Audio By Carbonatix
Just hit Nomelie Cupcakes at 19751 East Main Street in Parker. According to the website, the joint technically s between 2 and 4 p.m. on weekdays — and maybe I’m just being crazy here, but wouldn’t you think that a cupcake maker (or at least a cupcake maker who actually wanted to make some money) would endeavor to stay open especially during those hours?
After all, 2 to 4 p.m. is prime cupcakin’ time for parents picking up their kids from school. And do you know how I know that? Because I was there during those technically closed hours, trying to score a few cupcakes. I had to be let in through the locked front door — and I was surrounded by moms and their squealing, sticky, sugar-deprived rug rats all trying to do the same thing.
Okay, maybe surrounded is a bit of an overstatement. But
Nomelie is a really small space, and there were at least three or four other
mom-and-kid(s) units crammed in there with me. And as I didn’t want to have
to fight my way to the door against those sorts of odds, I had to
be rather discrete in my ordering. It appeared that stocks were
running low (another quirk in Nomelie’s schedule — the joint closes entirely as soon as the goods are sold out), and some of
those kids? They looked like biters.
I managed to make it out the door with two vanilla and two chocolate
cupcakes (pictured above), and while I have been nothing but
disappointed by every other cupcake shop I have visited in town since
the trend of opening little neighborhood cupcake shops became a big
thing, these were actually quite good. Granted, they were on the small
side (four or five bites, tops, and on a bet, I imagine I could eat a
whole one in just two), and not exactly cheap ($2.75 each, $3 for the
specialty ones like the Amarena cherry and French chocolate on tap for
Thursdays), but owner Selah Davenport really knows what she’s doing
when it comes to makin’ cakes.
She uses nothing but the best ingredients as a base (real vanilla,
French chocolate, fresh fruits and imported odds-and-ends like those
Amarena cherries, which she gets from Bologna, Italy), and then bakes
with the sort of restraint that’s generally completely unknown in some
of the less professional shops. The frosting isn’t piled on too deep
(as it is almost everywhere else — done as mom-bait even if it tastes
like nothing more than eating a bowl full of sugar), the flavors in the
cakes themselves display a patissiere’s subtlety, and the flavor
combinations are genius. No Quadruple Chocolate
Orgasms here. No weird combinations, or ginormous goofy things that
look like clown wigs on top of tiny footstools. Instead, she does
simple French chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, banana
cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and more. They taste like the
kind of cupcakes your mom would make.
Provided, of course, your mom was a professional baker with access
to a pantry stuffed with high-rent produce and imported ingredients.
Though Davenport’s grand opening is still ten days off (it’s officially May 16) and her soft open was just four days ago (May 2), the shop is already
doing enough business that people are banging on her door during down
time. My guess? It’s only going to get busier from here…
