Koo Koo for Kara's

Kara's Cupcakes, a Bay Area staple, has been a favorite of mine for some time.  I love their flavors, their presentation (for the most part) and definitely their proximity to my house!  It is about a 2.4 mile walk from my place, so it's easy to walk there, earn my cupcake, walk back - thus shedding 100% of the calories.  Okay, probably not all of the calories - but a girl can dream, right?

Part of me is, honestly, hesitant to like Kara's as much as I do.  It is kind of corporate feeling - the one in our area is a simple store front, and has absolutely no internal seating to enjoy your cupcake.  But, nevertheless, they have some bangin' cupcakes.  So, for the overall decor and setting, I would say:

Photo by Monica Schuet

My girlfriend, Monica, and I decided to venture out together on a Sunday afternoon - I had asked her to do some "research" with me.  All in the name of the blog, of course.  It's easy to get people to help you with your blog when you are writing about food!  We went to the Kara's on Santana Row in San Jose.  As I mentioned before, it is a simple store front - there is a small space to order the cupcakes, a small display, and then you have to pay and move about your day!  St. Patrick's day was coming up, and so they had some pretty awesome flavors in celebration.  Monica and I decided on two: Banana with carmel (OMG, OMG, OMG) and a Guiness cake.  I was a bit hesitant about the Guiness cake, not being a fan of the beer, but Monica went for it, and I was glad to try something new and adventurous.

Photo by Monica Schuet

We took them back to Monica's house (even closer than mine!  Boy, would I be in trouble...)  She has a beautiful natural light coming through her kitchen window, and she volunteered to take some beauty shots of our cupcakes before we dove in!  She also whipped us up some delicious Chai Lattes....so tasty on a cold and rainy day.

We really prepped it and savored the steps that I am so very much looking for in my dream cupcakery.  Lattes in simple white mugs: check.  Cupcakes halved and plated: check.  Good company: check!

Prepping our plates!
Photo by Monica Schuet

Plates are ready!  Let's eat!
Photo by Monica Schuet

Always the enthusiastic eater -
Photo by Monica Schuet

Banana Caramel


Oh BOY was this exciting to see.  I know I mentioned that at the last destination, Sweet Passions, I had passed up the banana cake option.  But this time, I had not just baked banana bread, and it had CARAMEL.  I was sold.


 Decoration: Kara's has a fairly signature and reliable decoration scheme.  They place a single fondant decoration on top - be it a circle, flower, or other holiday specific images.  They have a simple and plain frosting application on this cake.  It had a light cream cheese frosting, and wasn't too much, or too little.  It got squished on the ride from the store to Monica's house, but it looked very pretty in the store!


Taste:  It was creamy, banana-y, and DELICIOUS.  There was just enough caramel so as to not overwhelm the banana flavor, but not too much so that it was overly sweet.  My friend, Emily, and I were talking today about how a banana cupcake is really just a banana muffin.  But the caramel really set it on a different plane from a muffin!

This is one of the most amazing cupcakes I have tasted.  Seriously.  Look at this thing:

Photo by Monica Schuet

Overall, I would rate the taste:  That's right!  Five stars, baby!

Guiness

As I mentioned before, I am not a huge Guiness fan.  But, I am glad Monica got us this treat!  

Photo by Monica Schuet

Decoration: This decoration was a little silly, to me.  It had the signature fondant on the top, but then some haphazard green sprinkles, presumably in honor of St. Patrick's day.  I could have done without.  Again, this one got crushed along with the banana cake, so it wasn't pretty to look at when we took it out, but it looked alright in the store!  Overall, I would give this a: 

Taste: For not liking Guiness, I sure liked this cupcake!  The beer flavor was not overwhelming, but just enough so that you knew it was in there.  It was, overall, very mild.  However, there was a bit of a tartness to it.  

Photo by Monica Schuet

 Overall, I am a fan of Kara's.  Their cupcakes are moist, they have a variety of flavors, and I am always pleased with my purchase.  I just wish they had a bit more in the seating department!  Another thing I like about them is that they change up their menu often, offering a flavor of the month!  This month, it is Hazelnut Crunch - now available at all stores!  Get yours today!  I know I will!  My rating for Kara's:
 (I should say, this is based on this visit as well as a few others - undocumented...)

Sweet Passions Let Down...

