Kara's Cupcakes

The Kara's Cupcakes I went to is located in the Town and Country Plaza in Palo Alto. I went close to closing so this may affect my review somewhat. Because it was quite late my usual vanilla cake with vanilla frosting was sold out so I got a chocolate frosting instead. The employee at the counter said their most popular flavors were two of the seasonal flavors so I chose the pumpkin seasonal flavor as my second choice. 

Read Between the Lynes

I went back to my hometown of Woodstock, IL for the holidays and of course I had to stop by the local indie bookstore.

The store is located in Woodstock's historic town square with lots of shops and restaurants around. On the inside the store is half bookstore and half cute cafe/candy store, a perfect stop for gift shopping!

On the bookstore side it's quite small inside but has a lot in the small space. Of course I immediately went to the sci-fi/fantasy section. I was able to find one of the paperbacks that was on my list to buy! It came with this cute pride bookmark since the series is a historicalish LGBTQ+ fantasy one that I want to have on my shelf to read again. Each book focuses on a different couple but they are all recurring characters in the larger plot. 

On the cafe/misc side they have coffee, some nibbles, and chocolates for sale. They also have various local themed items such as puzzles of the square, Woodstock themed nick-nacks, and locally made jams and pasta sauces.

My mom said they are doing quite well on TikTok with their bookish content and people drive to Woodstock sometimes just to visit the bookstore they saw on TikTok!  

Check out their TikTok and Instagram for more book content! 

TikTok

Instagram

As for me I will continue coming back here when I am back in my hometown to browse and see if they have any of the books on my list! I'd definitely recommend stopping by if you are in the area to check it out!

Bells Books

Bells Books

Sprinkles Cupcakes

I'm back with another cupcake place review! This time I went to Sprinkles Cupcakes in Palo Alto's Stanford Shopping Center. This is a national chain of cupcake places so you can get them even in airport vending machines! I had my customary vanilla on vanilla and the person working said that their most popular flavor was the red velvet so I got that one as the other flavor. 

Recycle Bookstore

 The first stop on my tour of independent book stores is Recycle Bookstore!

K&J Sweets

This is not a dedicated cupcake place but did come up when searching for cupcakes in the south bay! They are a general bakery and cafe with a variety of baked goods, sandwiches, and drinks. You can view the full menu here: . 

The cupcakes came in only a few flavors Of course I got the vanilla one and asked the person working which was their most popular cupcake which was strawberry! They put them in these little icecream cup things which was great if you wanted to transport them- very secure- but bad if you wanted to actually get the cupcake out of the cup. Frosting everywhere!

Atmosphere: The shop was quite cute with a few places to sit. A very instagrammable wall was set up and the staff were super nice! 3.5/5

Frosting: The frosting was kind of tall but so was the cake so it was a good ratio of frosting to cake. They also hollowed the middle out and put frosting in there which I'm not usually a huge fan of. It had a smooth, non-gritty, buttercream texture and was not too sweet. 3/5

Cake: The cake was very dense and perfectly moist. The cakes were taller than I'm used to seeing and it made it sort of awkward to eat without a fork 4/5 

Price: Each cupcake came out to be ~$2.50 which was so reasonable for the amount of food I got! 5/5 

Overall rating: 3.9/5

This isn't an official rating but definitely like .5/5 for variety of cupcakes specifically. There were only 5 types that were quite basic though they did them extremely well if you want any sort of seasonal or special flavor I'd recommend elsewhere! However if you're around for fanime (the location is close to the convention center) and need a cupcake or two I definitely recommend stopping by!

A New Quest: Make it Double! Cupcakes and Bookstores

Cupcakes:

I'm back with another silly quest: the search for my favorite cupcake! I love cupcakes more than regular cakes they're just so cute and perfectly portioned ❤️ there are quite a few places in the bay area that only do cupcakes or are bakeries that are known for their cupcakes and I aim to find my favorite one this year!

I feel like cupcakes are a little bit simpler to break down than afternoon tea which has a lot of components. Cupcakes will be evaluated on: Cake, Frosting, and Aesthetics (with bonus points if the bakery or packaging is cute but won't technically factor into the main rating)

I've discovered I can eat exactly two cupcakes in one sitting so in an effort of fairness I think I'm going to get two from each place. One will always be vanilla with vanilla frosting (if possible) as a kind of control, then I will ask the person taking my order what the most popular other flavor is and get that as my second choice.

Listed below are the non exhaustive list of places currently on my list:

• The Cupcake Shoppe
• James & the Giant Cupcake
• Cupcakin Bake Shop
• Frost Cupcake Factory
• C'est Si Bon Bakery
• Alexander's Patisserie
• Sprinkles Palo Alto
• The Cake Shop
• Sibby's Cupcakery
• Noe Valley Bakery
• Cupcakin' Bake Shop
• SusieCakes - San Carlos
• Kara’s Cupcakes Palo Alto
• Miette
• La Luna Cupcakes
• Mission Minis

If I've missed your favorite cupcake place please let me know!! I'll add it to the list for quest purposes. I'm excited to go on this journey and hope you'll have some fun and maybe find a favorite cupcake place of your own! 

Bookstores:

In addition to cupcakes I am going to start visiting and doing little blurbs about independent book stores in the Bay Area. There are actually quite a lot of them! This is less of a yearly challenge and more of a when I'm able to get to them. However I want to make a point to go to maybe one a month in the coming year/years. This will give me an excuse to get dressed up and go on a quest! Some are quite close together so I may make a few in one post. For this independent bookstore tour I'll be lifting my self imposed book buying low-buy and so if I see something I like from these local businesses I'll get it. Bookstores won't be rated in the same way afternoon tea or cupcakes will be- more like on a scale of 'probably won't stop by again' to 'I will actively go out of my way to visit again' and if there are any standouts of the ones I've visited that particular year that I would recommend. 

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the stores I plan to visit at some point in this journey: 

• Recycle Bookstore/Recycle Bookstore West
• Friends Bookstore
• Dark Carnival Imaginative Fiction Bookstore
• Walden Pond Books
• Towne Center Books
• Bookshop Santa Cruz
• Banter Bookshop
• Leigh's Favorite Books
• Christopher's Books
• Fabulosa Books
• Dog Eared Books
• Recycle Bookstore
• B Street Books
• Encore Books on the Square
• Books on B
• Marcus Books
• Pegasus Books
• Book Passage
• Kinokuniya San Francisco
• Comix Experience
• Amazing Fantasy
• Russian Hill Bookstore
• Green Apple Books
• Books Inc (various locations)
• Bound Together Bookstore
• Borderlands Books
• Mechanics' Institute
• City Lights Booksellers & Publishers
• Reach and Teach

Bonus bookstores:

• Read Between the Lynes (Woodstock, IL)

Again if I've missed your favorite bookstore please let me know and I'll add it to the list!

I hope that as I post information that some of you might also find a new favorite bakery or indie bookstore 💖