Big City Cupcakes

Last spring I traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia for my little sister's graduation from film school.  My family is wonderful, and they indulged me a few times on this trip by making stops at some cupcakeries.


First up was Big City Cupcakes (website here), a short 10-minute walk from my sister's apartment in Yaletown.  

Big City Cupcakes has 6 of their own locations in the Vancouver area.  In addition to this, their products are sold at over 10 other retailers throughout the province of BC.

This bakery definitely has the 'big city' feel.  The decor is minimalist, with lots of black, grey, white and chrome (sorry didn't take any pics of the inside).

The staff at the downtown Vancouver location were sooo friendly and helpful.  By the time we left, the girl behind the counter pretty much knew our entire life stories, and us hers!  In addition to becoming mine, my mom's, and my sister's new BFF, she was also very informative about their cupcakes!

15 flavours are offered daily at Big City Cupcakes.  I chose Lemon Drop, and my mom went with a Chocolate Mounds (chocolate cupcake topped with a ganache centre topped with coconut butter cream, rolled in coconut and drizzled with ganache).  I am completely blanking on what my sister ordered...but here she is about to enjoy it!

These cupcakes were delish - moist and flavourful, and the frosting was yummy too - I just wished there was a bit more of it!  

Big City Cupcakes also offers gluten, dairy, and egg free options for people with sensitivities or allergies, which is a great bonus that not many other bakeries can boast about.  


They also have the cutest 'cupcake cuddlers' for weddings.  I grabbed this photo from their website - don't you love these?!

All in all, I enjoyed Big City Cupcakes, but was underwhelmed with their flavour options and decor.  Big points for customer service though!  Overall, I would rate them at a 7 out of 10, all things considered.

During my week in Vancouver, I visited three cupcake shops.  More BC blogs to come!!

The little shop that started it all!

Thinking back, my cupcake love definitely started about 5 years ago, when I walked through the doors of this place:

Located at 271 King Street West in Kitchener, Ontario, about 30 minutes from my hometown, is The Cake Box.  I was inspired as soon as I stepped inside of this cute bakery and coffee shop.  The decor is simple and sweet, with some of their most creative and fun cake designs on display.  

The Cake Box offers 10-12 cupcake flavours each day, and also takes orders for special occasions.  I don't even remember what kind of cupcake I purchased my first time there, but I remember loving it!  The Cake Box is the kind of place that you want to sit and visit with a good friend over a cupcake and your coffee of choice.  I love their espresso, and my most favourite part about this shop is their Sprinkle Bar.  Before enjoying your cupcake, you can customize it with your own extra sprinkles!

Here are a few of their creations (photos are from their website)

Another really fun part of The Cake Box is its open concept.  You can grab a seat at the bar and watch the bakers work their magic right in front of your eyes!  The Cake Box is the only place I have seen this feature, and I really loved watching the employees decorate cakes and cupcakes.

I was thrilled over Christmas break to discover The Cake Box has a second location, in St. Jacobs, a cute mennonite town that my dad, sister and I visit every Christmas Eve.  I enjoyed a lemon cupcake with lemon buttercream icing, and it was fantastic!  Here's a peak at the inside of The Cake Box 2 in St. Jacobs:

If you are in the area, I highly recommend both of these locations.  Bring a friend, settle into one of their comfy chairs with a latte and a cupcake, and enjoy the shop that started all the cupcake love for me.  

Maybe you will fall in love too!

More Reviews Coming up!

Anytime I visit a new city, my main mission is to find that city's cupcake shop (or shops, if I'm lucky!)


Over the past few years I have documented all of my bakery visits and have taken my mission very seriously.


And now I finally have a forum to write about them!  So, in the next couple of weeks, I plan on blogging about some of my favourite cupcake spots in cities like San Diego, Vancouver, and even Kitchener  (my American friends are currently saying 'huh?')


Stay tuned and stay hungry!  Here's a little preview:

a first-timer!

My apologies for my absence this past week, but my friend Lindsay was out visiting and there was no time for blogging.


However, there most definitely was time for Crumbs!!


One of the most-requested places from our visitors is Crumbs, so of course we had to stop by while Linds was here.  Though not much of a 'cupcake person' herself, she was still very curious to see what all the hype was about.


Here we are outside the shop at the Americana in Glendale:

And here are our selections; chocolate chip cookie dough (Mark), red velvet (Linds), and cotton candy (mine):

The chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake is vanilla cake with chocolate fudge filling covered in vanilla cream cheese frosting mixed with chocolate chip cookie pieces and topped with a cookie:

The cotton candy is one of my absolute faves and is a regular order for me.  Vanilla cake, buttercream filling, a pink buttercream icing and candy pieces around the outside. Love love love love love!!

