Cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery

Magnolia Bakery sign 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

When I was in New York last October my busy work schedule kept me from going to and trying all of the places my fabulous foodie friends recommended to me. One of those places was a bakery, so when I found a New York Bakery in L.A in November I was so excited. Alas, it was not Martha's Bakery as was recommended to me while in New York, it was Magnolia Bakery. Magnolia Bakery first opened it's doors in 1996 in the West Village and by 2007 it's vintage shops started popping up across the country, including the one at 3rd Street and Orlando in L.A.











It was the end of October, so you know what that means? Halloween and Pumpkin Spice Season. After working at Starbucks for years on end and being traumatized by rude, basic bitches modifying their non-fat, half decaf, iced Pumpkin Spice whatevers with precise percentages of the orange sugar sludge, I do not usually indulge in the pumpkin spice phenomenon. Unless of course, it tickles my fancy and by tickle my fancy I mean it's not your run of the mill Pumpkin Spice flavoring. Cupcakes for example don't seem to spice things up when it comes to Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes. But, when I checked out the weekly cupcakes on the Magnolia Bakery website and saw their Pumpkin Spice Cupcake, I knew I had to have it. A Pumpkin Spice Cake made with Nutmeg and Cinnamon, a caramel cream cheese frosting and candied cranberries. Ummm, hello. Yes, please.
But the day I went in to get one, those cupcakes weren't available for another couple of hours and I left without one. My Dad suggested getting a slice of the Pumpkin Spice cake but I review cupcakes, there is a difference.

Magnolia Bakery cupcakes 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

Magnolia Bakery cupcakes 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

The spacious store smelled of frosting and had long counter tops and glass showcases with whole cakes on top from which you can buy slices. Other treats filled the shelves and an array of cupcakes on cake stands has counter space designated just to them. The bright pink, blue, green and yellow frostings caught my eye and I knew then that I would be back before returning to SF.
Maybe I'd get one of their special a Christmas time flavors.

























By the time I made it back to Magnolia Bakery for a cupcake it was already the end the end December and I had missed almost all of the Christmas time flavors: Hot Coco, a chocolate cupcake topped with meringue icing and a custom marshmallow. Chocolate Peppermint, the candy cane inspired cupcake is a chocolate cupcake topped with a swirl of red and white Peppermint meringue buttercream sprinkled with crush peppermint candy. The Sno Cap, a cupcake featuring devil's food cake with a high peak of meringue icing.
The Red Velvet White-Out was the weekly special when I went in on my second visit: a classic Red Velvet cupcake with meringue icing covered in Red Velvet crumbles but I went with a selection from their classic cupcakes.

Magnolia Bakery cupcakes with chocolate frosting 

photo by Nikki DeMartini 

There was a whole cake stand full of cupcakes topped with chocolate frosting so I got one of each: one vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting and one chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting. I was hoping that the vanilla cake with chocolate frosting was yellow cake with chocolate frosting because that is my favorite flavor of cake and/or cupcake but it was indeed vanilla cake with chocolate frosting.

Chocolate & Vanilla cupcakes with Chocolate frosting at Magnolia Bakery

photo by Nikki DeMartini

Both of the cakes were, well they weren't bad. The vanilla was vanilla and the chocolate was chocolate.
(if you have read any of my past reviews on chocolate cake you know what I mean. If you haven't read any of my past reviews on chocolate cake, what are you waiting for?!)
The chocolate frosting caught me off guard, it looks like a buttercream frosting but it's a whipped icing. Think the type of frosting on grocery store cupcakes, simple and sugary only way more fancy. And there was a lot of it which being a frosting lover, I fully enjoyed all of it. For a classic cupcake, the vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting from Magnolia Bakery live up to the name. Classic flavors of standard cupcakes.


All of the cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery are picture perfect and they have a different weekly cupcake all year long. The weekly cupcake schedule is on their website and classic cupcake flavors are available everyday of the week.