Judgment Day? Murders and missing persons? The impending June Gloom? We all need a good laugh and to enjoy the small things in life - like mini cupcakes. Cupcakes & Comedy, a night of female comedians and sweets, hosts its second event of 2011 on Sunday, June 5, at Sweet E's "the mini bake shop" located in Pico-Robertson. more ›

Encountered this lineup for Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica. The line was 20 stylish ladies deep with a sprinkling of guys. I asked one of the would-be cupcake customers who she was buying cupcakes for and she just said, "A friend." Another customer behind us wondered aloud why there were so many women and not really any guys. I guess women are more apt to buy cute cakes for each other and maybe their significant others while guys rather stick to ye old red roses for their gals. more ›

Santa Monica seems to be the epicenter of cupcakes these days, now that there are not one just one (Yummy Cupcakes one block closer to the Promenade) but two cupcake places there -- four on the Westside, if you count Susie Cakes in Brentwood and Butter Cake Bakery on Pico. Vanilla Bake Shop is dessert caterers Amy and Jeremy Berman's first bakery, and it's very charming. A lot of people in this town are... more ›

Time and time again, the small little boutique bakery on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks keeps on building its reputation. First, Leda's Bake Shop comes on to the scene with its whimsical cupcakes and baked goods, put together in their clean-cut 1960s open style kitchen. Then last fall, to appeal to soccer moms with lactose intolerant sweet teething children and vegans, they added vegan cupcakes. Then came vegan chocolate chip, oatmeal cherry and snickerdoodle... more ›

Is is "so last year" of us to really love cupcakes? We think not, considering so many of us rang in the new year humming SNL's "Lazy Sunday" hommage to New York's finest--cupcake that is. Now, we've been in that frantic line at Magnolia, and wrestled and wrangled our way to a box of those little gems, and that's a pretty high standard for the West Coast cupcakeries to compete with. LAist started to go cukoo for cupcakes back in March, when we tried out Leda's Bake Shop, and since then cupcakes have boomed in our fair city, though for many, Leda's is our local gold standard. For us, lodged up yonder on the east end of the Valley, local equals Burbank, and recently a cupcakery called Yummy Cupcakes opened its doors on, of all streets, Magnolia. They say they have "New York-style" cupcakes. We say, bring 'em on more ›

There's a brand new bakery in Sherman Oaks and we can't get the flavor of its buttercream frosting out of our heads or stomachs. Leda's Bake Shop is right next to Señor Fred's on Ventura Boulevard just west of Woodman. We stumbled upon it after lunch yesterday. We didn't think it could be a better day after we sat directly across from Wanda Sykes and watched her toast margaritas mid-afternoon much like her "faux-reality" persona on her Comedy Central show, Wanda Does It. more ›