2.21.2010

more cupcakes


another day in la, another cupcake bakery.  wow, i probably could have a blog solely devoted to desserts.  i seriously have a problem.  but at least i work out and eat healthy, other than my sweets habit.

yesterday was a beautiful day in la.  i know you are asking, "isn't everyday beautiful there?"  well, no actually.  it has been cool and rainy all winter, especially on the weekends.  so yesterday's high 60's and super sunny sky was a pleasant surprise (especially since they were calling for rain all weekend).  in light of this wondrous day, my husband and i decided to hit up 3rd street in santa monica for a lovely stroll with our puppy, a quick lunch at buddha's belly, and of course, hitting up the cupcake bakery in santa monica that i was dieing to try, vanilla bake shop.

the store is tiny and you drive past it unknowingly, but upon walking into it you know that this is the real deal.  There are large cupcakes and baby cupcakes, along with an assortment of cold desserts in shot type glasses which looked really cute, but come on, i was there for the cupcakes.  i'm making it my (long-term) goal to try every cupcake shop in la.  (there are hundreds)  ok, so maybe i will just try the noteworthy ones, or the ones that have great yelp reviews.

vanilla bake shop is great because of the variety of their flavors, the fact that they have baby cupcakes, and their stuffed cupcakes cost the same as the non-stuffed ones.  their everyday flavors are vanilla bean, southern red velvet, mom's birthday cake, black & white, bittersweet dark chocolate, and chocolate vanilla bean.  Then everyday of the week there are 5-6 different flavors added on top of the daily flavors.  they don't make all of them in the small and large sizes (i don't think so anyway), but there are so many to choose from.  looking back, i wish i'd tried more, but here's what we got.

-large black & white for myself- not as good as sprinkle's black & white, but the cake was very dense and moist, the buttercream frosting is totally different from sprinkles, but both are equally delicious.
-large red velvet for my husband- he didn't like it nearly as much as sprinkles version of the same thing, but he still devoured it, so it wasn't bad, just not as good as sprinkles.
-baby key lime- yummy and very cute.  i'm not a big fan of key lime, but had a teeny lick of it.  my husband enjoyed it
-baby mom's birthday cake- eh.  not impressive.  it is just a yellow butter cake with milk chocolate frosting and a cute little purple sugar flower on top.  cute, and tasty to an extent, but not that great really...

-baby meyer lemon raspberry- yum!!!  5 stars.  it is a stuffed cupcake, so the baby version basically has the meyer lemon custard on the top and then it's topped with vanilla buttercream and a cute little raspberry atop that.  so tasty.


i like vanilla bake shop and depending on how long i live in la, will possibly come back.  it's not that i didn't like it, it's that i want to try all the cupcakes in la!!!  all of them!!!!!

2.15.2010

crack. a.k.a sprinkles cupcakes


i swore i wouldn't give in to all the madness of the cupcake craze that seems to envelope all angeleno's (i'm more of a cookie kind of girl), but about two weeks ago, one of the vendors at work brought in sprinkles cupcakes and of course i devoured one (and a half) of those amazingly delicious, yet oh-so-sinful cups of butter, sugar, more butter, cream cheese icing....ohhhhh, the cream cheese icing.....

so yes, holly and kendra and the other girls next door are correct, sprinkles is amazing.  though sprinkles seems like it should be overrated and only hyped up because of the likes of hollywood stars, oprah, and food network, i am here to tell you that sprinkles definitely lives up to the hype.

the icing makes these little babies worth every last penny of the $3.50 you pay.  honestly, i don't understand all of the negativity surrounding sprinkles prices on yelp.  they use quality ingredients, it's on santa monica just a block from rodeo drive...$3.50 for something this scrumptious is a small price to pay.  the cake itself is also quality, super soft and moist, yet still holding a nice light fluffiness that i find desirable in a cupcake.

i have tried the two most popular cupcakes, not because they are the most popular, but because they are mine and my husband's favorites.  the black and white.  how could this not be perfect?  a deep belgian chocolate cake topped with the most amazing vanilla cream cheese frosting.  so thick. so delicious.  not too much either.  i have a problem with cupcakes that are over-frosted.  sprinkles knows when to say when.

the most popular is the red velvet.  on valentines day my husband devoured his red velvet so fast i'm not quite sure he tasted it, unfortunately it was also too fast for me to think quickly enough and grab a taste for myself.  luckily, i picked up a vegan red velvet for us to split that evening.  it. was. incredible.  you can slightly taste a little bit of coconut oil they use for the frosting, but this was a freaking amazing vegan cupcake!! (personally, i like the hint of coconut.  i like knowing that i am eating healthy-ish)  my husband even liked it, big surprise there.  i don't think sprinkles is trying to out-do babycakes...but i haven't tried babycakes yet.  the one in la just opened up, so look out for a review from me on there soon enough.

The store itself is actually quite beautiful.  wood adorns everything along the walls and a glass partition separates you from the cupcakes.  The cupcakes have there own little wooden holders and everything is perfect architecturally speaking.  sprinkles thought of it all, even down to the packaging.  your cupcakes come packed in simply pretty boxes and a sticker is placed over the top to seal it.  the bags are brown paper with the sprinkles logo subtlety gracing its simple structure.  you are offered wooden forks to eat your cupcakes with.  i ate mine with the wooden fork, it helped to slow me down.  my husband didn't, and well, you see what happened.

i can't stop thinking about those amazing little cupcakes.  i want to try them all.  i want to eat 2 or 3 right now. i told my husband that if i didn't mind being fat and dieing young, then i would eat only sprinkles cupcakes.  i think they put crack in their batter.

so the big thing with sprinkles is that they were the first bakery to make only cupcakes.  they started the los angeles cupcake craze which spread to new york as well as other various cities. (this is where the los angeles/new york socialite would ask, "there are other cities besides ny and la?!")  however, throughout my yelping i have found there to be another cupcake bakery just down the street from sprinkles.  it is called crumbs.  stay tuned for an upcoming sprinkles v. crumbs review.  i am so excited.  i will probably try out crumbs this weekend.

cupcakes is good.