food road trip: more sweet seattle

And here I come to the end of my week of eat in Seattle with the last of the sweet parade. Of course I'm going to cram in as many last second bites as possible from around the city.

Whenever I get to Seattle I usually end up taking a stroll through Pike Place Market. Yes, it is the touristy part of town and does draw large crowds, but if you go on off days, they do have some really interesting food stalls and restaurants you can check out without having to elbow someone out of your way or wait in a long line. That's just a tip for when you go. This time around I was short on time and we made a quick stroll through as it was a rare bright sunny day and the people were definitely out and about and basking in it.

Thus I just hit up one spot for a cute little grab and go treat at The Confectional, specializing in mini and super mini cheesecakes--on a stick!

So why not a tiny little red velvet cheesecake pop, so to speak. The "crusty" part on the bottom is chocolate and the cheesecake itself is mixed with the red coloring and some cocoa. The girl behind the counter said the outer shell was cream cheese like. I pondered that briefly but got one anyway. At most it is a two bite thing, though I could get a whole in my mouth easily. While I can't say it tasted like red velvet, it was very cheesecake creamy with hints of chocolate. And super sweet for such a small bite. Definitely a sugar energy boost to get you around the market.

We later found ourselves out in the burbs at an upscale outdoor mall, I think it was near U of W. Walking around we soon passed Trophy Cupcakes & Party and I beelined my way to grab some for later.

Yeah, "the Elvis." A banana, pineapple, coconut cupcake topped peanut butter buttercream and drizzled with honey. Okay, so this is a riff on Elvis' favorite sandwich a fried peanut butter, bacon and banana thing but sans bacon and being fried. Because it had no bacon I was tempted to pass, I mean if you are going to call it "the Elvis" why not go all in? But I do love some peanut butter frosting so I got it anyway. The cupcake was moist but the banana got lost with too much coconut in the batter which also overwhelmed the pineapple. Though the peanut butter flavor came through so there was that, but little else to help this live up to its name.

I also got their special cupcake of the month, the pineapple upside down. A vanilla cupcake with with caramelized pineapple on the bottom, just like the cake, topped with brown sugar buttercream and maraschino cherry. The frosting was tooth achingly sweet but they nailed the flavor of an upside down cake, though, could have used a little more pineapple on the bottom to really bring it home. Still, a moist tasty cupcake.

Seattle is full of cute little neighborhoods where you can turn a corner and find a row of shops and restaurants. Or in this case, a bakery! Bakery Nouveau to be exact. I stumbled across this place on my first day just walking around and made a point to go back when I had more time to try something.

After perusing their cases filled with a bunch of delectable looking sweet and savory things. I zeroed in on the peanut butter cheesecake, because as I stated before, I'm all about some peanut butter, especially if someone is going to incorporate it into a dessert I will be all over that kind of salty sweet combo.

This was definitely a highlight. Creamy, thick and luscious cheesecake infused with peanut butter flavor topped with a thin layer of peanut butter. This was just super yum in all the right ways, right down to the buttery graham cracker crust. Good thing this place is in Seattle or I'd be eating this every week.

My final stop was on the last night and it was another of those stumbled upon places, Sweet Iron Waffle Bar. I had walked by it on the first night when we were searching for cupcakes. I hadn't necessarily meant to come back to it but we were just wandering around on my last night and walked by it again so I took it as a sign. They do Belgian waffles--made to order--then topped, or not, by your choice of whatever.

I decided to just go basic with one covered in chocolate. Honestly, for $5 you get a pretty big fresh made waffle that is so much covered as it slathered copiously in dark chocolate. It was a little more doughy and thicker than a regular Belgian waffle. It came close to cake like, but it did have those chunks of sugar and the dark chocolate evens out the sweetness. A pretty hearty and filling dessert with heft, something you know I look for. While not super traditional, it hit the spot well enough.

Whew, that's it! It was a sort of quick trip but I do feel I got me food fill and thanks to D&B for the crash pad and the chauffeuring. Some highs, some lows but the same as you would expect at any city. Seattle does have a lot to offer food wise though and is totes worth checking out. I can't wait for my next visit. Till then, I need to get back to some running, got a lot of sugar to work off so I can, you know, have some more of course.