Beverly Hills Brownie Company

 

After passing the new Beverly Hills Brownie Company several times, I finally stopped in to see if it was as good as it sounded. The store itself felt empty, a little cold and sterile. The brownies themselves looked like they were on display at a bake sale, which was cute but didn't match the modern decor of the space.

 

The selection wasn't too large, but enough. They had red velvet, gingerbread, mint chip, caramel blondie, walnut and cream cheese chocolate chip.

   

 They also had mini bite size brownies which were cute.

   

 I went with the simple classic, a good start to test the quality of the place. It was really good!

   

 It definitely had a strong coco and cinnamon flavor which I liked a lot.  Even though I enjoyed it, if I'm going to get a brownie in Beverly Hills, it's going to be from The Farm.

Sprinkles Ice Cream

The famous Sprinkles Cupcakes opened their new Ice Cream parlor this week, and obviously it has been packed everyday. Unfortunately I allowed myself to wait in the TWO HOUR line to see what all the fuss was about. Sadly, I was not impressed.

 

The store itself is very minimalist, but the flavors and sundaes seemed to be exciting and unique.

However, the exciting flavors like Peanut Butter Cup, or Capt'n Crunch were not offered at this time. Not only was that disappointing but the actual menu was physically in a place that was blocked by the masses of customers so everyone ordering had to have the servers recite all the options. Incase the wait wasn't long enough..

The TWO girls scooping the ice cream had very interesting methods of building the sundaes and sandwiches. Unfortunately I saw them throw out the cupcake bottoms once the tops were pulled off. It was like Seinfeld all over again.

A Red Velvet ice cream sandwich, with two cupcake tops and their Red Velvet ice cream.

A rather flavorless Red Velvet cone with Red Velvet ice cream and Rocky Road.

This mini cone might have been the savior. At just $1 this cone held more flavor than the other, and this portion of Rocky Road was perfect. The flavor was good, but not any better than Ben & Jerry's.

The Sprinkles Sundae

A double chocolate Sprinkles cupcake cut in half with a scoop of Red Velvet ice cream in the middle. This flavor cupcake is usually my favorite, but for some reason it tasted old. The ice cream was fine, but just tasted like vanilla, and not a special vanilla.

I didn't try these other goodies but they looked good. Overall I was completely underwhelmed, and honestly pissed. I expected so much more from Sprinkles! If you're going to eat real ice cream go to Milk or Sweet Rose. Maybe when Sprinkles has all their kinks worked out, like having a visible descriptive menu, serving the unique flavors promised on their website and staffing more than two people on a weekend night, I might give them a second chance.

Cake & Art

For a friends surprise party, they got this insane cake from Cake & Art in West Hollywood. They did an amazing job of superimposing his face into the Blade Runner movie poster!


The cake itself was red velvet with a thick buttercream frosting.


The middle cream cheese layer had tons of little chocolate chips, which was a great touch. This was a perfect cake for a birthday party!

Cupcakes from Lark

These two cupcakes from Lark in Silverlake were amazing.

The one on the left is a Red Velvet, topped with one of the best cream cheese icing's I've ever had.

The one on the right is an Old Fashioned Ice Box cupcake made of molasses gingerbread wafers (instead of the traditional chocolate wafers). I don't usually love gingerbread, but this was insane. The whipped cream was incredible, and the wafers were soft and flavorful. I literally shoved it in my face.

Frosted Cupcakery

I've been wanting to try Frosted Cupcakery forever (mainly because I knew they had cupcakes stuffed with ice cream!) So I was very happy when I finally went, because these cupcakes are really something special.


Red Velvet with Vanilla Ice Cream - The cream cheese frosting was exceptional, the cupcake seemed to have been muted in flavor due to freezing, but it was still so good, and of course, adorable looking.


Hi-Top Mini Cakes - Red Velvet. I Love these! Don't let the small size fool you, these are packed with flavor. This was so good, and would be great to bring to a party.


Chocolate with Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream - Always my favorite! This was jam packed with fresh flavor, the ice cream itself is great, and the thick ganache icing really took it over the top.

Holsteins Cake Pops

While in Vegas we ate at Holsteins for a casual dinner, and I couldn't help but drool over their elaborate "Lollipop" menu. I picked two to try, a chocolate brownie and a red velvet. They were super cute and pretty good, but still nothing top's Sweet E's in LA.

Sweet E's Cake Pops

I first saw Cake Pops made by Bakerella, but now I see them popping up everywhere, no pun intended. These are pops from Sweet E's Bake Shop which is currently just a truck roaming around the city, but I heard they are opening a store near by! That is something I am eagerly awaiting, because these things are addicting!

The Red Velvet

The outter shell was made of white chocolate, which threw me off a little since I'm so used to a cream cheese frosting here.

The Sweet E's Truck at Fashion's Night Out

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake Pop and Cookie Dough Cupcake

The Mint Chocolate Chip Cake Pop, my favorite item of theirs, and one of my new favorite desserts of all time. I tend to be more skeptical with chocolate cake when it comes to cupcake like items (usually vanilla is a safer way to go), but this was so moist and rich and you could really see the frosting bits mixed into the cake. I also loved how just the shell was mint flavored so it wasn't too overpowering.

Taste of Beverly Hills

Last week Food & Wine Magazine hosted Taste of Beverly Hills to celebrate both the food of the city and the date, 9.02.10. There were hundreds of restaurants and vendors displaying all kinds of pastas, pizzas, meats, breads, cheeses, wines, and desserts!! Think of it as a classy all you can eat buffet - there was so much food it was scary. I don't think I've ever eaten this much in my life.

There was too much food to photograph, so I really kept it to desserts, but I had to share my two favorite savory foods of the night.

IL CIELO

Rotolini Pasta with Truffle Oil, My favorite non-dessert dish, I went back for this 3 or 4 times...

CABBAGE PATCH

Turkey Meatball with Peanut Cole Slaw, It's not on their regular menu but should be, it was so tasty.

THE PATISSERIE AT THE SLS HOTEL

Hazelnut chocolate squares, fruit gumdrops, chocolate chip cookies.


Chocolate drizzle lollipop with orange gummy fruit.


Chocolate covered Pop Rocks.

IL CIELO

Mini chocolate lava cake.

BOUCHON

Chocolate mousse with espresso caviar, sea salt brownie, peach custard.

MICKEY FINE

Assorted candies.

THE FARM

Their famous brownies, cubed.

CHEESECAKE FACTORY

Red velvet cake.

NEIMAN MARCUS

Giant chocolate chip cookie, recipe included.

CHOCOLATE BY M

Hazelnut chocolate with raspberry jam center.

AMERICAN TEA ROOM

Caffeine free chocolate tea.

PATINA

Green tea ice cream on a green tea sponge cake with white chocolate mousse.

PERSIAN SWEETS

Sugar!



HANSEN'S



Marble cake with chocolate buttercream.

Todd English Red Velvet Cake

While roaming around the Todd English Food Hall, someone at the bakery told the red velvet cake was their best, so I had to try it. It was defiantly one of the best red velvets I've had. I really loved the icing. It was so fresh and tasty!