Next on the cupcake taste test is my personal favorite: North Berkeley's Love at First Bite Bakery. A great place for any sweet tooth to visit after eating lunch at Gregoire's or Cheeseboard, Love at First Bite will have you falling in love with every bite.
Tucked away in a quaint alcove of the Gourmet Ghetto, Love at First Bite initially hides from the public eye. Once found, however, you will continually go back for more. The store itself is small with tables outside in a cozy courtyard. Inside you feel as if you have stepped into someone's personal bakery, with a charmingly cute display of cupcake flavors and other goodies on cake pedestals under glass domes and a view right into the kitchen. The cupcake selection process is unique compared to other bakeries I have visited -- the employees come out from behind the counter and hand select each cupcake you choose from under its protective glass dome and place it on a tray. They will also give you personal opinions about the cupcake flavors, of course all positive, if you are having a hard time selecting which of their delectable cupcakes to take home.
At my most recent visit, we decided to buy a few mini cupcakes and a sampling of 8 regular-sized cupcakes. The minis you can select daily are their most famous and basic flavors: red velvet, pretty in pink (strawberry), lemon kiss, vanilla, and chocolate. For immediate taste testing, we got two mini red velvet cupcakes.
Their red velvet cupcake is what keeps bringing me back to Love at First Bite. The moist cake has a wonderful texture and is never dry. The cream cheese frosting has the best consistency of all red velvets I have consumed to this date -- it's sweet, but not overly rich, with a cream cheese punch. Plus, mini or regular, their red velvet always has the perfect frosting to cake ratio.
In our variety pack, we selected eight different flavors: (from top to bottom, left to right) mud pie, chocolate maltball, matcha green tea, red velvet, pretty in pink, PB affair, pumpkin bliss, and ginger babycakes. In brief, here was the general consensus on each of these flavors...
Mud Pie: a deep devil's food cake with a mocha frosting topped with oreo crumbs, wonderful combination and great texture on top
Chocolate Maltball: the ultimate milky chocolate cupcake with Guittard cake and a malted milk frosting, cute decoration
Matcha Green Tea: made with ceremonial matcha green tea, unique, the flavor grows on you with each bite and ends in a love story
Red Velvet: as stated above, amazing and, hands down, my favorite
Pretty in Pink: a local favorite, uses fresh strawberries, could have more strawberry flavor
PB Affair: well decorated, wonderful balance of chocolate and peanut butter, not overwhelming, another one that I always buy
Pumpkin Bliss: great pumpkin flavor, moist, not too heavy, topped with their amazing cream cheese frosting
Ginger Babycakes: delicate gingerbread flavor, topped with a delectable limoncello-cream cheese frosting
For an amazing taste, cheap price for gourmet cupcakes ($2-3), and a range of sizes, Love at First Bite delivers. The lines are always relatively short, probably due to their hidden location, and they are open for most of the day, except Mondays, on which they are closed. Make use of this bakery for both personal enjoyment and gift-giving (they have cute little boxes you can decorate). You will fall in love with every bite :)
[Other flavors not mentioned above that are worth mentioning: Lemon Kiss, Hummingbird, and Monkey Love -- all wonderful, popular flavors!]
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