For our last food review for The Brandeis Hoot, we wanted to do something unusual as opposed to our usual fast food reviews. After a few weeks of hunting for something cool, we found our winner: pizza cupcakes from 4 Corners Pizza in Newton. They offer eight types of savory pizza cupcakes and a dessert pizza cupcake, which will cost you $3.99 plus tax.
Mykonos Pizza Cupcake
The Mykonos Pizza Cupcake is described as a “Mini Deep Dish made with Spinach, Feta, Fresh Garlic and Kalamata Olives.”
Sasha
The Mykonos was the first cupcake we tried, and boy did it set a high bar for the rest of the cupcakes. I am not a huge fan of spinach or feta; however, this cupcake manages to combine all the flavors so well that I would actually eat it again. This cupcake definitely tastes more healthy than the rest of the cupcakes we had, so maybe it can be the “salad” to your meal. The one thing I would say is that I thought it needed more dough, though this is not an issue I had with any flavor, so it was probably the individual cupcake we got. The other thing I really appreciated about this cupcake was how nicely all the flavors came together without having one dominant flavor. Overall, this was a very good pizza cupcake; I would rate it an eight out of 10.
John
The Mykonos Pizza Cupcake was delicious, and it was also the very first one that we tried. It came in a box with three other cupcakes, but they were separated well enough such that the flavors between the cupcakes did not mix between each other. This cupcake tasted amazing! I was not expecting to like it as much as I did given the name, but the dough was great (I think they used pizza dough), and the feta was not too strong, which it usually is in most dishes. Instead, it provided a nice salty and cheesy foundation that the rest of the cupcake was built off of. Also, the spinach was grounded, which I really appreciated because it did not add to the texture of the dough and the rest of the cupcake. Overall, this one gets an eight out of 10 from me! Would definitely purchase this again.
Nashville Hot Chicken Pizza Cupcake
The Nashville Hot Chicken Pizza Cupcake is described as a “Mini Deep Dish made with Nashville Hot Chicken drizzled with Ranch Dressing and Topped with a Pickle.”
Sasha
The Nashville Hot was delicious. Tied for my favorite of the day. The chicken and cheese (which was hot and melty) were amazing, and the ratio of dough to filling was perfect. I also appreciated the pickle on top. I think it had a good level of spice, personally, I would’ve liked it to be spicier, but I think for the average person it was perfect. Overall I would rate this cupcake a nine out of 10 and will definitely get it again before we leave the Waltham area.
John
The chicken portion of this cupcake was delicious, and it also shared many features with the spinach feta cupcake: the dough was superb, and I also appreciate that it was a deep-dish cupcake, so the filling was present throughout the entire cupcake and not just on top, making the whole experience of eating the cupcake great. One thing that I do have to say, though, is that I did not like the pickle too much; I feel that it was a bit too acidic given what the cupcake was. When I took a bite of the pickle, it was basically the only thing that I could taste. Overall, I would give this cupcake an 8.5 out of 10!
Buffalo Chicken Pizza Cupcake
The Buffalo Chicken Pizza Cupcake is described as a “Mini Deep Dish made with Buffalo Chicken Breast and topped with Bleu Cheese Dressing.”
Sasha
Although we usually love buffalo chicken pizza, this cupcake kind of missed the mark. My first issue with it was that it comes with blue cheese on top, which I don’t like, but even when I took most of it off, it still left a weird taste behind. But even when I got to the part that definitely did not have blue cheese, the flavor was still a little underwhelming. I cannot put my finger on what exactly was wrong with it, but I feel like the other cupcakes we tried were so good that this just seemed particularly bad. It did have a nice level of spice, and there was not too much Buffalo sauce, which is usually an issue with buffalo pizzas. Overall I would rate it a 7.5 out of 10 and would probably not get it again.
John
I feel like I should preface this by saying that I generally love buffalo chicken — in fact, a buffalo chicken pizza or buffalo chicken calzone is my favorite type of food. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to try this cupcake given how great the last two were. However, I was a bit disappointed by this one, probably because the other two set such a high bar. The blue cheese was a bit too strong for my taste, and in all honesty it tasted a bit like soap (in the most unpleasant way imaginable). Besides the blue cheese, the cupcake was not bad. I probably would not get this again given how great the previous two flavors were though and would give this one a seven out of 10.
