While the Tacoma area has many cupcake shops to choose from, Hello, Cupcake remains my favorite. Maybe it's because that's where I got my first adult cupcake-one without a little plastic topper of a ballerina or a soccer ball. They sell toppers like that, but I'm a grown up now. I don't buy them. The memories of that first chocolate-chocolate cupcake remain strong, lodged in my heart like a hunk of cholesterol.

Hello, Cupcake continues to mix it up a bit with seasonal flavors. Why have that chocolate or red velvet or vanilla? Live a little. Get the seasonal cupcake.

This month, there are two special cupcakes on tap-rootbeer float and lemon blackberry. I sampled the lemon blackberry-a lemon cupcake topped with blackberry buttercream and a blackberry. While it could have had more lemony kick, I enjoyed the mild tartness and there was even a secret blackberry lurking within the cake itself.