Cities Cupcake Boutique

I still absolutely love this place. I travel a lot (I put over 35,000 miles on my car last year alone) and travel to or through Knoxville four or five times a year. I have purposely altered my travel schedule so that I can pick up cupcakes here. Yes, they’re that good.
It’s been a little less than a year since my last review. I’ve tried cupcakes from coast to coast and I’ve still yet to try any that are as good as the ones at Cities. This place is the gold standard of cupcakes as far as I’m concerned.

Very good cupcakes and a delightful selection. So bad for your waistline, but sooooooo delicious. Have one instead of a piece of cake!

Mrs: While visiting the Knoxville area, I was searching for goodies for my husband’s grandparents on my way back from a conference. As we had enough to share, I was able to just a bite of multiple flavors. The cupcakes are moist, and have just enough frosting. I loved it, and the grandparents thoroughly enjoyed.

As a long time fan of cupcakes in general, Cities Cupcakes has become my favorite of all the locations in the surrounding Knoxville area. Those who complain about price and size, you pay the same price at any of the cupcake shops and the cupcakes are bigger, and much yummier, than the typical grocery store cupcake.
The cupcakes are frosted when you order them. They don’t sit with the frosting on all day long and they are not kept frozen or cold because that takes away from the flavor. The great thing with the frosting when you order is that it also adds a level of customization that you can’t get at any of the other locations where the cupcakes have set all day, already iced.
My favorites are the Richmond (choclate and peanut butter. yum!), the Memphis (banana cake, peanut butter icing, and bacon bits. YUM!), and the Savannah (S’Mores!!).
The people who work here are fabulous and I have even met the owner and she is a class act! This is definitely the top of the mountain!

$ 3.00 a cupcake is too much money period!
If the cupcakes were ginormous or being sold in NYC, maybe, OK.
These are standard sized cupcakes, similar to what you’d find in Kroger, Walmart or Publix.
I had a «half off depot» coupon thankfully, so I tried 3 kinds of cupcakes.
1. Red Velvet– frosting standard cream cheese but sweeter. Red velvet wasn’t dark or rich enough for me. Better bet? Starbucks. Or make your own with Paula Deen’s recipe.
2. Chocolate with peanut butter frosting– cake is moist and semi dark and tastes like your standard chocolate cupcake. The frosting is excellent. True peanut butter flavor topped with a few reeces pieces.
3. Chocolate w/​chocolate frosting– TBD but judging from the looks of it, it’s nothing special.
Bottom line? Increase your bottom line by seeking elsewhere to get your cupcakes for less $.
Or bake your own.
You can do better.

I love the Richmond cupcake so much, with the peanut butter, that I just have to endorse this place. Also the flavors of the month or whatever are usually really good. February is Versailles, and it is almond cake w/​cherry frosting. so so so good.

Tried 4 different cupcakes for my and the hubby to try: Charleston, Chicago, Carmel, and the New Orleans.
Our favorite by far was the Carmel because it was delish! It was just the right amount of caramel without being overly sweet and the yellow cake was soooo light, airy, and fluffy.
The Chicago was our next favorite. I’m usually not a fan of sprinkles but the sugar crystals on top gave it a nice crunch and added to the flavor of the cupcake. We’re chocolate lovers so this cake was yummy. The cake itself was just like the carmel– super light and airy.
HATED the New Orleans. I love red velvet cake but this cake was just oh so wrong for me. I think it was just too vinegary and I didn’t care for it at all.
The Charleston was eh, ok. Was expecting a more coconuty flavor and it was pretty subtle. If there wasn’t any coconut on top of it I would’ve never guessed it was a coconut cake!
I still gave a 4 star rating because we’ll definitely be back for the Carmel. We’re looking forward to trying other flavors and hoping they’re as good. Despite the other 2 cakes we weren’t exactly fans of the cakes were still fluffy and light.

I was in K’ville this weekend for a college friend’s wedding – and what better way to prep for the big day than with a delicious cupcake! So, with 2 of my girls in tow, and a handy gps (for those of us who are not so directionally inclined), we headed off to east Tennessee to get a taste of K’ville’s best. And let me tell you, we were not disappointed!
Initially, I didn’t think much about the name, but once we saw the menu and the display, it cliqued. With about 10 different flavors on display we quickly saw that each cake was named after a different city (ohhh…THATs why they call it «cities cupcake») – and that it was the unique characteristics about each city that inspired, and thereafter were infused into each individual cupcake. With flavors ranging from the beloved «Knoxville” – described as what the «fair city» might taste like, «a light orange chiffon cake topped with melt in your mouth vanilla buttercream frosting and sparkly orange sugar» to an across the country «Seattle» cake – a «perfect compliment» to your steaming cup of Seattle’s best coffee, it was so hard to choose between them all!
But choose we did, and thankfully, between the three of us, we actually got 4 cupcakes – Seattle, Paris, Port Orchard, and the brand new flavor of Key West. The cakes tasted as unique as their descriptions and it made it all the more exciting to dive into each bite! I’m a stickler for yummy strawberry cake, so I wasn’t nuts about the «Paris» (strawberry), but all the others, from top to bottom, were delicious – having all the essential elements that you hope for in a cupcake! For those who are brave enough to admit that the icing is the best part – they also offer icing shots – which I totally would have gotten if this wasn’t actually my first meal of the day. Ok… and maybe if I hadn’t been such a piglet and sampled FOUR flavors. Sigh, next time perhaps…
Unlike most cupcake places that I’ve been to, where they have all their cakes on display, ready for you to choose, this little Boutique actually frosts them fresh to order. And you really can taste/​appreciate the freshness! The down side to this, specifically to those of us whose taste buds are directly linked to our eyeballs, is that when you walk in and actually see the cupcakes they DO have on display (which are usually their «top 10,» from what I gathered) they look like they’ve been sitting in the case for a while and were coated with a healthy dose of shellac, keeping them frozen in time, and incidentally, making them to appear less than worthy of your appetite – as well as your hard-​earned $ 3. So at first I thought these were all the cupcakes they had left and I was a little bummed at where our cupcake search had taken us, but the super sweet lady behind the counter quickly told us not to worry – that these cupcakes were not really edible (easy to tell once you got a little closer), but that they were merely the displays of the flavors they would frost fresh once we ordered.
Long story short – I heart the concept of this place and give them 4 stars for really getting creative with their cupcake flavors (I think I would’ve dished out 5 stars if the atmosphere of the shop were a little more cozy and didn’t have that «shallacked» feel…). After looking at their website online and their menu from the store, I also saw that they’re working on a savory line of cupcakes – which is a very smart way to be set apart from the competition, but also legitimately appealing to different customers and their taste buds (not to mention get a nod from the Food Network… which I think they maybe have… though I am not 100% sure of this) Either way, it’s great to walk into a cupcake place and be surprised – not to mention to break outside the box of your standard chocolate and vanilla combo’s/ variations.
Other cool things – they also support some additional local artists by selling and displaying cards, small gifts and art in their shop as well. I dig that they actually seem to love their city… and as an out of towner, that makes me feel like I’ve experienced a little bit more than just a good cupcake.

I visited and my experience was not pleasant. I will not return. I found the owner to be rude and almost hostile. I got the feeling she felt superior to all the customers. The cupcake was overly sweet and slightly dry. Definitely did not warrant her attitude of superiority or her rudeness. I also found the decorating to be amateurish at times and totally boring overall. High end prices dictate high end skills, which are not present here.