The warm weather has everybody ready to get out and try new things, and my friends and I pondered what to do with our Saturday afternoon. Our usual day-time weekend activities include  getting food and, well, getting more food. This weekend we wanted to try something new—something a bit more exotic.  

 Good cookies and ice cream are plentiful in the area but we wanted to mix it up. We decided to hunt for cupcakes. Our first thought was Sprinkles, (50 E Walton St, Chicago) but the city on weekends can be very hectic so we searched for cupcakes in the area. Smallcakes, a cupcakery had good rating and wasn’t too far away with locations in both Naperville (115 E Ogden Ave #119) and Elmhurst (623 W North Ave #3).  

 My three friends and I made the 20-minute drive from my house to the Elmhurst location. The cute, boutique look welcomed us in. Everything was very clean and tidy, just as I like it. The smell of freshly-baked cupcakes paired with the classy display of all the flavors visible as soon as we walked in made it hard to choose just one cupcake. 

 Eighteen different flavors are available along with additional seasonal flavors. Flavors range from classic chocolate or vanilla to things like Carmel Crunch and Hot Fudge Sundae. I got the Cookies n’ Cream one for myself and the Famous Red Velvet for my sister ($3.50 each). The interior of the cupcakery was very nice, but we happened to be in a time crunch, so I took my cupcake home to enjoy it. 

 The cupcake was amazing. The frosting was plentiful with a great home-made flavor, but he cake part was what stood out to me. The cake was so light and fluffy. In my opinion, coming across good frosting is not as unusual as coming across very good cake. The flavor was rich and moist, and the frosting and the cake together was really the package deal. Not only did the cupcakes look fantastic, but their taste exceeded my expectations.  

 I am a fan of cupcakes and I have sampled cupcakes from places such as Busch Stadium in St. Louis to Georgetown Cupcakes in Washington D.C. I found that cupcakes can, one, be very expensive, and two, not taste nearly as good as they look. I was very pleased with Small Cakes as I did not find it to be too expensive for a quality cupcake.  

 Bottom Line: Smallcakes offers quality cupcakes for a decent price. The cupcakes actually taste as good as they look with many exotic flavors for dessert lovers to try.