Scootabaker Cupcakes

Although I am supremely fond of desserts, I feel less affectionately about the traffic and difficult parking situations I must often endure to get them. Wouldn’t it be easier if your sweets could be delivered straight into your waiting arms (and mouth)? Enter Scootabaker: a dessert delivery service.

When UCLA grad Heather Wong found herself unexpectedly out of work two years ago, she turned to the kitchen, baking first on her own and then with Big Sugar Bakeshop. Now, Heather has launched The Scootabaker, which combines her love for making sweet treats and affinity for classic Italian scooters.

I caught up with the sweets-scootering Heather at The Sweet Street Scooter Rally, hosted by Dangerbird Records and sponsored by The Sweets Truck to benefit the Pablove Foundation, an organization which supports pediatric cancer research.

For cupcake fans, Scootabaker offers “old school” cupcake flavors–including “Mr. Vanilla Bean” (vanilla cake with Madagascar vanilla buttercream) and “Coconut Bikini” (coconut cake with cream cheese frosting)–and “new school” flavors–including “Mexicano Hot Chocolate” (cinnamon-chocolate cake with cinnamon-chocolate buttercream) and “Hawaiian Vacation” (vanilla cake with guava filling with vanilla swiss-meringue buttercream). Scootabaker also offers tarts, tartlets, cookies and dessert bars.

For the event, Heather prepared Matcha Green Tea, Black & White and Mocha Latte cupcakes in both mini and regular sizes, tartlets and cookies.

Matcha Green Tea Cupcakes

Black & White Cupcakes

Box of mini cupcakes

I ordered the mini-cupcakes ($5.00) to get a taste of all of the flavors.

I first dug into the Matcha Green Tea cupcake. After one bite of the velvety and peerlessly moist cake and perfectly creamy frosting, Scootabaker earned a spot as one of my favorite cupcakes–ever. Impressively, each cupcake, with its pure, natural flavors, was more scrumptious than the last. The green tea tasted like real green tea; the espresso like real espresso. Although frosting is often treated as an afterthought, Scootabaker’s cupcake toppings burst with flavor. I remain baffled as to how the frosting had such strong flavor but was so light.

You can order Scootabaker’s goods here. I know I will!

The Scootabaker

www.thescootabaker.com

www.twitter.com/scootabaker

Blue Cupcake

Shortly after Lot 44 Coffee ceased carrying Blue Cupcake, the small, fair trade coffee shop on Spring Street shuttered. Coincidence? Most likely, but my affinity for baker Julie Desmeules’ sweet treats biases me into thinking otherwise.

For those of us not ordering Julie’s beautiful custom orders, Blue Cupcakes are available only at the Century City Farmers’ Market (Thursdays, 11AM-2PM). In need of a cupcake fix and tired of trying new bakeries that more often than not disappoint, I recently paid Julie a visit.

When I arrived around 1PM, much to my chagrin, many flavors were already sold out. As I soon realized, Century City farmers’ market regulars know all about Blue Cupcake; I had hoped to snag a banana cupcake, but a woman in front of me bought the remaining six.

After reaching the front of the line, I introduced myself to Julie and mentioned that I loved my strawberry cupcake from Lot 44 which I had blogged about here. With a warm smile and lilting French accent (she’s French Canadian), Julie thanked me and generously offered me many more goodies than I had originally intended to order–the mini cupcake sampler in addition to the dulce de leche and red velvet cupcakes I wanted.

This container contained coconut, chocolate, salted caramel, dulce de leche, red velvet and banana mini-cupcakes.

Once home, I immediately set to “work” and dug into the container to sample a little of each flavor.

What I loved most about my first Blue Cupcake from Lot 44 Coffee was its simplicity; the strawberry cupcake tasted like real strawberries. The same is true of Julie’s other flavors. In each bite of cupcake, one tastes sugar, butter, chocolate and fruit–real ingredients. The cake is moist and dense but not overpoweringly so, while the frosting is somehow decadent and airy at the same time. Both work together to create cupcake nirvana.

