In Review: Satisfy your sweet tooth at 4 The Love of Sweets on the Golden Mile

Feb. 18—As I've stated in other reviews, the Golden Mile is an up and coming place. I'm continually impressed by the array of restaurants and available cuisines that continue to pop up along the long and busy stretch and this week is no different.

A recently opened cupcake shop called 4 The Love of Sweets, I found out, has quietly been serving up some absolutely delicious treats to fit whatever sweet mood you're in.

The tantalizing and cute little bakery is on the second floor of a small shopping plaza on the corner of Hillcrest Drive and West Patrick Street. Stepping inside you are immediately hit with the smell of baking cake and a tall display case boasts all 20 cupcake flavors offered daily. That's right, they bake and sell every single flavor, every single day.

Everything from your basic chocolate to pumpkin spice to apple pie is available — until sold out — every day the shop is open. The cupcakes are traditional size, able to fit perfectly in the palm of your hand, and are simply but beautifully decorated depending on the flavor. The chocolate peanut butter cupcakes have a sprinkling of chopped Reese's pieces while the pina colada cupcakes have a dusting of coconut flakes. One thing I noticed was how incredibly soft, springy and moist the cake was. There is no dryness to be found anywhere.

The maple bacon cupcake was one of my personal favorites. A lovely maple-infused yellow cake is topped with a simple cream frosting and covered in a heaping amount of bacon bits. The maple was not overpowering and the bacon gave it that perfect salty bite.

The mocha cupcakes were also delicious — chocolate cake with chocolate icing, drizzled with mocha sauce and sprinkled with mini chocolate chips. What makes these cupcakes is the coffee cream center. Kind of like a good coffee ice cream but in cream form.

The shop also offers an extensive made-to-order menu of waffles, French toasts, milkshakes and panini sandwiches. The best way to describe the menu is that everything is just fun. Nothing is typical or normal.

All the waffles and French toasts have a flavor profile. You can get apple pie waffles, pina colada waffles, and s'mores French toast.

The apple pie waffles, cheekily called 4 the love of apple, are a must-order. Four quarters of a big Belgium waffle are doused with cinnamon and topped with a delicious apple-pie like filling. It pretty much tastes like you're eating apple pie and the waffles hardly need any syrup with so much flavor going on.

There are also some savory waffles, including one called 4 the love of fajita. The same four slices of a Belgium waffle are stuffed with peppers, onions and sliced chicken and drizzled with an avocado cream sauce with a small side of salsa on the side.

I had big expectations for these waffles but was slightly let down. I expected a lot of cheese and spices to come through — like a typical fajita — but instead I found that the sweetness of the waffle batter took over everything and the slices weren't very stuffed. Not to mention cheese was nowhere to be found. If there were more fajita ingredients and a little bit more spice, I think these waffles could be a fantastic item and I hope to try these again one day in the future and find some improvements.

When ordering the waffles or French toast you can make it a combo with a side of home fries, a drink and a cupcake of your choosing. It's priced just under $10 which is a steal if you ask me. And let me tell you, the home fries are fantastic. Perfectly crispy, not oily, and the spice that I wanted in the fajita waffles? It's on the home fries with a little more of a Cajun leaning.

If it's lunchtime and you want an actual lunch before splurging on a cupcake, 4 The Love of Sweets has seven different panini sandwiches to choose from, all of which also have the combo option. But instead of home fries, you can choose from a cup of tomato basil or broccoli cheddar soup.

The buffalo chicken panini was one of my favorites. Shredded chicken, buffalo sauce, ranch and cheddar cheese come together in a tangy and hot sandwich that will leave you craving the sweetness of a cupcake after you finish it.

The milkshakes at 4 The Love of Sweets are what I would classify as "crazy." You know, the kinds of over-the-top shakes that dominated social media a while back. They teeter the line of being crazy, while still delicious, carryable and consumable.

The death by chocolate milkshake is a true chocolate lover's dream. I mostly enjoyed that a heaping amount of chocolate sprinkles seemed to be blended into the milkshake instead of just sprinkled on top. I've never had that before and it was a game changer.

There are a lot of things to enjoy at 4 The Love of Sweets but if I was forced to eat only one thing from the bakery for the rest of my life, there is no contest in what I would choose — the funnel cake fries.

It is literally funnel cake cut up into fries, perfectly golden brown, dusted with powdered sugar and served alongside your choice of chocolate or caramel dipping sauce. A sinfully delicious creation, I had to physically stop myself from eating the entire container in one sitting. Honestly, the dipping sauces are a nice addition but nonessential because the fries are so good on their own. They are dangerously addicting and this serves as a warning — don't say I didn't tell you so.

Whatever you choose to get from 4 The Love of Sweets it will be served with warmth and a little love as is emblematic of the shop's logo and name. When chatting with the owner during one my visits, she told me that the name came from her four children, who encouraged her to open her own bakeshop. And I think we could all use a little extra love and sweetness right now.

Katryna Perera is the food reporter and critic for the Frederick News-Post. A longtime "food enthusiast" she has taken cooking classes both domestically and internationally and is continuously following food trends and restaurant openings. She also briefly studied food reporting while attending Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Follow Katryna Perera on Twitter: @katrynajill; on Instagram: @kjp_eats.