Hey there, Cupcake!

Anyone who knows me, knows about my love for cupcakes. I have always been the fan of cupcakes. However, I think it was a combination of having braces and cupcake bakeries opening everywhere that increased the obsession with cupcakes.

I had braces somewhat recently. Braces suck. Braces as an adult suck worse. My "teef" always hurt and I usually didn't eat anything of real substance 48 hours after visiting the orthodontist. Until I realized that Sprinkles was within a stone's throw of my ortho. I then made it a tradition to get a scrumptious cupcake after visiting Dr. Shakes and his Evil Gold digging Daughter. After all, I would not be consuming many calories in the next few days and cupcakes are easy to swallow.

I try to lay off the cupcakes, but I still visit a cupcake establishment when the urge hits me. In fact, today I was at the dentist (which also happens to be right next to Sprinkles) and I headed over to get my very favorite cupcake ever! The cherry cupcake! Cherry cake and cherry frosting. Cherry goodness!! Sprinkles only offers this cupcake for one week out of the year? Why, Sprinkles? Why? I got two, but I would mind going back to get more this week. They are so yummy! I also had a chocolate mashmallow cupcake. I guess it won some kind of contest and it will now be offered daily on the menu. It's okay, but I am not a huge chocolate fan.

Anyway, I am going to go ahead and update my list of the best (and worst) cupcake places that I have visited.

Please keep in mind that I generally judge the cupcake joints by their red velvet. Gotta have a standard. However, I take other flavors and experiences into consideration.

1. Sprinkles
It's the best! The frosting is thick and creamy. I like it better than that cheap whipped stuff. The cake is always flavorful and moist. Nothing worse than a dry cupcake. The selection is awesome. There are usually about 14 flavors each day. My favorites? Well, the cherry is my very favorite, but it is only there the last week of July. My second favorite in Chai Latte, but it is only there on Friday. The Red Velvet is great, too. I did not enjoy the apple Rosh Hashana cupcake. In fact, I am not a big fan of any of the fruity ones - they taste like breakfast bread.
At $3.25 a pop, it is a nice treat to have every once in awhile.

2. The Cupcakery in Las Vegas
My mom was so excited to bring me to this place when I went to visit her. Now I try to stop by every time I make a visit. The cupcakes are smaller, but they are tasty. The cake is my favorite, it is always moist and delicious. Their frosting is sweet and creamy. They even have sparkles on some of their cupcakes. Anything with sparkles is A OK in my books! My favorite flavors are red velvet, raspberry champagne, and the pink one. Yum!

3. Bristol Farms
Not only the home of expensive cheese, but they also have delicious cupcakes. They are huge and they have created flavors. I enjoyed a raspberry lemon cupcake and it was great. Joe had a peanut butter and jelly cupcake, he also loved every bite. My friends had a black forest cupcake and they said it was the best cupcake they have ever had. The cupcakes are $2.95. There is a Bristol Farms in the same parking lot as Sprinkles. Maybe you should do a taste test of your own?

4. Crumbs
This is in Hollywood and is always in the celeb gossip magazines. They get an A+ for creativity. They have flavors like cookie dough, peach pie, candy bar, etc. The red velvet was good, but kind of dry. I loved the cookie dough one. The caramel apple cupcake was dry and I didn't even eat it all. I did not buy the peach pie one, but is had peach slices and brown sugar cubes on top. Who would bite into several brown sugar cubes? I am glad I went, but I am not in a hurry to go back again.

5. Mrs. Beasley's
There are two of these in the South Coast area. I like that they have little, baby cupcakes. They are great if you cannot decide what you want, you can try them all. However, they only have vanilla and chocolate cake. The cake is not my favorite, it tastes like grocery store cake. The frosting is yummy. I like the mocha and the cookies and cream ones the best. They also have berry flavors.

And the absolute worst cupcake award goes to the store in the Spectrum next to Golden Spoon. I cannot remember the name, but that is probably because I blocked it out.

I am pretty sure this place hits up school and church bake sales and steals all of the cupcakes, then charges $3.25 for them. They are poorly decorated and they taste nasty. Cake is dry and the frosting is yucky. Don't go there!

Do you know of a cupcake place that I need to check out?