Taste tester #4: Emilia.
Qualifications: Emilia is a “huge fan of cupcakes” and her favorite foods include wasabi, lizano, cholula. “Okay,” she says, “they’re not foods but I love spicy. Oh, and I hate red velvet cakes and mint cupcakes.”
Cupcake challenger #4: Hotcakes Bakes in Mar Vista. Emilia kept insisting that I try Hotcakes, touting their “awesome red velvet cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes.” So naturally I had to give this little cupcake store a shot. Of her buying experience she says that the employees were very helpful and nice. The display case was “clean, simple but nothing is superhighlighted.” Overall buying experience: “The shop smells wonderful, very simple in-store layout.” Regarding the store’s location and parking situation: “Busy street on recently widened Centinela. Parking is challenging. Park in back.” The cupcakes were smooshed when Emilia brought them over because Hotcakes packaged them in a way-too-big cake box. So on the ride over they ended up colliding into one another as you can see in the above shot. Boo. Cupcakes: $2 each.
Taste tester comments:
- Red Velvet Cupcake: Most everyone commented that these looked very homemade. A simple presentation of whipped cream cheese frosting. Comments about the frosting flavor consisted of “very rich, too much cream cheese”; “really sweet and grainy”; and “very sweet — overpowering.” The red velvet cake itself had a “super red” color but unfortunately it didn’t taste as good as it looked. We all thought it tasted earthy, dry and almost salty. Blech. I strongly suspect this is why Emilia changed her opinion of red velvet cupcakes as she wrote on her evaluation sheet, “It was okay, but I think I don’t like red velvet.”
- Chocolate Cupcake: Unfortunately since we were so unimpressed with Hotcakes’ red velvet and “wild card” vanilla cupcake entries (and were so sugared out at this point, not wanting to go into sugar shock over bad chocolate cupcakes) we skipped the chocolate cupcake. Actually Valerie, ever the trooper, sampled it and confirmed our suspicions that it was as consistently bad as the other cupcakes and to not bother.
- Wild Card — Vanilla Cupcake: As Valerie succinctly put it: “$2? Ya get what ya pay for.” Despite the vast wealth of pastries available at this bakery (from buche de Noel to Kahlua & coconut baba), there weren’t any real “exotic” flavors for their cupcakes.
Hotcakes Bakes
4119 Centinela Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90066
(310) 397-2324
Click here for the final results.
[...] Finally! The end. When I first thought up this contest, it sounded like a fun thing to do. I created special evaluation sheets for each store and each cupcake, rating frosting flavor, cupcake attractiveness, cake flavor and moistness, price and size, and even customer service and display at the store. I created a list of select cupcake stores from all over L.A. (Auntie Em’s, Buttercake, Hotcakes, Lucky Devils, Sprinkles and SusieCakes) which my friends could choose from, and told them to bring back two each of red velvet, chocolate and a wild card flavor (i.e. the most exotic, unique flavor in the store). [...]
[...] First stop — Bodega De Cordova: Basically my first lukewarm review of the place still stands except on this early Saturday evening it was of course busy because of our bus group, who took up the wooden benches nicely. Crackhead and cupcake soul sista Emilia and her friends ordered up the bread and cheese plate. Everyone else jumped into the spirit of the tour by ordering up their glasses of Spanish wine from the small wine list available. Owner Kenny Cordova was on hand to help pour and make suggestions. I was pleased by the number of lovely crackheads arriving for the bus. Everyone was well-dressed and friendly, introducing themselves to me. All were excited about the evening’s festivities. One crackhead gushed about how he was eager to finally find out where he could pick up some good crack. I suggested he try the alleys behind the wine bars. [...]
I went to hotcakes today. I wanted to buy a dozen cupcakes, but I was worried about the cupcakes sliding into each other. They said that they have inserts. I told them I was so glad and I mention this cupcake challenge. they said that the picture of the cupcakes sliding into each other was devastating. I thought that it was funny that they even knew about the challenge. cupcakes arrived unsmooshed and yummy. every one was happy.
Thanks for the update, karenladeeda!