Elina Shatkin
Cupcake balls. Cupcake lollipops. Cupcake burritos.* We've tried nearly every iteration of the cupcake. Most have been bland and gimmicky or fussy and cloying. A few have been plain disgusting. Not the Cake Os from Cakes Suzette, which we first discovered at Artisanal LA
We're not 100% clear on the process, but as far as we can understand, Cake Os are made from cake that's been baked, broken down, mixed with frosting, molded into inch-high towers and covered in a soft, candy shell. The result is a petite, round cakelet, dense, doughy and supremely moist. Are these exceptionally substantial cupcakes or bastardized brownies? If light can be a wave and a particle, we don't know. Cakes Suzette makes them in nine or so flavors. We prefer the lemon for its intensity of citrus and the chocolate peanut butter or the chocolate mint to salve our choco cravings.
Loved equally by sticky-pawed children and stiletto-hoarding starlets, the cupcake is such a perfect marriage of form and function. Why gild a lily? Because you can.
*Yeah, we made up the cupcake burrito. A food writer can dream.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.