In the feature writing journalism class, Breakthrough students wrote food reviews on Kara's Cupcakes, a cupcake chain located throughout the Bay Area. Their location in San Jose is at 3055 Olin Ave., Suite 1010, San Jose, CA.
Samantha Bhatia’s Review
As we all sat in a room with a pink
box at our sight, the anticipation rose by the minute. We were not exactly sure
what to expect, but we didn’t pay much attention to that! All we knew was that
whatever was in that box smelt good. We learned that it was filled with Kara’s
Cupcakes, a company that was started by Kara Haspel Lind, in 2006. Kara’s
cupcakes are nature-friendly; the signature box is compostable and recyclable.
She started in Palo Alto then expanded to San Jose and Walnut Creek. She
currently owns nine stores throughout the Bay Area.
A small
pink box, and a company labeled sticker on top of the box, were both elegant.
It was labeled Kara’s Cupcakes. Multiple, moist stains covered the bottom of
the box. The thick, creamy icing covered medium sized cupcakes with soft,
fluffy bread. The aroma of sweet, succulent frosting and freshly baked bread
filled the air. As they sat there, you could feel the squishy, soft, fluffy
bread covered by smooth, thick, creamy icing.
As I took a bit of sweet chocolate,
the gooey, luscious chocolate icing melted in my mouth along with the decadent
moist, fluffy bread. Then as I took a bite of sweet vanilla, I could feel the
creamy rich frosting melting in my mouth. Meanwhile, the savory and fluffy
bread moistened in my mouth. As I took a bite of red velvet, the creamy, white
icing oozed in my mouth along with the rich red velvet bread. All of these
wonderful tastes were all contained in one pink box!
Kara’s
Cupcakes is a pretty nature-friendly place. Kara uses organic ingredients for
her cupcakes. She really opens up the options for people with different
likings. Kara has 12 regular flavors, which price at $3.25, 4 gluten free
flavors, 5 filled flavors and 5 seasonal flavors, all for just $2.00. In
addition, she has stores all over the Bay Area.
The bottom
line: Kara’s Cupcakes adds a sweet tooth to the Bay Area. The cupcakes may be
just a bit pricy, but overall Kara’s is a great place to just stop by and grab
a cupcake!
Raho Faraha’s Review
All six
students watched with hungry eyes as their teacher walked around the room with
something sweet- smelling cradled in her arms. A medium-sized pink box lay in
her arms with a label across the box written in elegant font that read Kara’s
Cupcakes had the students at its mercy. The box was a bit greasy with what was
inside the box. Such a sweet surprise awaited us.
Kara’s Cupcakes was opened in 2006 in Palo Alto by Kara
Haspel Lind, who graduated from pastry school, but before she opened her
business she had a job at Allure Magazine. She and her husband now own nine
stores currently. The store has 12 regular flavors that are affordable in the
signature, recyclable pink boxes.
I first tried the s’mores cupcake. This cupcake had a
melted marshmallows on the top with a hint of caramel on top of the of the
marshmallow. The marshmallow is gooey, oozing, sweet, and sticky making it
harder to not just stuff it in your mouth whole. The bread was soft and had a
chocolate flavor to it. The next cupcake was the vanilla chocolate, which had a
thick layer of chocolate frosting with a white candy decoration on it. The
bread was a vanilla flavor tastes that was more on the sweet soft side. I’d recommend
this cupcake for people that love vanilla and chocolate. The last cupcake that
I tasted was my favorite and it was the chocolate velvet. It had a thick layer
of succulent chocolate with a pink candy button on the top of the cupcake for
decoration. The bread is chocolate-flavored, and it was fluffy and soft. It
made my mouth water just by looking at it. I would recommend this cupcake to
chocolate lovers.
Kara’s Cupcakes use only organic and local ingredients to
make her cupcakes, which you wouldn’t realize by eating the delicious cupcake. Kara’s
Cupcakes is such an eco-friendly restaurant with its sweet perks.
The bottom line: Kara’s Cupcakes are sweet and succulent.
I would recommend this to people who have a love of sweets and don’t want to
spend a lot of money.
Dung Phung’s Review
As Amanda
brought the cupcakes into the room, everyone focused on her. Their scent made
the room smell like candy. One student was staring at Amanda carefully. He
looked like he was going to attack her for those precious cupcakes. Our
journalism class was desperate to eat Kara’s cupcakes, which is a store started
by Kara Lind in 2006. Its boxes are compostable and recyclable which means
Kara’s company is nature-friendly. Each regular favor is $3.25 and each mini
cupcake is $2.00.
