NEW AND IMPROVED >>>

I'll just come out and say it: Sweet Things Cupcakes & Couture in the Proctor District grabbed second place in our 2010 Best of Tacoma Readers' Poll. The cupcake shop scored a baker's dozen of votes - over and over. I'm sure there's something involving the word "frosting" that I could add to this opening that would cleverly describe their second place finish and earn me the Pulitzer Cupcake, but I got nothing - other to say "way to go Sweet Things."

Now, kiss Sweet Things goodbye. Yup, they're gone - frosting and all (got it in - sweet!).

Jubilee Cupcakes & Vintage Candy announced it will open Friday, July 23 in the Proctor District spot formerly occupied by Sweet Things Cupcakes & Couture. According to a press release, Jubilee will incorporate a back-to-basics approach to cupcakes, which means, "that all cupcakes, buttercreams, chocolate and caramel sauces, various ganaches, meringues, lemon curd and marshmallows used in Jubilee cupcakes (and espresso drinks) are homemade from their own recipes and perfected over decades."

However, as the cupcake crumbles, Jubilee is actually Sweet Thing's owner Patti Frank's rebirth of the cupcake. She has reinvented her Sweet Things cupcakes, and her business model, reopening Friday with a new name, a new look and, as she told me over the phone, "the best cupcakes in the state."

Frank wasn't happy with her recipe, the clothing retail portion of her store, or the seating inside and out. Friday, the clothes are gone, replaced with vintage candy from Hammond's Candies, including old-fashioned lollipops, ribbon candy, and hand-pulled taffy.

"It's the kind of candy popular in the 1940s through 60s," she explained.

The store will also carry cupcake accessories, party supplies, and greeting cards.

Seating wise - there's a lot more, both inside and out on the deck.

And the cupcakes?

"I took them in a different direction – a 180 degree change," Frank frankly said. "They are now extremely moist."

Frank entered the cupcake lab and didn't leave until she knew she had the state's best cupcake. Frank incorporated fresh ingredients into her new recipes, including hormone-free dairy and eggs from area farms, and fruit from community farmers markets.

According to the press release, along with more traditional flavors, Jubilee's menu includes "rotating flavors such as the S'more cupcake (Valrhona dark chocolate baked with organic graham crackers and bittersweet chocolate topped with traditional toasted Swiss meringue and a drizzle of homemade bittersweet chocolate sauce), the Pink Champagne cupcake (champagne infused cake brushed with champagne, topped with strawberry buttercream and sugar pearls), and the Chocolate Maple Bacon cupcake (Valrhona dark chocolate cake baked with maple bacon and topped with a maple buttercream and piece of homemade maple bacon)."

Yes, indeed, there's a Chocolate Maple Bacon cupcake on the menu.

For Friday's grand opening, the featured cupcake flavor will be a Chocolate Raspberry Cupcake that features Valrhona dark chocolate cake filled with a chocolate raspberry ganache, topped with raspberry buttercream and a market-fresh berry. Valhalla coffees and Mad Hat Tea blends join the new venture, too.

All that from a cupcake shop that many people, at least according to our readers' poll, already loved.

Jubilee Cupcakes & Vintage Candy

2510 N. Proctor St., Tacoma

LINK: Jubilee's menu