Crabapple Cupcakes: cute as a button
I have discovered the Crabapple Cupcake Bakery at the Prahran Market. They make divine cupcakes to drool over. In fact you can even buy the book if you want to try your hand at baking such lavish creations. But if, like me, you dislike making icing and don’t have piping equipment then you can purchase them ready-made. Oh joy!
The market is full of wonderful fresh fruit, deli counters, organic stalls, gourmet potatoes, pomegranate juices and the nut shop. But I am irresistibly drawn to these gorgeous cupcakes. The shop is worth viewing even if you aren’t tempted like me. It seems odd in a big austere 
wharehouse to come across a dainty pastel coloured shop but that is what you will find – pale pink walls, elegant white metal tables and chairs, displays of cake stands and plates and a glass display cabinet of every sort of cupcake you could ever imagine.
I can’t resist a chocolate cupcake and would recommend the raspberry mudcake which I bought on my last visit. But just a few days ago I was there and got just plain mudcake which was luscious – soft and rich with a gooey chocolate frosting. I bought E a rose petal one because he prefers plain buttercake. It was cute as a button 
with a little pink icing rose on top, but he asked if it had perfume in it (actually he said it tasted like the inside of a tart’s handbag!) and it was very sweet. I suspect it might have had rosewater in it. He still was very happy with me when I gave him a cute pink iced cupcake.
What a find! Luckily it is over the other side of town from me so I can’t go running there too often. I will still dream of creating such sugary fantasies myself but until then I know where to find cupcake heaven.
Update 8/7/2008 - I keep hearing rumours that Crapapple Cupcake Bakery is now closed. It seems to be true. Many comments I have seen are negative but I am sad they have closed even if I rarely visited because it is over the other side of town from me. Check out the comments at Syrup and Tang for more info.
Crabapple Cupcake Bakery
Shop 6, Prahran Market
163 Commercial Road,
South Yarra, VIC, 3141
ph: (03) 9827 8116
fax: (03) 9827 8117
web: http://www.crabapplecupcakebakery.com.au/