Imagine my delight when, as I was dropping off the SATs at the UPS office, I spotted a cupcakery literally right next door!  I couldn't believe my luck!  I grabbed my purse and headed in!


Sweet Passions Bakery is relatively new to the cupcake world.  They do a lot of cakes for many different occasions.  They even had a kiosk in the mall for a while (didn't remember this until after...)


I was pretty underwhelmed by the ambiance.  Obviously, if it's right next door to the UPS, it isn't going to be in a quaint little bakery - or at least the chances of that are significantly decreased...It basically was like a little strip mall shop - didn't have a whole lot of character.  The cupcakes were displayed, en masse, behind a glass screen, and they were just lined up like little soldiers.  Their menu was cute, but the neon sign was a bit of a turn off to me.  Overall, I would give the ambiance of this place a:



Oh well - we still have the taste portion of the interview...


Their flavor options were amazing - very creative and tempting!  I ended up getting four...They were that tempting!  I chose the following flavors:
Red Velvet
Pineapple Cream
Strawberry Banana
and....my personal favorite sounding.....Khalua Cream with Marble Cake


I had to wait until Mike got home - I didn't want to be a cupcake-holic - eating cupcakes by myself, with my dog.  That would be sad.... (I was tempted, though)  It wasn't until I got home that I noticed how ENORMOUS these cupcakes were - I mean, seriously.  Jumbo size.  

Yummmmm

This is also giving us a chance to try out our new lens...

We chose to start with:


Red Velvet


Man, was this ever a bright cupcake!  I'm a little wary of the "too red" Red Velvet cupcake, but I stated in the beginning that this would be my kind of "staple" choice - one that I would get everywhere.  So, I did.  


Decoration: It was topped very simply - cream cheese frosting with red velvet cake crumbles.  Pretty traditional piping, and overall decoration for that matter.  I know that Red Velvet is the traditional/uber popular cupcake, but I really want someone to do something cooler than just top it with cream cheese and call it a day.  Since I was bored, the decoration for me got a:

Photo by M. Fujii

Taste: Then, we dove into taste this bad boy.  YIKES!  Didn't even finish it.  The frosting, first of all, was a bit too tangy for my taste.  I thought it was overly sweet, and my husband thought it was a bad combination of butter cream and cream cheese.  It was light and fluffy - but that's about all it had going for it.  The cake itself didn't taste like a red velvet, either.  It had a strong (and weird) after taste.  There wasn't a very strong chocolate flavor (which might explain why it was such a bright red color).  And boy was it dry.  Very dry.   (Maybe this is why it is easy for them to top with crumbles of cake - it kind of naturally does this...)  Thank goodness for that frosting - that was the only moisture coming to it!  You would need a TALL glass of milk to get through this.  Overall taste for this:



Khalua


Now this was one I was really looking forward to.  It reminded me of the Samoa goodness from Sift, in Napa (their only good cupcake, IMO - but isn't this all my opinion? It's my blog!)

Decoration: Like the Samoa cupcake, this one was a bit sloppy, but in very inviting way - the chocolate drizzle over the frosting looked like a delicious cookie calling my name.  I thought it could have used some sort of center piece - a topper, or decoration of some kind, but other than that, it made me want to go nam nam nam!

Taste:   So far, this place should rename themselves "Sweet DRY Passions" - and most passions aren't dry, so....maybe you should look into something else?  Seriously - cotton mouth inducing cake. The flavor was really good - the frosting had just a hint of Khalua, which was yummy, but it was soooo dry.  More butter?  Sour cream?  Milk?  Cream?  Hell - mist?  Something was needed for this poor, thirsty cupcake. And for this poor thirsty sampler - luckily I just bought a gallon of milk yesterday.  Overall, I would    
                                                                                    give it a:



At the bitter (and dry) end of round 1, this is what was left...

Overall - I don't really like it when places use the same piping/frosting technique on every single cupcake.  They have such different personalities - honor that by mixing up how you dress them.


Tomorrow - the pineapple and strawberry banana....

"Sift"in Through Napa

Okay - so I lied.  My big plan was to go to Kara's Cupcakes for my first review.  It is local, right by my house, and I already know it's good.   However, I was watching "Cupcake Wars" on the Food Network, and saw a competitor from Napa, who owned a cupcakery called "Sift."  She had flavors on the show such as "Pink Champagne".  Say no more.  I'm coming.  We ended up going this weekend, and so Kara's has been pushed to the back burner for now.

