My home towns Crushcakes

In the small tiny beach side town where I was born, now lives Crushcakes Bakery, just a quick skip and a hop from Linden Avenue in downtown Carpinteria, California. 

No pink and frilly glitter covered walls are going to be found at this bakery, and thank god, cause its about time. In the bakery/cafe, Giant wooden rugged paintings hang on black and red walls that give off a hipster, tattoo-style vibe. Since Crushcakes is so close to my house, I was able to try multiple cupcakes!

I got a red velvet cupcakes topped with sour cream frosting topped with a chocolate heart.

Next was a Cookies N' Cream cupcake that was a marble cake with a Oreo cookie buttercream.

Lastly, I tried a vegan (finally a place with a vegan cupcake!!) chocolate cake with a vanilla frosting.

All of these cupcakes tasted like your typical homemade cupcakes, nothing spectacular. They almost had a box taste to them, which really bums me out. They frostings were all so sugary as well-mirgrane maker for sure! There is nothing much else I can say besides they taste like your typical housewife made cupcakes, and to me, does that really make someone deserve their own bakery? Not so much...They did absolutely nothing for me. 

I really liked that they had vegan and gluten free options, but why do they always have to be such boring flavors!? Just because im vegan, doesnt mean I dont like fun flavors---Please stop with the lame chocolate and vanilla combos!

American Cupcake

Where can you find a place that is pure white, while still looking like a rainbow? Or a place that is filled with Bubble Gum, Cotton Candy and Booze? Why, American Cupcake in the one and only San Francisco of course!! 

This funky little restaurant/bakery might possibly have the raddest decoration, and nicest girls working there of any bakery I have been too. The rainbow balls hanging from the ceiling make you feel like you are surrounded by bubbles filled with Glinda the good witch. The menu had my mouth drooling like Augustus Gloop in Willy Wanka's factory; cupcakes, candy cocktails, beer, and even regular entrees like salads and corn-dogs. 

The first cupcake I devoured was a bright pink Bubble Gum Cupcake topped with two gumballs (which were BOTH stolen from my older sister). Remember being a kid at Baskin Robbins and getting a crunchy cone topped with slowly melting bubble gum ice-cream? Well, American Cupcake, has taken that delightful treat and turned it into a cupcake! The flavor sparked my tastebuds and sent me head-spinning into my childhood in one bite; i swear, the frosting was EXACTLY like the ice-cream. This glorious ice cream was on top of a vanilla cupcake that was pretty good, a bit to thick and had a well...gummy texture, for my liking. But who cares, the frosting flavor made up for it in a New York minute. 

Next up was the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake topped with a small peanut butter cup (which also was stolen by my sister!!) Im not going to compare it to a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup because that would be rude. This was on par with REAL peanut butter cups, not some hershey's crap. The smooth fluffy frosting tasted like real peanuts on top of a rich chocolate cake that both, flavor and texture, worked perfectly. 

American Cupcake's frosting flavors are so unique and fun that you could put it on a sea urchin and it would still taste fantastic. Although, the frosting flavors are what makes me love this place, I doubt I would care for a traditional vanilla/chocolate combo cupcake. We even took home 4 to share with the fam, which now that I think of it, I have never done before. If you live in the bay, a girls night/birthday/bachelorette party would be amazing at this fun and happy bakery! 

American Cupcake

1919 Union Street

San Francisco CA 94123

Ubud's Daily Deli

Pat and I scootered down a dark windy road, filled with "George of the Jungle Vines" in Ubud, Bali in search of dinner one rainy night. We came across a small market place on the side of the road that had many restaurants and stores. Pat, in desperate need of a cheese burger, went to a small shop called the "Daily Deli" and instantly had me come in to try their cupcakes. We got two cupcakes, that were more like muffins in that they had no frosting piled on top of them; a chocolate with a couple almonds on top and a vanilla one with a drizzle of glaze. 

(They had some display cupcakes that had some frosting, but i guess you don't get the sugary topping on them unless they are special ordered). 

The cupcakes were pretty good, even though they had no frosting. They tasted almost more like muffins in that they were not as sweet as the typical cupcakes us American are use too, but they definitely satisfied our taste-buds. The texture was spot on and the flavors were very delicious. The girls working at the deli were super helpful and spoke very good English, which allowed us to have some extremely interesting and very informational conversations with them for awhile after we were done devouring our meals. This little deli was a great place to stumble upon, and allowed us to eat some food that did not consist of rice...finally and amen!  

