The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

There seems to be a cupcake craze taking over Cairo. What is
it exactly about us Cairenes and our need for creamy cupcakes?
Whatever it is; it’s helping Crumbs Cupcakes &More sell out its stock of
pretty cupcakes every day.

Located on Ibn Nabih Street next to the iShop in Zamalek,
Crumbs Cupcakes & More is a tiny shop with just enough space for a few round
tables, a small espresso machine and a
large pink sign at the entrance that reads ‘Stay Calm and Have a Cupcake,’
advice that may be hard to follow when
you see their mouth-watering cupcakes.

The cupcakes come in two sizes: a bite size for 3LE and a
large size for 9LE. A Large blackboard behind the counter carries the menu list,
daintily written out in white and pink: there’s the vanilla icing icing baby,
which you may be familiar with if you’ve ever had Crumbs cupcakes at Loolies. There’s also the Oreo cupcake with an Oreo
cookie centre and a swirl of vanilla butter cream on top, whereas the lemon
meringue cupcake is topped with lemon cream and meringue.

Cupcakes aside, whole-wheat mini-muffins (3LE a piece),
cookies (4LE; though sugar cookies cost 5LE) and whoopie pies (5LE) are
available– but you have to order the whoopie pie 24 hours in advance. You can
choose from four flavours: chocolate cheesecake, red velvet, chocolate peanut
butter and ginger. Of the cookies, we sampled the ginger cookie; which was less
of a flat biscuit and more of a chewy, thick and moist cookie with just the
right combination of sugar and ginger– not too sweet and not too heavy.

On the other hand, the cupcakes are sweet enough to send any
hyperactive kid soaring into a sugar high. The carrot cupcake’s cake is nicely moist, but its butter-heavy icing overpowered
the carrot flavour. The lemoona cupcake was equally guilty of overdosing on
sugar, while the chocolate mint cupcake’s icing tasted a little too close to
toothpaste. As much as we wanted to love the red velvet, its cake base had an
odd chemical aftertaste to it.

That being said, we loved the honey cinnamon banana cupcake
for its fluffy icing of cinnamon and sweet honey. The Crumbs birthday cake is a playful white
cupcake topped with M&Ms and filled with chocolate chips; perfect for the
kid in you. The chocolate peanut butter is another hit; with creamy peanut
butter filling the chocolate cake as well as covering it prettily.

Crumbs Cupcakes & More plans to offer delivery service
in the coming weeks to Mohandiseen, Dokki, Maadi and Heliopolis. The shop also
offers personalised party cupcakes and cookies. According to sources, a fresh batch of cupcakes is produced around 11AM
every morning; so be sure to head over early because the shop sells out fast!