Phoenix, AZ

Cupcakes By Design www.AZcupcakesbydesign.com
1528 E Bethany Home Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85014. 602.277.2300
Hours: Tues - Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday 10am-4pm

Hi my name is Katie, and I have a cupcake addiction. To date, my favorite cupcakes have been 1) Hey Cupcake in Austin, TX, 2) Cupcakes Couture Manhattan Beach, CA. I'm still searching for my favorite cupcakery in my home state of Arizona, but until I find something I like more; I was ecstatic to find Cupcake by Design just down the highway from my house.

This isn't the first time I've paid $3.50 for a cupcake (decorative cupcakes are $4), and I liked some things about different cakes we tried.  This is the first time I haven't seen a discount when you buy a half dozen ($21). Mini's are available for pre-order at $2 a mini.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

The flavors we tried were my signature Red Velvet (red velvet cake, cream cheese filled, with cream cheese frosting), Devil's Delight (Devil's food cake, filled with bavarian cream, and fudge icing), Love My Peanut Butter (peanut butter cake, fudge filled, peanut buyer cream icing), and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup (Devil's food cake, peanut butter filled, chocolate peanut butter icing).

The red velvet had a pretty deep red color, and a moist cake, but I liked the cream cheese filling (which there could have been more of!) better than the cream cheese icing, which was just a little too sugary. The Devil's Delight was skimpy on the bavarian cream, but had a delicious devil's food flavor and a the fudge icing was a nice balance. This one I ate in the shop, and the owner even had complimentary water and coffee set out for patrons who decided to enjoy her deliciousness before they even left the store. It was a nice touch, and reinforced what a great neighborhood feel you can find in the Uptown area.

The Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup had what seemed like solid peanut butter in the center, and was tasty when you distributed it between bites. If not, you may look a little like Mr. Ed as you eat this tasty cake. I probably should have had the Love my Peanut Butter before the chocolate peanut butter, because I totally lost the peanut butter flavor in the second cupcake. Some of this could be as a result of by tastebuds still lingering in the strong chocolatey peanut buttery goodness from the cake before. And if you're thinking, wait, did this chick really eat 4 cupcakes? Yes and no. I brought them to a friend's house and we cut them up and all had tastes of each one and shared our thoughts.

Final verdict: Would I go back for more? Yes. Is my search over for the perfect cupcakery in AZ? No, I will still be on the lookout for a replacement. Until then, I have found a tasty place for my tastebuds to flirt until I find "the one."