After chowing down on the mini dulce de leche cupcake, I was tickled that a full-sized version still awaited me. With its milky caramel frosting piled high atop buttery vanilla cake, the dulce de leche edged out even the delicious red velvet and banana flavors to earn its spot as my favorite of the bunch.

Thank you again to Julie! If you visit Blue Cupcake one Thursday in the future, be sure to get there early because it’s a guarantee that she’ll sell out before closing time!

Blue Cupcake

www.bluecupcakebyjulie.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/blue_cupcake

Century City Farmers’ Market

Thursdays, 11AM-2PM

1800 Avenue of the Stars

Century City, CA 90067

Buttercake Bakery

While driving down the Sunset strip recently, I noticed a banner near Le Petit Four and Sushiya that read, “Now open: Buttercake Bakery.” With nothing pressing on the agenda, I decided to pull into the lot for an impromptu snack stop.

Sporting a cheery, brightly colored awning and adorable window decal, the facade of Buttercake Bakery is quite welcoming and excited me to enter the shop.

I wholeheartedly agree with this mantra.

One wall of the shop is dedicated to dessert-related fare. For example, I spotted cookbooks, dessert shaped erasers and cupcake themed bags and toys. Who doesn’t love cute, dessert-themed miscellany?

I love all things with a touch of old-fashioned charm and was instantly impressed by the simple, classic display of Buttercake Bakery’s cookies,dessert bars and cakes, which were neatly stacked on platters.

Although my eyes were drawn immediately to the bright pink sugar cookie ($1.50), I decided, instead, to focus on another part of the display case.

Cupcakes! Always on the lookout for new, delicious cupcakes in LA, I pored over Buttercake Bakery’s selection of regular-sized and mini cupcakes, available in buttercake, red velvet and chocolate with a selection of different frosting flavors including coconut, mocha and cream cheese.

I ordered three mini cupcakes ($0.75)–red velvet, peanut butter and cookies ‘n cream.

Unfortunately, the cupcakes did not live up to the expectations set by the quaint bakery. The cake from all three was dry and relatively flavorless, and the frosting was incredibly heavy and almost gloppy, particularly on the cookies ‘n cream cupcake.

Although I was disappointed by my purchases, Buttercake Bakery offers such a broad selection that I might be enticed to return and try something another dessert–but no more cupcakes.

Buttercake Bakery

www.buttercakebakery.com

8616 Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90069

(310) 855-0770

Billy’s Bakery (NYC)

One of the perks of staying with someone who has recently shattered his ankle (requiring surgery and five screws) is the endless parade of “get well” baked goods that make their way through the front door. You name it–lemon bars, banana bread–Adam was given (and I sampled) it all.

Photo courtesy of roboppy

One night during my and J’s visit, the delivery was a box of cupcakes from Billy’s Bakery, a name which was new to me as an Angeleno.

Upon opening the box, we all oooh-ed and aaah-ed over how perfectly each cupcake was frosted and how positively pillowy the frosting appeared. Just look at ’em!

As a cupcake connoisseur and red velvet fanatic, I was unsure of what to expect from Billy’s red velvet cupcake–the first flavor we sampled. There seemed to be a lot of frosting on that little cupcake…How would it compare to those from Sprinkles?…

As my teeth sunk first through the sweet, whipped frosting and then the incredibly light and airy cake, all thoughts floated from my mind and Billy’s Bakery became my new gold standard for cupcakes.

Admittedly, my and Adam’s cupcake eating style was somewhat primitive. We’d take a bite, involuntarily moan, and then hold it out for someone else to take their first bite (which was then followed by their own involuntary moan). A PLATE AND FORK WOULD ONLY WASTE PRECIOUS CUPCAKE-EATING TIME. We then repeated the process for the carrot cake cupcake.

Adam takes the first bite of the carrot cake cupcake

There was universal agreement throughout the house that these were the lightest cupcakes that had ever graced our palates–they simply crumbled in your mouth. Furthermore, the flavors were crisp, clean and pure; they all tasted like my dream version of each flavor. *Sigh* From here on out, all cupcakes will only stir a longing for…Billy’s Bakery.

