Crumbl Cookies review #94 - Classic Yellow Layer Cake and Flourless Chocolate Cake

Crumbl Cookies review #94: Classic Yellow Layer Cake and Flourless Chocolate Cake - visited April 12, 2025

I almost didn't get anything from the Crumbl lineup last week. They made a big deal of this collaboration with the Kardashian/Jenner names and to be honest, that had the opposite effect on me than Crumbl intended. I'm not into either family name and am not incented to buy anything attached to them.

So I dawdled until the last day these were available, trying to make up my mind if I wanted them or not. I did end up getting two of them to try but in hindsight, should've just tried one of them.

Because the yellow cake wasn't anything special and I already had a suspicion it wouldn't be. It's just a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It was okay but I've had better and it wasn't really worth the upcharge or the calories. Truthfully, it was so generic I thought I'd tried it already and had just forgotten but that wasn't the case.

Now I've tried it and would skip it next time it comes around, regardless of whose name it's marketed with.

The flourless chocolate cake was more interesting to me. I almost didn't get it because I don't like raspberries but I was visiting with my mom and my niece the next day so I got it to share with them. I "suggested" to my niece that she eat the raspberries and she did. Problem solved.

I have much more positive things to say about the flourless chocolate cake. It was marketed as having "zero refined sugar" and it definitely wasn't sweet. It was like eating a dark chocolate truffle.

And while I don't usually like dark chocolate, it worked well in the flourless chocolate cake. This had a great, creamy texture and rich chocolate flavor. It was like baked fudge but not as sweet. I'm glad I shared it as I don't think I can eat a whole one, even over several days. Too rich for more than a few bites at a time. As it was, the three of us ate 3/4 of it in one sitting and I had the remaining 1/4 the next day. My niece liked it too and asked me to let her know the next time it was on the menu as they just opened a Crumbl near her. Ah, another Crumbl convert.

Sourdough Banana Bread from Lifestyle of a Foodie

Sourdough Banana Bread - made March 6, 2025 from Lifestyle of a Foodie

1 cup mashed bananas, about 2-3 medium, ripe bananas

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup sourdough discard

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup, optional, for brushing on after baking

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 1-lb loaf pan or line with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine mashed bananas, eggs and vanilla extract.
3. Add melted butter, sourdough discard, brown sugar and granulated sugar; mix to combine.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture, stirring gently. Do not overmix; batter will be slightly lumpy.
6. Pour into prepared pan and bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and if desired, brush with honey or maple syrup while still warm. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Run a small spatula around the sides and invert onto serving plate. Let cool before cutting and serving.

Although my baking days are getting increasingly rare, as evidenced by the more frequent posting of Crumbl and Crave cookie reviews rather than recipes, I do still occasionally turn my oven on to try a new recipe.

Earlier this year, my quilting instructor gave us a sourdough starter and showed us how to make sourdough bread. I've made it a couple of times but haven't quite perfected it yet so I haven't posted that yet. But I did find this recipe to use up the sourdough discard that comes with feeding the starter and keeping it alive.

As I've mentioned before, I have a go-to recipe for banana bread that I've made for years and my family will accept no other so I rarely try out new recipes for banana bread. But I wanted to try this one, mainly because it uses up the sourdough discard and it appealed to my thrifty soul so I wouldn't have to just throw the discard away.

The original recipe didn't have the streusel but I had some to use up so I added it. I was glad I did as this bread actually isn't that sweet. The streusel adds a nice crunch and sweetness to the bread. It also has a tighter crumb and is more bready than my go-to recipe which is sweeter and more cakey,

This was good but I think I still prefer my go-to recipe. Still, this is pretty good with the streusel and eaten warm.

Crumbl Cookies review #93 - Strawberry Butter Cake

Crumbl Cookies review #93: Strawberry Butter Cake - visited April 1, 2025

I'm getting this review just under the wire as this is the last day this week that the Strawberry Butter Cake was available.

As always, I have reservations about getting strawberry anything from anywhere. I like strawberries as a whole fruit but I rarely like it as a flavor in anything Mother Nature didn't create herself. It always tastes artificial to me and just not as good as strawberry the actual fruit.

But I love, love, love Crumbl's Butter Cake and their Caramel Butter Toffee Cake in particular so I thought I'd give the strawberry version a try.

In a nutshell, love the outer sugared crust, love the texture, even liked the vanilla bean mousse on top or essentially, all the things I love about their butter cake in the first place. But, as expected, less enamored of the artificial-to-me strawberry flavor. It was okay but I didn't love it. 

I still like their butter cakes and can't resist the texture but I'm hoping the next product extensions of it would be lemon, orange, caramel apple, Nutella, cookie butter, coconut - sky's the limit! Just not strawberry.

Crumbl Cookies review #92 - Biscoff Cake and Cookies & Cream Brownie

Crumbl Cookies review #92: Biscoff Cake and Cookies & Cream Brownie - visited March 29, 2025

Life's been....it's hard to think of a word that isn't self-pitying while also accurately describing the crushing sensation that brings one to one's knees regardless of a pity party. Let's just say eating and blogging about eating has been low down on my list of priorities, even for an emotional eater like me.

But, since it's counterproductive to wallow in despair all the time, I'll make a stab at normalcy here. I'm a week late with this post as I got this Biscoff Cake and the Cookies & Cream brownie on the last day they were available at my Crumbl.

To cut to the chase, this Biscoff Cake was delicious. Light, fluffy and had the right amount of cookie butter flavor. Heck, I even ate the frosting instead of scraping most of it off, both because it was delicious and not too cloying and because there's that emotional eating thing again.

