Blue Moon Bakery

For all them mountain' folk in Silverthorne, Colorado looking to satisfy some baked good cravings, there is Blue Moon Bakery. The small cafe was packed with people getting breakfast before spending the day throwing themselves down the snowy mountains strapped to various modes of transportation, aka. snowboards and skis. Excited to start my day off with some sugar, I dove right in to a chocolate chip cannoli. 

The last cannoli I had was from Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken NJ, and just happened to be the most amazing, soft-&crunchy-at-the-same-time deliciousness pastry of all time. I of course, had to try one from Blue Moon, with the hope that a cannoli is one of those foods no one can f*%^ up, like spaghetti. But no, I was wrong, this cannoli was not worthy of a second bite. I usually try all the baked goods I review with my...now fiance, Pat Milbery :)  and keep my mouth shut to see what he has to say about it before I start blabbing away, but this one, i could not help myself but scream at him not to try it. Which obviously he had to try, but he never went to seconds either. The shell was soggy and bendable like wet cardboard. The filling was so extremely thick it made me feel like that kindergarden teacher in Billy Madison slurping the  glue during lunch time. Lastly, the massive cluster of blooming mini chocolate chips was beyond foul and just unnecessary. 

With the last disaster that had occurred in my mouth, I didn't have high hopes about the Boston Cream Cupcake I had left. Surprise, surprise, this was even worse than the Cannoli! It tasted straight from the isles of the grocery store, contained more than 80 ingredients and reek of chemicals. No way was this cupcake from scratch, if so Blue Moon, please re work your recipe before poising the rest of the rockies! The cake its self was dry as the plains of Africa, and the fudge was extremely similar to that of the fat little pillsbury dough boy. 

Blue Moon Bakery had some of the worst tasting baked goods I have had in a very long time. It must be there breakfast, and the stoner-snowboarder community that keep this place is in business. Don't bother unless you are desperate, snowed in and have no more canned beans left. Remember you have been warned! 

Ps. I did go to this bakery in April, I just have avoided writing this review because remembering this experience is just too painful

You want one? Well thankfully they are on EVERY CORNER!

This little gift was waiting in my inbox...a review on Starbucks peanut butter petite from my Old Man aka. Pop aka. Dad aka. Mike Botto

"A delicious SWEET treat. The cake was very moist and flavorful. The frosting very sweet peanut butter. Too sweet for me actually. The piece of peanut butter cup was unnecessary but great for the presentation. The price was worth every penny.  Had a free coupon! Also it went well with my bold coffee. Which was not free. A petite blonde (girl) will only get you in trouble and debt, next time try a Starbucks petite.

See you next time!"

HAHAHAHAHAHA, such a dork, love you
Ps. Dad...work on complete sentances haha

The Med & Brasserie 1010

I sat for 2 hours at The Med located at 1002 Walnut Street in Boulder Colorado staring at a tray of dessert (photo above) that was eyeing me through the whole dinner. After inhaling tapas, it was time to choose which dessert to devour for our girls night. We all decided on a Lemon Strawberry Cheesecake. It tasted like a fluffy lemon creamy cloud on top of a crunchy graham cracker crust. The side of strawberry sauce was good, but just a little bit too overwhelming for me, I could of done with out it personally. They got that big smile on my face when i noticed the tiny rod of white chocolate on the side of the plate! Oh my weakness for white chocolate! 

Time for dessert #2, and this one we got from Brasserie 1010 (literally across the street from The Med). We  picked up their Dacquoise, which was an almond meringue, pistachio butter cream, yogurt mousse & fresh strawberries. We took it to a friends place to give our belly a rest and get ready for this tantalizing dessert. It was Fan-f%#@ing-tastic! It was nutty, yet extremely light and refreshing! This dessert is most definitely one of those you dream about, then break down in tears when you realize you are snowed in or your car has broken down. 

His name is Jon Peot...

 I am warning you now world...DO NOT EAT DESSERT WITH THIS GUY. He will find the most tasty thing and drop it on the floor into a pile of cat fur. I give you all permission to add him on facebook, find him on the street or stand outside of his house with a picket sign and remind him that party fouls cannot be made involving dessert. You may drop beer or spaghetti, but NOT tasty goodness. He is a Violator and he will be prosecuted!!!

