I left my heart in San Francisco's Miette Patisserie

Smack down, in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the Ferry Building in the city of hippies and scenesters, is a bakery resembling what i would think a french Little Bo Peep's kitchen would look like. 

Miette Patisserie has pastel walls covered with candy, glowing cases filled with cupcakes, and jars filled with luscious macarons. With two San Francisco locations and one Oakland store, Miette is pretty much available to the feed the mouths of the entire Bay Area. And amen for that! This amazing little bakery has made it to my "Top 5 Bakeries to Devour" list! HOLLLAAAA!

I got a Rose Geranium Macaron that felt as though you bit into a rose with crunchy and airy petles with a  soft silky filling. This macaron had such a realistic flavor that it had you wondering if it was picked from a garden. 

Finally, I fell in love as fast as you can say cupcake. Miette's Old Fashion Cupcake is super moist chocolate cake topped with a ooey gooey marshmallow icing, that is, literally, to die for. I also got a vanilla cupcake that had a fresh refreshing strawberry buttercream, that tasted more amazing than a glass of water the morning after a hard night of drinking. I went back a second time, as said before, this place is simply amazing, and got a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. The cake was  perfectly soft and had a perfect addition of crunchy currants and walnuts, and the Cream Cheese frosting, well, who can go wrong with a kick ass cream cheese frosting. 

The only reason I am happy I don't live in the Bay anymore is I would be a hefty 300lbs living near a Miette Patisserie. I don't care if you live 30 minutes or 5 hours from the Bay, get in your car and drive to San Francisco immediately. Thanks Miette, for making my tastebuds smile like a kiddos first day ever at Disneyland.

Brecks's Clint's Bakery and Coffee

Watch the movie Dumb and Dumber, and while Harry and Lloyd are driving their tiny scooter in what they say is the town of Aspen, is actually Main Street in Breckenridge Colorado. That street that is filled with jewelry stores, restaurants, shops and also is the home of Clint's Bakery and Coffee. Clint's is a two level shop that serves food, like bagels and sandwiches (and for all you vegans, they have vegan cream cheese, butter, and veggie sausage! AMEN!). After stuffing our faces, we headed to the main level to grab some coffee and dessert. Being Easter and all, of course I had to get a Chocolate Cream Cheese cupcake that was dressed up like the easter bunny. 

This made from scratch chocolate and cream cheese cupcake was fantastic. The chocolate cake was perfectly moist and was slammed with an amazing chocolate aroma. It was topped with rich thick and fluffy cream cheese frosting that was decorated with a candy face and marshmallow ears. (Im not a fan at all of marshmallows, so this didn't rock my fancy, but hell, it was easter). Not the cutest decoration, but atleast they tried!

So far, this place has the best cupcakes I have had in Breckenridge. And the fact that their breakfast bagel sandwiches rule, and they are vegan friendly, has me counting down the days till the mountain opens again, and i can go indulge once again. 

Buddha Likes Cupcakes Too

Off a beaten dirt road near Canggu Beach is a grocery store, Canggu Deli, that is filled with quality meats, produce, snacks and baked goods. And, of course I had to get a cupcake from the bakery! 

I got a vanilla cupcake topped with little heart sprinkles. I dont know what else to say besides it tasted like a typical vanilla cake, with a stiff, thick, sugary vanilla buttercream. But I will tell you that Buddha seemed to like it! 

Bali Bakery

Since 1994, Bali Bakery has filled the island's air with their freshly baked bread, contemporary pastries, steaming hot beverages, and breakfast through dinner menu. The fancy schmansy, no photo's allowed bakery was filled with mouthwatering treats that made it hard to pick out a couple to try. 

The bread that lined the shelves in the first part of the bakery looked absolutely fantastic (plus the first place we could find in Bali that had whole grain bread!!!) We got a Corn Bread Roll that was soft and airy, and with every bite you got a mouth full of warm corn. 

Of course, I had to get a cake ball, which was about 3 times the size of most cake balls you can find in the states. The larger size of the cake ball was a VERY good thing- you got to taste the cake center a lot more and the chocolate shell was not as thick and not overpowering unlike the cake balls I have stumbled across in US bakeries. 

Pat dove in at the chance to have a traditional chocolate chip cookie. This cookie was extremely hard and crunchy, which is one thing i cannot stand. It was like biting into a stale cracker, and with the surprise nuts inside, it only made it more crunchy! I love me some slightly undercooked warm ooey-gooey cookies, and this was completely opposite. And who knows how long the cookies were sitting in the jar before i bit into it... not recommened! 

Lastly, we got a ever so rich, Chocolate Praline Pastry. This dessert was like a rainbow of flavors and textures exploded into this little pastry-there was chocolate, white chocolate, praline, gelatin things (yuck!), cake, mousse, chocolate bits, etc. All in all, it was pretty good, until i bit and felt a piece of gelatin slip into my mouth, because switching from mousse to having to chew something that wont break down is just not my thing. 

Bali Bakery is definitely a bakery inspired by European and American bakeries, in what they offer, style of shop and in prices. And with four locations on the island, you will have no excuse not to try Bali Bakery. 

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).