Billy’s Bakery

www.billysbakerynyc.com

Chelsea

184 9th Ave.

Between 21st and 22nd St.

(212) 647- 9956

Tribeca

75 Franklin St.

Between Broadway and Church St.

(212) 647-9958

Lot 44 Coffee & Blue Cupcakes

UPDATE: Blue Cupcakes are apparently no longer available at Lot 44 Coffee. You can still get your sugar fix from Julie on Thursdays from 11AM-2PM at the Century City Farmer’s Market.

Although many of us make a concerted effort to eat healthy, ethically-sourced food and to be aware of its origins, we often neglect to think about what we drink.

Lot 44 Coffee in downtown LA, however, cares about what you drink. The hip but relaxed shop serves organic, fair trade, pesticide-free, estate and small-lot coffee.

Lot 44 Coffee boasts an impressive menu, with drinks ranging from a fair trade organic Xocolatl (Mexican hot chocolate w/ chiles and cinnamon) to an organic Ethiopian Sidamo. They also offer fresh, all-natural pastries and organic sandwiches.

Also impressive is Lot 44’s top-notch service. On this day, I wasn’t in the mood for coffee, hoping, instead, for a green tea latte, which was not on the menu. The barista, however, offered to make me one anyway! Happy, happy.

As someone constantly on the look-out for new places to plop down with my laptop and a cup of coffee, I was excited by Lot 44’s ample seating in the shop itself and atrium in the back.

Lot 44 Coffee is (was) also one of the only places in town where you can get your hands on a Blue Cupcake. I first heard of Blue Cupcake while checking out the winners of the 2010 Cupcake Challenge and instantly fell in love with Julie’s jaw-droppingly beautiful and detailed specialty cupcakes. I’m already plotting when I can justifiably place a custom order (graduation? birthday?).

I ordered a strawberry cupcake, which was piled high with pastel pink frosting. With one bite, my head tipped back and an involuntary “Nommm” escaped my lips. Both the cake and the frosting tasted like real strawberries–not strawberry flavoring. I have eaten many a strawberry cupcake in my day, but this Blue Cupcake blows them all out of the water.

Although the motivation for my visit to Lot 44 Coffee was to sample a Blue Cupcake (which was well-worth the trip), I couldn’t help but love the shop and its values and goals.

Be sure to pop by Lot 44 Coffee for your Organic Mayan Mocha between Monday and Friday as they’re closed on weekends.

Lot 44 Coffee

www.lot44coffee.com

257 S. Spring St.

Los Angeles, CA 90012

(213) 626-4646

Blue Cupcake

www.bluecupcake.com

www.twitter.com/blue_cupcake

Free Cupcake Day at Sprinkles!

As cliche as it may be, Sprinkles Cupcakes are among my favorite cupcakes in Los Angeles.

Even more exciting than Sprinkles cupcakes, however, are free Sprinkles cupcakes, which is just what the Beverly Hills shop gave me (and 4,999 others) on Tuesday, April 13 in celebration of its 5th birthday.

How strange to not be told “No pictures!” like normal in the shop!

Fearing crowds and perishing the thought of not receiving a free cupcake, I arrived early–right at 12PM when the giveaway started.

Bridget Marquardt, formerly of the E! show “The Girls Next Door,” was on hand to meet fans and hand out cupcakes…although she did more of the former than the latter.

Like a good girl, I waited all day to eat my cupcakes after dinner.

Sprinkles Cupcakes are the perfect combination of a sweet, perfectly dense cake and rich (but not too rich) frosting. Also, whereas some cupcakes’ size leaves you wanting more and others’ leave you in a diabetic coma, these are just the right size for a snack or dessert.

I ordered my two favorite flavors: red velvet and strawberry.

Don’t you just love when you get things for free for which you would have gladly paid money? I do!

Sprinkles Cupcakes

www.sprinkles.com

9635 S. Santa Monica Blvd.

Beverly Hills, CA 90210

(310) 274-8765