Cupcakes and Crack

Well, not real crack, but apparently that's the nickname for kouing aman, a really quite amazing little treat that not many people or places make. Happily for those of us in Utah, Les Madeleines at 216 East 500 South in Salt Lake City does! (Check out their website for pictures, menu, information, all sorts of good stuff!)

I've had a couple of people recommend the kouing aman at Les Madeleines, particularly Kristin, and since I had to work 9-12 today, and it's practically next door, I thought I'd make my husband stop there with me for a quick treat before heading over to work. The kouing aman (the guy at the shop pronounced it something like queen aman) is one of their specialities and is yummy and crunchy and caramelized on the outside and soft and buttery on the inside. It's not super sweet, which is nice, but holy cow, is it good stuff. It is highly recommended that those interested in tasting this treat arrive at the store probably by noon or call ahead because it goes fast. Derk said they reminded him of a croissant, only improved and more buttery.

I also tried one of their cupcakes, the Gilligan's Island, which was a coconut cupcake with cream cheese frosting and coconut flakes on top. This was a pretty typical cake, with yummy cream cheese frosting on top. I had to go with this one because the buttercream frostings on their other cupcakes looked like the kind that give me the willies. (I have a weird texture thing.) But their shortbreads are really, really good, especially the toffee one. And don't miss their lime-ade. It's really amazing, with a great lime flavor and just the right amount of tartness.

Now on to more cupcakes, and I should say that both of these places mostly make mini cupcakes, so they're just the right size. If you're into really cool, designer looking and tasty cupcakes, I have to recommend Mini's Cupcakes on 800 South and 14 East between Main and State Street in Salt Lake, rather than Les Madeleines. Their cupcakes are crazy good, and even when the frosting is of the buttercream or swiss meringue type I still will eat it because for some reason they avoid the weird texture thing you can run into with these types of frostings. My favorites are the PB Fix (chocolate cupcake with really yummy peanut butter flavored frosting, I know, seems strange but works really well) and the Snowball (vanilla bean cupcake with swiss meringue frosting topped with coconut). Both delicious!! I've tried several others as well, and they were all good. Though I didn't try the margarita flavored one, yes they have one with tequila in the frosting!

Oh, I should mention that both places also do lunch kinds of things, check out their menus for that sort of thing. I have only so far tried their treats, but their lunches sound good. Give them a try!