Cupcakes in Vegas

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



Cupcakes!!! And lots of them.



They were from Kari and Brian of Retro Bakery. I "met" Kari through flickr when she was documenting her adventures in opening a bakery and I've been keeping up with her on Twitter, 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 in Dallas and The Atlanta Cupcake Factory 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!



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



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!



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



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!



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.



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.



But I didn't actually eat them then.



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.



And, later when we returned.



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.



Thanks so much for the Retro cupcakes, 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.