Enjoying every bite:

The red velvet is a favourite among our guests too.  Classic red velvet cake with buttercream filling, topped with cream cheese frosting, red velvet crumbs, and sprinkles.

I documented Linds' first few bites

At first I was a little worried about her reaction as she did not say a word or make a peep after three full bites.  But once she hit that filling in the centre, she was almost converted to a cupcake groupie. Still working on this one, but I'm confident that with more time, I can pull her over to the sweet side.

Thanks for the awesome visit Linds!!

LA Cupcake Tour - The Conclusion

It's time for the conclusion to our Los Angeles Area Cupcake Tour 2011!


Santa Monica was the final neighbourhood Polly and I visited last Saturday.  Though we discovered en route that we both consider ourselves directionally challenged, we were able to park, walk to 2 bakeries, AND find our way back to the car without any issues at all.  The power of cupcakes, folks.


First up in Santa Monica was Vanilla Bake Shop.  A total shot in the dark, this bakery was the result of a Google search and quick perusal of their flavours online.  But, what a sweet surprise!

It just looks cute and delicious, doesn't it?

Vanilla Bake Shop was a really fun stop, as they offer 'regular' size cupcakes, as well as mini-cupcakes.  As we thought back to how many cupcakes we had already purchased, we decided that the mini size would be just perfect.  Though these cakes are smaller in size, they are no less beautiful.  Check out how pretty:

Since they offer a 3 mini cupcake for $5 deal, we selected Key Lime, Banana Chocolate Chip, and Meyer Lemon Raspberry.  You might be able to see them a bit better in a group photo (grouped together on the left):

Even though we tried three different and very distinct flavours, we were not disappointed in any of them.  These creations were delicious and the perfect size (less messy too!).  We scored all 3 collectively, and awarded a 9/10 for cake, 8/10 for frosting, 10/10 for presentation, and a 9/10 for creativity.  The only category that scored lower than an 8 was customer service - it was just mediocre.

Vanilla Bake Shop's final score brought it into second place at 57 out of 70 possible points.  A respectable 80% on the satisfaction scale.

This store is a definite must if you're in the Santa Monica area, and we both plan on returning.  If you like Key Lime, theirs is fantastic!

Oh and I loved these t-shirts and onesies!  

Our final destination was another Google find, called Yummy Cupcakes, just down the street from Vanilla Bake Shop.  Of all our treats, I was most anticipating what Yummy Cupcakes had to offer - a Cupcake-on-a-Stick, which we pre-ordered the day before our tour.  I mean, it just sounded A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  We ordered the 'Happy Day', which is a vanilla bean cupcake with pink vanilla buttercream frosting, dipped in white chocolate, and rolled in rainbow sprinkles.  Are you drooling yet?!

Upon first glance, Yummy Cupcakes doesn't look like much.  On the atmosphere scale, it scored lowest of all our destinations, with just a 2/10.  Here are a few pics inside and out:

The store has a bit of an empty, warehouse-feel to it, but their multitude of flavours and creative menu captivated us.  It was really hard to decide on flavours here, as they had so many different fun options!

In the end, we purchased a Peanut Butter and Jelly cupcake and a Cinnamon Crunch, along with our 'on-a-stick' pick.  Though we didn't go home with either of these, Yummy Cupcakes also offers a Cupcake Pie, as well as a Cupcake in a Jar.  We just had to give them 10s for both creativity and variety, as no other stores even come close to comparing with Yummy's creative (and maybe even a bit strange?) choices.

This was a hard one to score as a whole, as the cupcakes were totally different from the cupcake-on-a-stick.  Cupcake-wise, these were pretty good.  Enjoyable, but not our favourites.  Although, the Peanut Butter and Jelly (Polly graciously gave me the leftovers) was alot tastier the next day,  when I ate it on its own instead of amidst 11 other cupcakes.  I would definitely go back and order this one again!

As far as the cupcake-on-a-stick goes........I'll let you take a peek first:

Though it sounded like the best-thing-ever-to-be-placed-on-a-stick in theory, we were somewhat disappointed.  There was a lot of white chocolate, and not a whole lot of cake and icing.  It was more like a white chocolate lollipop than a cupcake-on-a stick.  Also, it was so sweet that we literally could not have more than one bite each.  

