Trophy Cupcakes - Seattle

Sprinkles, you’ve officially got competition! Reader Kathleen of Senor Moose Café informed me about a cupcakery I needed to try. Trophy Cupcakes. She says that she usually only eats the cake part of the cupcake, but at Trophy Cupcakes, she eats both cake AND icing. Yes ma’am, Trophy Cupcakes just might make you say WOW out loud.

Trophy Cupcakes is located in the Wallingford Center. The Wallingford Center is actually a large brick building that houses several other retail shops. Don’t worry about searching through the building for the cupcake treasure, you’ll see it as soon as you walk in the door. Brown and white striped awning, the light blue walls, and towers of cupcakes with a perfectly swirled icing hat. I felt a smile spread across my face. With the sun shining through the windows, I wonder… is this cupcake heaven?

I take a look at the flavor board, and I know there is no way I’m going to be able to choose. I order one of each. The Cupcaker says, “Seriously?” I’m getting used to this response by now. There were ten cupcake flavors of the day, nine regular and one speciality. If you order eleven cupcakes, you get the next one for free. Twist my arm, I’ll pick two more.

Yep, that's Martha Stewart in that picture.

Trophy Cupcakes were featured as the "Cupcake of the Day" during

Martha's Cupcake Week in March 2008!

While watching the Cupcaker neatly place my cupcakes into the plain white box, I notice ice cream cones with icing twirled to imitate ice cream. It turns out those cones are actually filled with chocolate cake. I needed that. My cake cone came topped with a peanut butter whipped icing, a sprinkling of peanuts, and a bright red maraschino cherry. The cake inside was moist and chocolatey, and the icing was light and airy. Trophy Cupcakes is certainly making a good impression.

Once home, I put my cupcake box out of sight until after dinner. Out of sight – out of mind, right? Well sort of. I’m thinking and thinking about that red velvet cupcake. When it was finally time, I split a red velvet with Dear Ben and Friend Jeff. De-licious. The cream cheese icing had a light and sweet flavor, and the cake itself was a just the right compliment

Red Velvet Cupcake

The Triple Chocolate Cupcake was another cupcake I couldn’t wait to get my hands on. It looks almost identical to Sprinkle’s Dark Chocolate Cupcake, and the flavor was similar too. It’s a rich Valrhona chocolate cake with bittersweet chocolate icing and topped with French chocolate sprinkles – hence the triple chocolate name. This cupcake is served daily to serve all of your chocolate emergencies.

Triple Chocolate Cupcake


Dear Ben was most looking forward to the PB ‘n J Cupcake, the specialty cupcake of the day. It’s a vanilla butter cake, and yes, it has a bit of peanut butter and strawberry jelly stuffed inside the cupcake. I wish I would have snapped a photo of the inside, but alas it was in my mouth too quickly. The icing was a combination of peanut butter and strawberry buttercream. Dear Ben had just one word, “Yeah.”

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcake

I enjoyed Trophy Cupcakes more than any other cupcake in Seattle.

Reason number one: The cake flavors vary. I liked that the coconut cupcakes actually consisted of more than coconut flakes; it has a coconut cake base as well.

Reason number two: The daily cupcake flavors change. If I go back on a Sunday or Monday, I couldn’t get the PB ‘n J, but I could get the Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcake. Oh, and you betcha I’ll be back for that one. It’s topped with toasted marshmallow!

Reason number three: Interesting and unique flavors. A Snickerdoodle Cupcake - This might even win over FIL Dave (and he’s hard to win over). Lemon Strawberry, Café au Lait, Snowball, Chocolate Peanut Butter. Even more interesting is the Hummingbird Cupcake. It’s banana-pineapple-coconut cake with cream cheese frosting. Are you kidding me? Wow.

Thanks, Kathleen, for the great cupcake tip! It’s quite a find. I suggest the rest of you find you way down to Trophy Cupcakes. Visit them at the Wallingford Center or in University Village.

Trophy Cupcakes
Wallingford Center
1815 N. 45th Street, Suite 209
Seattle, Washington 98103
206-632-7020
www.trophycupcakes.com