Charlottesville has a new cookie and cupcake bakery to be excited about: Cappellino’s Crazy Cakes which is located across from Fluerie on Third Street (the newly bricked side-street on the Downtown Mall).
I didn’t really know I would be giving this place a review, but I was a little hungry and curious about Charlottesville latest dessert trend. Between the famous Cupcakes & Co sweets at Feast, the replacement for those cupcakes at Feast (they told me that the girls couldn’t keep up with demand), cupcake Friday’s at Mudhouse, and now Cappellino’s, we’ve got A LOT of cupcakes in this town.
In addition to cupcakes, Cappellino’s also offers a host of amazing gourmet sweets: decorated cakes which look like the Mad Hatter (and too many other things to write), many types of cookies and poundcakes. The store is owned and run by brother and sister, Dotty and Frank Cappellino. They told me they would offer samples everyday, focus on offering high quality ingredients and were hesitant to let coffee shops sell their sweets because they were concerned about proper storage and freshness.
How did everything taste?
I sampled a little too much. As one of the reviewers from the Baked Goods Brigade’s Great Charlottesville Cookie Roundup, I can honestly say that Dotty’s cookies would take a medal home and beat out most of the competition. I don’t know if they would beat Feast’s Molasses cookie, and I will take applicants to reform the Baked Goods Brigade to see if we need to crown a new winner. There were no aluminum tastes, the cookies were cooked just right and the flavors were well balanced. They have a banana chocolate that was so kickass, I can’t even begin… Their oatmeal cranberry was also excellent (though, I’d recommend slightly less cranberry and some orange peel).
The cupcakes are going to give Cupcake & Co a run for its money. I think it would be wise to do a cupcake roundup, but Cappellino’s has some very unique flavors. For instance, as I was leaving they brought out the Creamsicle cupcakes. Frank said his Red Velvet were the best.
Anyway, head on by. Cappellino’s is open during the week starting at 11AM. Let us know what you think. They have tons of samples for you, so don’t be shy!
Full slideshow after the break…
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Popularity: 60% [?]
Tagged as: baked goods, bakery, cakes, cappellino, cookies, crazy, cupcakes, Dessert, sweet
My office is already hooked (although we collectively ate so many last week I think everyone’s taking this week to recover from their diabetic comas).
I only have two wishes: that they also make brownies, and that they sell milk (I end up picking up the horizon juice boxes at the country store on my way back to the office - of course this may just be the pregnant lady in me talking so feel free to ignore the milk suggestion).
Favorites so far: Mexican wedding cookies, double chocolate cookies. the banana chocolate chip were damn good to, but I don’t know that they’d become an everyday craving cookie.
Great post, Kyle. I am genuinely curious…when you (or anybody else at cVillain) review a place like that, do you tell them upfront who you are and where you blog? Or do you just pretend to be some guy who is REALLY interested in taking tons of pictures?
Haha Dottie looks like a frickin’ Keebler elf in that first photo. The cookies must be gud then.
I told them we run cVillain.com, but I showed up unexpectedly. Other reviewers have their own M.O., but when you want to take a lot of pictures (before it was open) it’s hard to not make people nervous.
Kyle takes gud pictures.
Well props to you Kyle, for actually taking pictures and not just putting up some random photo off of Flickr.
here’s an interesting question. is it better for a reviewer to remain anonymous to the staff, giving us a more accurate idea of what the average customer is going to be in for? or should reviewers make their presence known so they can snap all kinds of cool pictures for the post?
think, pair, share, and get back to me people.
Odie, I think we’ve discussed that many times. I just thought it would be fun to go in there. It’s not like they can bake stuff specially for me even when I announce my presence. I think it’s good to have the completely anonymous reviews too. To each his own.
@8 i wasn’t being facetious, it was a legitimate question. i see many positives and negatives to each approach. i thought yours here was well done. shen’s traditional flickr comment just got me wondering, that’s all.
It is a good question.
Pictures are always exciting in food reviews, but I think the tradeoff is: preferential treatment, heightened experience and reviews that aren’t reviews. We will always send out Thor, Lu Sid, cocoNUT and the rest of them (or anyone else who wants to do it) to do our dirty work for us.
Tonight, I’m going to Taste This and will be armed with a Camera and Tuesday to review the best of the best.
cooooooooooookiees.
odie, i would hate it if I had to be an officially known reviewer.
