Category Archives: Cupcakes

And the Winner in The Cupcake Showdown Is….

Sprinkles Cupcakes (Clockwise from back: banana, mocha, and chocolate marshmallow)

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.

Waiting in line for cupcakes at Sprinkles

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 most 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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Can You Stand Another Cupcake Photo?

Cupcakes from the new Kara's bakery in Palo Alto (clockwise from top: banana, Java, Fleur de Sel)

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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Sprinkles Cupcakes To Open Its Doors on Tuesday

A tower of frosted delights. (Photo courtesy of Sprinkles Bakery)

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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Cupcake Craze

Kara's Cupcakes

Cupcake mania, which hit New York first (“Sex and The City,” anyone?), then spread to Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, is finally making its way to the South Bay/Peninsula.

Talk about taking your sweet time.

While those metropolitan areas long have boasted stand-alone bakeries specializing in nothing but cupcakes, we who have been frosting-starved in the South Bay/Peninsula finally will get our baked-good due when Kara’s Cupcakes is expected to open two locations in September: one in San Jose’s Santana Row (next to Pluto’s), and the other in Palo Alto’s Town & Country Village. Because the Santana Row location will be tiny — just 300 square feet — it’ll have a smaller selection, but promises to showcase the bakery’s most popular flavors.

Kara Lind, who worked in marketing for Conde Nast, found her true passion when she attended Tante Marie Cooking School’s baking program in San Francisco. Her first Kara’s Cupcakes bakery opened in 2006 on Scott Street in San Francisco. Since then, she’s added a second location in San Francisco, this one at historic Ghirardeli Square.

The cupcakes are made daily with such premium ingredients as Scharffen Berger chocolate, Clover Dairy products, and Flying Goat organic coffee. Regular cupcakes, $3 each, come in flavors such as Buttery Buttermilk, Chocolate Velvet, and Kara’s Karrot. Filled cupcakes, $3.25 each, come in such decadent concoctions as the “Fleur de Sel” (a chocolate cupcake with caramel filling, ganache frosting, and sea salt).

What does Lind find so irresistible about cupcakes?

“They are just filled with so much happiness,” she says. “They are like a little piece of joy.”

Who can argue with that?

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