The Cupcake Bar

This place is a quaint shop downtown that changes their cupcake flavors often. I have a friend that strongly recommended it so when I was downtown one time, I stopped by.
The ladies at the counter were smiling and seemed very friendly. The shop was really clean and the cupcakes looked delicious. It was difficult to decide what cupcake to get because they all looked pretty good but I settled for a chocolate mint cupcake. Not a bad cupcake overall. The icing was nice and I felt there was a decent icing to cupcake ratio. The cupcake was a tad dry (maybe from sitting in the display case … I came in the afternoon so maybe it had been sitting from the morning or something) but the chocolate flavor was still good.
I would definitely try this place again. As far as cupcakes go, it hits the spot and is better than most of the grocery store bought cupcakes. It is an okay cost. No where near as pricey as some gourmet cupcakes I have bought before so no complaints there. No parking lot so be prepared to look for parking on the street.

These are hands down the best cupcakes in Durham. The frosting is amazing. My daughter and I go regularly. She is choosy about flavors, so it is so helpful that they have the daily menu available on their website. I like that they sell minis — usually a whole regular-​sized cupcake is too much for me!

I have found heaven on earth and it is called the cupcake bar. Friendly staff and sweet tooth’s dream. Excellent cake and frosting. I could eat a gross. Too bad I watch my weight. Pretty good coffee as well. This place is perfect.

Even though I had never actually been to this place (just admired the cupcakes from the street) we decided to order 100 mini cupcakes from them for my father’s 100^th birthday. The cupcakes were mainly for the nursing home staff so we thought minis in a few different flavor would be a fun treat for people to sample, take home etc.
The Cupcake Bar staff were very helpful when I made some inquiries via email and the ordering/​pick up process could not have gone more smoothly. The cupcakes were a huge hit. We got three kinds, Devil’s Food, Strawberry Lemonade and Cinnamon Sugar. The only one I personally ate was the Cinnamon Sugar and it was really good, but people raved about all three flavors.
Usually when I am downtown and want a sweet treat I have other places I like to go, but I now know I will definitely be going back to the Cupcake bar.

Amazing cupcakes! Just had a Strawberry Balsamic that was amazing. What I love about this place is the cupcakes come in 2 sizes allowing you to sample a variety. My wife and I split a flight of a wheat free Chocolate Cream Cheese, a chocolate mint, milk and honey, and strawberry balsamic. 100% sanitation rating. I’m shocked this place isn’t rated higher.

We were actually headed in to a coffee place across the street which just so happened to be closed for renovation. We’re glad it was!
Service was prompt, courteous and with a smile. The cupcakes were out of this world — well atleast the mochanut, as that’s all I tried
The cappuccino was excellent. Made just as I ordered — Dry!!!

I didn’t stay to eat my cupcakes and I got them to go so my stay inside the place was short and sweet. I went on a Saturday afternoon around 4pm. There weren’t a ton of cupcakes left but I still had a good selection to choose from-​carrot cake, malted milk, coconut line, vanilla almond, chocolate peanut butter and one more that I believe was vegan but am not 100% sure. They had cute eggs, bunnies and carrots on top of the cupcakes with the Easter holiday the next day. I chose the coconut lime and the vanilla almond. All cupcakes have buttercream frosting except the carrot cake which has cream cheese frosting. Thee flavor of the coving line exploded in my mouth! So much flavor! And the same was true with the vanilla almond. The cupcake itself was probably a 3 but the frosting is a 10! I could eat the almond frosting by the spoonful-​so good and not greasy. Mmmm!