Sift Cupcakes is located in downtown Napa, on Main Street.  For all of the times I have been to Napa, I have never been to the downtown, and let me tell you, it is very cute.  I perused their menu before going, and couldn't wait to try some of their creative flavors.

I saw their super cute sign right away, and really couldn't contain my excitement knowing that this place would be the topic of my first blog review!  Exciting stuff!

Photo by Mike Fujii

The place was kind of random - there is a cupcake counter set up on the other side of a boutique/dress shop - a bit odd.  Plus, they didn't have any tables inside, and only two outside.  They are moving locations, so hopefully this will be improved in the future.  I liked how they presented the cupcakes -  on cake display stands with glass tops.  It was very homey and welcoming.  They had cute t-shirts, and signage - but the set-up was a bit off putting.  We had to eat our cupcakes standing up because between the two tables, there were only four chairs, and a family who had arrived earlier than us took them all.  :(

Decor

I wanted to try quite a few cupcakes based on their menu.  Luckily I had four friends with me, so we really got to taste quite a few (and share them...).  This is how things looked by the time we were through:

But, let's not get ahead of ourselves...The finalists were:

Irish Car Bomb (Chocolate, Guinness & Irish Cream)

Thank you, Nick Rose, for your hand modeling.
Photo by Mike Fujii

I am not a huge fan of Guiness beer, but my friend had his eye on this one, so I thought I'd try!  It definitely had a kick to it, but the beer flavor wasn't really overwhelming.  I won't rate this one because I am not too stoked on the flavor profile.  But he enjoyed it!  Ate every last bit!  That's a good cupcake!

Ooh La La (Traditional Red Velvet)

Thank you, Emily Rose, for your hand modeling.
Photo by Mike Fujii

My husband and I decided that it would be a good idea to use the Red Velvet as our universal comparison.  Almost every cupcakery  has one, and thought it would be interesting.  This Red Velvet, unfortunately, was forgettable.  It didn't really have much flavor - definitely not the tart/cocoa flavor many do have.  Compared to some of the others, it was one I would pass on.  It was a simple presentation, but not super original - also kind of forgettable :(

Flavor

Presentation

            

Black Cherry Jungle (Chocolate & Very Black Cherry)

That's me!
Photo by Mike Fujii

This is another one I will abstain from judging.  I don't like cherry.  But, my husband does!  Plus, it was super cute.  My husband is not a sweets person (though he is sweet ;) )  But he gobbled this cupcake right up!  Again, another great endorsement.  The presentation was super cute as well - loved the cherry on top and the chocolate drizzle!

The Samoa (Coconut, Caramel & Chocolate)

Oh. My. Gawd.  Wow.  That is about all I have to say.  Have you ever had the Samoa Girl Scout cookies?  Well, these cupcakes sure give those a run for their money!  This was, hands down, my favorite.  It is sweet, gooey, crispy (because of the cooked coconut).  I mean, life was goooood eating this cupcake.  Loved everything about it.  Done and done.  

Presentation
(Messy and Inviting...)

Taste
(Should have had a 6)

Pink Champagne (Rasberry & Champagne)

Too bad my excitement for this one was short lived...
Photo by Mike Fujii

I was soooo excited to try this one - I love love LOVE champagne.  Unfortunately, it did not live up to my high expectations.  I don't know if it was cooked all the way through, as the texture was a bit thick and doughy.  In both taste, and texture, I likened it to Play Dough - not really what I'm looking for in a cupcake no matter how much I enjoyed eating the stuff as a kid.  I only had two bites, and I couldn't really do any more than that.  For a girl who loves her sweets, that says a lot.  The presentation was, again, simple and nothing super special, though it did have sparkles.  But maybe that contributed to the play dough flavor?

Presentation

Flavor

Vanilla (self-explanatory)

Thank you, Mira Polochko, for your hand modeling.
Photo by Mike Fujii

This cake was very simple, for a friend with simple taste!  The cake was light and fluffy, and very delicious in it's simplicity.  Perfect for a summer day (too bad it was raining :( )

Taste

Presentation

Overall, this place was cool, but definitely not somewhere I would run back to.  Most of the cupcakes we tried were okay, but only one was AMAZING!  Sorry Sift :(

Overall Experience