Nothing Bundt Cakes - Fremont, California

As the holiday season approaches, so does the dessert season. One of the perks of my new job is that there are many occasions which afford me to try new and delicious local treats.

This week, our office had a holiday party. Not only did we have a lovely array of food and beverages, but the dessert options were pretty stacked. One of the choices was bundtinis from Nothing Bundt Cakes.

What's a bundtini, you ask? I had the same question. Here, my friends, is the answer:

Cute and ideally sized, this is what I like to call the cupcake version of a bundt cake. Of course they had red velvet, so I took this as the universe's way of telling me I need to get back to my adventuring.

The cake itself was delicious. Super moist with chunks of chocolate at the bottom. It wasn't your traditional red velvet, but it was really good. The frosting was creamy, smooth, and had the perfect cream cheese flavor.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the bundtini. Nothing Bundt Cakes is definitely a source of good desserts and I plan to take full advantage of their franchises all around Northern California.

I've also found some local bakeries specializing in cupcakes, so keep coming back for more as I follow the red velvet road.


Price $1.70/bundtini (sold by the dozen for $20.50)
Cake: moist, light chocolate flavor, chocolate chunks in cake
Icing: thick, creamy, good cream cheese flavored frosting
Decorations: simple
Overall Rating: 9/10
Website: Nothing Bundt Cakes

 

fairycakes - San Jose, California

Well, I'm back after another, much shorter, hiatus. Big news everyone, I moved to California!!! Through a series of serendipitous events, I got a job in Northern California. Let the good times roll!

After a few weeks of getting my feet on the ground and re-centering myself, I was able to start exploring the baked goods available here in San Jose. I have to say, Northern California is pretty donut heavy. I think the west coast is pretty much all donut territory. I haven't seen much in the way of cupcake bakeries, at least not as many as I've seen donut shops. I tried not to let this get me down...worse case scenario, I start writing about red velvet donuts, right?

Well, lucky for me I don't have to switch over to the dark side yet. Through another series of serendipitous events, I happened upon a food truck rally in San Jose. One of the trucks just happened to be a cupcake food truck, fairycakes! Oh lucky day!

Also lucky for me, they had red velvet on the menu!

I was pleased with the cupcake overall. I do think it needed a bit more chocolate flavor, but overall the texture and moisture in the cake was great. The frosting flavor was very good, though it was thicker than I usually like.

I tried some other flavors from the fairycakes menu and I have to say, they were delicious. I highly recommend the hazelnut toffee and the salted caramel. The tiramisu is also reportedly delicious!

Overall I was happy with my first San Jose red velvet experience. It definitely left me eager to try out new places!


Price $3/cupcake
Cake: moist, light chocolate flavor
Icing: thick, creamy, good cream cheese flavored frosting
Decorations: simple
Overall Rating:6/10
Website: fairycakes

 

The Hummingbird Cafe - Dubai, United Arab Emirates

On my way back from my yoga teacher training, I had a long layover in Dubai, UAE. I decided to explore the city a little bit, which mostly meant me going to the Dubai Mall for a few hours. I was feeling a little under the weather so I didn't want to eat too much, however when I came across the Hummingbird Bakery I had to indulge in a little red velvet cupcake.

The Hummingbird Bakery had the best red velvet cupcake I'd had in a long time. It was wonderfully moist and the cake had a good amount of chocolate flavor. Also, the frosting had a great amount of cream cheese flavor. It wasn't too sweet but it wasn't too savory. I'm not sure if it's because I was in Africa for so long or if it was because the cupcake was actually good, but I really believe the cupcake was very good. I'm happy to know that in the middle of the desert you can find a wonderful dessert.

Price $3.81/cupcake
Cake: dense, moist, good chocolate flavor
Icing: smooth, creamy, light cream cheese flavored frosting
Decorations: simple
Overall Rating:7/10
Website: The Hummingbird Cafe

Noah de Bari - Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

For my 30th birthday I went with a couple friends to DR for a weekend excursion. It was part of my bigger life plan to hit 30 countries by the time I turned 30 years old. Done and done.

During the trip, I didn't plan on actively finding any bakeries, I really just wanted to take in the city and enjoy my time there. The universe, it seemed, had a different plan for me! During our exploration of the colonial zone, we happened upon Noah de Bari, a small, quaint bakery. I was excited initially, because I was looking for tres leches cake and this bakery had it in cupcake form. While I was ordering, I also noticed that they had red velvet cupcakes...how serendipitous!

The cupcake looked pretty good. I ate the tres leches one right away and it was absolutely delicious. I had high hopes for the red velvet cupcake after that.

Sadly, the cupcake did not live up the my expectations. The frosting was very gelatinous, which turned me off. The cake itself was pretty good, it had a nice level of moisture and wasn't too dense. The chocolate flavor level was also pretty good.

Overall, I would definitely chose their tres leches over their red velvet, but if you could get the red velvet without the frosting, I'd take that too.


Price $4.78/cupcake
Cake: moist, good chocolate flavor
Icing: gelatinous, not great
Decorations: simple
Overall Rating:4/10
Website: Noah de Bari

Wright's Deli - Tampa, Florida

Hello dear friends! I had to take a sabbatical from my red velvet cupcake hunt to accomplish some other life goals. I'm happy to report I finally acquired my yoga teacher's certification! Yes, not only am I completely obsessed with cupcakes, but I am also a certified yoga instructor. Big day! The process took a lot of my time and focus and during that time I really had to concentrate on eating and thinking healthy. That left little room for cupcake adventures.

Good news, now that the work is done, I'm back! The next few posts are some back logged adventures I haven't written up yet. Please enjoy while I return to frolicking about looking for the best red velvet cupcake out there!

During a work training, I got to try the red velvet cupcakes from Wright's Deli. I had huge expectations considering all my friends said great things about Wright's Deli. I have to admit though, I was pretty disappointed.

Image from Google Images

The cake was pretty dry, thought there was a decent level of chocolate flavor. The frosting was not a cream cheese base, at least not to my taste buds. It had more of an almond/amaretto flavor to it.

So I reported my disappointments to my friend who highly recommended Wright's cupcakes. He seemed surprised by my disappointments, but said I should try their cake rather than their cupcakes. While I don't really understand why one would be different, I suppose the size of the baked good could lead to differences in heat distributions.

Either way, Wright's definitely isn't at the top of my recommendation list. Their lunch menu, however, is delicious!

Price $3/cupcake
Cake: dry, good chocolate flavor
Icing: smooth, creamy, almond/amaretto frosting
Decorations: simple
Overall Rating:5/10
Website: Wright's Deli