We visited on a Saturday night for an after dinner dessert. The location is pretty awesome, considering it is right next to the convention center in downtown Durham. The restaurant itself is pretty small, but I don’t think that would be an issue during most hours. When we walked in, however, there was a tour or tasting of some kind going on so there were an abundance of customers on this particular night. Since it was so crowded, service was a little slow and the two employees seemed to be a bit stressed/​overwhelmed.
The cupcakes themselves were quite good. I liked the fact that they had a smaller size for those customers not wanting a regular sized treat for whatever reason. That coupled with the offering of sampler packs is a very nice touch I think. The bar does offer coffee and espresso, but I can’t make a recommendation for these. I’m not sure if the crowded restaurant was to blame, but the coffee we got was just mediocre at best. Since it’s not in the name, I do not hold the lack of great coffee against the restaurant.
Price-​wise, I found the cupcakes to be right on par with most other boutique cupcake eateries in the area. Not cheap, but high quality and worth the cost. Overall, I would recommend this place if you are nearby, but it is not really a target destination. I will be back again when we are eating in downtown.

Sometimes, you just wanna eat cake. Today was one of those days. I trekked to downtown Durham for a cupcake. Their menu fluctuates so they did not have anything with strawberry in it which is my favorite. I settled on a regular size lemon cheesecake and a mini vanilla caramel. Decent flavor but I am hard to please. Huge cupcake/​cake snob here. I can’t quite put my finger on what was lacking but it is definitely decent. There aren’t any other bakeries serving cake in downtown Durham so they should do just fine.
The décor on the other hand is tre cute!!!

I really wanted to love this place!
I love cake! It’s my favorite food. Saw this place and was like YES! I got the peanut butter something and I was hoping the whole cupcake was peanut buttery but nope! Just the frosting! Deceptionnnnnn! And the cake was superrrrr duperrrrr dry. Customer service was awesome though, the ladies were great. The cupcake, not so much. You get a D cupcake bar.

The staff is very friendly and the service is fast. I was really excited to see how cute the cupcakes were however they are too rich and overly sweet. The cupcake toppers are cute but was not tasty. Mine had a full on sugar cube and a dry circle fondant if I’m not mistaken. With a few small adjustment in ingredients this place would do well.

Cute little cupcake shop and the staff are very pleasant. I’ve tried the carrot cake and peanut butter banana (sorry, I don’t remember the exact names). They were both yummy. The carrot cake was my favorite. The other had an interesting peanut butter filling, but the icing was a little too sweet for my buds and the dried banana topping caught me by surprise.
I like that this place has different flavors on different days, so everything is fresh nd you can come back and try new flavors. I do think I’d like them more if there was an actual hint of cocktail in the «cocktail-​inspired» cupcakes.
3 for now. But, I’ll be back to try some more.

The cupcakes were dry and the icing was hard when we went after dinner one night. 4 mini cupcakes was $ 7

Had their Chai Spice cupcake. As far as cupcakes go, it was much better than most. I’m not the hugest fan of cupcake shops but the place just looked so darn cute, I had to support! And I’m glad I did! I also got a brownie which was also pretty delicious.
Did either dessert blow my mind? No. But they were great. They were moist, with a good frosting to cupcake ratio. I loved that they even sold «shots» of frosting.
I’d definitely go back if I’m ever back in the area! Keep up the great work ladies!

The Cupcake Bar has amazing cupcakes! They’re baked fresh every day and the flavors constantly change. My favorites are the Coconut Cream Cheese and the Grasshopper! Staff is super friendly and I find the atmosphere great for studying (esp. since they have FREE WIFI: D :D)

Cute cupcake place! They have mini cupcakes if you want to mix and match the flavors. The flavors are all very unique. I had the Orange mimosa and tiramisu and both had great flavors not just in the icing but also in the cake part. My only complaint is that they put a lot of icing on the cupcakes – but that is either good or bad depending if you like icing or not.

Wife and I drove past on the way home from dinner and decided to get some treats, around 20 minutes short of closing they still had a lot of cupcake flavors left which was good, it looked like the type of place that rules «once theyre gone, theyre gone». We ordered minis of the tiramisu, chocolate hazelnut, and vanilla.
I ate the hazelnut and vanilla, my fears would be sugary lardy iced dry cupcakes. What i got was the opposite, light frosting moist flavorful cupcakes which is more impressive considering theyve been possibly sitting in the case all day. While their other flavors didnt seem that interesting to me mexican chocolate, tiramisu, caramel coffee (i have the tastebuds of a 5 yr old) i would definitely be interested in going back and trying other flavors if thats not a static menu.

