Battle of the Cupcakes: Yummy Cupcakes v. Vanilla Bakery

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by Jessie on June 15, 2009

Here in Santa Monica, the cupcake battle boils down an area about 200 meters in length. I’ve asked around and Googled a bit, but it seems as if Yummy Cupcakes and Vanilla Bakery are the only serious players around. And as luck would have it, I live less than a 2 minute bike ride away from both cupcakeries.

Ideally, it’d be nice to be able to compare two cupcakes of the same flavor side by side. The cupcake should actually be either a simple vanilla or chocolate but seeing as there are so many flavors and each cupcake is $3+ (and I’m not made of money), I decided to forgo this little detail. Hence, the only comparable cupcake from both bakeries is the Red Velvet.

(That looks quite yummy. It has whipped cream inside!)

Numero uno Red Velvet (above) is from Yummy Cupcakes. Not exactly the most pretty of cupcakes, but it looks divine enough to devour. Although they had whacked out flavors like Arnold Palmer (half lemonade & half iced tea drink), I still choose the Red Velvet because it’s my favorite flavor of all cupcakes.

Thus, I was delighted to find that Vanilla Bakery had the Red Velvet in a miniature form. I would have gotten the mini ones at Yummy Cupcakes, but the mini red velvet wasn’t available that day. At Vanilla Bakery, its $5 for 3 mini’s. I believe it’s $1.75 per at Yummy Cupcakes.

But [insert drumroll, please], Vanilla Bakery wins the Red Velvet cupcake battle hands down. The cupcake is perfectly moist and the cream cheese dressing is sweet enough but not overly heavy nor creamy. It’s actually the “Southern” Red Velvet, which is a reference back to the Great Depression. Cocoa was expensive so they would halve the amount of cocoa used and add extra food coloring. At Yummy Cupcakes, the cupcake was great, but the frosting was almost, well… shameful. As if it had no life of its own, it dangled and was way to thin to properly top a cupcae. Thumbs up for Vanilla Bakery there.

The other cupcake I tried at Yummy Cupcake is the Fudgey Yummy. This is really good if you’re into chocolate. It’s like a triple dose of chocolate. Chocolate sprinkles cover the chocolate frosting while a ganache center fills the inner guts of the chocolate cake itself. But for non-crazy chocolate fans, it can get a bit over bearing. It’s literally just bites of chocolate and more chocolate.

The good thing about a ganache center is that it rectifys any moisture that the cake lacks. It’s like with meat. If you overcook a steak, you can use a sauce to mask it. I’m not saying that the cake wasn’t moist. I’m just saying that it wasn’t particularly memorably moist. This would be a bit above average on the cupcake scale.

(The interior is playful and carefree)

(But the exterior could use a new makeover. Sorry, I hate that font and all the pinkness)

(On the other hand, Vanilla Bakery is your classic well put together cupcakery sort of place. Not as welcoming as Yummy Cupcakes though...)

That was a very tough picture to obtain. I had to sneak it in because they don’t let you take pictures of the bakery. They’re afraid that someone’s going to steal their concept. Oops, I think you’re too late, Vanilla Bakery…

Cupcakes at Vanilla Bakery are all $3.25 whereas at Yummy Cupcakes, they range between $2.75 to $3.25. Since I didn’t want to shell out $3.25 for a single, I decided to pay even more for a trio of their mini cupcakes. They also have a bunch of flavors, but like Sprinkles, they have different flavors each day of the week. Now that’s a pretty good gimmick, I must admit.

I think my favorite is still the Red Velvet here. Picture above is the Mint Chocolate Chip, which is my favorite ice cream flavor. I thought I might as well try it in a cupcake, but truth be told, some things are just better left untouched (in ice cream form). Mint should NEVER be confused in a cupcake form. But solid attempt, Vanilla Bakery.

And last but not least, the Spicy Carrot Cake performed well. I really love the icing here. It’s made to perfection and doesn’t make my teeth cringe from the sweetness. The cupcake lives up to its name and you can definitely feel the tingling sensations left from the spices in the cake. It’s worth trying if you’re a fan of carrot cake.