Cupcakes Galore!

Studying for the bar exam is one of those times in which one's mind is really fragile and easily susceptible to random breakdowns. Well, not necessarily random, but very easily triggered by any sort of crisis (or pseudo crisis).

Anyhow, yesterday I found myself with a really insignificant problem. My favorite cupcake place of all time is called Sibby's Cupcakery. It's in San Mateo, just 20-30 minutes outside of San Francisco. It has 500 something reviews on yelp, and almost 5 stars. I always, always go there whenever I go home to SF. Since my brother left for college however, he took the extra car with him, so I have no car. Unfortunately, Sibby's can only be reached by car (although perhaps I could run there, given my marathon training). Finally, when my parents went on vacation, I was able to use their car. This was 4th of July. Unfortunately, Sibby's was closed. I had been looking forward to it for days! 

The next day, on July 5th, I dutifully finished all my bar review work for the day, then called to see if Sibby's had any leftover cupcakes. That's the annoying thing about them--they don't actually have a store. They fulfill orders, and if there are any leftover, you can buy the leftovers. They usually purposely make a lot of leftovers. Unfortunately, the were sold out! Now in my normal state, I probably would have just waited until tomorrow. However, in my frazzled bar reviews studying phase, I snapped. I googled cupcakeries in the bay area, and ended up driving 10 miles to get a cupcake from a reputable place. I didn't want just any cupcake--I wanted a really good cupcake. 

Kara's Meyer Lemon Cupcake--my favorite of the 3 that I tried. It has a tart lemon filling.

The bigger two are from Kara's, and the small one is the banana cupcake from Sweetcakes--it got kind of squished from moving in my car, and I ate the key lime before I could take photos. 

So I drove 10 miles and went to a place called Sweetcakes, and bought a key lime cupcake and a banana cupcake. The key lime was really, really good, probably close to Sibby's. the banana was okay. Then, I drove another 6 miles, and bought 3 cupcakes from Kara's Cupcakes--one fleur de sel, which is chocolate with caramel filling and salt, one strawberry cream, and one lemon. All three were really good. I think I still like Sibby's best though, but that might just be because it's more difficult for me to get them? Anyhow, I would say Kara's was better than Sweetcakes. I think all of these are better than Magnolia Bakery, in NY. I think I'll have to start perfecting my cupcake baking so I'm less depending on 3rd parties.