Chicken Ranch Cupcake
The Chicken Ranch Cupcake is described as a “Mini Deep Dish made with Chicken and Bacon topped with a Ranch Drizzle.”
Sasha
I was pleasantly surprised by this cupcake, I was not sure what to expect from it when I was first ordering it. I don’t mind ranch, but I don’t think it belongs on pizza, but this cupcake did have an interesting flavor. I thought it could use more chicken though: When I finished my half, I was actually not sure if it even had chicken in it (though maybe John got all the chicken). Overall, this was probably my least favorite cupcake. I would rate it a 7.5 out of 10 and would not get it again. Hot ranch should not be a thing.
John
To me, ranch dressing has a very particular tangy flavor that is characteristic of it. However, I could not identify the typical tanginess in ranch dressing in this cupcake, and my guess for that is during the cooking process it lost what makes it “tangy,” which to me, makes the ranch obsolete. The redeeming part of this cupcake for me though was the piece of bacon, which really complemented the chicken and the rest of the cupcake. It’s unfortunate that they only gave us one piece of bacon to go with the cupcake since I feel like I got only one bite of what the cupcake is supposed to taste like! Overall, I would give this a 7.5 out of 10, with some room for serious improvement if they added more bacon!
Spicy BBQ Pizza Cupcake
The Spicy BBQ Pizza Cupcake is described as a “Mini Deep Dish version of our Spicy BBQ Chicken Pizza. Made with Pulled BBQ Chicken Breast, Jalapeños, Pineapples and Smoked Bacon.”
Sasha
This cupcake made up for the shortcomings of the previous two. This was an amazing cupcake, tied for my favorite with the Nashville Hot (or maybe this one was a tiny bit better). I loved the BBQ sauce, it was very good, though once again not too spicy. The jalapeño on top added a nice kick, while the pineapple added some sweetness. The flavors worked together so well, it was amazing. Now I am sitting here dreaming of another BBQ cupcake. Overall, I would rate it a nine out of 10 and if I could, I’d be eating one now.
John
I really enjoyed this cupcake. The dough was incredible, the chicken tasted great, and I really liked the acidity and spice that the jalapeños added. It was definitely the best part about the cupcake. However, I feel that the barbecue sauce should have been a bit more spicy than it was. The jalapeños added most of the spice to the cupcake, but the bits of the cupcake without the jalapeño were not too spicy at all. Overall, I would also give this one a seven and a half out of 10.
S’mores – Dessert Pizza Cupcake
The S’mores – Dessert Pizza Cupcake is “made with Nutella and Peanut Butter topped with a melted Marshmallow, Chocolate Bar and Chocolate Sauce.”
Sasha
I have to admit I was not coming into this with high expectations, largely because I do not like smores. But this cupcake was very good. The melty peanut butter and Nutella and delicious dough, ugh my sweet tooth dream. Though I do have to say that I found the peanut butter overwhelming––it took over the rest of the flavors––so I think it would’ve been better with just Nutella, but I’m partial to Nutella. Overall, I would rate it an 8.5 out of 10 and would definitely get it again!
John
This cupcake was significantly different from the ones that we have tried previously: This one was super sweet! I believe that they used the same dough, but nevertheless, the top was covered in a Nutella/peanut butter mixture, a marshmallow, and a Hershey’s chocolate. While the cupcake was delicious and everything that you would expect, the mixture between the Nutella and peanut butter was a bit strange in my opinion: I would rather they had just the Nutella or just the peanut butter. Overall, I would give the sweet cupcake an eight out of 10! Great end to our dinner.
Overall, these cupcakes were great. The concept is definitely very cool, especially if you are like us and enjoy pizza that has a lot of dough. Three cupcakes per person was probably a good amount of food; we were full but not too full. We really liked that we were able to get a variety; the only cupcakes we didn’t get to try were the Meat Lovers, Iraklion and Shrimp Mac & Cheese. (This is a true blessing if you are indecisive like us.) If we were to go again, Sasha would get the Spicy BBQ, Nashville Hot and S’mores cupcakes, while John would get the Mykonos Pizza Cupcake, Nashville Hot and Chicken Ranch cupcake. Although we have not tried their regular pizza, the pizza cupcakes are delicious so we’d think the pizza would be really good, too.
Alternatively, if you do not feel like going the five miles to Newton, we’d like to shout out AK’s, where we have been going to fulfill our pizza cravings for the last four years (their buffalo chicken calzones are so good, ugh).
