A few of my favorite things

I meet two of my clients for lunch on Friday in Agoura Hills. It was a bit of a trek. On my way home, I stopped by my all-time favorite cupcake bakery.

Leda's Bakeshop

818 386 9644
13722 Ventura Blvd. Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

This is what I came home with. I love their Coconut Lime flavor. Thankfully, I had planned to share. So, I only ate two of these little gems.

Have case, Will travel

Guess what's in this case. (No, this is not "Deal or No Deal".)

Cupcakes!

From not one, but three well-known cupcake sources.

Sprinkles

Auntie Em's Kitchen

Crumbs Bakeshop

My sister's birthday was on March 30th. I had originally planned to fly out to Virginia for her birthday. Due to conflict with my then work schedule, I had to re-schedule. To make it up to her, I offered to get her cupcakes. Then, my over-achiever mind kicked into overdrive. I got the crazy idea to create a cupcakes sampler for her.

Flying with cupcakes in a cupcake carrier was less complicated than I expected. If anyone wants to try this, be prepared for LOTS of silly comments from strangers. I am not a big fan of so much attention. So to me, it was a bit of an ordeal. I carried that cupcake carrier like it was filled it with state secrets. The only thing I needed was to have it handcuffed to my person. I was THAT hardcore.

I went through all of that to have the cupcakes look like this when I arrived in Virginia.

Thankfully, my sister and my nephews are not interested in aesthetics and the cupcakes still tasted as good as they originally looked.

A Tasty Treat

Sometimes it's the little things that make me happy. My mother-in-law left a little package on our doorstep. I opened it up to find this.

She left us some tasty treats from Vanilla Bakeshop! Sometimes, there really are benefits to having your mother-in-law living next door.

In the box was a vanilla cupcake with a strawberry on top for me and a chocolate cupcake for Rob the choco-fiend. I am not a cake person, but I enjoy cupcakes for their frosting to cake ratio. I was a bit reluctant to partake in this cupcake because it was heaped with icing. In my experience, heavy-handed icing equates to inedible cupcakes, even disgusting cupcakes. The over-exuberant use of icing is a diversionary tactic. In this case, I was pleasantly surprised and a bit disappointed that there wasn't more icing. The icing was buttery and smooth with little bits of vanilla bean in it. It did not have the gritty, overly sweet taste of lesser quality cupcakes. It was airy and reminded me a little of whip cream. The cake was equally tasty. It was moist and delicious and it also had vanilla bean pieces in it. I swear it was like a teeny tiny bit of heaven and it made me smile. Now if only I could figure out how to con Rob out of his cupcake...