I love The Cupcake Bar. I wasn’t a fan in their early days, but I’m a huge fan now they’ve finessed their recipes and supply so they don’t run out. Their cupcakes are delicious and they have a great variety of flavors. The space is also adorable and centrally located.
All their cakes and frostings are well flavored and paired with just the right amount of each. I’ve never had a dry or overly sweet cupcake here. They also have interesting flavor combos at times and one of the best red velvets around.
The staff is also friendly and welcoming. Their milkshakes (off menu!) are off the wall good, transports you to a time where you get a milkshake at the lunch counter and wear poodle skirts.

Hands down the best cupcakes in the area. I’ve been about 3 times and never disliked anything. The milk and honey, chocolate peanut butter and classic red velvet are delicious! The icing is so cream cheesey which I love! I’ve been reading a lot of the reviews which mentions the cake part of the cupcake being too dry but I never thought that. Every time I come back to nc to see my family, I make a stop here if I can. Give it a chance if you’re craving a good cupcake!

In a sea of bakeries and cupcake shops, this place actually has something worth trying. The frosting! Is just so flavorful and trumps all the standard buttercream flavorless icings most bakeries use. Bravo!

I was craving a sweet treat after walking around centerfest and this is were we ended up! I was conflicted about whether or not to buy a regular or mini size cupcake. I opted for a mini double coconut cupcake. I told the staff to save the plate and the box when I asked if I was going to take it to go or eat it there and she provided me w a napkin. It was soooo good! The cupcake/​frosting ratio was perfect! The cake itself was moist. I really enjoyed the cupcake. I was surprised that the mini cupcake and a bottle of water was only $ 2 and some change.

I had a ginger spice type cupcake with cream cheese frosting and a chocolate coconut cupcake with chocolate frosting.
The first thing I thought when I bit into the ginger spice cupcake was ‘A Little Dry’. The rest of the cake part of the cupcake was also underwhelmingish. The frosting was really quit good though.
I had a somewhat similar experience with the chocolate cupcake. The cake itself was a little dry (less dry than the ginger cupcake). The cake part also advertised coconut. I like coconut alright in deserts. Not super into it, but not opposed to it either. HOWEVER, when coconut is advertised, I expect it to really make a showing and potentially be have some coconutty texture where appropriate. The coconut in this cupcake however amounted to little more than a moist white region at the center with a mild coconut flavor.
The chocolate frosting was by far my favorite part. It was dark, complex, velvety, and atomically sweet. For people who don’t like it when frosting is TOO sweet, this frosting might not be for you.
Overall, if I were to rate this cupcake shop in a total vacuum it might get a 4. But we are in a dessert baking type renaissance. And excellent cupcake, macaroon, and doughnuts shops far too plentiful for plentiful for a cupcake this dry to pull 4 stars. Sorry!

Cute little cupcake place. Interior could use some additional sprucing up in my opinion; also, the tables get a bit messy sometimes. I’ve tried a bunch of their cupcakes (mojito, peach, sweet potato, etc.), and they are always delightfully adorable in terms of presentation. However, I always find their cupcakes/​frosting WAY too sweet for my liking, but that might just be me. It gets so sweet/​cloy at times that the flavors all end up tasting the same to me — just like sugar.

Yummy!!! We got three mini cupcakes: the watermelon cooler, peaches and cream and firecracker. Our favorite was the peaches and cream Bc there were small pieces of peaches in each bite. The firecracker tasted like a those red hot candies in cupcake form. Lastly, the watermelon cupcake didn’t have much flavor… The cake didn’t at least, but the frosting had a slight… Very slight watermelon flavor.
Cakes were a tad bit dry but the taste of most of the cupcakes were great!

