Just in case your sweet tooth is begging for mercy (I’ve had my share of cookies, cupcakes, and other treats over the past several days; guilty as charged), today’s offering of treats is the last of the bunch in the Hallowe’en Headquarters series and I’m sad to see it end! I’ve really warmed up to the cutesy header image, background colour, and colour scheme (I’m quite fond of lime green) and it’ll be bittersweet saying goodbye to it. It was Ate by Ate’s first Hallowe’en and I’ve had so much fun being mummifying and spookifying the blog! I wish I had another week to post more goodies (or rather, I wish I had just started earlier!), but I’m glad I got the chance to show you all at least a few yummies around the city. If we’re bidding farewell to the haunted holiday, we’re going out with a bang – Short & Sweet cupcake style! Like I would let Hallowe’en come and go without a visit to my favourite cupcake shop 😉
Hallowe’en was a big deal for Short & Sweet for a number of reasons. First, it was the shop’s first major holiday celebration at the new location on Avenue Rd. Second, Hallowe’en fell on a Monday this year and Short & Sweet doesn’t normally open for business on Mondays, so it was a crazy, whirlwind day on their part! There are plenty of shops in the city that aren’t open 7 days a week and I can imagine what a pickle it becomes, as a business owner, when you’re faced with the dilemma of wanting to stay open for a specific holiday or occasion on the very day that you’re business is supposed to be closed. It’s the desire for more business versus possibly being short-staffed, majorly overworked, or just not having enough resources to accomodate.
I’m biased, but I’m happy they decided to open this past Monday! While I was drooling over Short & Sweet’s special Hallowe’en themed cupcakes and snapping away with my camera, people were picking up orders left and right and I had to tell at least 4 or 5 people who came in after me that I was not, in fact, ordering (yet) and that they were more than welcome to go ahead of me. I was too busy gawking. Their selection of cupcakes were all sporting a mixed flurry of frosted, sprinkled orange, white, purple, and black and everything looked so pretty and festive! Some cupcakes had bright, rich, colourful frosting (Ice Ice Baby had a fiery orange vanilla frosting while Penguin Suit looked dapper in a gorgeous jeweltone purple with sprinkles) while others were dusted with orange, purple, black, and white sprinkles, pumpkin candy toppers, and Hallowe’en trinkets.
I picked up one for myself (October’s Pumpkin Spice with pumpkin spice cake and cream cheese frosting) and one for my brother (the chocolate, fudgy Rich in Recession with a Hallowe’en appropriate pumpkin candy on top) and good god did my brother ever go to town with his cupcake when I brought it home for him! Forget trick-or-treating, cupcakes are where it’s at! My brother is a chocolate fiend and while he was stuffing his face, he managed to mumble out, “Mmm, chocolatey goodness, chocolate frosting is so good” in between mouthfuls of, well, chocolate.
And my cream cheese frosted pumpkin spice cupcake was a mixture of sweetness, tangyness, and thick creaminess, which is a defining feature of Short & Sweet’s cupcakes. The frostings are thick and creamy and you’ll never find a frosting here that’s airy and whippy. The cake itself had an earthy, pumpkin flavour and the nice thing about it was that it wasn’t overloaded with the spice component. I enjoy spice combinations like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, 5-star, anise, etc. but too much makes the pumpkin flavour taste artificial.
I don’t know what it is about pumpkin that makes the texture of cake so different, but pumpkin cupcakes are so different from the regular vanillas and chocolates. They’re not fluffy per se, and they’re not like muffins because muffins have more of a crumbly texture to them. The pumpkin spice cupcake was so full of body. You feel like you’re eating a loaf cake with frosting and it’s the type of cake you can envision yourself having as a morning breakfast snack, or taking out of your oven in a loaf pan. I don’t mind one way or another, but if you prefer the “pillow” type of texture, the pumpkin cake probably isn’t for you. Even though the density of it takes some getting used to, I enjoy the flavour and I’m happy I got the chance to try it!
Hallowe’en at Short & Sweet was super fun and this whole series was a blast to do. I hope you all liked the series, as short as it was, and had fabulous Hallowe’ens! November is now upon us and there’s so much to look forward to. I’m excited to churn out more Fall Harvest posts and I have a few holiday ideas up my sleeve as well! If you have any leftover Hallowe’en sweets, enjoy them!
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Short & Sweet Cupcakes is now located at 1945 Avenue Rd., south of Wilson Ave. If you take public transit like me, the easiest way to get here is to get off at Wilson subway station and take the 96 bus to Avenue Rd. and walk south. You can also get here by getting off at York Mills subway station and taking the 165 Weston Rd. North bus to Wilson Ave. and Avenue Rd. and walking south, or getting off Yorks Mills subway station and walking west to Avenue Rd. from Yonge.
Ate by Ate 