly white. But since she had confirmed the order twice before going to get the cupcakes, AND verified again after she gave us the cupcakes, I dropped the line of questioning.
We paid and took our cupcakes home to enjoy. They were definitely big enough for us to cut them into four so everyone could have some of each. The chocolate cupcake was a bit dry. The cupcake to frosting ratio was about spot on. We all agreed that the frosting was ok. Nothing great, but also not overly sweet or bland.
On to the vanilla cupcake. Again, we had ordered a spice cupcake and were given a vanilla cupcake. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because this was a great vanilla cupcake. Maybe one of the best ones I’ve ever had.
Overall, the Cupcake Camper experience was ok. The employee working the day we went had no clue about what was going on. As a cupcake enthusiast, this was somewhat frustrating. My dad also commented that he was surprised they had so few flavors to choose from.
Cupcake Camper does have a website that is currently under construction, and a Facebook page that you can check out. I still have no idea where the cupcakes come from, so if anyone knows, I’d love to hear about it.
Don’t forget about my Power of Pink Challenge going on all month.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
OMG, I am in love with these cupcakes! They’re so awesome! I love HP, and I made owl cupcakes when the movie came out. I might need to give these a try before going to see the IMAX 3D movie.
How cute are those?! And i was wondering how you got the lettering so perfect – thanks for the step-by-step. Lol – I just dragged DH to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry – I’m sure he’ll be happy when the final movie comes out and he doesn’t have to hear about it anymore!
Great job, how lucky are your friends?
I’m so jealous! My two sisters are going to the exhibit this weekend. I thought about flying to Chicago to join them. Luckily I found out the exhibit is coming here in October. Whew!
These look fabulous! You did such a great job on them!
WOW JEN!! Those are fantastic!! Better than professional! Seriously, what talent you have to make those! 🙂
Aw thanks Katie – you’re making me blush.
I hate when cupcakes do that to me too. Instead of baking up they bake out! 🙁
Love your Harry Potter cupcake toppers! Very cute and creative!
~ingrid
Hi Jen! A friend of mine forwarded me your page for HP Cupcakes and I just wanted to drop in and say that I think they’re awesome and I want to run home now and try to create some fun hp themed cakes! I had done some in the past–cauldron cakes if you will, by buying mini cauldrons and cutting the bottom off so the tops sat just on the cakes and then used a bit of green frosting on the inside. You should join up with the HP-MA crew! We’ve been organizing some meet-ups for Boston Fans!
Sounds awesome Manda.
Oh my goodness, what adorable little cupcakes!
So so cute! And yeah, those “HPs” must have taken FOREVER. I have a fabulous vanilla cupcake recipe that never fails me here: http://annies-eats.com/2008/07/18/vanilla-cupcakes/. Also, I recently made Dorie’s perfect party cake into cupcakes and had great results with that as well.
I love your HP cupcakes! I too am a huge Harry Potter fan but I have to admit, I don’t think I’d be patient enough to make cupcakes and toppings as cute as yours!
These are so awesome!! I wish I would have seen them and did some of these with the HP cake I did!!