Manhattan Beach, CA - Cupcake Challenge

So often when I travel I have a strange sweet tooth for cupcakes. I’m not a big fan of sweets and desserts, and much prefer the more savory dishes and drinks to something overly sugared. However, the draw of three cupcake bakeries within a half hour walk of each other is something I can’t resist, and it becomes quite easy for me to self sacrifice and choke down a few cupcakes in the spirit of competition.  I think it stems from watching too many airings of cupcake wars. The rules were simple, eat one cupcake onsite (any flavor) for a first impression, but take a red velvet to go and have a side-by-side taste test at the end to determine the winner.

The first stop on our walking tour was:

CAKE Bake Shop 3319 Highland Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, 310.545.CAKE

CAKE received 3.5 stars out of 31 reviews on yelp, and most of the comments were similar, cute shop, nice owners, but mediocre cake. Being one to judge (but liking to form my own opinions and realizing that a review from a year ago might not be accurate of the experience you’ll walk into today) I went in with an open mind. My first impressions were that they were cute and clean, but a little sparse on the sweets.  You can find their flavor schedule on their website, and on a Tuesday afternoon we had the options of: Vanilla cake and vanilla butter cream, vanilla cake and chocolate butter cream, chocolate cake and chocolate butter cream, chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream, red velvet cake with cream cheese icing, and a yellow cake with some kind of fruit compote.

Price-wise, they sell a Dozen cupcakes for $32 ($2.66 a cupcake) and a Dozen mini cupcakes for $22 ($1.83 a mini) and although I didn’t pay, I remember it being about $3-$3.50 a cupcake sold separately and $2 for a mini. I had a bite of the chocolate on chocolate, and my impression was OK. It wasn’t overly dry or too moist, but the chocolate cake didn’t boast a lot of flavor or richness. At first taste I’d agree with most of the Yelpers with a 3 star rating. However, that could all change with the red velvet challenge….

Next stop was:

Beckers Bakery and Deli 1025 Manhattan Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, 310.372.3214

Beckers has been a family owned bake shop since 1942. Located 1.2 miles down the beach from CAKE, this little shop is right off the Manhattan Pier and got a four star average from yelpers. The bakery is not strictly a cupcake joint, but all cakes, cookies, donuts, and deli sandwiches.

Beckers had some interesting flavors to offer like a maple syrup and bacon cupcake (which sounds odd, but in my opinion worked!) They had a variety of mini’s ($1.50)and regular cupcakes ($2.50), and while their other baked items were really cute, some of their cupcakes looked a little sloppy. We equated it to a middle class bakery. Not too much fuss, tasty, with a sense of humor (as shown by their Charlie Sheen “still winning,” Beiber Fever, and Sesame Street cookies). Unfortunately for the cupcake challenge, the rest of the bakery was more appealing, but I’d come here first for cookies so far!

Last but not least, we walked down to:

Cupcakes Couture 916 Manhattan Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, 310.372.9200

Our last Cupcakery is located only 259 ft down the street from Beckers. Modeled after a NYC 5th Street Boutique, Cupcake Couture averaged 3.5 stars from yelpers and had the cutest storefront and most cohesive logo and décor. While those things have nothing to do with the quality of the cupcake (in Texas, my favorite cupcakes come from a trailer park, I’m talking taste only here!) it does have a certain appeal to my inner diva. If I were to throw a party where my guests would see the boxes it came in – Cupcakes Couture would be the obvious winner for straight up cuteness. Lucky for us, the cupcakery's business partner is a Cordon Bleu graduate with a passion for pastry and french dessert techniques. 

Again, while things can look great and have a financial backer that dumped some cash into the shop, will they put their money where my mouth is??? I tried not to be prejudice as I gazed at the cupcake display. 

Oh so pretty!.... The flavor offerings were much more varied than at CAKE, and these cupcakes looked so much more appealing than Beckers. They feature larger "Couture" cupcake ($7) in either Sunday Mimosa, Summer Passion Berry, or Blackberry Cabernet, that are larger than a normal cupcake and are available only on certain days. Other days of the week, you may find a normal size cake ($4) in Vanilla Mint Chip, Summer Peaches, Beer and Pretzels, Apple Cobbler, 24 Karat Ginger, Cookies & Cream, Banana Cream Pie, Sea Salted Caramel, Strawberry Cheesecake, Lady in Red, Black and White, Chocolate Obsession, Tuxedo, or Glitz and Glamour. The mini's have their own unique flavors: Berries and Cream, Lemon Coconut, Peanut Butter, Neapolitan, Strawberry Lemonade, Nutella Banana, or Salted Tuxedo.

You’d think that there would be a vast price difference by the look of the cake and the décor in the shop, however these mini’s were $.25 less than those at CAKE. Can I be in love yet? Oh yeah, not til we compare red velvets! Most complaints on yelp were about price, but I'm willing to pay an extra $1.50 for a bigger flavor variety and super cute decorations! 

On to the competition!!!

The official Wikipedia definition of a red velvet cake or cupcake commonly contains buttermilk, butter, flour, cocoa, and red food coloring, most commonly paired with cream cheese frosting. Red Velvet is not a chocolate cake with red food coloring, but rather a yellow cake with a kiss of chocolate. The red color is often enhanced with food coloring, but comes naturally from a chemical reaction between the cocoa powder and an acidic ingredient like buttermilk or vinegar.

We tasted the cakes in the order we obtained them: CAKE's mini cupcake was cute and lightly chocolately, but had an overly sugary icing that really turned me off to the rest of the cake. Beckers had a better frosting, but the cake was almost tasteless and overall appearance of cake and icing looked sloppy - the sides were spilling over and the icing and chocolate shavings looked slopped on. We all know I favor the Cupcake Couture decorations, but this one also had the best cream cheese frosting, and also had the most chocolate flavor without tasting like a straight up chocolate cupcake. Cupcake Couture Wins!!! Because out of these three shops, this is the one I'm planning on taking a walk down the beach to visit again!