Another Super Healthy Vegan Bakery: Zen Bakery

I'm not sure why it took me so long to buy something from the Zen Bakery.. maybe because most of the stuff there is super fiber-y and I am always looking for cupcakes and sweet stuff like that. At any rate, I finally picked up some Blueberry Mango Cranberry muffins from the Co-op grocer in Santa Monica. They are really good! Very moist and flavorful and lots of volume for the calories. You can get the muffins, cookies, and scones at a number of different places around California. And for my peeps back home, they even have a location in Milford Mass!

Zen Bakery
10988 Pico Blvd.
West Los Angeles, CA 90064
310-475-6727
http://www.zenbakery.com

Cupcakes from Blue Bird Cafe

I had lunch at the Blue Bird Cafe in Culver City and we picked up a couple of cupcakes. The vanilla cake was great! One of the best vanilla's I've had.

Pictures below taken with an i-Phone.. (I can't take credit for them, my new Project Manager took them, artsy, huh?)

Oh, by the way, the food at the Blue Bird is really good too. I like the Turkey Reuben.

Blue Bird Cafe
8572 National Blvd.
Culver City, CA
310-841-0939

Cupcake Review: Leda's Bake Shop

With no more great cupcakes left in Santa Monica after Le Cupcake shut down. (Oh, and I investigated the scene myself. The whole mall is shut down for renovation, so it probably wasn't that folks were not enjoying their treats as much as I was.) Anyway, I headed up to Sherman Oaks, CA to Leda's Bakeshop. I had the pleasure of driving past the Sherman Oak's Galleria, which is kind of in the sweet movie Kickin' it Old Skool which you should definately check out if you have not already. Anyway... I really loved Leda's. The staff are so friendly and nice. There are just TONS of samples everywhere.. brownies, cookies, scones... once you pop, you can't stop.

They specialize in mini-cupcakes and they have a wide variety, inluding vegan. I tried the dulce de leche. It had a tasty dollup of real.. leche.. under the buttery frosting and atop the vanilla cake. I also tried the pumpkin, this time with fresh orange, under the frosting. The only thing I would not recommend is eating the cupcakes in the car on the drive home; only because Leda's keep their cuppies in the fridge until you take them home and the cold icing tastes too much like biting into a stick of butter. But, once things warm up a little, you're good to go.


Leda's also has class. Not only do you walk in there and see beautiful displays of mouth-watering treats, but Ledette (the owner) prompty emailed me back when I asked how they go about getting their perfect little fondant decorations. I made some and the fondant is SO much easier than the very difficult gumpaste I have wrestled with in the past. I plan on making some little hearts for V-day.

Did I mention they make the CUTEST cupcakes in town with the prettiest fondant decorations? They also make larger wedding and other cakes which are just as pretty.

Leda's Bake Shop
13722 Ventura Blvd.
Sherman Oaks, CA
818-386-9644

Le Cupcake Santa Monica shut down!!

Just a couple of weeks after I posted that Le Cupcake had the best cupcakes in Santa Monica, a friend tells me that she stopped by the mall and Le Cupcake is gone!! That's what I get for leaving that post in draft mode so long..

You can still go to their website . The business is actually based in D.C and I am guessing they are still making cupcakes there. Sorry L.A. folks!!

Le Cupcake: Best Cupcakes in Santa Monica

I said it.

It's true. Don't be fooled by Le Cupcake's less than stellar location: Santa Monica Place (mall). Le Cupcake's frosting is the only one in the area with that real, buttery taste. I especially like the vanilla/vanilla combo with it's very faint taste of almond. The cakes are moist and they do a few (about 8, that's a few here in cupcake land) things right without trying too hard with a ton of crazy flavors. The chocolate/banana is also great.

Also, did I mention there is never a crazy long line like some places (Sprinkles)? AND, their boxes have special cupcake inserts so your $20 worth of cupcakes haven't wiped out by the time you get home, like with some places (Yummy). What's not to like?

Lecupcake.com

Mixed Review for Yummy Cupcakes

Yummy Cupcakes on Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica is one of two locations, the other in Burbank, CA. First off, I like the name... Yummy.. you might have guessed that. Since the shop opened, I have tried a bunch of different flavors: vanilla/vanilla, chocolate/chocolate, mocha, cookies & cream, chocolate mint, brown-sugar cinnamon, peanut butter & jelly, Elvis, Lemon Tart (although I swear it was topped with whipped cream and not buttercream) and probably some others I can't remember. What makes Yummy different from other cupperies is it's unique and creative flavors.

The verdict? Very mixed!! I love the Lemon Tart and Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes. The flavors taste real (as in real peanut butter, real lemon). But, in other cakes, the taste was different. The banana cake in the Elvis cupcake tasted more like flavoring than real banana. Also, the freshness has been spotty. The vanilla/vanilla cupcake I swear was at least day-old. In general, the plain cupcakes like chocolate and vanilla aren't very good. I know the website says they use the best ingredients, but there is just something about the frosting that just tastes.. fake. I would recommend getting one of the more creative variations because I think the added flavors mask the quality issue.

Finally, they NEED some better packaging. If you get one cupcake, it isn't in an appropriately sized wax bag like Sprinkles, it's in a brown paper lunch bag that immediately starts to absorb frosting causing those greasy spots all over the outside of the too-small bag. You can't get your cake out of it without messing it all up. Also, the boxes have no stability. They put two or three cakes in a box and they all just fall everywhere (see my bottom pic, my poor boyfriend presented me with that yesterday). They should take a hint from Le Cupcake and put inserts into their boxes.

Anyway, overall, mixed. Try them for yourself : )

Yummy Cupcakes
313 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-393-8283
www.yummycupcakes.com

There's a New Kid in Town: Vanilla Cupcakes

Let's all give a warm welcome to the newest cupcake shop on the block: Vanilla Bakeshop. For the past couple of months I have driven by their gorgeous brown and white, French toile inspired, awning framing their "Opening Soon" sign. They finally opened a couple of weeks ago, and I dropped in today. The first thing I noticed was their smorgasbord of tiny, beautiful cakes. Their wide variety of mini cupcakes is perfect for a nibbling, cuppy commitment phobe such as myself. With the 3 minis for 5 bucks deal, the menu pretty much decides for you. I got the (clock-wise from the top) Old Fashioned (dark chocolate cake, whip cream center, vanilla bean frosting, white chocolate sprinkles, cherry on top, Mom's Birthday Cake (yellow butter cake, milk chocolate frosting) and the Fudgy Brownie (fudgy brownie cake, vanilla bean frosting, Valrhona cocoa dust)

Sooo.. how do they taste? Good. I realized what I should probably do is have reviews all of the cupcake places in the area so you have some kind of comparison. If it were not for those places, I would say Vanilla was great. Alas, in Los Angeles we are spoiled. For me, a cupcake is only as good as it's frosting. Vanilla's frosting is light and airy, without a distinct butter taste. The cake is good, with a nice medium texture: not to dense and not too light. But frosting is king, and I prefer the heavier, more buttery versions from Sprinkles and Le Cupcake. Still, the cakes were quite tasty and the brownie itself, quite divine. Bake on!

Vanilla Bake Shop
512 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-458-6644