Miles Traveled: 184.8
States Entered: 1
Cupcakes Consumed: 5
The primary reason I zipped down to San Diego was to attend a bridal expo with my best friend and his fiance (Cherry Tops). I'm going to be the best (wo)man in their wedding, and they graciously flew me out to LA so that I could help them get some wedding planning done. Originally the plan was to spend the morning at the expo, drive up to LA, and then hit four LA cupcakeries in the afternoon. In retrospect, this was a terrible idea. I didn't realize how many cake vendors would be at the expo, and by the end of our first hour there I must've consumed around 20 cake samples. I hadn't had a substantial breakfast, and at one point I actually felt a bit dizzy. Almost everyone in our little bridal group ended up feeling nauseated. For the first time, I began to have doubts about my marathon-cupcake-eating abilities.
We passed on lunch and opted instead to drive straight back to LA. We gathered cupcakes from Auntie Em's Kitchen, Vanilla Bake Shop, Sprinkles Cupcakes, and finally My Little Cupcake. Still feeling a bit sugar-sick, we decided to postpone eating the cupcakes until after dinner.
Auntie Em's Kitchen
Eagle Rock, CA
Auntie Em's Kitchen is the hometown eatery that LA has been hiding. Nestled up north in Eagle Rock, this Diner/Restaurant/Bakery makes it all, from omelets to birthday cakes. Auntie Em's seems to be a local favorite, bustling even at 9:30am on a Sunday morning. Auntie Em’s style is that of a small town restaurant, with eclectic wooden decor, and non-matching but very fitting linens. They specialize in hearty foods, but their bakery is just as famous to locals. Auntie Em bakes her cupcakes daily, making a few different flavors each day. They will tell you that they are not a cupcakery, but they always have cupcakes ready for consumption. According to my LA friends, Auntie Em's has the best cupcakes in LA, and the Red Velvet in particular came highly recommended.
Rather than pick one regular cupcake, we opted to get two minis: Red Velvet and Chocolate Chocolate. I'm sad to report that I have no idea what my friends are smoking. These were by far the worst cupcakes we sampled in LA. The cakes were literally oozing butter; every time you chewed a little more grease squeezed out of the cakes. The frostings were also buttery, and the cream cheese frosting on the Red Velvet tasted rancid. You can read the gory details on Auntie Em's profile page.
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Vanilla Bake Shop
Santa Monica, CA
The Vanilla bake shop walks that fine line between a bakery and a cupcakery, with over 70% of its offerings being some sort of cupcake, but keeping the remaining 30% free to experiment with everything from standard cakes to weird pies-in-jars. This bakery was opened in the summer of 2007 by an ex-caterer who wanted to focus on baking, and not the heated politics of the catering world. The decor of the shop can be best described as the bastard lovechild of Barbie and David Bowie from Labyrinth. The store is filled with elaborate gothic patterns and prints, all over meticulously arranged pastel colored walls, with a minimalist flare to boot. The Vanilla Bake Shop seats about 15, and seems prepared to handle the volume of customers found in bustling Santa Monica.
We had the Chocolate Vanilla Bean, a chocolate cake topped with vanilla buttercream and green sugar crystals. I found the cake to be fairly extract-heavy with a thick alcoholic flavor, and the frosting was a bit too buttery for my taste. I think Baron liked it more than I did. You can read our detailed reviews on Vanilla Bake Shop's profile page.
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Sprinkles Cupcakes
Beverly Hills, CA
Finally! After months of waiting and reading about Baron's Sprinkles exploits I get to try one of their cupcakes for myself! Sprinkles is the "it" cupcake store in Los Angeles and has been getting a lot of national press lately. It's located on a very fashionable street, in a very fashionable part of town, and according to the locals the line is always out the door. The shop is very small, with only a 4-seat bar and some outdoor tables to accommodate the vast number of customers. It has a very clean, modern look, sporting minimalist shapes and pastels over a brown-centered color scheme. Very cute.
A note to travelers: their store is located on "Little Santa Monica", which is not the same road as "Santa Monica". It's actually listed as "South Santa Monica" on all the street signs. It's a very crowded part of town, and all the streets in the area seem to be one way, the wrong way, no matter which direction you are going.
We had the Black and White -- chocolate cake topped with vanilla buttercream and tiny square chocolate flakes. According to my LA friends, Sprinkles is over-hyped and better cupcakes can be found elsewhere. I'm afraid to report I agree with their assessment. I enjoyed the sweet, sugary vanilla frosting and the texture of the soft cake was really nice, even if it didn't taste remotely like chocolate. This cupcake was good, but it wasn't anything special. You can find our detailed reviews on Sprinkles' profile page.
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My Little Cupcake
Studio City, CA
My Little Cupcake is located in Studio City, near the CBS studios. This larger shop has aligned itself to be your "baby shower headquarters", complete with decorating supplies and planning information. Even the color scheme of the store matches that message, making heavy use of baby blue with pink accents. My Little Cupcake makes a variety of cupcakes, all with very cute toppings. There are a few tables both inside and outside of the store for patrons, but the space of the store is largely underutilized.
In keeping with the vanilla and chocolate theme of the day, we purchased the White & Black, a beautiful vanilla cake topped with chocolate buttercream and three delicate sugar flowers. Unfortunately the sophisticated decor of this cupcake was a pretty egregious case of false advertising. The vanilla cake was extremely rough, dry, and chewy and the chocolate frosting tasted exactly like Duncan Hines' Dark Chocolate Fudge. A more detailed review can be found on My Little Cupcake's profile page.
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Well, that was Day 3. Next stop: Vegas, baby!
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