Damn. I just walked by their shop with a lonely $5 bill in my hand and now I want to go baaaaaacccckkk. Next time. Nice review.
sweet, old chap. Back from the dead I see.
cupcakes dreams rescued me
/did you break up with Caroline? maybe you should buy her a cupcake
//let’s bring cameras to Taste This so we can take pictures of Kyle taking pictures of other people
///wait, let’s not, that is pretty g
Of the slideshow photos, my fav is the one of the bottom of the curtains.
caroline and I patched things up. I should find out if she likes sidewalk chalk. I think I have some laying around somewhere.
/The only thing I’m bringing to Taste This is a burning desire to go to SS.
Enjoy the last taste of Oxo whiel you’re there.
It’ll be my first and last taste, and it’s going to be bittersweet.
Nice post. Does anyone know what time they close during the week?
@19 — I believe 7 p.m.
Rumor is the cupcake girls who previously had cupcakes at Feast are looking to open a place of their own in the next few months.
I prefer cupcakes to sidewalk chalk
/mmmkay thanks.
i semi-object to cupcakes, but those are lovely. and i want those chocolate chip cookies NOW!!!
I knew there was something different about the cupcakes at Feast! I had a lime one (filled with something other than the icing that was on the top) last week that was fantastic and it was nothing like the ones I got back in the winter (not that they weren’t good…they were great). I’ve been back twice since.
Now I have to keep going back until I try them all. Damn it!
@22: Got it baby. A cupcake next time you’re in town.
@22 What else do you prefer dear? We have only been linked for such a short time, but I would never try to feed you sidewalk chalk like echo does…how about a half dozen cupcakes, your choice, washed down with a few White Russians, Lebowski-style…
/buttercream dreams and the moment of pure sugar drunk happiness, we ask for nothing less, nothing more
//echo, you disappeared, say what?
Firstly sweet, where’d you go tonight? You were there, I was there, you were gone, I was gone.
Secondly, cupcakes and booze?! Do you think she’s a floozy (not a Floozy, a floozy)?
Right now I can only commit to the Capri Sun I am drinking (B-yo, the juice box concept is huggable…I am conquered).
/how come drunk = forward and back, where does the peripheral go?
//I only dream of sweet and lovely, life offers otherwise (but it is always sweet and lovely)
///when in the swim-swam, swam is the swim
The pina colada cupcakes were awesome.
[…] Yesterday they had a free cupcake for you if you stopped by, but I’m sure they would be willing to let you have a taste anytime! Thanks cvillain. […]
I have got to try these
[…] the available pastries don’t compliment a morning coffee. We’ve got donuts, cookies, crazy cakes and a lot more, but I ask you, my dear Charlottesvillains, where is the […]
Had a cupcake today, yyyyuuuummmmmmmyyyyyy
stupid diet
@34– good, I’m glad I’m not the only one missing out because cupcakes are seriously verboten.
@35 it’s tough too, as i *love* cupcakes. my entire office walked down there the other day to go get free cupcakes, and i had to sit here and eat some damn string cheese instead.
asdl;kjals;dkfjasdlkjadfsjadk
Um, you don’t have to give up cupcakes if you just jump on a stairmaster a coupla times a week.
P.S. Cheese is like 300.87% fat. You shoulda just had the cupcake.
Um, you don’t have to give up cupcakes if you just jump on a stairmaster a coupla times a week.
P.S. Cheese is like 300.87% fat. You shoulda just had the cupcake.
string cheese = 2.5g of fat
a plain cupcake alone is 10g of fat. i can’t imagine how bad a ‘gourmet’ cupcake is.
my exercise goes to burning off beer. can’t burn off everything.
@36 - oof, that’s pretty rough. Hey, at least they were out of the office…
at my work, the sweet-tooth elves leave cookies & brownies & cakes by the water cooler with some regularity. Augh!
Yep, I’m with Chad– I choose to burn off wine rather than sweets. And I work myself into a sweaty near-death state three or four times a week, thank you very much.
@38: Hey google dork, I didn’t say it was a lot of grams of fat, I said cheese is made up of all fat. I just want you to be able to get yourself a cupcake, mmkay?
@40: Oh, it’s all about moderation. (except for with booze)
@41 well, you compared it to the cupcake as if they were equivalent in terms of health, which they aren’t.
i swore off candy bars and non-diet soda at least until the end of 08.. cupcakes are a gateway food.
40 - aye, there’s the rub! But even with drinking/eating moderation (or really, in my case, eating piously and drinking deeply), though, I gain weight so very easily– and sweets hit me so quickly– they’re just not on the menu.
Unless they’re all fruit & splenda (…and no fun).
@43: It’s called self-delusion. It rocks!
@44: Lame. Life is too short not to have a cupcake once in awhile.