It helped that the cookie crumbles advertised were actually large enough to be considered crumbles and weren't just cookie butter cookie dust. Crumbl and I have had trust issues in the past on their marketing of their garnishes. See Crumbl Twix review here. But these cookie butter crumbles were large enough to add a nice crunch here and there as I ate my way through the cake.

The cake texture was perfect and that layer of cookie butter in between the cake was the perfect chef's kiss. This cake is definitely satisfying for any cookie butter lover.

The Cookies & Cream Brownie was the "dessert of the month" for March. I held off getting it until the last minute, partly because I wasn't sure if I wanted to try it or not and it took me a month to make up my mind. I've made a lot of brownies in my baking life and I have a high bar for them, storebought or homemade.

I also seem to be an anomaly that while most people like the edges or the crusts of a brownie, I simply don't. I want my brownies to be dense and fudgy-soft the whole way through. Not with crusty edges, sides or corners. 

Not surprisingly, Crumbl's version did have crusty sides, edges and corners. I didn't love that part. But once I could get into the middle, the texture was that dense-fudginess I do like. The flavor was also reasonably good. It did have Oreo overtones in the brownie itself and wasn't just rich chocolate so that was a point in its favor.

Overall, glad I tried it but don't need to get again. If I had to do a repeat, I'd go for the Biscoff Cake again. Fortunately (or not), I got both of these on the last day they were available so my wallet and waistline are safe from a second Biscoff Cake. Until it hits the regular menu again anyway.

Crave Cookies review #12 - Toffee Caramel Crunch, Caramel Cookie Butter Bomb, Banana Cream Pie and King Cake

Crave Cookies review #12: Toffee Caramel Crunch, Caramel Cookie Butter Bomb, Banana Cream Pie, King Cake - visited March 7, 2025 

Caramel Cookie Butter Bomb, King Cake, Toffee Caramel Crunch and Banana Cream Pie

The prior week's menu was still up

The current week's menu

I made an accidental discovery that if you go to Crave on Friday morning, they will likely have the prior week's cookies as well as the current week's cookies. Which makes sense since Crave drops new flavors on Fridays and probably still has cookie dough from the day before that they need to use up.

Which is both a good and bad discovery. Good because I often can't make it to Crave every week but if I can time a Friday morning visit, I can cover two weeks' worth of cookies in one visit. Bad because a Friday morning visit offers 2 weeks' worth of cookies so therefore I'm more than likely to get a 4-pack.

Which I did on this visit since I had wanted two flavors from the prior week (the Toffee Caramel Crunch and the King Cake) and two flavors from the current week (Caramel Cookie Butter Bomb and Banana Cream Pie). So a 4-pack made economic sense, rationalized my thrifty self. Shut up, waistline.

Toffee Caramel Crunch

The Toffee Caramel Crunch was as good as it sounded. Thick cookie, brown sugar flavor, milk chocolate, toffee bits and caramel drizzle: what's not to love? This also freezes well and is just as good thawed and at room temperature.

Caramel Cookie Butter Bomb

The Caramel Cookie Butter Bomb was my favorite of the 4-pack. Remember when I said Crave's Almond Joy cookie was one of my top favorites from both Crave and Crumbl? Well, move over Almond Joy, the Caramel Cookie Butter Bomb ties. It doesn't quite displace the Almond Joy entirely but it's definitely a solid favorite as well.

The cookie butter flavor of the cookie was amazing, the caramel stuffed inside was sublime, and the chunks of Biscoff cookies crumbled on top added the perfect crunch to the chewy goodness of the cookie. This is hard to portion into pieces since the thick gooey caramel in the middle doesn't divide evenly but that's a First World problem that isn't a problem. 

This cookie was delicious. And unlike Crumbl, when Crave does a garnish on top, they really do give chunks or decent crumbles, not the Twix-dust that Crumbl does on its cookies. Thumbs up.

Banana Cream Pie

Then we get to the Banana Cream Pie. Unfortunately, this wasn't as good and was probably the weak link of the 4-pack. I liked the cookie itself but not the topping. The pudding was more like a disc that wanted to stay in one piece rather than an actual pudding you spoon. Plus no go for me on the whipped topping. 

This is one of the rare times when I prefer Crumbl's banana cream pie cookie over Crave's version. Crumbl's is more like a pie cookie whereas Crave's is just a cookie, no semblance of pie. But I think the biggest miss on Crave's part with this cookie is the lack of actual banana pieces in the pudding or anywhere in the cookie. That was one of my favorite aspects of Crumbl's cookie and added to the banana flavor.

King Cake

Last up was the King Cake. Except I don't think you can really call this a King Cake as it's mostly a sugar cookie with King Cake colors dusted on top of the frosting in the form of sugar crystals. 

I got this because I like Crave's sugar cookies and I expected to like this one. And I did, if you only count the cookie itself. I'm not a fan of frosting and scrape most of it off anyway but it's not that I don't like a little frosting; I just don't like the mounds that cookie shops slather their cookies with. However, I have to confess, I didn't like this particular frosting at all. I think it was supposed to be buttercream which I don't care for since I don't like the often-greasy mouthfeel of buttercream. But I also didn't like the taste of this one. It wasn't a tang like from cream cheese but it wasn't sweet either. Nah, not for me. So now I'm more leery of frosted cookies in general. 

So of the 4-pack, I liked one and was glad I tried it (the Toffee Caramel Crunch), loved and would get one again (the Caramel Cookie Butter Bomb) and would skip the last two (Banana Cream Pie and King Cake).