February, right around now, happens to be The Biscuit’s birthday (the blog and the blogger, coincidentally). To celebrate, we thought we’d eat a whole load of cupcakes from the two boutique bakeries in town, Sugarland and Bliss, then figure out which we liked better.

Turns out, this was a true rumble, and picking a winner wasn’t easy.

From the start, with both costing more than $2 a pop, these desserts are a luxury we wouldn’t eat unless it was a special occassion. This time, however, was no normal day.

The Biscuit and friends came up with some judging criteria before sampling each treat: frosting, cake, appearance, flavor and creativity. We took each bite with these aspects in mind (which took a little fun out of the eating. By the fifth cupcake, however, eating wasn’t fun anymore.)

Let’s start with Sugarland, which has been around for about a year now. They brought the upscale cupcake concept to Chapel Hill after it had already been popular in bigger cities. The Biscuit originally thought paying the $3.25 for a cupcake was rediculous (it is), but everyonce in a while they’re a nice reward.

At first, Suglarland’s cupcake creations were normal, chocolate, vanilla, but they’ve really expanded into some pretty interesting concoctions. We decided to try triple chocolate, chocolate cake with banana cream filling, cream cheese-iced banana cake filled with nutella and strawberry shortcake. Not your average flavors.

Their competion came from the newcomer in Chapel Hill. Opening in the place of 3Cups, Bliss seemed like a gamble because, really, Chapel Hill ain’t big enough for two boutique bakeries. That’s where we in step in.

While Sugarland does a little bit of everything - cookies, coffee, gelato, cocktails, Bliss really focuses on the cupcake. They have a pretty cool system, too. They sell six regular flavors for $2.50, which are always on the menu, and then three daily specials, which rotate every week (Dulce de leche, orange-spice and oreo when we went, Thursday).

We thought we’d keep it consistent when choosing flavors from Bliss, so we got one with chocolate cake and an orange-spice to go against Sugarland’s strawberry shortcake and then a golden cake with chocolate ganache, which an employee said was their specialty.

Let’s talk about individual cupcakes first.

At Sugarland, the chocolate cake with banana cream really didn’t work. The filling was subtle and cold, you didn’t really know what you were eating. The cake can only be described as tasting dark. On the other hand, the banana nutella cupcake was probably the best of the night. The originality was superb and the combination of flavors just right. The cream cheese icing offered a nice break from the other cupcakes’ frosting, which you’ll see hurt Sugarland.

It was obvious why everyone’s favorite at Bliss was the yellow cake with chocolate ganache icing. The topping was just right, like the inside of a really good truffle, and it mixed well with the cake. The other two were both about as good as each other, solidly delicious treats.

Overall, there were some real differences between both bakeries.

Sugarland was willing to step out of the box and try all kinds of flavors. We had trouble choosing between all of them. (The chocolate malt still sounds good.) And they used the right ingredients for everything. The strawberry shortcake icing, which had real chunks of fruit, was probably the best flavor we had all night. You could taste the real vanilla and intense chocolate in most of the cupcakes.

Every one was pretty moist, though they were all so cold they had a texture that seemed like they were from the grocery store’s industrial refrigerator. Considering that, Sugarland baked up what seemed like the traditional cupcake, what we think of when we celebrate an elementary school birthday.

But then there was the frosting. This whole super-cold thing really screwed it up for Sugarland. By keeping their cupcakes nearly frozen, they got hard, especially the topping. Except for the cream cheese icing, every other cupcake’s frosting was so bad it was hard to enjoy it. The topping was solid, super sweet and gritty with sugar, absolutely exactly like eating a chunk of frozen toothpaste, really. Although the flavor was usually nice, the ratio between cake and topping was devestating because biting through the rock-hard icing compressed the cake into nothing. The Biscuit would have just separated the two and eaten each part individually. Perhaps if they sat out for a while, the icing might melt a little and become edible.

In the other corner, Bliss did everything pretty much right. The cake was super dense and moist, the frosting just enough to let you know it was there. The flavor was subtle but left a pleasant aftertaste. All in all, the bakery put out fundamentally sound creations that were easy to enjoy.

So who’s better?

If you’re going to go big and buy these lavish cupcakes, you probably want something exotic. Otherwise, you could go to the supermarket. In that case, try Sugarland. They have some really cool flavors that taste so good.

If, however, you want a straight-up well done cupcake, go to Bliss. They’ve pefected each piece of the cake to make it all work together.

Although it might seem like the easy way out, the choice is really up to the taster.

In truth, Bliss is cheaper, closer to where The Biscuit lives, and a little more fun to eat (no worry about icing), so that’s where we’ll be.