Butter Me Up

In a town where my therapist is on the South Beach Diet, and my Gardner does leg-lifts in between pruning my roses, I am ever so amused by the cupcake revolution that has exploded on the L.A. scene. When Sprinkles opened in Beverly Hills, thrones bowed down in appreciation (well, maybe they were just purging, but what does that really matter). I too joined the masses in rekindling my fond appreciation of the tiny cakes, but couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the irony of the whole thing. I mean, do people know how many calories are in those little things? Whatever magical spell the cupcake vendors have put over our town, I’d like to borrow for a weekend’s shopping trip with my boyfriend (“you are getting spendy, very spendy…you want to buy expensive shoes for your girlfriend…”).

Needless to say, I am hooked on cupcakes. In search of something a little different than the every so trendy Sprinkles, I stumbled upon a little gem on Pico. Buttercake Bakery is squeezed next door to a Subway Sandwich, and if you blink on the block between Prosser and Manning streets, you’d almost miss the blue awning and the tiny flower boxes that dress the outside of the bakery. A step inside the small shop and you really appreciate this bakery for what it is: a bakery. There are no Oz curtains to pull back as the whole kitchen is exposed behind the counter. An operation of 4 people was busy baking with the voices of the Food Network cooing them through their hanging television set. The bakery case is adorably arranged with various cake tiers and pretty platters (and the baked goods didn’t look too bad themselves). But I wasn’t there for a chocolate chip cookie (which looked divine) or a lemon bar (which was calling my name). I was there for one thing and one thing only: a cupcake.

What I got was much more, for Buttercake offers their signature cupcakes in miniature sizes! That’s right, I can only get a little fat if I want to. So I did what any girl with an appetite would do and purchased 3 miniature cupcakes: Red Velvet, Chocolate with Mocha Buttercream and Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream. I felt so skinny already, getting three cupcakes for less than the size of regular one. I think I stumbled upon the real Los Angeles oxymoron: diet(ish) cupcakes. While Buttercake doesn’t offer the plethora of flavors that our famed Sprinkles does, they do a great job with the limited items they create. The cupcakes themselves were buttery and moist. The Buttercream was divine: creamy, sweet and ooey gooey. The Cream Cheese frosting on the Red Velvet was to die for. The Mocha frosting took the cake (pun intended, as always) blowing away any cupcake Sprinkles makes. A must go for an only slightly guilty pleasure.

Buttercake Bakery
10595 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
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