Thursday, August 5, 2010

All I want is cupcakes!

All I wanted for my birthday this year was some good cupcakes. Normally I'd make myself a cake, like last year I rolled with a S'mores Cake.This year I wanted to make a huge chocolate chip cookie cake but my kitchen was being remodeled. I've also been watching a couple of TV shows like TLCs Fabulous Cakes and DC Cupcakes. Which gave me a hankering for C U P C A K E S! I was so glad my birthday was coming up soon because I don't know how much longer I could wait. My cupcake craving was getting bad. I researched bakery's here in Vegas and read reviews before I saw the Las Vegas episode of Fabulous Cakes. Featured 2 places I was familiar with Freed's Bakery and Executive Pastry Chef for Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino Vincent Pilon. I wasn't familiar with Caked Las Vegas. I was impressed she could build a boat full of sushi made with fondant and cake, which if you know me I don't eat ANY fish but I would eat that sushi. ;) What I really saw that I liked about this bakery was the cupcake selection. Everything is made fresh daily and is used with the finest ingredients. They use pure cream and butter, nothing artificial or with hydrogenated fats. These cupcakes shown on TV were huge! A good amount of frosting and cake like 50/50. What was even better.. is this place was only 10 minutes from where I live! A few days prior to my birthday I scoped out the bakery to see if I really wanted my cupcakes from there. As soon as you walk in you could smell sugar and butter. That was already a good sign! The cupcakes were beautiful. So many flavors to choose from this wasn't going to be easy. I told the owner I'd be back! The morning of my birthday I couldn't sleep literally. I ate a very light breakfast because my snack was going to be cupcakes! I was there on the dot at 10:00am at Caked. They were just starting to put out the freshly made cupcakes. I picked four flavors. I did let my mom know I'd share these with her. Aren't I nice? Hey when you are trying to watch your figure sharing desserts is a good thing! After my mom bought me my cupcakes, right next store was a Starbucks. How convenient is that? Coffee and cupcakes? Yes, this made me very happy! I ordered an iced coffee and got to business. I started with Red Velvet. Not very sweet at all but just right. Like Red Velvet should be. I noticed right away the cake was very moist and held its shape well. The frosting was delicious. So thick and rich, yum! Next I went into the Nutella cupcake. I was really excited for this one since I'm a huge hazelnut chocolate fan. I was a bit disappointed. The hazelnut flavor wasn't pronounce as much as I thought it would be. The cake was even more moist then the red velvet. It fell apart so easily. It was good but not what I expected. After Nutella I went into the DQ cupcake. It is a chocolate cake, with vanilla Buttercream dipped into chocolate. Looks like a DQ ice cream cone. My mom picked this one and it was awesome. It had that really moist chocolate cake and the best part was biting into the chocolate/Buttercream topping. It was so good! I tried eating all my cupcakes with a fork but this one was nearly impossible. I had to just go in and take a big bite. It was delicious. I think I saved the best for last though. Creme Brulee. It was a white cake, with a Creme Brulee Buttercream topped with pieces of sugar. The white cake was light, soft and once again moist. The Buttercream was sweet and sugary reminiscing an actual creme brulee. I loved the sugar pieces, it contrasted well with the smoothness of the cupcake. I couldn't help it and finished the whole thing! It was so good, I was seriously considering to go buy another one but I refrained myself from doing such a thing. hehe! If I learned anything about Caked that day it was three things: very moist cakes, 50/50 frosting to cake ratio, and they know what they are doing! I was VERY pleased with my Caked experience. The frosting to cake ratio is very important for me because not enough frosting makes for a boring cupcake. I'm already planning future visits to the bakery for some upcoming birthdays and maybe just because I want a cupcake!! If you are ever in Las Vegas you must head on over to Caked. It about 20 minutes from the strip but it is well worth it. Enjoy, you know I did ;), Fallon PS: I wasn't told to do a review for Caked. I did it because I wanted to. I'm honestly impressed with the cupcakes I chose. They were truly delicious and I would definitely look into ordering a cake from there in the near future.

6 comments:

PB&J Time said...

Hey!! Those look DELISH!! I have never been to caked, though now I want to! I've been to the Cupcakery and they have some GREAT red velvet cupcakes!

Stephanie said...

happy bday! those cupcakes look delicious. i love the piping job! so cute. If I'm ever in Vegas I'll have to check those out!

Shandy said...

Happy birthday to you! Your cupcake trip to Caked looked like a blast. Love your explanation for each cupcake and glad you tried several to find a favorite, great job!

Diana's Cocina said...

Happy Birthday Fallon! The cupcakes look awesome!!

Katrina said...

Happy birthday (just a little late)! Perfect birthday treat. I love trying different flavors, so I would have done the same thing! Great review. I'm only 6 hours from Vegas. Hmmm. ;)

tiabella said...

That's so neat! I watched that episode when she made the sushi boat, it was SO neat! I went to Vegas in June and had a blast, what's it like to actually live there?