Nosh Pit

Meet the New Cupcake Royale

Cap Hill Store opens today. But if you can’t get there, look here.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 22, 2009 at 08:00AM6 Comments

(Photo: Nick Feldman)

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(Photo: Nick Feldman)

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(Photo: Nick Feldman)

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(Photo: Nick Feldman)

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Royale owner Jody Hall

(Photo: Nick Feldman)

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(Photo: Nick Feldman)

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(Photo: Nick Feldman)

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(Photo: Nick Feldman)

View Slideshow » Illustration:

(Photo: Nick Feldman)

View Slideshow » Illustration:

(Photo: Nick Feldman)

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(Photo: Nick Feldman)

The new Capitol Hill Cupcake Royale opened this morning at 6am, and customers who say “legalize frostitution” are receiving a free Strawberry 66 mini cupcake.

“Sixty-six” refers to the percentage of Royale’s ingredients that are now sourced locally —an impressive percentage for a specialty food business trying to unload $3 cupcakes in a whack economy. (The flour comes from Shephard’s Grain, an alliance of Eastern Washington wheat growers.)

I tried Cupcake Royale’s new recipe last night for the first time. The cake is moister than the old one, it doesn’t really crumble when you bite into it (convenient when you’re trying to stuff one in your face while chitchatting at a party) and has a consistency akin to angel food cake but with a nice hardness to the top.

Designwise, the store outcools any cupcake bakery in town. It is the work of Roy McMakin, a friend and customer of Royale owner Jody Hall, and the guy who made that Love and Loss piece that leads to man a furrowed brow in the sculpture garden. Linda Dershang’s boyfriend Sterling Voss—who does most of the work at her places, he built that beautiful bar at Smith— and glass artist/Hideout owner Greg Lundgren contributed as well. There’s a window by Seattle Stained Glass near the front.

The central feature is large white cube of a workspace with a cupcake display case upfront. The accents are pink—there’s a highly-covetable pink Tiffany lamp lighting a round table near the front, every fourth chair or so is painted pink, the first art instillation includes a large canvas with skinny pink lines. (Who says art shouldn’t match?)

While I was poking around the place I met Charles Drabkin, a culinary instructor at Edmonds Community College who remarked that the store was very “adult.” But, we agreed, it wasn’t adult in the way stark style of Fran’s in the Four Seasons—kids will love it here with all the pink accents and the stunning display case full of pastel-frosting topped cakeys. [Here I’m tempted to write something about the place being sweet but not too sweet, like the cupcakes, but that’s so lame.]

Finally, I know it’s been said enough already, but Capitol Hill and desserts—it’s kind of getting out of hand. Someone needs to open another gym on the hill, or it’s going to get all Wall-E up in there. Am I wrong?

Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Bakery, Cupcake Royale