Results tagged “cupcakes”

ABC7 and Citysearch got together and made a top 7 cupcake shop list. Auntie Em's Kitchen in Eagle Rock took the top spot with Yummy Cupcakes in Burbank and Famous Cupcakes in Valley Village in spots 2 and 3. The list is rounded out by Susie Cakes, The Cobbler Lady, Violet's Cakes, French's Cupcake Bakery, Cupcakery and Dolcissimo. Who didn't make the list? Sprinkles and Crumbs. Oh, snap!

For the first time ever, one of NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup races will be hosted at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana this weekend with the Sprint Cup Pepsi 500 on Sunday.

It's been almost a year since the popular alternative cupcakery opened its doors on West 3rd Street, TastingTableLA reminds us in an e-mail. Back then, LAist Contributor Caroline on Crack was happy with the bakery for three reasons: "1) they are available in teeny tiny cupcake-size bundts rather than not-so-cute bundt cake slices, 2) they aren't uber sweet, making them a perfect coffee complement and 3) the small bundts are pleasantly cheaper than most cupcakes out there." Come November, baker Chrysta Wilson will release a Kiss My Bundt cookbook featuring 50 flavors she has developed (chocolate-bacon, anyone?). TastingTable has an exclusive recipe if you're ready start baking--try out the Tequila-Lime Pound Cake With Vanilla Glaze (.pdf). If you're the more hands-on type, Wilson offers classes, too.

Crumbs is constantly reinventing itself every month with new cupcakes matched with current events. When it was Elvis' birthday, the released a magical fried peanut butter cupcake. Now Harry Potter is out and the sweets are casting spells like Stupify, a vanilla cake with light green vanilla frosting, decorated with m&m's, chocolate chips, colored sprinkles, and toffee. This reminds us: awhile back, Harry Potter Jelly Beans hit the market. You know, with classic flavors like Earwax, Booger, Sausage, Black Pepper, Vomit, Dirt, Soap, Rotten Egg, Pickle and Earthworm. Yummmm... or not. We'll be sticking with cupcakes this time around.

Growing up on the East Coast I recognized early in life that doughnut culture orbited around the sugary planet called “Dunkin Donuts.” Some of my earliest memories were commercials featuring a gentlemen (who resembled both Super Mario and Hitler) who would exclaim softly through a grin, “it’s time to make the donuts.” Los Angeles didn't seem to have an equivalent character, nor a universally agreed upon doughnut hub. I observed the undiscerning masses finding satisfaction in the city's numerous, tiny independent doughnut shops (whose wares looked to all have rolled off the same assembly line in Palmdale.) But it didn’t take long to figure out that the most prominent doughnut in LA was three stories tall and stale as hell (see picture above.)

They just won't go away. Not even eclipse-able by Frozen Yogurt, the ubiquitous cupcake has held Los Angeles in its sugary, frosted, portable grip for the past few years, and doesn't seem to be letting go. In today's LA Times, food writer Mary MacVean looks into the cupcake phenomenon and tries to unravel its sweet mystery. Why do we still adore cupcakes?

They may be only a fourth mile apart, but both family friendly yogurt chain Menchies and newcomer Sweet Rarts just recently opened in Sherman Oaks' restaurant row. First came the addicting and popular Menchies of Valley Village fame, which opened at Ventura and Dixie Canyon, most appropriately next to an elementary school.

         

it's been about two years since Vi Trinh left her pursuit of a child psychology degree at UCLA to open Se' La Vi Sweets as a private catering business. Instead of doing homework, she would watch the Food Network and bake. So at the insistence of her boyfriend--and now partner Physent Walker--she dropped out of college and applied to Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena. She was accepted, but could not afford tuition, so she just went at it, full time, catering parties and events with her own style of cupcakes and other sweets. So far, business is great.

We came, we saw, we tasted... and so did hundreds of cupcake fans at Sunday's sold-out Nesquik Cupcake Challenge. Part of the tough task of eating the many, many, many sweet treats up for grabs from several local cupcake bakeries was marking a ballot to indicate your top three picks in three categories. Now all the ballots have been counted, and--drumroll, please--Los Angeles, here are your winners:

              

Yesterday's sold-out Nesquik Cupcake Challenge put on by Drink:Eat:Play drew hundreds of cupcake enthusiasts to gobble up 37 varieties of cupcakes up for grabs by more than a baker's dozen of LA's cupcakeries. The tasters' tasks were two-fold; on top of the obvious eat, drink, and be merry trifecta, everyone there was presented with a ballot, and asked to vote on their top three favorites in three categories: Best Traditional, Best Original, and Best Overall.

