Baby Cakes in Raleigh

On my recent visit to see a friend in Raleigh, North Carolina, she was sweet enough to take me to a few pastry hot spots in town to try some baby cakes with my baby cakes. Audrey has definitely caught on to the concept of "treats" and definitely knows how to say "cupcake." On our girls' day out, we went to The Cupcake Shoppe Bakery near downtown Raleigh. It was a very nice place and quite the after dinner dessert hot spot. They had a very classy bakery and eating area. I loved the marble counters (which are just like what I plan to have put in our kitchen) and gorgeous displays. Cupcake bakeries are quite the trend and I always like to check them out.

The cupcakes were mouth watering and gorgeous. I could have tried one of each, but had to hold back. My friend's daughter just wanted a pink cupcake and Audrey would have taken any of them. I think she would have wanted to try the cookie monster cupcake they had, but the strawberry cupcake sounded better to me. I also got a coconut cupcake to try later. They were all piped exactly the same with a tube tip and different adornments to match their flavor, like a little carrot for the carrot cake cupcakes.

Here is our "Pretty in Pink" cupcake that was fresh strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream.

As you can see, Audrey LOVED it! She took the fork and kept going for the frosting.

Another day, we went to the Hereghty Heavenly Delicious Patisserie. We shared an amazing quiche for lunch with a side salad and perused the pastry selection for something to have for dessert. It was definitely more of a European bakery with lots of different cake and torte selections, puddings, custards and some traditional bakery items, like croissants.

They also had a tray of all different french macarons and of course I was interested in trying these after having made them recently myself. They had a nice flavor, but were much smaller than the ones I made and I think they need to be larger since they are so airy and light.

We ended up sharing a chocolate almond Vienna cake that was very dense and rich, but had a great taste. Thanks again to my best girlfriend for a great visit and taking me to check out these bakeries.