Sweet Honeybee Bakery

Not too long ago, my friend Kristine and I (and her bf) went to go get some yummy dinner at Kuma's Corner (best burger place ever!) Afterwards, we went and checked out Sweet Honeybee Bakery. I saw it on one of my fav blogs, SugarPunk. Tracey is originally from the Chicagoland area and was in town this past X-mas season. While she was in, her and some friends (I missed out, sad) went on a Chicago Cupcake Crawl. One of the places she went was Sweet Honeybee's. I had never heard of it before, but wanted to go sooo bad once I did!!!

So Kris and I went on over and picked up a bunch of cupcakes. It took a fews day to go through them all, but dang were they good. I got 8 cupcakes, one cannoli and an eclair. Yep. And it all cost me about $21 bucks. Seriously??? When we went to Molly's, I spent about $35 on 5 cupcakes. Huge price difference there! Now it was really just a matter of the value. Yeah I paid a heck a lot more at Molly's, but was I getting good quality stuff here?

I think so!

Let's start with a review of the yumminess that is Sweet Honeybee's.

The eclair. Dad liked this. There isn't too much that he wouldn't like, but he said he really liked it. I'm picky about my ecliars, so I gave this one to him, knowing he'd appreciate the treat. The ganache was more like frosting than ganache and the pastry cream looked a bit, well, fake, but hey. He didn't have anything bad to say about it, so why not?

The Cannoli. Mmm.... I had this. I couldn't share this one. The filling was yum. The chocolate wasn't bitter. The shell was pretty crisp still. It had the crispness of a freshly made that morning shell, which was good enough for me. I liked. :)
The Carrot Cake Cupcake. I love me some carrot cake. I make a real good one too :) The cake was perfectly spiced. There wasn't too much or too little. And no nutmeg, which I was happy about (or at least that I could taste and boy, can I taste nutmeg!) It had the requisite walnuts and raisins and was topped with a delicious cream cheese frosting. Being that I am super duper picky about my cream cheese frosting, this was an A+ for the frosting. The whole cupcake overall was definitely worth getting. The Chocolate Cupcake w/ Chocolate Fudge Frosting. I gave this one to Mom. She devoured it. She's not all that great at describing things, so after a few questions I got this info outta her: Dense, but not too much so, moist. Not light and airy (ahem, dry) like box mixes. Definitely flavorful. The frosting was thick and fudgy. Smooth, not grainy texture, but not waxy. Overall, she loved it. I'd probably get it again to try for myself.
The Red Velvet. The cupcake had a very nice texture, not too dense or crumbly. Definitely moist. This was one I didn't have the first day (I think 3 days later?) and it was still soft and flavorful (haha, as flavorful as red velvet can be!) There was definitely a cocoa undertone to the cake, so that was a plus! The frosting was the same as the carrot cake, so still A+ material, even after a couple of days. The Champagne Cupcake w/ White Chocolate Ganache.
I'll be honest here. I don't like white chocolate, so I tired the ganache and frosting underneath, but didn't like it and just wiped it off to eat the cupcake. This was actually the first one I had specifically b/c I knew I probably wouldn't like the frosting. But the cake! OMG! It was very light and soft, almost pillowy texture. There were definitely some lemony hints w/ each bite. The cake wasn't all carbonated... I'm not sure why it's a champagne cupcake, but hey, it was definitely yummy! I'd get it again just for the cake. :)
The Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cupcake.
Not bad... The frosting was basically fresh pureed strawberries blended w/ whipped cream. Light and not waxy or over powering. The cake was the same. The starwberry wasn't overpowering, but I really wish it had been. The chocolate chips completely masked the strawberry taste, which I was pretty disappointed about. But overall, not a bad cupcake.
The Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcake w/ Cream Cheese frosting. Mmmm.... Thankfully, the chocolate chiops didn't overpower the banana in this one. The chocolate chips were kinda annoying, I think I would have preferred banana only, but I didn't mind them at all. The cupcake was kinda on the bread-like side than the cake-like, but still good! Definitely one I'd get again. The Oreo Cupcake. Not my favorite... The Oreos on top were soft and kinda stale. The frosting was waaayyy too sweet and flavorless. The cake was nice and chocolately though. I imagine it was the same as the Chocolate fudge cupcake my mom had b/c I would describe the cake kinda of the same way. The Key Lime Cupcake. I love Key Lime pie. So I had to try this one! The frosting definitely had a key lime flavor, but was a bit sweet. Kinda throws you off b/c you are almost expecting very tart. But I think it may have been too sweet for my liking. I'm not sure if it was b/c it really was too sweet, or if I was being biased since I think key lime should be more tart... The cake was delicious. It was light and fluffy and moist. It almost had a chiffon texture to it... There was a very light lime flavor that came through. Not overpowering where you feel like you are sucking on cleaner, but perfect. Honestly it reminded me of how the champagne cupcake had a light lemony flavor coming through, w/out actually tasting real lemony. Definitely would get again.
So that was my Sweet Honeybee Bakery experience. The man who helped us was most likely the owner and he was sweet and didn't look at us funny when two girls came in to order a crapload of cupcakes. :) If you live in Chicago, or are coming to visit, definitely check them out!