I’m officially a year older! I think I embraced my birthday was grace and thanks to my lovely wife, lots and lots of cupcakes! For my birthday my wife surprised me with a Cupcake Crawl through Huntington Beach, CA! Talk about an awesome gift and she knows me so well. Enjoy the delicious pictures and if you are ever in the area, Huntington Beach is the place to be for cupcakes! Oh and the beach, sunshine, fresh air…yada, yada, yada. J
First up was Bubba Sweets and in addition to adorable cupcakes they had adorable cupcakes tables too! I tried there vanilla cupcake and caramel cupcake and they both were crazy amazing! The caramel cupcake was garnished with a piece of salted caramel that was probably the best tasting candy I’ve had in a long time!
Bubba's Sweets - 16479 Bolsa Chica St., Huntington Beach, CA 92649 - www.bubbasweets.com
Next up was The Great Dane Baking Company and talk about some elaborate, large cupcakes! Look at the adorable owls and kitty cupcakes they had in store, I had to take home one of each! Both cupcakes where vanilla or chocolate cake, dipped in chocolate and covered with the beautifully decorated animals! But sadly the owl fell when I was getting out of my car, but I can tell you one thing, he was super delicious and crazy sweet. Just like I like my owls!
Great Dane Baking Company - 6855 Warner Ave., Huntington Beach, CA 92647 - www.greatdanebakingcompany.com
After we left the cutest animal cupcakes in town we headed over to the cutest cupcake shop in town! Pinky’s Cupcakes! The shop was filled with cupcake decorations and even featured a cupcake eating contest! If you give them a days noticed they will bake an incredibly large cupcake and if you can eat the entire thing in 22 minutes, it’s yours! Along with the tummy ache BUT you get to have your name on the wall which makes this challenge totally worth it. While I was at the store I picked up a peanut butter cupcake which as of today is my favorite cupcake of 2013! I know, how can I declare such a thing so early? Well thanks to Pinky’s the bar has been set pretty high. Good luck cupcake shops…I’m happy to extend the challenge, I’m coming!
Pinkey's Cupcakery - 17908 1/2 Magnolia St., Fountain Valley, CA - www.pinkyscupcakery.com
With so many shops I was worried about my tummy…but luckily my wife saved one of the sweetest shops for last. We went to Sensitive Sweets and if you’ve kept up with the blog you know my wife is gluten and dairy-free and this entire shop is completely gluten and dairy-free so my wife got to go crazy! I also went crazy in the shop cause that’s how I roll! While we were there we tried so many amazing things including their vanilla cupcake, smores cupcake, cinnamon sugar, lemon cupcake and we even stepped outside of the cupcake realm and tried their cookie sandwiches, brownies and I purchased 4 loaves of gluten and dairy-free bread! We actually left there was grocery bags! That’s a first for CupcakesEverywhere.com!
Sensitive Sweets - 17431 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley, CA 92708 - www.sensitivesweets.com
It was an awesome birthday gift! Here’s looking to Father’s Day and any and every other Holidays that offers up an opportunity for cupcakes!
Gluten Free: BabyCakes LA
I love cupcakes and I love new experiences...when I get the opportunity to put them together it's magical! And when my wife and I walked into Baby Cakes LA, that's what we encountered, magic!
We have a 4 month old kid, I love him and he totally rocks our world, but when my son was born he was really colicky. Our pediatrician mentioned that my wife may want to give up dairy and gluten as most babies have a hard time digesting those items early on, and since she was 100% on board with breastfeeding she went dairy and gluten-free. As a form of solidarity I joined her, but only when we are at home....and usually when we go out to eat together. But not when I'm on my own. I try to do the best I can.
Since this limits my wife's cupcakes and desserts we had to find a shop that she could indulge in and thanks to the cupcake angels, we found Baby Cakes LA. Baby Cakes is originally based in NYC but within the past few years has expanded to LA (Larchmont) and Orlando. They also have a cookbook you can purchase too! Follow them here: @BabyCakesNYCLA.
Here is a portion of their mission statement: In a city dominated by cupcakes overflowing with sugar, flour and butter cream, it’s easy for those with persnickety diets to feel left out. BabyCakes offers all-natural, organic and delicious alternatives free from the common allergens: wheat, gluten, dairy, casein and eggs. I know...it doesn't scream crazy sugar overload, and that's not a bad thing cause their desserts were quite tasty and I'm a huge fan of their cookie sandwich. It is mine and my wife's favorite!
