Vanilla

Vanilla Bakeshop
512 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-458-6644

(They do also have a Twitter account – they don’t Tweet often, but occasionally they’ll offer free cupcakes or cupcake babies, so keep your eye on it.)

Another place that I love, love, LOVE , here in Los Angeles is Vanilla Bakeshop.  I love them so much that I called to ask if they would consider delivering a cake, or massive number of cupcakes, to the East Coast for an event – no dice.  (So I’ll be on a mission, at the end of August, sampling cakes in the Philly area, trying to find something that comes anything close to what Vanilla does.  Any suggestions, please email me at nikki (at) eleven-seven (dot) com.)

Am seriously contemplating buying a cake before flying out there, taking a few slices with me and forcing the bakeshops to try it, while saying, “I want it to taste EXACTLY like this.”

I stumbled upon them when I realized that Chris’s birthday was upon me, and I had exactly 3 days to decide what to do.  I googled “birthday cake santa monica,” and found Vanilla Bakeshop.

I am so very, very glad that I did.

His cake was a German chocolate cake with vanilla bean icing and it was, truly, the most amazing cake I’ve ever had in my life.  (And trust me, I know cake.)

We now make a weekly trip to Vanilla for cupcakes, usually on Sundays, although I do occasionally stop in during the week.  They have a range of flavors always on offer, as well as special daily flavors.  (I highly recommend Tuesdays, pumpkin cupcake and peanut butter cupcake day.)  Although, with as many wonderful flavors as they have, I have a hard time choosing anything than their black & white or bittersweet variety.

F*ck it – if I can’t find a bakery that passes the test around Philadelphia, I’ll seriously take a freight load of cupcake on the plane with me and transport them myself.