This last Saturday, Crumbs Bake Shop opened their doors on yet another location, this time in the West Valley city of Calabasas. And in the tradition of their grand openings, they'll celebrate by giving 1,000 cupcakes away next Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. That's one per person, first come, first serve. At previous openings like at Glendale and Beverly Hills, there were lines around the block before the shops even opened, and the free cupcakes were gone well before lunchtime. And if that's not enough indulgence for you, another Crumbs location is slated to open in Malibu in the yet-to-come shopping center, The Lumber Yard, across from the Country Mart.

No one really likes green beer or Shamrock Shakes. And corned beef and cabbage is iffy at best.

View Larger Map

Last week, we brought you a list of Valentine dessert ideas to entice your honey with. If you wanted even more options, you greedy monkey, we've come up with more -- red-bottom cheesecake cups, tuxedo strawberries and really hearty cupcakes to name a few.

       

Like most places, sales have been sluggish at Cold Stone storefronts across the nation in the current economy. Loyal customers who visit the store 2.3 times a month on average are coming in less. And although they have closed 100 stores, they are opening new ones and are now adding new items to hopefully boost sales.

Can't be hassled with slaving over an oven to make treats for all those holiday parties you're gonna hit up? L.A. has many wonderful dessert shops to save the day. Take your pick. Will it be cute peppermint cupcakes, a personalized gingerbread house or how's about a Yule log cake?

If you're doing Black Friday shopping over at The Americana at Brand in Glendale, then Crumbs has a free treat for you. The cupcakery opened last Saturday abut the mall--its third location for the Los Angeles area--but today they are celebrating the new storefront with free cupcakes all day. It was originally reported that 1,000 complimentary cupcakes would be given away, but when we called around 11:30 a.m. to see if they were all gone, we were told they "would be giving them away all day." As Eater LA put it, "As with the other two openings (Beverly Hills, Larchmont), free cupcakes for all who want to deal with the lines. At a mall. The day after Thanksgiving." Enjoy.

Good news for the best cupcake storefront in town: a federal judge yesterday dismissed Beverly Hills' Sprinkles trademark infringement case against Famous Cupcakes in Valley Village "citing problems with Sprinkles' court filing," according to CBS2. Famous uses a dot within a circle design on their packaging and website, but Sprinkles says the have a copyright for that and uses the design on their own cupcakes. But this is not the end of it: "attorneys from Sprinkles said they plan to refile the motion after making the required corrections."

Let's face it. Ever since Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills first filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Famous Cupcakes in Valley Village over the use of a modern circle, people had to give the competitor a try. What happened? Business went up for the Valley Village storefront, according to employees, as many cupcake fans discovered they liked Famous better (us included).

There have been bake sales and Dem versus Rep chocolates, and now Echo Park's Delilah Bakery is putting the frosting on the upcoming election, so to speak, with her free mini-cupcakes in patriotic red-white-and-blue. Head over this weekend to get a bite for yourself!

In celebration of their first anniversary in Los Angeles, Crumbs in Beverly Hills is giving away a free cupcake when you purchase one on Friday. Well, it's not exactly the warm feeling you get when they just gave out free cupcakes, but there's more news to this. They recently opened a Larchmont location and today announced four more: Los Feliz (Oct.), The Americana in Glendale (Oct.), Malibu Lumbar Yard (Nov.) and The Commons in Calabasas (Jan.). It's all proof that the Pinkberry ripoff phase hasn't killed the cupcake world.

SusieCakes is now offering its mini cupcakes to the general public. Before, you could only pre-order the bite-size treats with a minimum order of five dozen. Eesh! Now you can just purchase three for $5 at the store, like how it's done at Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica. The mini cute cakes will only be available on Mondays at all locations -- Brentwood, Newport Beach and Calabasas.

To celebrate the opening of their new Larchmont location, Crumbs Bakeshop will be giving 1,000 free cupcakes beginning at 8:00 am on Friday. Free cupcakes!

6 p.m. // The Hammer Museum // 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles // (310) 443-7000 // $5

You're going to be thinking scrumptious cupcakes, but don't even try... you're too cool for that, right? That's Johnny Cupcake for ya. Coming soon to a Melrose Ave. storefront soon.

The first annual Cupcake Challenge on May 18th will put the lip-smacking in a foodie smackdown. In this event sponsored by CozmoDeck, Fiji Water, and K and L Wine Merchants, 13 of the best local cupcake bakeries--cupcakeries, if you will--are putting on their oven mitts and throwing down the best they have to offer in the hopes of determining whose cupcake is the tops in town.

After discussing the various available Easter cupcakes yesterday, we just had to check them out for ourselves at Yummy Bakery.

Yummy Cupcakes in Burbank is serving up Easter specialties this week - Carrot Cream Cheese, Easter Bunny, Easter Basket, and the somewhat unusual Egg Hunt. This LAist favorite bakes up an irresistible "Old School" cupcake, a riff on Hostess Cupcakes. The "Old School" will be featuring a pastel palette of curliques this week. (Open 10am to 3pm Easter Sunday)

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.