I came armed with a hat, sunscreen, bottled water, and even a book.

But this is what you must do when you prepare to do battle with the Sprinkles Cupcakes line.

You may recall how last week I intended to run inside the new cupcake bakery at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, then dart across the road to the equally new Kara’s Cupcakes  in the Town & Country Village in Palo Alto. My plan was to compare the two to see whose cupcake reigned supreme. But of course, a lack of time trounced those plans once I spied the huge, snaking line at Sprinkles.

I did make it to Kara’s that day, where there was no line. And you’ve already read how scrumptious I thought those cupcakes were. So I thought it only fair to drag my bee-hind into line yesterday at Sprinkles to finally pass judgment.

At 2:40 p.m. on Monday, there was a line, but not too frightening of a one. Yet again, almost everyone in line was female. Oh, there were three guys queued up, but two of them gave up and left when they were only steps from the promised land — the bakery’s front door. If there ever was confirmation of which sex has the more patience, a cupcake line is unrefutable proof.

The woman in front of me recounted how her kids were so bold as to come last Tuesday — opening day of the bakery. They waited in line for one hour. Thankfully, my experience wasn’t as painful. From the time I planted myself in line to the time I walked out with my cupcake loot, about 25 minutes had passed.

I carried home one banana cupcake with vanilla frosting, one mocha (Belgian dark chocolate cake with mocha frosting), and one chocolate marshmallow (Belgian dark chocolate cake topped with marshmallow cream-bittersweet chocolate ganache). They were $3.25 each, just like at Kara’s.

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I had the best intentions. Honest.

But an editor needing a freelance story from me earlier than expected, and an all-around shortage of time derailed those efforts.

You see, I had hoped to go to the new Sprinkles Cupcakes bakery in Palo Alto’s Stanford Shopping Center on Wednesday, the day after it officially opened. Then, I planned to zoom across the road to the 12-day-new Kara’s Cupcakes bakery in the Town & Country Village also in Palo Alto. My plan was to conduct my very own cupcake-war, taste-off to see which bakery had the most irresistible frosting-topped confections. After all, Cupcakes Take the Cake already included a Yelp review comparing the two.

As I rounded the Stanford Shopping Center, it wasn’t hard to spot where the new bakery was on the backside of the mall. The line was the telltale beacon. At 4 p.m. on Wednesday, there were more than 20 people queued up. All of them women. You’d have thought it was a Manolo Blahnik sale, for gosh sakes.

Not having the time or patience on that particular day, I headed to Kara’s instead. And I walked right in. No line. But plenty of cute cupcakes. I chose a banana cupcake with cream cheese frosting, a “Java” (chocolate cupcake with espresso buttercream), and a Fleur de Sel (chocolate cupcake filled with caramel, then topped with ganache frosting and a sprinkle of sea salt). My tab? Just under $10. Gulp.

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Get ready for red velvet, chai latte, ginger lemon, banana dark chocolate, and more cute-as-can-be, freshly baked, no-need-to-share treats when Sprinkles Cupcakes opens on Sept. 23 at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto.

Yes, the cupcake bakery that’s all the rage with Tyra Banks, Oprah, Katie Holmes (Mrs.Tom Cruise), and other celebs is finally putting down sugary roots in the Bay Area. Other Sprinkles bakeries can be found in Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Dallas, and Scottsdale. You can spot them easily by the lines outside the doors.

It’s only fitting that Pastry Chef-Proprietor Candace Nelson and her co-owner/husband Charles Nelson open a shop here. After all, Candace’s French-American great grandmother, Margaret Craig, owned three successful restaurants in the Bay Area for more than 20 years. Candace and Charles also are two former Silicon Valley tech investment bankers who spent long hours crunching numbers for others while they longingly dreamed of baking cupcakes. (Hey, I would, too!)

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Art Pollard is a scientist by training. His specialty is search engines. In fact, his code is on most of our computers, in one form or another.

He’s also a chocoholic. More than 10 years ago, he started studying the science of chocolate. And two years ago, he started sharing his chocolate handiwork with the sweet-tooths of the world.

Thus was born Amano Artisan Chocolate. The name in Italian means both “by hand” and “they love.” It’s Pollard’s way of saying he hopes what he handcrafts will be loved by all who try it. He works with cacao farmers to improve their growing, fermenting and drying techniques. In return, he says he pays them three to four times the going market price — well above “fair trade” level.

He chose Orem, Utah for his factory, believing the high altitude (4,441 feet above sea level) and dry climate have beneficial effects on the chocolate. His 2-ounce bars ($6.95 each) are available online.

I’ll use my patented scale of 1 to 10 lip-smackers, with 1 being the “Bleh, save your money’’ far end of the spectrum; 5 being the “I’m not sure I’d buy it, but if it was just there, I might nibble some’’ middle-of-the-road response; and 10 being the “My gawd, I could die now and never be happier, because this is the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth’’ supreme ranking.

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Representatives of Dagoba Organic Chocolate of Oregon will be handing out free chocolate bars and herb seedlings in six locations in San Francisco and Berkeley, today through Sept. 13.

The catch? You can find out the general locations and the dates, but not the exact times the freebies will be handed out. Dagoba says it’s a stealth, guerrilla-type operation to maintain the sense of surprise. (Uhh, I’m sure that makes sense in some universe.)

Be on the lookout in Justin Herman Plaza and Union Square in San Francisco today; the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco on Sept. 6; Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on Sept. 7; the University of California at Berkeley campus on Sept. 7; and the Berkeley Farmers’ Market (Center Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way) on Sept. 13.

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