26 May 2012

Review: cupcake joint featured on ABC 7.30 ...

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We happened across the Jazz Apple shop in town today. Not sure whether to call it a cafe, although it has tables and chairs and an espresso machine. It is the outlet where a businesswoman featured the other week on 7.30 sells her cupcakes. The staff are very nice and friendly.

Coffee was moderately OK for a low-expectation joint, though just at the upper limit of normal city price at four bucks.

But the “cupcakes” were a shocker. Worst shop-bought cake I have ever eaten.

First of all, they cost five dollars each, and they are not large. Five dollars. For that price you would expect special ingredients and/or exceptional presentation flair in special, high-end surroundings. You get neither.

The cupcakes (we sampled three) were all clumpy, undercooked and had a gross puddingy uneven texture. Any CWA worthy would have chucked them in the bin, seriously. Two of the cakes left their bases in the paper cup they had been cooked in (they were served in their paper tray, which probably means these bad-texture “cupcakes” were the norm, and they can never ease them out). The icing swirl was cloyingly, disgustingly over-sweet, beyond toddler sweet tooth taste – and these cakes were grown-up size. They simply tasted cheap.

Perhaps worst of all: when you are paying five bucks for something where the ingredients cost the company all of thirty-odd cents, you’d expect that little decorative touches might be a bit special and high-end, and at least created in the shop. But the cakes were decorated with tiny ten-for-a cent bought-in-bulk flower conceits from China.

In short: packet mix from the supermarket results in a vastly better product than the cakes at Jazz Apple. Don’t go there!

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Holden Caulfield said :

Picking up a few delights from Magnolia on the way through Grand Central always works for me.

Nola’s is way better than Magnolia …

Holden Caulfield6:23 pm 15 Sep 12

birder said :

If anyone can recommend other good cupcake places, please let me know! I only eat them once a month or so, but it’s fun to find new places and try them out.

Picking up a few delights from Magnolia on the way through Grand Central always works for me.

birder said :

When I saw this post a few months ago, I resolved to try out Jazz Apple cupcakes. I was especially interested to hear that people thought the cup cakes were too sweet, as American cupcakes are generally sweeter. I’m from the US and I really miss a good cupcake now and then.

I finally got to try them out this week, when I was walking by and saw the sign. I got a chocolate mint cupcake, and started with the bottom (I save the top with frosting for last). The actual cake part wasn’t great – not terrible, but nothing special at all. Then the frosting. WAY TOO SWEET. It was not enjoyable at all – I actually didn’t finish it!

American cupcakes are moist, sweet and yet still buttery with a richness to them. This was just cloying. Blah. Definitely not worth the $5.

If anyone can recommend other good cupcake places, please let me know! I only eat them once a month or so, but it’s fun to find new places and try them out.

We’re coming up to fete season, so there’ll be lots of good cheap cakes at schools and churches soon.

When I saw this post a few months ago, I resolved to try out Jazz Apple cupcakes. I was especially interested to hear that people thought the cup cakes were too sweet, as American cupcakes are generally sweeter. I’m from the US and I really miss a good cupcake now and then.

I finally got to try them out this week, when I was walking by and saw the sign. I got a chocolate mint cupcake, and started with the bottom (I save the top with frosting for last). The actual cake part wasn’t great – not terrible, but nothing special at all. Then the frosting. WAY TOO SWEET. It was not enjoyable at all – I actually didn’t finish it!

American cupcakes are moist, sweet and yet still buttery with a richness to them. This was just cloying. Blah. Definitely not worth the $5.

If anyone can recommend other good cupcake places, please let me know! I only eat them once a month or so, but it’s fun to find new places and try them out.

I found the 7:30 story very confusing. The story was basically: lifetime alcoholic finds redemption…. through charging a bloody fortune for cupcakes!?!

I’m more than happy to jump on the novelty food bandwagon, cupcakes, macaroons, whatever – but they’re not worth $5. And the pricing structure only gets worse. Personally I would think they would target bulk orders for work morning teas or whatever. Correct me if I’m wrong but it’s something like $55 for a dozen? Wow – big discount! Fiddy five dollars enough ingredients for a year’s supply of cupcakes!