These were all of the delicious goodies that my wife and I purchased on our first visit! From top left; A delectable lemon cupcake, decadent red velvet cupcakes, a moist brownie cupcake, a cake sandwich (top right) and our favorite, cookie sandwiches (two moist super sweet chocolate chip cookies filled with vanilla buttercream). And there is not a drop of dairy or gluten in any of these items!
This is my wife enjoying her cookie sandwich...she was so excited! AND she is rocking her mustache sunglasses. It's hard being amazing, but she manages to pull it off without breaking a sweat!
Cupcake Crawl - Sherman Oaks, CA!
Cupcake Crawl - Sherman Oaks, California!
It’s that time again, Cupcake Crawl! I love writing about all of my adventures with cupcakes and even though we are early into 2013 I can honestly say I’ve had some fun this year already…vegan, gluten-free, consumption and baking, why not? But before I delve into those adventures I want to revisit my first love. Cupcake Crawls! And this time I decided to gas up the SUV and head across town to Sherman Oaks, CA!
There are so many cupcakeries in Los Angeles that I honestly have to crawl through the city one section at a time. Otherwise I would explode from cupcake consumption…not that I have a problem with that, but as a husband and a father I need to keep it under control. Most of the time.
First up, I crossed Ventura Blvd. and went to an awesomely decorated cupcake shop that also had brownies, cookies, candy and so much more. But don’t fret, I kept my eye on the prize and indulged in cupcakes! The Big Sugar Bake Shop (technically in Studio City, CA) is a deliciously quaint shop in the midst of bustling stores such as GAP and Barnes and Noble and a host of neat restaurants. I had the Pumpkin Cupcake and Sugar Cinnamon Mocha. Both were so good and the cake was moist, icing sweet and packaging super cute. I’m a fan of icing and Big Sugar is not super generous with their icing, but the ratio is doable and icing placement was so uniform and neat on every cupcake I wondered if the bakers were part robot!
My next cupcake shop was Buttercelli Bakeshop and I had never heard of or been to the facility so I was crazy excited to try something new and learn about this little gem. The shop has a very extensive menu, including cookies, cupcakes, loaves, breakfast items, etc. and they have gluten free options as well! Since my wife is gluten-free due to our baby boy, finding a gluten-free shop on a crawl was great. I purchased a gluten free Chocolate Cupcake and the cupcake was super chocolaty. Chocolate cake, chocolate icing adorned with a piece of chocolate on top. So rich. So good. So me!
After consuming 3 cupcakes I thought I was out of the crawl for sure…I was so full and everything was so good, but I still had to three more shops to go! But I care about you…so I forged forward! Luckily shop number three was closed down, sad for them…I mourned on the way back to my car, but good for my tummy. This gave me a few extra minutes to digest before shop #4, and this is where I meet my new love, cupcake shops in malls! Just think about it, shopping can tire you out, you need a quick sugar rush to finish the task and you are tired of pretzels, so cupcakes are the logical answer.Introducing Velvet Cupcakes of Sherman Oaks, CA. The shop was so adorable that I pulled my cupcakes out and took pictures with the cool décor in the shop. The cupcakes were also crazy amazing! I had their Birthday Vanilla Cupcake (my favorite type of cupcake) and a Chocolate Hazelnut. This place ranks up there as one of my favorites because the icing was plentiful…I could have icing for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But that’s a different post.
Once I left Velvet Cupcakes I noticed that walking was crazy difficult, my tummy was ridiculously full and the Sun had abandoned me. Now it’s dark outside and I’m trying to locate my last cupcake shop while reading my Groupon for the place as my wife is texting me to make sure I’m not in a cupcake coma. I didn’t know the iPhone could handle all of these tasks, but luckily it did. And before I cracked under the technology pressure, I found it, Helena Wirth Cakes. My Groupon was good for a dozen cupcakes and I could choose 4 flavors. This is where I would die….I could not possibly eat 12 cupcakes, at least not that day. BUT luckily I had dinner plans that night so I could spread the wealth. I left Helena Wirth with strawberry, vanilla, chocolate and champagne cupcakes and I swear my car smelled like heaven. They make cupcake air freshener, but nothing compares to the real thing. My favorite from Helena’s, hands down the vanilla, but the champagne was a neat, new treat and all of her cupcakes had a mousse filling. My favorite cupcake from the Helena photo shoot, chocolate! Amaziness!
Oh cupcakes. Enough said. Up next….more cupcakes. Awe yeah!
