Lick It Bite It or Both

The recent emergence of cupcakes as the “it” dessert (macarons are making a move) has spurred the opening of many new cupcake bakeries in Austin. Lick It Bite It or Both (yes, that is actually the name) is one of these newly opened cupcake shops in north Austin. They, like Gypsy Rose Lee, have a gimmick – they also serve homemade ice cream.

I ventured in with two equally sweets loving friends to give this place a shot. We ordered three cupcakes – Vanilla, Mimosa and Red Velvet.

The icing on the vanilla cupcake was delicious – sweet, great texture and a beautiful shade of blue. Sadly, the cupcake itself managed to have a mealy, yet overly buttery texture – the flavor was there, but something was definitely off. The mimosa cupcake (citrus flavored cupcake with a champagne icing) was better than the vanilla – it even had glitter (or Disco Dust as it was called on Top Chef: Just Desserts) on the top which was a nice touch. The most disappointing of the three was the red velvet. The cupcake tasted bland and the icing could have used not only a stronger cream cheese flavor but a heartier dollop of icing on top to even out the dryness of the cupcake.

I am actually quite worried to post this review. The owner has a history of posting responses to negative reviews on Yelp (the delete, edit, repost, delete, edit and repost again until he comes up with a response that he is satisfied with) but I’m here to give my honest opinion.

I do think this shop has its share of promises. The samples of ice cream were delicious – especially the cake batter and coconut flavors. The owner, who was working the counter that day, was very nice in person (online might be a different story) and customer service really makes a difference in my book. I’ll also say that it is a relatively new place and they may still be working on perfecting their cupcake recipes. In the meantime I’ll stick with Betty Crocker. (Me skipping out is actually a good thing -the owner donates the cupcakes at the end of the day to Ronald McDonald charities around Austin!)