Let's Get Some Cupcakes in Beverly Hills!

Despite long standing predictions that a cupcake crash would follow the long developing (and internationally spreading) cupcake boom, cupcake shops seem like they are everywhere. Here in Seattle, we have the Cupcake Royale, Trophy Cupcake, and Yellowleaf Cupcakes, among others. In Beverly Hills, there is both Crumbs Bakeshop and Sprinkles Cupcakes within a block of each other right off Rodeo Drive. I have had Crumbs before on a previous trip and decided to try Sprinkles for a change.

Between the two, Sprinkles Cupcakes is the higher design concept shop. Everything here has been meticulously crafted by a designer, from the bamboo trays to the gift box packaging. The shop is small and is more cupcake shop than coffee shop (like the Cupcake Royale).Directly beside Sprinkles Cupcake is a Cupcake ATM (Seriously) and then Sprinkles Ice Cream, which is literally the other side of the same shop. If you walk from one to the other, the same thoroughness of design is here as well and the same song is even playing in both shops.

However, having high design with a crappy cupcake is far worse than excellent cupcakes with crappy design. In this particular case... the cupcakes were actually pretty good! The cake was nice and moist, the three flavors that I tried were all well balanced and without excessive frosting. All the cakes look like there is a ton frosting, but this is actually an illusion: The cake top is actually fairly domed, which gives the impression that there is more than there actually is.

Perfection? Not quite. Almost all of the cupcakes have a small colored marker on top that shows which flavor the cupcake actually is (again, design is everywhere) and there is even a special Beverly Hills shield cupcake, but these little discs are effectively inedible and just confusing. I am sure that they are non-toxic and safe... but they offer an unpleasant bite if you aren't aware that they are little sugar(?) stone disks.

It is a fun little shop, but my one regret? Not trying the ATM that constantly belts out a song of praise to Sprinkles. I will have to give it a try next time...