Just over the hill from Oakland, California lives Republic of Cake, a small cupcake bakery, in downtown Orinda. Republic of Cake offers a ever changing menu that offers your traditional cupcakes, a gluten free option, as well as savory cupcakes, such as a French Onion Soup Cupcake!!
Greeted by a man of a few words, I let his grumpy attitude slide and ordered 3 cupcakes.
The first cupcake I stuffed into my mouth was a Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcake that was a chocolate cake with a kick of spicy hotness, topped with a cream cheese frosting drizzled in caramel. At first bite a wave of moist chocolate cake filled my mouth, when suddenly I was slammed in the taste buds with a warm spicy hint of flavor. The cream cheese frosting complimented the warming taste of spice perfectly and the drizzle of caramel added a nice little extra flavor.
The next cupcake was a Snickerdoodle cupcake, a vanilla buttercream topped cinnamon flavored vanilla cake sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. "Blah" is the only word to describe this cupcake. There was nothing intense or exciting about the cake or the buttercream, at all! With such an easy flavor to make into a killer cupcake, I have no clue how they f*(#ed this one up.
The last cupcake was a Lavender Meyer Lemon cupcake. The lavender cake was filled with a lemon curd topped with a honey cream cheese frosting. The cake had a light and refreshing lavender flavor, but the lemon filling ruined this whole cupcake for me. The lemon curd tasted like wet dog; my gag reflex was making me react like a cat coughing up a huge snarled hair ball. The cream cheese frosting lacked the honey flavor, to the point I forgot it was suppose to even contain honey.
The cupcakes just did not do anything to make me want to go back for more. The only decent one was the Mexican Hot Chocolate, while the other 2 had me trying to get rid of them as fast as fast as I possibly could; but no one would take them. One thing I extremely admired about this bakery, is when you order "Sam's Very Messy Chocolate Cupcake", the R.O.C donates a percentage to a different charity that changes ever month. So not only did you get to indulge in a chocolate cupcake, but the month I was there, you also donated to help education in Africa (a big plus for my family, as my mother does work with a orphanage in Tanzania. ) So, high five to you Republic Of Cake!
2 Theatre Square, Suite 151 . Orinda, CA 94563
Hi I am a student and I am currently doing a project on cupcakes. I was wondering if you would give me permission to use your picture of the whole cupcake display counter. Please reply if it's a yes! Thank you!
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