A cute gift idea, but I probably won't be ordering this one again anytime soon.  Although my white-chocolate-loving husband had no trouble finishing the leftovers up for us!

Oh yes, the scores!  All in all, Yummy Cupcakes scored a 39 out of 70.  I have to admit that most of this can be attributed to our cupcake-on-a-stick experience and not necessarily their regular cupcakes.  So, though we only gave Yummy a 56% satisfaction score, I wouldn't write them off quite yet.  I'm pretty interested in that cupcake in a jar too.......

So there you have it!  The story of 1 Saturday, 2 girls, 7 bakeries, 12 cupcakes and a whole lot of sugar.

Here are a few more pictures of Polly and I with our bounty and being serious judges:

Thank you Polly for this idea which was nothing short of amazing!  I will treasure this memory with you for a long, long time to come!

Stay tuned for upcoming adventures, and more reviews!

LA Cupcake Tour - The Conclusion

It's time for the conclusion to our Los Angeles Area Cupcake Tour 2011!


Santa Monica was the final neighbourhood Polly and I visited last Saturday.  Though we discovered en route that we both consider ourselves directionally challenged, we were able to park, walk to 2 bakeries, AND find our way back to the car without any issues at all.  The power of cupcakes, folks.


First up in Santa Monica was Vanilla Bake Shop.  A total shot in the dark, this bakery was the result of a Google search and quick perusal of their flavours online.  But, what a sweet surprise!

It just looks cute and delicious, doesn't it?

Vanilla Bake Shop was a really fun stop, as they offer 'regular' size cupcakes, as well as mini-cupcakes.  As we thought back to how many cupcakes we had already purchased, we decided that the mini size would be just perfect.  Though these cakes are smaller in size, they are no less beautiful.  Check out how pretty:

Since they offer a 3 mini cupcake for $5 deal, we selected Key Lime, Banana Chocolate Chip, and Meyer Lemon Raspberry.  You might be able to see them a bit better in a group photo (grouped together on the left):

Even though we tried three different and very distinct flavours, we were not disappointed in any of them.  These creations were delicious and the perfect size (less messy too!).  We scored all 3 collectively, and awarded a 9/10 for cake, 8/10 for frosting, 10/10 for presentation, and a 9/10 for creativity.  The only category that scored lower than an 8 was customer service - it was just mediocre.

Vanilla Bake Shop's final score brought it into second place at 57 out of 70 possible points.  A respectable 80% on the satisfaction scale.

This store is a definite must if you're in the Santa Monica area, and we both plan on returning.  If you like Key Lime, theirs is fantastic!

Oh and I loved these t-shirts and onesies!  

Our final destination was another Google find, called Yummy Cupcakes, just down the street from Vanilla Bake Shop.  Of all our treats, I was most anticipating what Yummy Cupcakes had to offer - a Cupcake-on-a-Stick, which we pre-ordered the day before our tour.  I mean, it just sounded A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  We ordered the 'Happy Day', which is a vanilla bean cupcake with pink vanilla buttercream frosting, dipped in white chocolate, and rolled in rainbow sprinkles.  Are you drooling yet?!

Upon first glance, Yummy Cupcakes doesn't look like much.  On the atmosphere scale, it scored lowest of all our destinations, with just a 2/10.  Here are a few pics inside and out:

The store has a bit of an empty, warehouse-feel to it, but their multitude of flavours and creative menu captivated us.  It was really hard to decide on flavours here, as they had so many different fun options!

In the end, we purchased a Peanut Butter and Jelly cupcake and a Cinnamon Crunch, along with our 'on-a-stick' pick.  Though we didn't go home with either of these, Yummy Cupcakes also offers a Cupcake Pie, as well as a Cupcake in a Jar.  We just had to give them 10s for both creativity and variety, as no other stores even come close to comparing with Yummy's creative (and maybe even a bit strange?) choices.

This was a hard one to score as a whole, as the cupcakes were totally different from the cupcake-on-a-stick.  Cupcake-wise, these were pretty good.  Enjoyable, but not our favourites.  Although, the Peanut Butter and Jelly (Polly graciously gave me the leftovers) was alot tastier the next day,  when I ate it on its own instead of amidst 11 other cupcakes.  I would definitely go back and order this one again!

As far as the cupcake-on-a-stick goes........I'll let you take a peek first:

Though it sounded like the best-thing-ever-to-be-placed-on-a-stick in theory, we were somewhat disappointed.  There was a lot of white chocolate, and not a whole lot of cake and icing.  It was more like a white chocolate lollipop than a cupcake-on-a stick.  Also, it was so sweet that we literally could not have more than one bite each.  

