Sometimes in life, you’ve got to roll the dice. Other times, you’ve got to know when to fold
‘em or hold ‘em. And sometimes, you’ve
just got to double down. And that’s
exactly what I did on my recent trip to Vegas.
Partly for work and partly for a girls’ weekend in a cabana @ Mandalay
Bay surrounded by 1200 marines! – yeah – marines – and it wasn’t even my birthday. Anywho, when the dealer gives you 7 days in
Vegas, you must try at least two cupcake joints.
First – and my apologies for not having any photos of it –
The Cupcakery in Monte Carlo. I had to
walk right by it to get to Starbucks in the morning. These cupcakes were good. I got a Lemon Crème – it was good – moist,
sweet yet tart. A solid showing from
this three location spot. I also got a
sample of the Julius – orange pineapple cake with a heavy cream frosting. That one was good – a strong flavorful
cupcake but the frosting wasn’t my fave. Nonetheless, good texture cake.
Then – The Sugar Factory.
This place is fun – part restaurant, part bar, and part candy/treat shop
with their largest location in the Paris Casino Hotel on the strip and then a
few other mini-shops around town. Here's a pic from one of the mini-shops:
They make some questionable decisions on celebrity promotion:
Just kidding sitch! We should hang out!
I
went to the restaurant for dinner and it was quite good for an American style
brasserie. I had a salad and picked some
onion rings and other treats from my friend’s plate. They did have some creative ideas – macaroni and
cheese pops – really – balls of mac and cheese in battered ball form and deep
fried onto a stick. Pretty brilliant. For the cupcake test, I picked up a vanilla
cupcake at the Sugar Factory mini-shop in the Miracle Mile Shops in Planet Hollywood. While there it occurred to us that this mall
used to be in Aladdin. Remember
Aladdin? Easy come, easy go in Sin City.
Here's the cupcake - looks good right?
Anyway, this vanilla cupcake was not good. Way too dry and crumbly texture and seemed
stale. The frosting was like a whipped
shortening which was barely sweetened. And is often the case with dry cake, the sides did not hold up - look at this side of this poor little guy:
Finally, the saving grace of the Sugar Factory, is the cute merch. They have all kinds of candy, giant lollipops, and even cakepops. And what goes better with that than an adorable rubber ducky to make the trip home with you.
More cupcakery reviews to come as I head back out west!