Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes @ Outside Lands 2014

Wooden Windmills at Outside Lands
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

Summertime = Music Festival-time and it's true what they say, time  does fly when you're having fun! I mean can you believe it's already been a month since the 7th Annual Outside Lands Music (Food, Wine, Beer & Art) Festival?

Grouplove @ Outside Lands Friday August 8th, 2014
Photo by Marc Fong

Believe it because today marks one month since The Killers closed out the third day of SF's  biggest Music Festival which draws Hundreds of Thousands of people to Golden Gate Park over the span of three days in early August.

Tegan and Sara @ Outside Lands Friday August 8th, 2014
Photo by Marc Fong

Along with seeing so many awesome acts that this year's line up offered like (and definitely not limited to), Grouplove, Kanye West , Chromeo, Tegan and Sara, Macklemore, Discloser,  Big Freedia and The Flaming Lips I was really exited because this was the year I was finally going to  have a cupcake at OSL!



Kanye West  @ Outside Lands Friday August 8th, 2014
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

Macklemore @ Outside Lands Saturday August 9th, 2014
Photo by Marc Fong

The Flaming Lips @ Outside Lands Sunday August 10th, 2014
Photo by Marc Fong

The Flaming Lips @ Outside Lands Sunday August 10th, 2014
Photo by Marc Fong

The Flaming Lips @ Outside Lands
Photo by Marc Fong Sunday August 10th, 2014

Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes is a San Francisco based business and their cupcakes have been sold at  Outside Lands since the festival started seven years ago! This year, I decided it was about time I had one! YUM!

Chocolands @ Outside Lands 2014
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

The dessert kiosks have their own space separate from all of the restaurant/other eatery kiosks which line the main stretch between the main Outside Lands stage and 2nd largest stage, Twin Peaks which is across the park. Tucked away in the off skirts of the woods is where all  the goodies are and Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes has  TWO set ups! One of the set-ups is in Chocolands which is a section of the festival strictly dedicated to everything chocolate, so all of the cupcakes sold there are have chocolate (Sweet Chocolate, Chocolate Coconut, Sweet S'mores, etc). Then there's the Kara's Cupcake truck which is parked just outside of Chocolands and it has (almost) all the other cupcake flavors that Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes offers (Red Velvet, Lemon, Carrot Cake, Key Lime, etc).

Kara's Cupcake Truck  @ Outside Lands 2014
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

I chose an appropriate Chocolands flavor, the Sweet Chocolate Cupcake: chocolate cake with a sugary sweet chocolate frosting. Cupcakes come across as the perfect festival treat because you can enjoy it en route to the next stage/set/act but this ideal scenario isn't always the case as I learned at Outside Lands. Kara's really piles the frosting on to their  Cupcakes, a fact  I am not complaining about, but it does make it difficult to eat on the go, especially when dust is being kicked up by passers by (which is  the case a lot of the at Outside Lands).

So I hunkered down for a couple minutes in Chocolands to completely enjoy my indulgent choco-fix.

Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes in Chocolands @ Outside Lands 2014
Photo by Nikki DeMartini



Kara's Gourmet Cupcakes @ Outside Lands 2014
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

The cupcake was un-expectedly fresh! They must have been baked then delivered everyday of the three day festival because I got mine around 4:00pm on Sunday and it's delicious freshness was the very first thing I noticed. The frosting was creamy, not hardened as frosting tends to do when out for an extended time and the cake was fluffy and buttery.

Kara's Sweet Chocolate Cupcake
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

Kara's Sweet Chocolate Cupcake
Photo by Nikki DeMartini

In my experience I've found that  the frosting on Chocolate Cupckaes is overtly chocolate while the cake itself lacks coco flavor and is just chocolate in color. I was delighted that this was not the case with Kara's Sweet Chocolate Cupcake! The cake itself had a distinctive Dark Chocolate taste while it's thick frosting is more of a Milk Chocolate flavor. It's sweet, it's chocolatey, it's pretty darn decadent and I was ready to see  more bands in a mere matter of minutes! Turns out Festival Cupcakes, though not easy to eat while walking, they are a great treat because they don't take much time to eat!Thanks to Chocolands at Outside Lands now I know Kara's Sweet Chocolate Cupcake is my favorite Chocolate Cupcake! I  can't wait to eat a cupcake at Outside Lands #8!

Kara's Sweet Chocolate Cupcake
Photo by Nikki DeMartini


(You wanna see more photos of the bands that played Outside Lands this year? Head over to MarcFongPhoto.com the whole OSL gallery should be up soon!)