Shortly after Lot 44 Coffee ceased carrying Blue Cupcake, the small, fair trade coffee shop on Spring Street shuttered. Coincidence? Most likely, but my affinity for baker Julie Desmeules' sweet treats biases me into thinking otherwise.
For those of us not ordering Julie's beautiful custom orders, Blue Cupcakes are available only at the Century City Farmers' Market (Thursdays, 11AM-2PM). In need of a cupcake fix and tired of trying new bakeries that more often than not disappoint, I recently paid Julie a visit.
When I arrived around 1PM, much to my chagrin, many flavors were already sold out. As I soon realized, Century City farmers' market regulars know all about Blue Cupcake; I had hoped to snag a banana cupcake, but a woman in front of me bought the remaining six.
After reaching the front of the line, I introduced myself to Julie and mentioned that I loved my strawberry cupcake from Lot 44 which I had blogged about here. With a warm smile and lilting French accent (she's French Canadian), Julie thanked me and generously offered me many more goodies than I had originally intended to order--the mini cupcake sampler in addition to the dulce de leche and red velvet cupcakes I wanted.
This container contained coconut, chocolate, salted caramel, dulce de leche, red velvet and banana mini-cupcakes.
Once home, I immediately set to "work" and dug into the container to sample a little of each flavor.
What I loved most about my first Blue Cupcake from Lot 44 Coffee was its simplicity; the strawberry cupcake tasted like real strawberries. The same is true of Julie's other flavors. In each bite of cupcake, one tastes sugar, butter, chocolate and fruit--real ingredients. The cake is moist and dense but not overpoweringly so, while the frosting is somehow decadent and airy at the same time. Both work together to create cupcake nirvana.
After chowing down on the mini dulce de leche cupcake, I was tickled that a full-sized version still awaited me. With its milky caramel frosting piled high atop buttery vanilla cake, the dulce de leche edged out even the delicious red velvet and banana flavors to earn its spot as my favorite of the bunch.
Thank you again to Julie! If you visit Blue Cupcake one Thursday in the future, be sure to get there early because it's a guarantee that she'll sell out before closing time!
Blue Cupcake
Century City Farmers' Market
Thursdays, 11AM-2PM
1800 Avenue of the Stars
Century City, CA 90067
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