Vanilla Bake Shop, Martha's Preference When on the West Coast

A nice black and white photo of a happy couple, smiling. The girl is holding a mod looking cake while wearing a nice matching mod dress. The cake is in color of course. Now, that is a nice opening picture for a cupcake website. Makes me think that if I continue eating these cakes, I too can be a pretty blond girl smiling with Ken. SWEET!

While researching cupcake shops, who better to reference than the queen herself. On Martha's website she listed her favorite places to have a sweet treat, and what the cake was when she got there. Well lucky for me there were lots of places in LA to choose from. Vanilla Bake Shop, was started by Amy and Jeremy Berman, and then named after their favorite flavor (really? vanilla? snore). The cakes are all baked from scratch with a big influence from contemporary design and taste, so atleast that is a little more exciting.

When my mom came into town, I decided now would be a good time to go try out the Santa Monica based bakery. It was also her birthday, so a double whammy as to why we needed to go.

The exterior is very clean and contemporary looking. I really like the feel of the place, well, until I was greeted by an angry teenage girl that I think had been struggling with not eating the cakes herself. When I started to get my camera out to ask if I could take a picture she instantly yelled at me as if I wouldn't have been able to hear her from across the street. I quickly told her the cupcakes of choice so I could get the hell out of there and eat my sugar in the presence of awesome people.

Key Lime: Yellow Butter Cake, Key Lime filling, Creamy Vanilla Frosting, Graham Cracker Crust Crumbles; Meyer Lemon Raspberry: Yellow Butter Cake, Lemon Curd Center, Vanilla Bean Frosting & Raspberries(Martha's Choice); and then the classic Southern Red Velvet: Southern Red Velvet Cake, Sweet Cream Cheese Frosting.



We stood outside to eat these little pieces of art, and by far Martha was right. The raspberry with the lemon was amazing. I loved the tartness of the sweet cake and it was paired so well together with the light coating of sugar crystals on the top. The Key Lime was also incredible (I have a thing for sour things) it tasted like a little cake version of the pie. Then the true test was the red velvet and they nailed it. No box recipe here, nothing but sweetness (and a sea mammal that needed to head further west back towards the water..)