When I travel I make it a point to find the most talked about cupcakes in town and give them my own personal taste test.  Up until Las Vegas, I hadn’t found any that I would deem better than my own.  A quick internet search brought up a name I know I’d seen on my cupcake blogs and the address was literally down the street.  So I grabbed the GPS and my keys and headed straight to Las Vegas’ The Cupcakery.

They also have locations in Dallas, but this is the original.  The experience was fabulous!  Along with the presentation of being a warm and inviting, bright and cozy location with small tables by the windows they had a wooden armoir nestled in the corner with various cupcake related items for sale.  It is a cupcake lover’s haven.  There was even a sign about the rules of cupcakes (please keep the A/C on in this Vegas heat if you do not want your desserts to melt!)

I’d looked up the featured cupcake on the website before I got there but everything in the case looked so inviting that I had to try more than just one.  With the help of the young lady working, I walked away with the following (she made sure I had a different cake flavor in each one):

Red Velvet: Sumptuous red velvet cake smothered with cream cheese frosting
Chocolate Peanut Butter: Rich chocolate cake topped with crunchy peanut butter frosting
Strawberry Lemonade (Cupcake of the month): Lemon cake, swirled in fresh strawberries, and topped with strawberry cream cheese frosting and a real strawberry. It’s tangy, sweet and the perfect cupcake for a summer picnic.
Oh My Gosh Ganache: Magnificent vanilla cake with a silky chocolate truffle center, topped with vanilla and chocolate buttercreams.

I get a red velvet cupcake everywhere I go…in search of the perfect cream cheese frosting (perfect compared to mine) and I found it in Las Vegas.  Cream cheese frosting should be tangy…but not salty.  It should be sweet enough to be considered frosting but not crack you out on a sugar rush.  This red velvet cupcake was perfection in terms of the sweet:tangy ratio.

Next I cut into the Oh My Gosh Ganache because I’ve never had a filled cupcake before.  I was a little disappointed with the filling.  The cupcake had obviously been refrigerated and the ganach was so firm that it basically fell away from the cake when I cut it open.

What I wasn’t disappointed in was the chocolate buttercream on top!  After having the red velvet, the chocolate buttercream was like a blast of chocolate in my mouth.  WONDERFUL.

I’d been eating them in halves up until this point…..and I was full….so I resorted to cutting slices out of the remaining two.  The chocolate peanut butter was another excellent choice.  Both the cake and frosting were extremely rich.  The first bite didn’t necessarily win me over but when I was ready for more later in the night…it was the first one I finished off.  The chocolate cake was not dense or thick or dry or hard or any of those other negative adjectives often associated with chocolate cake.  It was perfect.  The frosting was not overly peanuty…..but it was peanut butter frosting.  I definitely want to give it a try now.

Last but not least was the featured cupcake…Strawberry Lemonade.  Can I just tell you that I’m not an extremely adventurous person?  Especially when it comes to my food.  I like to stick with what I know.  This one scared me.  I was intimidated by how glamorous it looked.  It had glitter!  It was delicious.  Again…just a hint of the strawberry flavor throughout, harmoniously mixed with the lemon cake.  Each bite was as luxurious as champagne.

Original Diva, pastry extraordinaire, has found the best cupcake shop in her travels so far.  Kudos to The Cupcakery here in Las Vegas…..I’ll be back.