Living the Not So Sweet Life...

I would blame it on a taste bud malfunction or an over happy gag reflex, but I cant lie to myself, let alone all of you out there. I have found yet another, horrible bakery in the Denver Metro area. Pat came home with 3 paper bags, yes another place making you take home your desserts in a freaking paper bag,  from the  Lower Highlands bakery, Living The Sweet Life, located at 1535 Central Street. I hoped I was going to find at least something in the bags filled with $17.00 worth of sugar that didn't taste like sawdust, but I was wrong. 

We first tried the cookies, the sugar cookie in the shape of Michael Jackson's lips, was just extremely blah and this  disaster of a cookie tasted like plaster. The traditional chocolate chip cookie was better than the lips, but it tasted very similar to Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. If it was fresh out of the oven, and cooked by blind grandma, then i would say it was good, but I'm sad to say she didn't bake it. There was also a Mexican Wedding cookie, and growing up surrounded by Mexican bakeries in Carpinteria CA, i know what the best of the best taste like, but this cookie had me choking on the powdered sugar and foulness. 

Next was the Chocolate croissant, which again was a major Oops! The chocolate seemed to only be in one spot of the croissant so half of it had absolutely no chocolate and when you finally got some chocolate you almost passed out from chocolate overload. It tasted as if it had been sitting in the bakery since the morning, as it was crunchy and did have the fluffy airy texture as many croissants do and should have. 

The Cherry Brownie was up next, and seriously, how hard is it to screw up a brownie? The frosting was piled so high and tasted so artificial i almost vomited at first bite. (Oh, and please let me know where they grow hot pink cherries, thanks!)

Now was time for what they are "popular" for, according to the "space cadet" (quoted from Pat) sales girl, a Pecan Caramel Bar. And if this is what they are famous for, they must be related to the Octo-Mom, because this thing was wack! I think i might of lost two of my teeth trying to bite into this thing. 

Finally, and thank god, the last two things; Cake Balls. Frosting, cake and chocolate, where can you go wrong? Well, this bakery surely did these wrong! The Red Velvet was the worst, I don't know how they did it, but it tasted like corn bread!?!? The all chocolate one was just...well I don't know what to say, two of us didn't even come close to finishing these balls, and I'm leaving it at that!

One last thing, what cupcake shop doesn't have any freaking cupcakes to sell?!? Im done, DENIED!

Katherine's French Bakery

            Katherine’s French Bakery is a European style bakery/café with two Denver locations (one in Bonnie Brae and the other in Aurora) that both serve traditional French pastries, quiche, crepes, coffee and much more. The atmosphere of the bakery and what the pastry cases contained didn’t do much for me sight wise, but I decided to give them a chance anyways.I got a traditional Napoleon and aTogolais (I think this was what it was called) pastry that the sales girl recommended, which honestly, I have never heard of in my life.

The napoleon cream was pretty darn tasty, it tasted how a real French napoleon should taste, as many places think whipped cream will do just fine (note to self: IT DOESN’T!).The cream was not too sweet, while not being bland at all. But, the pastry puff pastry was soft and soggy, definitely not a crispy pastry dough like it should be.

The Togolais (I think) was a cookie like base topped with a thick chocolate cream dipped in ganache with coconut patted on the sides. The cookie tasted like a marzipan-based cookie covered with way too much chocolate. It was so rich I only took ONE BITE! I couldn’t take another without feeling sick, and let me tell you, I can handle my sugar extremely well, but this was just too much.

This bakery just didn’t do it for me, in looks or in taste. I would rather of spent the extra the money to fly to France and have a real French pastry then waste the time and calories on this place. 

Happy...or Sad...Cakes?!

Happy Cakes (3434 West 32^nd Street, Denver) says no one is unhappy when they are eating cakes, so of course I had to try it and see if these tiny cakes made me happy… or angry. I followed the green dot sign to Happy Cakes where there were so many unique flavors, I finally settled on a White Wine Sangria Cupcake and an Apple Crisp Cupcake. I was a bit weirded/bummed out when they handed them to me, because they put them in a brown paper bag, I understand being "green" but really!?

