Cupcakes in Vegas

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I was in Las Vegas over the Fourth of July and received the sweetest surprise!

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Cupcakes!!! And lots of them.

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They were from Kari and Brian of Retro Bakery ^[4]. I “met” Kari through flickr ^[5] when she was documenting her adventures in opening a bakery and I’ve been keeping up with her on Twitter ^[6], knowing that the next time I visited Las Vegas, I wanted to rent a car and surprise her at the bakery.

Fun! Fun! Fun! I’ve only been to a few cupcake bakeries. Sprinkles Cupcakes ^[7] in Dallas and The Atlanta Cupcake Factory ^[8] in Georgia. I know. There’s something enormously wrong with that picture. So I was really excited to see Retro and check out their cupcakes.

Big problem. Right before I left, she announced they were going to be closed on the day I could come visit. On vacation of all things. Just my luck. Needless to say, I was bummed.

But, Kari did the sweetest thing. She sent some to the hotel for me the last day they were open. The Fourth of July. I couldn’t believe it. I mean I’ve certainly never had cupcakes delivered to my room before. The bellman brought them up and for a minute I thought I was going to have to fight the guy for them. Even after I tipped him, he kept going on about them. I guess he wanted me to give him one. Well, that didn’t happen. Sorry Mr. Bellman. These were all staying with me!

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Can you blame me. I mean look at them. They tasted just as good as they look. And really moist too.

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In the back is Pink Lemonade (Lemon cake topped with pink lemonade buttercream and hot pink glitter sugar). In the front: Hop Scotch (Vanilla cake topped with vanilla buttercream dipped in butterscotch ganache) This was one of my favorites!

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Here we have Cinnamon Toast (Vanilla cake topped with cinnamon buttercream dusted with cinnamon and sugar). YUM!

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And here… Milk & Cookies (Chocolate-chip cake topped with vanilla buttercream and a freshly baked mini chocolate chip cookie.) This is all wrong and all right, all at the same time. Another fave!

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Left: Apple Cider (Cinnamon swirl cake topped with apple cider buttercream dusted with cinnamon and sugar) Front: Mint Chocolate Chip (Chocolate cake topped with green mint buttercream and mini chocolate chips) Right: Red, White & Blueberry (Blueberry cake topped with strawberry buttercream) This might have been my most fave. But it’s a toss up with the Hopscotch.

Oh and, sorry about the lighting on some of these pics. The room didn’t have the best angle for natural light.

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But who cares about lighting when you have this much chocolate to look at. Left: Chocolate Fountain (Chocolate cake topped with chocolate buttercream and dipped in chocolate ganache). Right: Chocolate Covered Banana (Chocolate cake topped with banana buttercream dipped in chocolate ganache and sprinkled with walnuts) Back: Peanut Butter Cup (Chocolate cake topped with peanut butter buttercream and dark chocolate shavings) Who am I kidding… these were all faves.

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But I didn’t actually eat them then.

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I left them all alone in the room while we went to get dinner. It was difficult, but I knew if I tasted even one, it would be all over. By the way, if you’ve been to Vegas, you can probably guess where I stayed by now.

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And, later when we returned.

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Let’s just say there was a little cupcake carnage during the taste testing. I won’t give you all the messy details, but I’m glad there wasn’t a camera filming me.

And the best thing about these cupcakes, was having the rest of them again for breakfast.

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Thanks so much for the Retro cupcakes ^[4], Kari & Brian. I hope to really meet you guys next time.

Do you have a cupcake bakery in your area that you want to try? One that you love or one that you’ve just heard of? I would love to hear your recommendations.