Come here if you’re looking for a dry, disappointing end to your night! The milk & honey cupcake left me desperately needing a real glass of milk to rinse the hard bits of frosting and dusty crumbs out of my throat. Left wishing that one of Pizzeria Toro’s fires had travelled a bit farther to the left.

I ordered 2 dozen margarita cupcakes for a cinco de mayo party and they were the talk of the party. Beautiful and delicious, picture doesn’t do it justice.

This place makes different flavors each day, so this time, one of my friends selected a half dozen box of Devil’s Food, Chocolate Cream Cheese, Coffee Caramel, and Cinnamon Sugar. I sampled the Chocolate Cream Cheese, which is chocolate cake on the bottom and cream cheese frosting on top. For some reason, white sprinkles are included on top of the white frosting, which provides absolutely no contrast for presentation. However, this time, I microwaved the cupcake for a short period of time and what a big difference it made in comparison to the first batch of cupcakes I had from this place! Still not my favorite cupcake in the world, but at least it was soft and moist this time! It tastes like the average chocolate cupcake, but it’s not nearly as sweet as store-​bought cupcakes. Maybe I should give the other flavors another try now that I know the secret is to eat them warm.

I’m going to give this cupcake bar a 3 based upon the great customer service; the clean, minimalistic & modern décor and the vanilla ice cream with a cup of gourmet coffee that begat a scrumptious!!! :) (says my daughter) coffee milkshake.
The not so good part was the cupcakes — our main reason for stopping. I didn’t care for the Mojito variety. The cake part was dense not soft and moist — it didn’t have much flavor. The frosting was entirely too sweet and didn’t match the flavorless cupcake. The Chai Honey, (vegan) Vanilla Vanilla and the Red Velvet were better but not amazing. Maybe it was an off day. Maybe I will give them another shot when I am in Durham.

Stopped in here today to grab a coffee and a cupcake after lunch. The interior is reminiscent of a modern, bar/​lounge and they do have free WiFi. They use all local/​organic resources to do their baking which is great and also offer two sizes of cupcakes. This was nice for my hubby who doesn’t share my sweet tooth and he opted for the smaller size.
The cupcakes were good and they had a variety of flavors — I had cinnamon vanilla spice and my husband went for the lime margarita flavored one. While I can’t complain about the cupcakes, I also can’t say that there was anything about them that made them stand out from other cupcakes I’ve had.
I would give this 3.5 stars if it were an option. The physical space is wonderful and the staff was great but their cupcakes just weren’t much to write home about.

This bakery is so cute and well-​designed inside. Most cupcakeries I have been to do not offer as much seating as this establishment. I stopped in to get some cupcakes for my clients (I’m in sales). I was pleasantly surprised by the fact they offer mini-​cupcakes. I opted to get two dozen of these so that my customers could each try two different flavors. The staff was friendly and patient, and wrapped the box up nicely with a pretty ribbon.
I tried the zombie cupcake and it was awesome — pineapple lime rum cake topped with apricot brandy icing. I’m not much of an icing person, and I liked this icing. Wowza.

Positive (+)‘s:
— Makes for a PERFECT dessert stop. Headed here after eating at Mateo’s Tapa bar across the street.
— Tasted a DELICIOUS mint chocolate chip cupcake with a chocolate filling inside a vanilla cupcake base
— A nice cup of coffee along with the stylish, modern atmosphere maintained made for a nice visit
Negative (-)‘s:
— Pretty much nothing.

I recently grabbed a cupcake at the cupcake bar during a night in Downtown Durham. The boutique sweet shop is down the street from the Marriott.
The thing I like the most about this place is that they offer mini cupcakes for $ 1.50. I hate cupcake shops that force you to get a gigantic 10,000 calorie cupcake. I tried a mini citrus cupcake. It was good but not out of this world. Pretty standard but definitely hit the sweet spot.
Bottom line: would I recommend it? Sure!