Summer Kitchen Bakeshop, Berkeley

By the time I got to the Summer Kitchen Bakeshop on College Ave in Berkeley, they only had two cupcakes left. Naturally, being me, I bought them both.

Summer Kitchen makes all kinds of delicious things, and alas, cupcakes don't even appear on their menu. However, they seem to sell all different kinds and flavors, and I got the last two chocolate cream ones. I could hardly wait to spirit them home. The frosting tasted like a cream cheese based one, and as far as cream cheese frostings go, this one was light and delicious. And the cake was yummy, too, although to be honest I hardly noticed because I was too busy eating the cupcake as fast as I could.

I'm not a fan of cream cheese frostings, but I would eat another 10 of these, certainly.

I have not yet had the pleasure of trying other flavors from Summer Kitchen, although I will next time I go by. So far, I'm favorably impressed with their cupcakes. I'd like to try a buttercream frosting one. I was impressed with the size of the cupcake and the amount of frosting -- definitely no skimping there. Well done, Summer Kitchen! A worthy stop on a cupcake tour, certainly. The only drawback is that they sell out in the evenings (I visited at 7 pm). The positive to that is that they must make them fresh daily, then.

The First Quest: Virginia Bakery

Thus begins the quest for the best cupcake in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The first bakery I visited was, naturally, the place where I got my wedding cake: Virginia Bakery on Shattuckand Virginia in North Berkeley. Virginia Bakery is a fantastic old bakery, with an array of tasty cakes, cookies, and pies. If you need a wedding cake sample, this is the place to go. They'll bake you a free (I know, right?!) cake with up to four different types of fillings and cake baked in. Deeeeelish. Their customer service is also great and as far as a wedding cake baker goes, Virginia is awesome.

However, not so much for the cupcakes. I found the cupcakes to be sort of like grocery store cupcake quality. I was a tad disappointed. Virginia's specialty is not in cupcakes, admittedly, but it did seem that they could extend their cake prowess to the little, but mighty, cupcake.

As a result, I was forced to comfort myself with a chocolate chip cookie, which was lovely.

Ze next stop vill be Teacake Bakeshop in Emerville....oh yes! Stay tuned.