I walked into Jazz Apple once with a co-worker who bought a dozen and I nearly fell over at the price. The biggest surprise was that they tasted no better than any supermarket bakery cupcakes. The recipe for success here seems to be a mix of ignorant customers, gimmicky product and gourmet prices. Because as you know, something expensive is always superior to cheaper alternatives.

agree 100%…but Australia is really lacking in “good cupcake” places! jazz apple makes cakes that are pretty cheap and nasty, just covered by piped icing and a wide range of flavour choices.

i love cupcakes but the only good bought cupcake i have ever had was from Sprinkles in the US…so delish…this is how cupcakes should be Aussie shops!!!

and yes, at $5 per cake it’s a total rip off for what you get…they are small, excessively sweet, and lacking in any kind of flavour differentiation! :)p

Someone at work bought a boxful some months back (for an Arms Race Morning Tea), and I had a chocolate one. Felt very weird for the rest of the day and can only assume that it featured epic amounts of sugar. Never had another, and won’t.

blueberry said :

If i remember correctly it has been sold and is now run by someone different now. But last time i had one I was pretty impressed.

I have visited this shop a few times – and tasted the cupcakes which I found were large and very nice. But my visit on 25 May was very disappointing. I ordered a chocolate cupcake and coffee, then offered my coffee card and the female said “What am I supposed to do with that”? In other words, she wasn’t honouring my coffee card (no details had changed, no signs in the shop to say they weren’t accepting them). She signed it anyway…. I asked if the shop was under new management and she said the previous owner got a job on the lifestyle channel in Sydney.
I took my cake and coffee back to work only to find my cake much, much smaller than what was sold before and the coffee tasted horrible.
Last time I am going there…………..

This totally aligns with my experience a couple of years ago (standards haven’t changed)..I was there for a quick cupcake or two with a work chum and paid $4 for a strawberry topped delight..The cupcake icing was ok, but the innards were dry and gave me the impression it had been there for a while (maybe I chose an unpopular flavour)..The coffee that accompanyed the cake was tepid as well..That ended our experiment with Jazz Apple and after that we lined up with the other 120 or so office workers for a java hit at ‘Bean in the City’. A mighty brew if ever there was one..

Coincidentally I went to this same place today for a break from a (terrific) four hour poetry seminar at the Canberra Museum and Gallery, where the cafe closes at the weekend. The coffee was slightly dearer than Tilley’s (my personal standard in the language of coffee) and rather bland; I went for a white coffee for my lunch in medium size and was assured there were two shots, but it tasted relatively weak to me. I was shocked by the price of the cakes, too, and they only seemed to be selling a couple to women who kept apologising for buying cake to each other. (Something that always annoys me. If you want cake, eat it, but don’t whinge about it, and don’t assume anyone else is interested in the details of your diet. They’re not.) I feel they need to drop prices immediately, and definitely beef up the coffee. But maybe there’s a market for rich women who like expensive cake and somewhat weak coffee and a good whinge. Can’t see it myself. (Whingeing on-line is quite different…)

If i remember correctly it has been sold and is now run by someone different now. But last time i had one I was pretty impressed.

I agree with you 100%

I stopped by the “cafe” last weekend with my 7 year old niece.. We bought 4 different cupcakes and took them home to eat.

My first thought was “Holy crap! $5 a cupcake… ” ahhh how about we go home and bake our own, but she insisted.

I had a “banana split” cupcake, after 1 bite it was inedible. It was so sweet and over powering in chocolate flavour. The icing tasted like I’d put a spoonful of icing sugar in my mouth… BLEH !!!
It also tasted like it has been baked several days earlier.

My niece wouldn’t even eat hers, she took one bite, handed it back to me saying yuck. I think she had the “carrot cake” cupcake.

My sister and brother in-law had a “Choc-Mint” and a “Sticky Date” can testify to those..

I can honestly say I’ll never be returning to Jazz Apple ever again… In my opinion… Over priced, disgusting cupcakes. I really don’t know how they have repeat customers.

I had 100 times better cupcakes that I paid $1 each for from a lovely lady at the Million Paws Walk last week… I’m terribly sorry if I knew the details of her business I’d pass them along.

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