Mini cupcakes from La Farine

A friend gave me some Birthday treats from La Farine in celebration of my birth 37 years ago on January 11th. They came in two different boxes, each sealed with a gold La Farine sticker and inside one of those boxes were three mini cupcakes.
My friend knows me well. 

I hadn't heard of La Farine before but the name sounded French and upon investigation I learned that, oui mademoiselle it is!  La Farine Boulangerie is a French bakery, as the name suggests, that has been open in Berkeley since 1977. It's menu is full of French pastries, breads, cookies and cakes. Their fresh fruit tartes might be the most delectable thing on their menu: flakey pastry filled with crème pâtissière and finished with a kaleidoscope of fresh, seasonal fruit. Oh la la. 

Mini cupcakes from La Farine Boulangerie in Berkeley 
photo by Nikki DeMartini

From the looks of the three petite cupcakes I got for my birthday, one was chocolate, one was red velvet and one with specks of looked like cinnamon in the frosting made me initially think it was churro. Would a French place make a churro flavored cupcake? I was about to find out. 

That was the first one I ate and as soon as removed it's wrapper I knew that it was a Pumpkin Spice cupcake because of it's golden orange cake. I was a little surprised to have Fall's seasonal favorite flavor in January but I wasn't mad about it. The frosting was yummy and cinnamony, the aromatic cake for as small as it was had just enough of that warm pumpkin spice feel yet it wasn't as buttery as one might expect from a French bakery. When the mini Pumpkin Spice cupcake was gone in 2 to 3 bites I thought to myself that it might have been one of the best baked pumpkin treats I've had. 

Pumpkin Spice, Red Velvet & Double Chocolate mini cupcakes from La Farine 
photo by Nikki DeMartini

Next up was the chocolate one: chocolate frosting on chocolate cake. Oh my goodness, this frosting! It was so thick and rich with chocolate, dark chocolate. And it was creamy, so creamy. It reminded me of a German Chocolate Cake, the frosting did. Again, the cake was not as buttery as one might expect from a French bakery and as many chocolate cakes do it missed the chocolatey mark. But, this frosting...best chocolate frosting I've had in a long time, possibly the best chocolate frosting I've ever had. Très bon. 

Last but definitely not least was the Red Velvet one. The color of the cake was one of the lighter hues of red I've seen of this popular flavor while the flavor itself was unmistakably Red Velvet. With my first bite of it I thought, wow, this mini cupcake sure packs a punch of red velvet. It's a hard flavor palate to describe but if you know it, you know. Also unmistakable was the cream cheese frosting which was on the sweet side. While eating the frosting off of the Red Velvet cupcake the thought popped into my mind that maybe the frosting on the Pumpkin Spice cupcake was cream cheese, too. I had originally thought it was a cinnamon buttercream however they both had the same, almost tacky consistency. 

I finished all three lickity split. Un, deux, trois pour moi. 

La Farine doesn't have cupcakes on their menu, cakes oui but no cupcakes. My friend told me that it is the type of bakery that makes off the menu items so you never know what they'll have when you walk in. He hoped that they'd have full size cupcakes for my birthday but I'm happy with the three minis he got me because it means that my first taste of La Farine was three fold. 

Mini fresh fruit tarte from La Farine 
photo by Nikki DeMartini

The second box, for those who are curious, housed a mini fresh fruit tarte. With it's kaleidoscope of mixed berries (mainly strawberries and blueberries) on top of an exquisite crème pâtissière inside of a flakey pastry crust (which was so buttery and so yummy) it was basically a cupcake itself. It was my favorite birthday treat and I didn't want it to come to an end. 

Thank you to everyone who treated me with birthday wishes!