Ube cupcake from Salud

Before the music festival season really got underway, swinging my workload into fill speed ahead mode, a good friend of mine came to visit me and my new stomping grounds. Showing them around  meant eating our way around town which is what we do everywhere we go. As it turns out it's also a great way to get to know a new area. 

After brunch one day we decided to peruse 4th street. Bright with sunshine and lively with people out and about enjoying all of the cute stores and eateries the street has to offer, it is quite a destination for brunchin'. Bopping in and out of different thrift stores, we were drawn to a juice spot named Salud. In all honesty we were drawn to it at first because we found it so funny that a the place was named Salad but as we got closer we realized it was not salad but Salud. With it's rich display of large tropical plants and wide open doors that floods the store on the corner with natural light, it seems to invite you right in. And, in we went. 

As my friends looked at juices and wellness shots on the menu I looked at the display case. My eyes lit up when I saw that this fancy juice shop had cupcakes! They weren't vegan or gluten free or anything "healthy" like that. They were Ube cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and salted caramel. 
 My friend asked if I wanted a cupcake as he placed his wellness shot order and I didn't let the opportunity pass. I stuck it in the fridge I stuck it in the fridge because I wasn't sure when I was going to eat it in between all of the other eating we were doing. 

Two days later the cupcake was still there and I decided it was now or never, fearing it might already be too late. Low and behold that first bite reveled fresh, brilliant lavender cake! It wasn't dry or crumbly at all.  Ube is a purple yam from the Philippines and it's uber popular. You can pretty much get ube anything: donuts, ice cream, iced lattes, Boba tea, cupcakes. Besides it's purple color the other thing I enjoy about ube is that it isn't too flavorful. It has a richness to it's subtle sweetness which has been compared to vanilla. which is probably why Salud choose a vanilla cream frosting to go with their ube cupcake. The dollop of frosting was hardened when I took it out of the fridge but it quickly softened up as I ate it. Even after being in the fridge a couple of days the buttercream frosting was still legit with a thick texture. 

Drizzled on top was the salted caramel and with all these rich, comforting flavors this final touch wasn't too much. These three flavors compliment each other so well that they balanced out. The most potent of the three flavors is the salted caramel but there's not much of it so it doesn't outweigh the vanilla or the ube. 

This cupcake from Salud is definitely a comfort food and might even be a good way to ease yourself back into eating solid food after doing one of Salud's juice cleanses. Before writing this review I pondered why a juice spot would have cupcakes then it dawned on me, technically ube can be juiced! Who doesn't love a purple drank...but a purple cupcake?! Some might say that's even better.