Heaven is a Cupcake Does Florida! (Part 1)

It's been a while since I've posted due to having an extremely busy month, my busiest yet in fact! And then to celebrate ;) I went off to Florida with my sister for a much needed holiday. I've never been before and was very excited to go to Disney, Universal (and more importantly, Hogwarts!), go swimming with dolphins and finally visit as many cupcake shops as I a) could possibly find and b) would be allowed to go to before my sister tore me away! So I thought I would share with you my Florida cupcake shop adventure and let you know what I thought.

Our tour started in Orlando where we went to Disney World (we only had one day there so lots to fit in!) and Universal Studios. We both agreed that Universal was our favourite. We felt it was more suited to us, had great rides and of course, had Harry Potter's Wizarding World. Disney World was great because it fulfilled one of my childhood dreams and although we only had one day there, we managed to fit a lot in - visiting both Animal Kingdom and The Magic Kingdom. I would definitely like to go back and experience it in a more laid back setting, perhaps even staying at one of the hotels. DW was also where we spied our first cupcakes! In Animal Kingdom they had zebra cupcakes and in Magic Kingdom they had chocolate and vanilla. And they were huge! Twice the size of my large cupcakes.  I loved the look of the bakery and the sweet shops on Main Street. It was really colourful and fun.

The cupcakes below were from the bakery on CityWalk at Universal. I actually preferred these as they were slightly smaller than the Disney ones and looked more appetizing.

Now onto the proper cupcakeries! Before we left for Florida I sat down with a nice cuppa and spent an enjoyable evening hunting down all the local cupcake shops to our hotel and I came across Sweet! By Good Golly Miss Holly! When I saw Holly, I immediately recognised her from The Food Network's Cupcake Wars so I was very excited that her shop was just half an hour away from our hotel in Orlando. We walked in and immediately I wanted one of each! Luckily they had a wide range of mini flavours which are also bigger than our minis and are enough for "2 and a half bites" (plenty when you want one of each ;) The display looked lovely and there was a really good choice of classic and more unusual flavours.

After much umming and ahhhing I decided to go for 12 minis (I restrained myself). Miss Holly recommends 3 per person which I think is a good average. We had a few on the journey, enough for a bite each of each cupcake then saved a few for later when we fancied them. Here I am taking time to choose the right cupcakes!

I went for a wide variety, some flavours which I like and have had before, others which I had always wanted to try (like the Boston Cream.) And this is what I went for: Carrot, Boston Cream, High Hat, Key Lime, Red Velvet, S'Mores, White Raspberry, White Out, Banana, Cinnamon Swirl, Dulche de leche and Cookies & Cream.

The first one I tried was the red velvet. I found the cake was quite sticky but it was very light and I enjoyed the frosting. My favourites were the boston cream *I loved the filling!*, the high hat and the carrot. I prefer cupcakes that aren't overpoweringly sweet so am a big fan of cream cheese frosting. My least favourites were the white chocolate ones simply because they were a little on the sweet side for my taste but those of you with a sweet tooth would love them. Overall it was a great start to my cupcake tour and I was pleased with the range of flavours available.

Our tour then continued to Naples where we planned to stop at two bakeries on our way from there to the Keys but unfortunately neither opened til 11am and because we'd got up early to visit the Everglades on route they weren't open when we popped by! And we didn't have much luck with any bakeries in the Keys, although I did find a couple of cupcakers that were based online in the area. In Key West, I did have the yummiest banana bread with maple syrup and flamingo crossing tahitian vanilla ice cream at The Flaming Buoy Filet Co. so that made up for the lack of cupcakes!! We also tried the famous Key Lime Pie at our hotel in Key Largo which also did not disappoint but did not top the banana bread.

Next stop...Miami!!