A cute gift idea, but I probably won't be ordering this one again anytime soon.  Although my white-chocolate-loving husband had no trouble finishing the leftovers up for us!

Oh yes, the scores!  All in all, Yummy Cupcakes scored a 39 out of 70.  I have to admit that most of this can be attributed to our cupcake-on-a-stick experience and not necessarily their regular cupcakes.  So, though we only gave Yummy a 56% satisfaction score, I wouldn't write them off quite yet.  I'm pretty interested in that cupcake in a jar too.......

So there you have it!  The story of 1 Saturday, 2 girls, 7 bakeries, 12 cupcakes and a whole lot of sugar.

Here are a few more pictures of Polly and I with our bounty and being serious judges:

Thank you Polly for this idea which was nothing short of amazing!  I will treasure this memory with you for a long, long time to come!

Stay tuned for upcoming adventures, and more reviews!

LA Tour Part 3

Without further ado, let's get to today's critiques!


Alright, so from the glorious Crumbs, we headed to 3rd Street in LA's West Side to visit Magnolia Bakery and Joan's on Third.  


Of all our destinations on Saturday, Magnolia was probably the one I was most curious about.  You see, it is super duper famous in New York City.  There's always a line-up, and I know people who have waited absolutely preposterous amounts of time to just get inside the store.  But, I haven't heard wonderful things about their cupcakes from those who have had first-hand experience.  Needless to say, my interest was piqued.  


Walking into Magnolia is liking being transported to an old-fashioned,  small-town European bakery {or at least what I would imagine one to be like as I have never been to a bakery or a small town anywhere in Europe}.  I would describe the decor as fresh, darling, adorable, whimsical....the kind of place you'd want to sit down and enjoy coffee and a sweet with a friend.

Isn't it just so cute?!  Cupcake options here were limited, so we went for one that sounded a little different and interesting:  Lemon cupcake with lemon meringue buttercream icing.  It's in the front middle of the picture below:

The cupcake wasn't much to look at, but we hoped its taste would make up for it.

We were sooo wrong.

Very, very, very rarely will I ever consider a cupcake un-edible.  I mean, there's usually some element of saving grace in something so loaded with sugar and butter.  But I'm not kidding you, Polly and I each took a bite and almost spit it out.  It was THAT bad.  We set it aside and didn't even so much glance its way again.  Incredibly disappointing!

Magnolia scored mostly 2s in each category, aside from Atmosphere, which we awarded a 10. 

Total score was 24 out of a possible 70 points.  34% satisfaction.  Yikes!

We both did mention that we'd be willing to go back and try another item from Magnolia.  The ambience was just too fun and there has to be something that makes them so darn famous, right?!  

Onward and upward!

Just down the street from Magnolia is Joan's on Third.  Joan's was added to the tour as a latecomer due to an episode of 'The Best Thing I Ever Ate' on the Food network, in which a chef claimed their Chocolate Coconut cupcake was the best thing she ever ate with her hands.  So of course we had to order this one!

No photos were allowed inside Joan's, but it is another place I'd love to go back to. One part bakery, one part market, one part restaurant with seating inside and out, this place was packed and smelled awesome.   I found a stock photo online to give you an idea:

And here it is from the outside:

Here's how that raved-about cupcake rated:

Highest scores were in the cake category (8/10), and atmosphere (9/10).  We only gave Joan's a 3/10 for variety, as there weren't too many cupcakes to choose from.  But we won't fault them much for that, given what else the store had to offer.  

All in all, Joan's on Third ended up with a 43 out of 70 possible points.  Satisfaction: 61%.

It is at this point in the day that we encountered what I would call the Defining Moment of the tour.  You see, parking was really scarce off 3rd street, and so we decided to risk a no parking zone, hoping we'd be fast enough.

We weren't.

A little gift was waiting for us on the hood of Polly's car when we returned:

Three words for you:  SIXTY THREE DOLLARS.   I'm not even kidding.  I really wish I was.

I dub this the defining moment because Polly handled it like a champ.  While I literally felt sick to my stomach over the insane amount of the ticket, she laughed it off and took total responsibility.  I guess we don't have much of an argument given we were parked directly under this:

Although I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you'd like to donate to a good cause and send a bit of cashola her way.  You can find her blog here.  Polly, you are such a good sport!  And I really, really want to help you pay for that ticket!!

Stay tuned for the summary of our final two stops!