Sweet

They told me via their Facebook account that they bake the cupcakes daily every morning in a bakery in Hyde Park then ship them to the stores. So none of the Sweet locations actually produce these cupcakes and they are all made off site. Makes sense for them not to be as fresh as they could be, premade and decorated so by the time customers get to them they are getting stale. Still no excuse for being sub par. I used to settle for these, now I’ll just skip the cupcake craving.

Sweet is a cute cupcake shop in Harvard Square. They have interesting flavors (the last time I went there was an eggnog flavor for he holidays) and the cake itself is light and fluffy. I also love the amount of frosting that they put on their cupcakes, with the ratio of cake to frosting approaching 1:1 in some cases. Their red velvet cupcake is the best out of all the ones that I have tried — the cream cheese frosting is sweet but not too sweet and melts in your mouth. The only downside is that the cupcakes are pretty pricey for their size, especially if you buy them individually. They do make nice little gifts for people though.

The best cupcakes ever ! The nicest, sweetest person (the girl with pink hair) I couldn’t believe how much I loved my cupcake. A Very Happy place and the kindest sweetest people. My puppy even enjoyed his puppy cupcake. I hope to see you again soon.

love sweet! perfect size, fun displays, cute décor and most importantly delicious!!! I also love the frosting shots they sell. fun idea!

I went to Sweet first time when it opened a few years ago. The cupcakes were nothing short of delicious, tender goodness melting in your mouth. My favourite was the bubblegum flavour. Over time I found the cupcakes to be a bit dry and not all that special. However, last night I went to see if they had an interesting flavour (for winter), and picked ‘grasshopper.’ The cupcake’s icing tasted mostly of sugar, not buttercream and the guy at the counter charged me for two cupcakes. Unfortunately, I had to go back, and they offered I can get two cupcakes instead of getting the refund back, which was ‘Sweet’ of them.

I’ve only had the red velvet cupcake. The cupcake was normal in size, but given the price I might’ve expected something larger. I think the shop’s concept of frosting shots is cute — but they’re not cheap (I think like a quarter or two for one little frosting shot?) and also a little gimmicky. Overall, a little too sweet for me, but the cupcakes (as well as the overall setup of the store!) are quite pretty to look at.

The cupcakes are a little dry compared to Georgetown cupcakes, but it’s really the only option in Harvard Square since Finale left.

The cupcake I got was good, but as the name implys, it was very sweet. Almost like a magnolia cupcake it was so sweet. The prices were a bit expensive for the small size of the cupcake when compared to other major bakery/​cupcake shops in the area, but if you’re down for a treat and don’t mind spending then I say go for it. What I was very surprised by though is that there was no normal milk in the drink options. I got apple juice, but I mean, milk would have been way better with a cupcake. Kudos to them though for having forks, which is something a lot of cupcake places lack, and I’ve got a small mouth so stuffing my face gets messy. So weighing the pros and cons I can’t decide how many stars to give, so I’m going with 3 because that seems neutral, which is how I feel about this little shop.

I used to work across the street from this Sweet location (at Bertucci’s, before they closed). So, naturally I would get uncontrollable cupcake cravings and just HAVE to satisfy them by walking across the street.
I have only tried the chocolate with chocolate frosting and the vanilla with vanilla frosting, as I am not very adventurous when it comes to cakes. I loved the chocolate on chocolate! The buttercream is usually what I critique the most, because most bakeries tend to know how to make a cake of the right consistency. I like the overall flavor of the chocolate, but the vanilla buttercream I was not a huge fan of.
I also liked that they had a book for sale that has all of their recipes for the cakes and frostings in it. The book tells you everything you need to make each cupcake, including ingredients and utensils/​supplies. The cupcakes are broken down by season (summer, autumn, winter, spring), and the recipes are fairly simple to follow.

Rude staff selling dry, mediocre cupcakes. It’s a shame because I work in the tower next door and like to buy treats for coworkers. After another rude encounter today, never again.

Little cupcake shop. I got a hostess cupcake which was good, and the cheesecake one was good as well. A little expensive and the table was dirty/​crumby when I sat down.

Cute little cupcake shop. Babe got the hostess cupcake and I got the cheesecake. Maybe a tad pricey for a cupcake but it was good overall.

It’s no surprise that cupcake shops are closing all over the place. The whole concept was just too flawed to last: premium prices for mediocre, sugar laden, hockey pucks.
Sweet is no exception. Premium price? Check! Sugar frosting that’s diabetes inducing? Check! Dry tasteless cake centers? Check! They even go one more: you get to eat on paper plates with plastic forks! Joy!
They won’t last much longer, might as while try it before they vanish with the rest of the overhyped cupcake shops.

Dry cupcakes and sloppy frosting. I really think I can make better cupcakes out of the box. I was really surprised by how hard and dry the cake of the cupcakes were, seeing as how this is a pretty well known chain in Boston.
I got the red velvet, cheesecake, lemon raspberry, and vanilla cupcakes. Only the red velvet was any good, which bumped this review up to 2 stars.

