You’d think that Toronto couldn’t possibly sustain yet another dedicated cupcake shop, but clearly I’m in the minority. Enter Prairie Girl Bakery at King and Victoria, catering to the office-folks in the core. Despite its odd location (address is on King, entrance is off Victoria), people are finding this place. And business is booming – Prairie Girl sold over 3000 cupcakes on a single Friday before Easter weekend. This, only a few weeks after opening its doors.

The store is almost starkly white, accented by pinks, greens, and purples. A slick display of flavours and sizes diverts you from the almost too-girly barrage as you walk in. The usual suspects of flavours are in play, with a rotating roster of weekly specials. I find the cake-bases okay-to-good and of a decent flavour-range with vanilla, chocolate, banana, carrot, and red velvet. What really shone for me were the frostings – particularly the strawberry and lemon.

My breakdown, by cake-base

With many combinations available, I decided to go by cake-base. Some frosting options are available on both chocolate and vanilla, others are slightly more exclusive, like the peanut butter.

Banana
– Banana cake had a mid-sized crumb and was moist. Had a decent banana taste, not strong.
– Peanut butter frosting was also light-tasting, but got a bit lost when eating with cake.

Carrot Cake
– Cake was pretty good. Not overly carroty, which I don’t always like.
– Cream cheese frosting was very good, but I generally like cream cheese frosting.
– Good melding of flavours for this one. Better than the individual parts.

Red Velvet
– Finer crumb. Cake was decent and has a slightly sandy texture.
– Same cream cheese frosting as the carrot cake. Good stuff.

Vanilla
– Vanilla was a mid-to-thick-sized crumb. Appreciate the it’s not too-dense, yet not too-fluffy attempt, but found the texture very coarse.
– Strawberry frosting was awesome. Really nice flavour without being too fake. Would get this again.
– Lemon frosting had zest in it. Also really good.
– Coconut frosting was decent and was laced with lemon. I could do with a stronger coconut taste though.

Chocolate
– Medium crumb
– Chocolate frosting is rich and fudgey
– Peppermint frosting is quite nice as well.

Prairie Girl Bakery Cupcakes

Peanut butter/banana, coconut/vanilla, red velvet, strawberry/vanilla, & cream cheese/carrot.

Thankfully, they offer a mini-cupcake size. In addition to being able to try many flavours (see above), it is more importantly the right ratio of frosting-to-cake. To me, this is optimal over the regular sized cupcakes, which seem almost overwhelming with its mountain of frosting. However, the regular size comes in a nice window-box if you’re thinking of gifting a cupcake. Wish they’d come up with an equally attractive gift-box for the minis.

Also of note is that their site has online ordering – handy when you want to guarantee your sweets for the next day. I’ve used it once successfully and have heard a subsequent positive experience with it. I can see this doing really well with the offices nearby.

Though I’m usually not very fond of cupcakes, Prairie Girl’s got just the right combination of size, flavour, and location for me. If you like American buttercream (mildly gritty) and feel that the frosting should be the star of the cupcake show, give Prairie Girl Bakery a try. They might win you over as they did me!

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More at Prairie Girl Bakery

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