Cairo Gourmet Discoveries: Nola Cupcakes

Another new thing I recognized when I came back to Cairo were cupcake bakeries. Currently they seem to open around every corner or as Egypt Today puts it (Issue July 2011): Cupcake Craze – Are cupcakes Cairo’s new Sushi? (before the current cupcake boom Suhi bars opend up all over Cairo…)

Since some rather disappointing cupcake expierences in New York and London I am cautious when it comes to cupcakes. Most of the time they look better then they taste. But anyways: I gave it another try here in Cairo. So far I have only visited Crumbs – The Cupcake Bakery and Nola Cupcakes.
At Crumbs I bought the birthday cupcake with chocolate frosting and M&M’s on top. It was in every sense of meaning a really sweet little thing and is definitely worth a try.
At Nola Cupcakes I bought the nine piece mini-cupcake-set to try the whole variety and those were the best cupcakes I have ever eaten!

Here are my reasons:
First of all the frosting was based on cream cheese – that prevented an overwhelming sugary taste. Second, the dough was far from being just a borning tastless carrier for the frosting. Depending on the cupcake typ there were chocolate junks, apples, bananas etc. mixed in. Third, the offered flavors were very natural in taste and some really unusual.

These were the cupcakes I tried:
Chestnut: Nice chestnut taste with some cnadied chestnuts on top.
Blueberry: A fruity explosion.
Orange choclate: Great flavour mix.
Chocolate: The chocolate chunks in the dough were the cherry on the cake.
Banana: The next fruity explosion with a banana chip on top.
Apple : Heavens! Especially because of  the cinnamon.
Red velvet: My friend got this one – she said it was great.
Carrot & walnuts: Jam jam!

There is supposed to be another kind but I don’t remeber what else I tried.

What’s more? The interior design at Nola’s as well as their boxes, bags and menu cards are adorable. I kept box and bag!

Where to get Nola cupckaes:
4 Brazil Street, Zamalek
Tel.: +2(02) 2736-6494
Open from 10am to 11pm daily