The first bite into the Apple Crisp cupcake had my mouth overwhelmed with such an amazingly “warm” flavor. There were juicy apple pieces baked into the actual cake and was topped with an extremely dense buttercream covered in cinnamon sugar goodness. The flavors in this cupcake were so intense and had my taste-buds going wild, but the actual cake itself was a bit dry around the edges, so you can tell it had sat out for a good while. The buttercream was a bit too thick and stiff for my liking, and took away from the actual cake. The flavors of this cupcake and the apple baked inside saved it!!

Being a lover of white wine, the White Wine Sangria cupcake was screaming my name. After my first taste, my heart was singing, this cupcake tasted like I was literally eating wine! Sadly, it had the same type of thick buttercream, and the cake was a tad crumbly. I loved the idea of this cupcake, but I could only have two bites of this cake because of how rich with wine it was.

Happy Cakes has an amazing assortment of cupcakes, but I think it is the fun flavors that are making these good. The cake itself just didn’t have me wanting more, the flavor combinations had me wanting to go back, I mean, who wouldn’t want to try a Jack and Coke cupcake!?!? 

oh great...Maggie & Molly's Bakery

After have large craving cupcakes over took my thoughts, I decided to go get something to satisfy my urges. I went to Maggie & Molly’s Bakery in Denver (2908 E. 6^th Ave) to try and see if what they offered could help me out. I got 2 cupcakes, Cookies N’ Cream and a White with Coffee Liquor Buttercream, as well as a sugar cookie. From the outside the place was cute, inside it was very uncomfortable and well, just not cute. The girls were not the sweetest people I have ever met, but I had some hopes about this place.

 But those hopes were smashed with a knife covered in shortening. Both of the cupcakes had some of the worst “buttercream”, I swear it was just some whipped shortening, that I have ever had. It had a waxy texture and was extremely stiff. They also had no flavor to them at all, the vanilla tasted like waxy air, and the coffee liquor flavor was barely there. The actual cakes on both, again, had no flavor and were just blah. 

 I was really bummed on the cookie n' cream also because last time i checked, a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream with some crushed cookies sprinkled on top...is a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream with some crushed cookies sprinkled on top, not cookies and cream.

The sugar cookie was beyond strange looking, and just tasted, well, blah. Just a same ‘ol sugar cookie that is NOT worth $2.00!

Well, great, another bakery not worth entering anyone’s belly.  But I guess if you like un-flavorful waxy pretend substances…you will love this place! 

Rocky Mountain Cupcakes

I received a white box with a “I Love Alli” tag attached to the top. Underneath that tag were 4 beautifully decorated cupcakes. They came from Breckenridge, Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Cupcakes which is a cupcake, coffee, ice cream and other baked goods and candy shop. 

The first one we ate was a chocolate cake with a coffee frosting (I swear that’s what is was but I don’t see it on their menu). This one was by far the best and actually worth eating. The cake was great, the look was unique, and the frosting FLAVOR was good.

I got the Rocky Mountain Cupcake, that is a super moist Belgian Chocolate cake, topped with a barely there sweet cream that I couldn’t taste, and covered in a foul, artificial tasting “plastic-like” fudge.

I also got a Gone Banana,  that is a vanilla cake filled with a banana pudding, and covered with a banana frosting.

The Vanilla Cupcake was just plain old Vanilla frosting and vanilla cake, and was on par with a Safeway cupcake…not so good.

With 5 people eating these cupcakes…we didn’t even get close to eating them all! Which I believe is a no-no, and we should be craving more. All the frosting tasted like a whipped up shortening dowsed in sugar. Everything was so over sugary…and please remember this is ME saying this, and I cant eat more sugar than most anyone on the planet. The state they are the “Highest Cupcake Shop in the World”…but I think you actually need to be high to devour these!

Photos Taken By: Stephanie Morris

xo

Cupcakes Galore & More...Please NO!!

I was so stoked to finally find a bakery in Golden, Colorado….but now I take that back, cause they were the worst cupcakes I have EVER had! Cupcakes Galore & More is a brand new bakery that opened up in late November at 2575 Youngfield Street. I got 3 different cupcakes, Red Velvet, Pumpkin and Cream Cheese and a Gluten Free Cookies and Cream, and she gave me an extra one (unfortunately!!).

