ottawa foodies

The Flour Shoppe has teamed up with Broadhead Brewery to create the Dark Horse Stout Chocolate Cupcake. It's made with Broadhead's oatmeal stout and Irish Cream buttercream. I haven't tried it but hear it's really good. It will be available again at the Flour Shoppe tomorrow (Wednesday).

Went to the Flour Shoppe with my family after a friend told us about it. We were excited to find that Ottawa had a bakery that exclusively sold cupcakes... until we had some....

The cupcake texture was awful. The cake of the "white" cupcakes was very floury and pasty. All the "icing" toppings were whipped cream (or Italian butter cream) based (leaving a very oily feeling in your mouth) and fairly bland. The cake had almost no flavor.

I picked up a Chocolate Guinness cupcake on the way out as I was intrigued, and the cake portion was alright (being chocolate) but the Guinness whipped topping hardly had any Guinness flavor at all and that same oily feeling.

That all being said, we will not be going back. Sadly, they crew here needs to take some constructive criticism and rework their recipe a bit.

I had to give the Flour Shoppe another try. I wasn't disappointed! The Egg Nog cupcake was incredible!

I want to like this place. I try to like this place, but I can't. The carrot cupcake was delicious. The chipotle chocolate... was not. Kind of a dry texture compared to other shops, but still yummy.

Their customer service leaves much to be desired. Went into the shop once looking for a type of flavor that they advertised on facebook as being available that day and asked "Do you not have any Pumpkin spice today?" and was told "No." Okay. Why did you advertise it? It was not "Sorry, we're out. or Sorry, not ready yet" just... "No."

Have emailed a few times inquiring about placing larger orders or flavour availability and she just doesn't answer. Not impressed.

I went into this place for the first time last week. Although i'm not a cupcake connoisseur, I did find them moist and yummy. Although it looks like most people would not say the same thing. This was my review:

This magnificent little cupcakery in the Glebe is like walking into a photograph from a magazine. Everything in there is pristine and oh-so-girly. The eating area with purple chairs beg to have company and the warmth and aromas coming from the kitchen are just so comforting.

Featured cupcakes sit alone on pedestals, showing off their creative hats and labels describing the mouthwatering details of each one. Thank goodness I was going in for a large quantity. You've got to love birthdays for that reason. It was Teresa's special day, and what better way to show a friend how much you care than with her favourite treat.

I pondered the rest of the afternoon, trying to figure out which one I was going to steal when these goodies made their appearance. The smores one was the first to catch my eye, but ever since I was a kid I've loved macaroons, chocolate raspberry, vanilla bean latte, double chocolate. Oh the choices! I finally settled on the carrot cake because of the maple butter cream on top. So rich and sweet.

If you're ever having a bad day, stop by the Flour Shoppe, I promise you'll leave with a smile. And the flavours change daily.

Sadly, I have to agree with comments about dry and crumbly cupcakes. Once during the summer I splurged on 12 cupcakes...to share of course...the maple and brown sugar was what stuck out in my mind...the mouth feel was that it was shortening mixed with brown sugar...very gritty and greasy. I had left one in the box in the car by accident and it had melted...as I cleaned up I got some icing on my hand. Habit forced me to taste it and it was better!

Love the store and presentation of the cupcakes, but I have tried many times now and disappointed every time.

Have had cupcakes from here twice now, gave it a second try after the first less than great attempt.
I appreciate the creative flavours and cute decor of this place but it's missing that important part.
The cupcakes were, as most others have said, dry, crumbly and not as full of flavour as a cupcake should be.
Unfortunately I won't be back for a third.

All I have to say is boooring? The cake was very dry and crumbly. I had the raspberry frosting it had no raspberry flavor. It's a little dissapointing in a cupcake shop. Sorry!

Is the dry, powdery texture of the cupcakes a calculated branding gimmick to emphasize the flour in The Flour Shoppe? I say cut the baking powder in half and don't chintz on the eggs. I mean, this is meant to be a high end product after all, isn't it?

A great spot for those who never find time to bake. I enjoyed a visit with my daughter just after they opened. Eye appealing,but too much icing for me...taste was not exceptional, and I expected a lot more for my 2.50 plus tax...I was inspired to run home and prepare my own.

There seem to be two distinct types of cupcake in Ottawa. One emphasizes a moist and delicious cake balanced with a sweet icing, the other uses the cake as an incidental "holder" for a mountain of tasty and well balanced icing. Based on my sampling of The Flour Shoppe 's Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcake, their version is firmly in the latter camp.

The chocolate cake was dryish--almost crumbly--as others have noted. But this peanut butter icing was amazing. I'd compare it to that delicious cream layer in Gezellig's famous Peanut Butter Finger dessert. While I've enjoyed the "great cake" cupcakes at other places, I have to agree with The Flour Shoppe that cupcakes are really all about the icing. And in that area they certainly deliver.

So if you approach the cake here as more of an ice cream cone whose main role is to hold the feature ingredient I think you will be very pleased.

I had a free sample (chocolate) over a month ago during Art in the Park (can't remember its new name). The cupcakes were not overly sugared, which is a definite plus. The chocolate frosting was decent and fresh tasting, but the actual cake was dry, crumbly, and disappointing. I could neither taste the eggs, nor detect any sponginess in the texture. For my money, I'd walk the extra ten blocks to La Brioche for French pastries or baclava.

Being relatively new to Ottawa and the Glebe area, I was pleasantly surprised to come across The Flour Shoppe this week! I guess the shop is brand new and has been opening for trial hours this week, with a regular schedule to be coming soon. On Thursday they were having some oven troubles, but were still welcoming customers (like me) into the store for a looksy and the owner offered me a free cupcake card, which I used for an amazing Lemon Raspberry cupcake.
The cake was moist and fresh, as was the smooth frosting. You can definitely tell they use real butter and not shortening substitues as the cake and icing both melted in the mouth nicely with none of the typical plastic after taste that other more commerical bakeries leave you with.
They seem to have a great selection with a rotation of flavours throughout the week....can't wait to see what they all are...definitely making a return trip!
Oh and I also love the decor...clean, white, minimalist, reminds me of Europe! :)