My name is Alli and I am a Cinnaholic

If Cinnamon Rolls were what Amy Winehouse was refusing to go to rehab for...i now understand. Cinnaholic is a 100% Vegan Cinnamon Roll Bakery in Berkeley California (Located right across from UC Berkeley at 2132 Oxford Street) that is one of the Veg News Magazine "99 Things You Must Do".  At Cinnaholic you can build your own right out of the oven roll with anything your belly craves ranging from crazy flavored frostings, to fruit to brownie chunks! 

My mom brought me out a box of Cinnamon Rolls to Colorado with an assortment of different frosting flavors; Traditional, Almond, Maple and Pomegranate.

Let me just say that these Cinnamon Rolls were fantastic..and for being born the day before!! They were soft doughy goodness that was not too sweet and melted in my mouth. The Pomegranate frosting such an amazing flavor that had me licking the plate- no joke...

Cinnaholic would make anyone, even a meat muncher, a believer in vegan baking. Beware of adopting a new addiction to Cinnaholic- Hey, at least its not crack!

Seattle's Cupcake Royale

Nothing is better than a gift of cupcakes… especially ones you have never tried, from a bakery it would take over a day to drive too. Pat brought me home a box of cupcakes from Seattle’s Cupcake Royale.

 4 cupcakes were enclosed in a small pink and brown box that was as much fun as a box of Froot Loops. All over the box had things to read while you indulge in their sugary goodness, such as the anatomy of a cupcake….and info about the local ingredients they use.

One of the four was the “Royale with Cheese”, which was a dark chocolate cake with the most delicious Cream Cheese Frosting, and chocolate shavings. I loved this cream cheese frosting, it was not over powering and the flavor was still very present. And, really, can you go wrong with chocolate and cream cheese? I think not. I also got a “Kate” that is a chocolate cake with a pink vanilla buttercream. Again, they killlllled it with the buttercream, so good that I caught myself eating all the butterceream off the cake. 

They gave Pat the “Salted Caramel”  which was a Chocolate cake with a rich caramel buttercream with salt crystals. The buttercream had a delicious rich caramel flavor, but their was wayyyyy too much salt on the buttercream, it made me cringe with one tiny bite. And lastly, I got the “Triple Threat” that was a Chocolate buttercream swirled on top of a chocolate cake with chocolate shavings. It would be a good “time of the month” cupcake for sure, but it did not do it for me; way too rich! The chocolate cake, on all the cupcakes was good. Not dry in the least bit, and a good chocolate cake, but not mind blowing. I do wish that one of the cupcakes would have been their white cupcake….oh well, next time I guess. Their frosting is what did it for me, I would love a bucket of their buttercream to just sit and eat with a spoon.

 My suprise....with a half eaten salted caramel cupcake haha!

  

Cupcake Royale has 5 locations in Seattle, Washington, so whenever you are in Seattle you have no excuse to not try their cupcakes out for yourself!

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).

Nomelie Cupcakes

So this weekend I drove to Parker, Colorado to meet up for a cupcake breakfast with Nic Sweet AKA. step-brother / most-amazing-pastry-chef-ever. We went to Nomelie Cupakes, a made from scratch cupcakery owned by a mother and a baker, to get our morning sugar fix. Nic and I got two cupcakes to share, a White Chocolate Pumpkin, and a Gluten Free Buckeye Cupcakes, and one each to take home (Red Velvet for Nic, and a Vanilla Mint one for me). 

The White Chocolate Pumpkin was a flavor feast for my mouth. The white chocolate chips on top of the extremely moist pumpkin cake was a match made in heaven. The White Chocolate buttercream was good, nothing mind blowing, but still had my belly satisfied. A little bit more white chocolate flavor in the buttercream, as well as more pumpkin in the cake would be my preference, but it was still amazing. I found myself the next day wishing I still had some more to devour.

We also got a gluten free Buckeye cupcake. The chocolate cake was super fluffy and soft, with a traditional chocolate cake flavor. The cupcake was filled and topped with a peanut butter buttercream. The peanut butter flavor was not strong and had us wondering what it was at first, but once we realized it was peanut butter, it was pretty darn good. We actually did not realize at first that it was gluten free- and when we did we were shocked. They actually made a gluten free cupcake not taste like..well…crap. Anyone who is celiac…head to Nomelie for your sugar fix!

The textures of Nomelie’s cupcakes are perfect! And the delicious flavors, such as the white chocolate, you can tell that they use a good product, not some cheap stuff that tastes like chemicals. From the presentation of the cupcakes to their mouthwatering flavors, I really liked this bakery. Too bad its about 45 minutes from me, or I would make a trip back to try more of their whimsical flavors!