The Red Velvet was so artificially dyed red, it looked like they melted a crayon into the batter. I could not taste the cocoa in the cake, which is the main flavor!! The Cream Cheese Frosting was so…wrong; it tasted like artificial flavoring was dumped in by the gallon. The pumpkin cake tasted like boxed spice cake, topped off with some more of the disastrous cream cheese frosting. The actual cake itself was so undercooked it was still “wet”! (And this is the one she gave me two of…one mini and one regular). The regular size one had MAYBE an inch of actual cake… and for $2.75 WTF!!!

Last but not least is the Gluten Free Cookies and Cream cupcake, I had to keep myself from spitting this one back up. 

The cake was so dry, and if I didn’t know it was suppose to be cookies and cream, I would have had no clue that it was suppose to be that flavor. The cake almost had a sour nutty taste, that no one, gluten intolerant or not, should ever taste. The buttercream was a over whippy frosting that tasted more like a shortening base than a butter one. This cupcake is a cruel joke! This has had to be the absolute worst cupcake I have ever had in my life!!

And the fact that it looked like a 3 year old with two left hands made them made them even less appetizing!

Sorry to be the deliverer of bad news, but PLEASE don’t waste your money, calories or sanity on this place!!

Thats one Big Fat Cupcake!!

 Big Fat Cupcake….uh…this place had me feeling like I might be in need of some maternity pants when I’m done with this place. And that is the last thing  I want to be thinking of when I shove sugary goodness down my throat. But when I walked into the bakery’s door my eyes were instantly shushed to the glass in shock of the size of these colorful monstrosities. These cupcakes were ginormous (I know its not a word, but I like to believe it is), like the size of coconut (kinda). Big Fat Cupcake has the largest daily selection of mouthwatering flavors of any bakery in Colorado I have devoured so far. 

The cases were lined with vibrant cupcakes, and offered way too many flavors that I couldn’t just pick two, so I just had the owner pick out two of her favorites.

I walked out with a Strawberries N’ Cream cupcake that is a fresh strawberry cake topped with some cream cheese frosting.  Oh how I love this flavor combination! The cream cheese frosting was not overly fluffy, and really had had some “umph” in the flavor. The strawberry cake was the perfect texture, but really needed some more strawberry-ness to it. I don’t want to have to search to figure out the flavor of the cake, im lazy and just want to stuff my face.

I also was blessed with a Cookies N’ Cream cupcake that is a chocolate cupcake frosted with Oreo buttercream and smothered in Oreo Cookies. The cupcake as a whole was…good. The buttercream tasted like I was eating Cookies N’ Cream ice cream that was not cold. The texture was fantastic, and the flavor was orgasmic. The rolled on Oreo crumbs didn’t do it for me, they actually took away from the buttercream itself. The chocolate cake was…chocolate cake. It was nothing special in my mind when separated from the buttercream. But this one made me sad when I realized I needed to stop before I ate the whole thing and became a big fat cupcake myself.

Overall, I wanted to propose to their buttercream and marry it on the spot,  and with all the crazy flavors, you can always be trying a new concoction! but the cake’s flavor was good, but nothing special.  Big Fat Cupcake is located in the hoity-toity Cherry Creek area of Denver at 129 Adams Street. Or now you can stalk their cupcake truck and see if they will be dusting your neighborhood in sugar any time soon (facebook or twitter@bigfatcupcake).

My 24th Birthday @ D-Bar in Denver!!!

On November 10th 1986 I popped out into this world,  and to celebrate this year, I went to D-Bar in Denver, Colorado to indulge in some delicious birthday food. D-Bar Desserts is owned by Mr. Keegan Gerhard, who is one of the nations top 10 pastry Chefs, as well as being the emcee & host of the Food Network Challenge. 

From the Coffee, to the main meal to the desserts, everything makes you satisfied beyond belief. The pastry cases in the front of the store contain some of the most beautiful pastrys I have seen in Denver. Making a choice on something to take home is the hardest decision you will ever face. 

For our dessert we got the Poufflé! which is a passion fruit soufflé, mascarpone beignets with banana passion sorbet. Every dessert I have ever gotten here has been down right amazing, and this was no exception. The passion fruit soufflé was made to perfection, the passion fruit flavor was a perfect compliment for the soufflé. The mascarpone beignets, were my favorite thing on the plate. They were fantastic, they were made better than any beignet I have ever devoured. The sorbet was so refreshing and flavorful, just the smell made my mouth water. 