I’ll survive. Life is much more seriously too short to not have a bottle of wine or three once in a while.
@37 shen, that may be true for you, but it really isn’t true for everyone. which sucks.
OMG…..I just went by there today and tried one of everything………YUMMY !!!!!!! Great place to go with the MUNCHIES !!!!!!! I love DOTTIE !!!!
ADDICTIVELY delicious! I’m very picky about my sweets and really hadn’t found any shop or restaurant that made anything worth the price or the calories, but this place is IT! Open ten days and I think I’ve already tried all the flavors. Not a bad one in the bunch! Currently I’m hooked on the red velvet. And don’t neglect the cookies! I’m not even big on oatmeal raisin cookies but theirs ROCKS! Pignolia cookies with that almond flavor….chocolate crunch rolled in cocoa that taste like a brownie… oh yeah…
Oy. Forget drunken hangovers. I overATE last night….couldn’t stop eating Cappellino’s goods. Did you know they make different things daily?? They’ve pretty much become one of my main food groups.
ADDICTIVELY delicious! It’s hard to find a place in this town with sweets worth the price or the calories but this IT! It’s only been open ten days and I think I’ve tried just about all the flavors. Not a bad one in the bunch! Currently hooked on red velvet. And don’t ignore the cookies….usually not an oatmeal raisin fan but theirs ROCKS!…pignolia cookies with that almond flavor….chocolate crunch cookies that taste like brownies….oh yeah…
Hey, whoever is spamming the overly positive advertising fluff commentary… it’s not a good idea.
oh good, a spammer! i’m gonna go sharpen my knives.
@52: Hey…just because I get excited about good eats plus accidentally hit the button one too many doesn’t mean what I wrote isn’t all true. Because, alas, it is. Elfin magic there. You can avoid it if you want. But me, I’ll be back! And you can sharpen your knives but it won’t be to cut a piece of my cupcake!
I was in Virginia for vacation for the last two weeks, and now I am back in New York and so sad that I can’t have a banana walnut chocolate chip cookie! Also sad that I didnt try the red velvet!! I cant wait to come back to Va just so I can go here.. Or better yet, they need to send me some through the mail somehow!! Most amazing bakery I have ever been to!!! (And I love sweets, I have been to a lot of bakeries!!) I hope they are around forever so one day I can have them do my wedding!! I dream of all the fabulous creations they could do!! I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!!!!!
Dottie,
Your bake goods look so good, even better than Jenny Lee’s in the shopping center. Some day, will have to take a trip to Virginia
They are closed for a family illness.
Hey! How come I am the god daughter and I haven”t tasted them? Hope you feel better.
They’re open..perhaps in a limited way. Call before you haul.
This bakery is amazing. The staff are friendly and genuinely appreciate your business. Most important, the cupcakes are fantastic! I bought 2 of every flavor for a party and every single one got rave reviews.
I’m going today to buy cookies. The chocolate chip are right on. The oatmeal could have more spice. The Italian Wedding and Pignola are super. Hooray for another, small, local, bakery!
Ew, so I heard all the hype and went there today to get some cupcakes. Now, I know good qaulity ingredients when I taste them and I was sooooooo disappointed boxed cupcakes taste better!! I give them props for the presentation and the moisture but the problem with bakeries these days is that they focus so much on the overall presentation rather then then taste. All the cupcakes taste the same and their bland as ever. Let me know when we get a REAL CUPCAKERY in Charlottesville and not a knock off. Thanks!
@62
strange, i have been a frequent fan all summer long and have found their cupcakes consistently moist and delicious. i went there last week and they are still very good. definitely way better than magnolia bakery in NYC.
also we have to remember they are just cupcakes and not French pastry. For what it is and the ultra low price, Cappellino’s is awesome. You can leave with a cookie and cupcake for $3.
i would give them another try, maybe you ran into a bad batch, or the one cupcake that should be the ugly duckling of the bunch? if the first bite was that awful, you should have returned it. they are very proud of their product! I hope you don’t think that these taste the same as the cupcakes from Food Lion/Whole Foods/Harris Teeter/generic supermarket bakeries.
/also your spelling is complete rubbish.
Hahahahaha cocoN…. I love your /…. Stanley must be chewing his arm with frustration.
/stanley … come back… you no you want too. Their is know won too help u’s with are spelling’s.
ca. 62, another passionate cupcake enthusiast enters. slowly.
opinions regarding moisture are bandied about.
a challenge is presented, an ultimatum for a
none of us are really sure what that means. we will be happy to test any future cupcakes.