This is late review but I used to stop by this shop for events with multiple orders and after all those times, I still was thoroughly dissatisfied with the product as well as the service.
The cupcakes here are mediocre, they are not even decorated well and I would not recommend anyone to frequent this place. Whole Foods and Georgetown Cupcakes are by far superior, I honestly do not know how the shop has survived through Harvard Square although I suspect the tourists enable its existence.
I tried several times to bring myself to like the cupcakes but they are not worth any merit. The bakery is staffed mostly by individuals who are apathetic, occasionally condescending and not engaged with their customers. Perhaps there are genuinely nice servers here but I have not met them and had the misfortune of encountering the bad ones. Sometimes I had questions about my order or asked for recommendations and the result was a withering look or a blank gaze of total incomprehension.
Sweet is not worth your time or your money no matter how conveniently located it is in the square. Skip this place and go to the dining commons if you have to or to the Back Bay for Georgetown which has a better product, service, and ambience than Sweet could ever offer.

The standard for a nice cupcake is not too unpredictable: fluffy texture, light frosting, not too sweet, original flavors. Sweet gets texture right but there isn’t anything particularly outstanding about its cupcakes. The frosting is usually on the heavier side and flavors tend to be too sweet for my liking.
I would say that the prices are inflated for the products you get. They’re largely very predictable — vanilla, chocolate, snickerdoodle, etc. For the price I pay, I would expect some more intricate toppings and designs — such as different types of sprinkles or garnishes, or themed toppers (like umbrellas). That being said, Sweet can be a safe bet for catering for special events, particularly with the small cupcakes. It can also be a great birthday treat to buy a full size cupcake for someone. All in all though, there isn’t too much to admire here.
The store does have a cute appearance and offer a nice view of Brattle and can be a good place for a quick break if you’re walking around Harvard Square, but the cupcakes shouldn’t be the focal point.

On several occasions I have been transferred to the owner Kris Kratsas for questions I have had on my large orders and every time is amazes me how rude and stuck up he can be I have never seen a company care so little about their costumers. Sweet has lost my business and so many others. **STAY AWAY**
A FEW ALTERNATIVES
Georgetown Cupcake
Lulu’s Sweet Shoppe
Crumbs Bake Shop
Cupcake City
Cupcakes On Centre

I like cupcakes as much as the next gal, so when I saw Sweet I definitely decided to step in and check it out.
The interior is adorably decorated — it’s blindingly bright and very white, with a clean minimalist look. Which stood in pretty stark contrast to the couple of fruit flies that were buzzing around in the cupcakes display — bugs by the frosting, huge pet peeve. Stark interior definitely extended to the staff, who were hard to talk to and generally unfriendly. There was no one at the counter when we entered, and it took a couple of awkward «hello??? excuse me???» yelled into the distance to coax a bored looking staffperson to emerge from the backroom to take our order.
The cupcakes are all nicely decorated. They are very very sweet — I guess that’s what you get in a store called Sweet. I can see where people come from with the complaints though — the cupcakes aren’t ‘sweet’ in a palatable way; they’re sweet like those massive Costco cupcakes you ate at birthday parties when you were a kid. Not bad, but not really something to call home about
The only way Sweet can charge almost $ 4 for a cupcake is probably because they’re the only cupcake place in the square. If you really want something better, just pick up a dozen at Georgetown on Newbury.

I know a lot of people who don’t like sweet because it’s ‘too sweet’. Um… what do you think you’re getting?
We got 6 cupcakes to go and all were fantastic: my favorite either being caramel apple or cranberry maple. The salted chocolate was really dense – like a brownie – and the birthday cake was super sweet – maybe that’s what everyone gets when they say it’s too sweet.
The staff were a bit stand-​offish and there was a fly on one of the cupcakes. Not sure what I expected him to do, but how did a fly get in there? I haven’t seen any in weeks! Eh, they don’t hurt the food as far as I know…

I was «dragged» here by a friend. I thought we were getting yogurt. We got there and it was cupcakes. Whatever.
I ordered myself a French Toast and a cup of coffee. My total was somewhere around $ 5 or $ 6. Expensive for a tiny cupcake. But it was so cute. Seriously cute.
My cupcake had a french toasty flavor with maple frosting. It was yummy. Though people complain about dryness here maybe the KY for the cakes is to get something other than chocolate or vanilla? I dunno but I can say if you want to stick a moist cake into your pie hole and have it glide through, get a French Toast Cupcake. The frosting is very sweet. ‘fer crissakes it’s frosting, aka butter and sugar. A cupcake by it’s very nature is sweet. If you don’t want sweet go get a scone.
The coffee is so so. It wasn’t meh but it didn’t knock my socks off. I wouldn’t get a cuppa here again when I can go next door and get a hot delicious tea.
The décor is white. So stark that I was afraid I was going to mess it up just with my presence.
Given we were spending $ 3.50 per cupcake you might think the staff would be a little more friendly, but it was not to be so.
Go for the cupcakes. Get something to wash them down with elsewhere.