D-Bar "was designed to be a favorite gateway to those who love dessert, food, wine and living life." And I am in love with all 4 of those things...so if your mind and belly are in need of some lovin', head to 1475 E. 17th Ave, in downtown Denver.  

The country-wide Gigi's Cupcakes

Gigi’s Cupcakes is a cutesy chain bakery that has 18 locations primarily in the South, as well as in Colorado, Texas and Las Vegas. The Gigi’s I went to devour was the Denver store located on 550 Grant Street, located right next to the delicious Cosmo’s Pizza (The restaurant I worked at in college ( the Boulder location) and where I met Pat!).

 I got a Midnight Magic Chocolate Chip cupcake that was phenomenal! The perfectly moist cake and frosting had a fantastic chocolate taste! The frosting was amazing, it was not too whippy and airy like most bakeries, and it was a perfect consistency and flavor that made your mouth water. (There was just too much frosting! It was falling over it was so top- heavy!) Plus the mini chocolate chips, even though they looked old, they added the perfect “crunch” to the cupcake.  But the decoration on this one was….well…look at it and you know what im thinking, haha!  Pat and I devoured this cupcake, there wasn’t a crumb to spare!

I also got a Hunka Chunka Banana Love that just did not compare. I LOVE the chocolate and banana combo, but this one tasted like a banana bread, and a bad banana bread at that! Unlike the cupcake on the brochure, this cupcake had fudge frosting instead of the banana buttercream dipped in ganache. The fudge unfortunately was just extremely artificial tasting, made us not even finish the cupcake. The banana chip and chocolate heart on top was cute, but couldn’t make up for the taste.

 Gigi’s cupcakes were a hit or a complete miss. I would love to go back and try some of their other cupcake flavors! Just a warning, if you ever go to a Gigi’s, stay with the classic cake flavors!

<3

Shoe Shine Cake..Here I Come!

I am stoked to say i am getting a pretty cool opportunity to bake and decorate a 3D Nike Dunk Shoe cake for the 5th annual Shoe Shine Sneaker exhibit. Come by 

this Saturday, October 23rd to City Hall Event Center to see some custom sneaker and basketball backboard art from many rad local artists. 

Check out the site for more info....and see ya there!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=156071491079003&ref=ts

<3 

One Love 

"We make the impossible delicious"

If you have ever been to Watercourse Foods or City O’City in Denver, and been lucky enough to try one of their bakery goods, you will know exactly where this review is going. Watercourse Bakery is a 100% Vegan and gluten free bakery that really does make the impossible delicious!

I went to dinner with my friends Kat (Jessica) and Loki at City O’ City for my first time. I have been to watercourse more times than I could ever imagine counting, and their food and baked treats really are some of the best meals I have ever had! 

We got the most amazing cupcake on the planet, (the one I get every time I go to one of the restaurants) the Ho-Ho cupcake. This cupcake truly tastes like a Hostess Ho-Ho cupcake, minus the chemicals. The chocolate cake is filled with a vanilla creamy frosting, and topped with a layer of the vanilla frosting and then dipped into a vegan chocolate ganache. This cupcake is one of the best cupcakes I have ever had in Denver, and the fact that its vegan and gluten free…makes it that much more amazing. This is one of those desserts where when its all gone, you catch yourself with your tongue glued to the plate trying to find the last crumb! 

We also got a Strawberry Mango cupcake (also G.F. and Vegan). This was my first time ever ordering this one, and this one just didn’t do it for me. It was a white cake that had a hint of banana, with a tiny bit of strawberry filling, and a mango buttercream. The flavor of the combination was…as weird as it sounds, it tastes like the Hello Kitty store. It tasted very artificial, and the flavor combo was just…wrong. I was so bummed, but they all can’t be winners J.

Kat and our glorious cupcakes 

I have had their cookies, cakes and pies as well, and trust me, you cant go wrong (well except for the strawberry mango cupcake)! If you are ever in the downtown area, be sure to check out Watercourse (837 E 17th Ave) or City O’ City (206  E. 13^th street), the bakery is right next door to City O’City!