Bakeries, Food, Shops and Suppliers

Have a Sweet Lorraine Valentine

Cupcakes from Sweet Lorraine Bakeshop

This post is long overdue, but it seems the timing is perfect anyway, what with Valentine’s Day coming up and all. If you’re looking for something for your sweetheart (and for your sweet tooth), here’s the perfect thing: cupcakes from Sweet Lorraine Bakeshop. I learned about this last Christmas: Lorraine, a long-time reader of Southbound, emailed me to tell me she’d finally turned her passion for baking into a home-based business. She specializes in cupcakes, but she also has cookies and brownies on offer, and all are made with premium ingredients (a virtual United Nations of ingredients): French and Danish butter, pure Madagascar vanilla, Sri Lankan cinnamon, organic free-range eggs, Valrhona and Ghirardelli chocolate, and fresh local fruit.

Prefect for a cupcake / tea party with friends

It was a hectic holiday season, so I only got to try Lorraine’s goodies early this year, and to celebrate a friend’s return from the States (and, more to the point, to share the calories), I brought a box of cupcakes to dinner, effectively turning it into a cupcake party.

If you look closely at the cookies, you’ll see the sea salt specks

We picked up the cupcakes from Pacific Village in Alabang (very convenient), and we were pleasantly surprised to find a box of Lorraine’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (P450 for a dozen) along with our cupcakes. Before we even made it out of the village, we were attacking the box and ooohing, aaahing, and mmming in chocolate-induced ecstasy… and I am not exaggerating! According to Lorraine’s site, these are her most requested product, and we immediately discovered why. They’re rather thin for chocolate chip cookies (I usually like the fat ones with a substantial doughy center), but the thin crispy outside hides a wonderfully chewy inside. They are, indeed, as the site says, “sublimely buttery, and made with generous chunks of bittersweet chocolate,” but what I found truly unique was the salt mixed in, which punctuated each bite with a different (but surprisingly complimentary) flavor that kept the cookies from becoming cloying—it took all my willpower not to eat too much. I managed to reach the party and disguise my early forays into the food by moving the remaining cookies around a little.

Smart packaging

The cupcakes made it to dinner (though I’m not sure it did them any good in terms of the photos—you’d think photos taken in a well-lit dining room versus a dark, moving car would look good, but I’m afraid these don’t do the cupcakes justice). We had a small selection: Chocolateaholic (chocolate cake with ganache topping), 24 Carrot Gold (carrot cake with cream cheese topping), and Lovely Lavender (lavender-flavored cake with vanilla frosting). The first thing we noticed was the smart packaging: you know how chocolate bonbon selections usually have a list of different flavors (kodigo, kumbaga)? This had the name and description of each cupcake tucked away under each one. Adorable. (I was impressed with Lorraine’s branding and website, actually, not just her packaging: the site is fun to browse, cleanly designed, and her blog has a cheeky reference to her bakeshop’s namesake in the form of a pink iPod with different versions of the jazz standard Sweet Lorraine on the playlist.)

24 Carrot Gold cupcake

Flavor-wise, the cupcakes did not disappoint. I loved the 24 Carrot Gold most of all—not a surprise, since I always favor carrot cake. Lorraine’s version was exceptionally good, perhaps among the best I’ve tried. The cake was very moist and the flavor was the perfect cinnamony-carroty mix of a classic carrot cake, and the filling was thick and creamy.

Chocolateaholic cupcake

Aweng favored the Chocolateaholic, which also had a classic chocolate cake base, though I think she really took to it because of the smooth topping. (Excuse me for coming up short in terms of a description—chocolate, after all, is chocolate, so I really don’t know what else to add!)

Lovely Lavender cupcake

The Lovely Lavender was the most unique of all: this had a strong flavor of fresh lavender that you could taste as soon as the cake entered your mouth. I love lavender in food, so this was promising for me, but unfortunately the cake was too dry. If it had the same consistency as the carrot cake, this would be a hands-down favorite. The flavor isn’t on the website yet, so I don’t know if this was an experiment, though if it was, I hope Lorraine can work out the kinks (a friend suggested maybe the alchemical properties of the lavender sucked out the moisture… whatever, hahaha!).

A box of goodies!

Lorraine is offering Valentine gift boxes—or at least she was, but the deadline for orders passed us by two days ago! In any case, you can still order some cupcakes (you have to order three days in advance, so maybe only crammers like me are thinking about doing this exactly three days before Valentine’s Day) to enjoy another day. If you do, I highly recommend throwing in some cookies. Oh, and watch out for special treats and discounts for Southbound readers soon (I love our growing community)! Thanks for the cupcakes, Lorraine!

Sweet Lorraine Bakeshop
(0915) 116-6303
www.sweetlorrainebakeshop.com

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