The Spotted Apron is a very cute bakery & cafe that opened in Boston's Beacon Hill around a month ago. True to its name, it's got spots (more like polka dots) everywhere. On the walls, on the cups, on the plates, and also on the cupcakes. My friend Tamar and I had a small bite to eat there and then got right down to tasting. We tried two cupcakes. Here are the results of Day 2 of Cupcake Week at the Tasty Show:

Bakery: The Spotted Apron

Cupcake 1: Classic white with chocolate butter cream frosting
Cupcake 2: Red velvet with vanilla mascarpone frosting

Price: $2.85 and $3.35, respectively

Accompanying Friend: Tamar

Presentation: Retro Classic. Each cupcake has it's own rendition of the dots theme of the bakery.

Cake: The cupcakes were served cool. The classic white was dense, a bit dry for my taste, and quite sweet. It reminded both of us of birthday cupcakes from grade school. The nice girls behind the counter explained that the texture of the classic white came from the use of cake flour and egg whites (no yolk), putting it somewhere in the general realm of angel food cake. The red velvet (The Spotted Apron's best seller) was totally different - it's made with buttermilk (rather than just regular milk), and was spongier and much more moist. The red velvet cake was also a bit bitter - utterly different than the classic white (which was classically sweet), making for a wholly different cupcake experience. I liked the bitterness of it though I think it would have fared better if it was sweeter. Tamar much preferred the classic white.

Frosting: The classic white's chocolate butter cream frosting was sugary and stiff in a way that it cracks a bit when you bite into it, also bringing back pleasant memories of grade school cupcakes. It was topped with colored fondant discs. The vanilla mascarpone frosting on the red velvet cupcake was, again, wholly different. It was cool and mildly sweet, slightly tangy and very soft and smooth throughout. It was topped with Valrhona chocolate dots. Both Tamar and I agreed that the mascarpone frosting interacts extremely well with the bitter sweetness of the red velvet cake.

Overall experience: Tamar liked the classic white the best out of the two we tried. The frosting was perfect, and the whole experience reminded her of eating homemade birthday cake. She said that the only thing that could have been better was the texture of the cake itself - she liked the moistness of the red velvet better (but wasn't so into the bitter flavor and thought the mascarpone frosting was a bit too creamy). I was more into the red velvet. The combination of the mildly bitter sweetness of the cake and the cheese frosting was delicious, and the lighter texture and higher level of moisture was huge for me - though without the frosting, the cake alone was too bitter for me as well. But the classic white was definitely a little too heavy for my taste.

The classic white is just that - classic. It's sweet, home-style, and nostalgic, and evokes sweet memories of childhood birthday parties. The red velvet is the opposite. It's ultra smooth but not ultra sweet, and more on the sensual side. I could almost call it an adult cupcake. They were both medium good, but not spectacular in any way.

Click here to see the 5-day plan and read the original Cupcake Week post.