Ginjer

Address: No. 18, Lane 233, Section 1, Dūnhuà South Rd, Daan
Telephone: (02) 8773-3061

Hours: Mon - Sat 11am to 8:30pm

Price: $

   So after my recent post about the cupcakes at Cloudy Cupcake, someone suggested I try Ginjer. Honestly, I wasn't too excited about this but I decided to give it a go. Located in the Zhongxiao Dunhua area, Ginjer has a lot to live up to. This area is synonymous with good eats, chic clientele, and unique food/atmosphere design ideas. A tiny place no more than a couple hundred feet square, Ginjer is essentially a kitchen with a display case. No matter. There's an outdoor seating area that's quite enjoyable in the spring and summer months.

However, it wasn't a nice enough day to sit outside. This didn't really pose too much of a problem because this is Dunhua, remember? You can't throw a stone without hitting a cafe. Taking my spoils to the nearest cafe, I ordered a pot of tea and sat down to my cupcakes.

Despite having reservations about Taiwanese cupcakes in general, I purchased three flavors. When you enter the small kitchen-room that is Ginjer, you immediately notice the smells of chocolate, cinnamon, and mocha. So it's impossible to walk away with just one cupcake (or one flavor of cupcake). I decided to buy a small variety; mocha, red velvet, and "Cloud Nine".

Biting into the red velvet cupcake ($55 NT), I immediately knew these were the real thing. The cake is perfectly moist and light, and retains that wonderful red velvet flavor, while the cream cheese icing was creamy and flavorful. This isn't a gourmet cupcake or a cupcake that would win a prize in some TLC baking competition; this is the cupcake your mom would make for you when you were younger. Simple, flavorful, delicious. 

 This mocha cupcake ($55 NT) had a lot to live up to, lemme tell you. Ginjer sells the mocha cupcake with three different icing flavors; chocolate, coffee, or buttercream. I chose chocolate, but I'm eager to try the other two flavors! The cake itself is a little bit drier than the red velvet (which I thought improved the taste, as the coffee flavor of the cake wasn't too overpowering), but still retained that delicate sponginess. The chocolate icing was a rich dark chocolate flavor (paired well with the two coffee beans on top). 

 Cloud Nine ($55 NT) is a Ginjer original. Baked with coconut shreds, this cupcake is marketed as "a refreshing snack". A refreshing snack indeed; however, I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be a coconut cupcake, or a vanilla cupcake with some coconut shreds baked in. The coconut flavor isn't really there and the cake seemed a little too moist. I will concede that this was probably just a "bad" cake. The cream cheese icing was delicious and the coconut shreds in the icing weren't too sparse nor too plentiful. 

 I'd definitely go back to Ginjer. In fact, until someone recommends another cupcake place in Taipei that I like more than Ginjer, it's safe to say you'll probably see me here every weekend. And since I have yet to try the bundt cake, brownies, or muffins, I'll definitely be back for a taste of those!

Please visit Ginjer's website to get a better idea of all the cupcake flavors they offer, in addition to viewing the other baked goods they sell like bundt cakes, pies, brownies, muffins, and cookies.

http://www.ginjer.com/index.htm