The box that
holds the cupcake is big and pink. It contains six different kinds of cupcakes
inside them. It also has a label of the company on top of it. The font is
elegant. At the bottom of the box, it is a little greasy because of the
cupcakes’ icing. While I opened the box, the aroma of butter hooked me in. The
cupcakes are medium-size, creamy, and nutty. Their toppings are thick and
chewy. The chocolate velvet tastes chocolaty, sweet, and messy. The vanilla
chocolate is rich, yummy, flakey, and chewy too. At last, my most favorite one:
s’mores. It is gooey, extremely delightful, tasty, milky, and buttery. Everyone
in the classroom was happily enjoying the cupcakes. As I held the cupcakes, I
felt like I was holding a soft and puffy pillow. When I devoured a crumble of
these sweet cupcakes, I experienced the savory, succulent flavor of tastiness.
Kara has nine
cupcakes store; there’s even one at San Jose. Kara’s stores are very successful
and they are very unique. They remain one of the few shops that sells only
cupcakes. When she was young, she wanted to become a marketing person. However,
seeing cupcakes on a menu at a restaurant inspired her to become a baker. Her
dad is a dentist, so selling cupcakes is kind of a rebellion against her
father. Despite the hard obstacles, she still wanted to bake cupcakes.
Kara’s store has
the best cupcake that I’ve ever had. Even though the price is a little
expensive, Kara makes the most delicious cupcakes in town. If you are thinking
of having a cupcake right now, go to Kara’s store because her cupcakes are
super nourishing and tasty.
Minett Tran’s Review
When I first
heard of Kara’s Cupcakes, I thought it was a chain restaurant/bakery, like
Mcdonald’s. I thought that it was one of those bakeries with dull tastes and
factory-manufactured cupcakes. However, I soon learned that it was not only
organic and fresh, but decently made as well.
Kara’s Cupcakes
was started by Kara Haspel Lind, who graduated from pastry school. Ironically,
she was the daughter of a dentist and lived in a household where sweets were
banned. The company uses organic and local ingredients from California and has
12 regular flavors. The company started in 2006 in Palo Alto, and has since
expanded to 9 different stores.
From what I’ve
experienced, Kara’s Cupcakes seemed to be good. When I opened the pink pastel,
cardboard box, I expected a bit worse. However, my peers expected much greater,
as evidenced by their excitement over the cupcakes. Now I can say that it was
not bad at all. Everyone was ecstatic over the sight of the colorful cupcakes.
Each cupcake was decorated with a medium blob of either vanilla or chocolate
frosting. The frosting itself wasn’t the fanciest thing in existence; it was a
simple oval that complimented the simplicity of the cupcake. Some of the
cupcakes had pearly white sprinkles, and some had dark muddy sprinkles. I
believe each cupcake either had a sugary vanilla, dark mocha, or buttery,
slightly creamy cream cheese frosting. The cupcakes themselves were chocolate,
vanilla, or red velvet. They were also quite greasy, as evident by the stains
on the bottom of the box. You could also see the crumbs fall out of the
cupcakes onto the box, as if it were a really bad sponge. In fact, the cupcake
looked like a colored sponge with all of the holes it had. The cupcake did not
taste dry, but slightly chewy and fluffy. However, it was still slightly greasy
and under-baked. Overall, it was very good, even though there were some minor
problems.
As for each
individual cupcake, their quality ranged from good to bad. The vanilla
chocolate was not very good, since vanilla is not a good flavor for me. Besides
that, it seems to have a flakey, dry, dull taste in my mouth. Likewise, the
frosting seemed to be the same because you weren’t really impressed by it and
it didn’t have a special flavor to it.
The next best flavor was
the red velvet. Again, the cupcake was bland. However, the cream cheese
frosting was really good with its strange sweet-yet-sour taste. Neither side
was too overwhelming and all was quite smooth and buttery.
Finally, my favorite out
of the bunch was the dark chocolate since I like strong flavors. The cupcake
was exactly right for me. It was even better than the frosting, which was
coffee or mocha. The frosting was heavy in taste, yet sort of fluffy and light.
In summary, I would
recommend going for the chocolate if you like heavy, bitter, or strong tastes,
the red velvet for medium all-around tastes, and vanilla if you like calmer or
“light” tastes. I would also recommend going to Kara’s Cupcakes for their wide
selection of flavors.
Abril Garcia-Madrigal’s Review
When we met outside the
classroom, we were waiting to go to Block E. Once we stepped foot into the
class you could smell the sweet cupcakes. The cupcakes were sitting there in a
pink medium sizes box with a tag inelegant font on it saying “Kara’s Cupcakes”.
The cupcakes were there at the corner of the table just waiting there for us to
eat them. Our journalism teacher, Amanda, was in the back of the classroom
cutting the cupcakes as we were doing our “Do Now” on the white board. As she
cut the pieces, the sweet warm, delicious, vibe came to you and drew your
attention to the cupcakes. When she gave us the pieces to eat, the cupcakes made
my mouth watered.
Once you bite into the
sweet chocolate cupcake, all you felt was a toasty dark warm chocolate bun with
warm chocolate syrup running down your throat. The sweet vanilla cupcake was
absolute perfection, with just a hint of sour and a lot of sweet. It was nice
and warm and lightly toasted. The icing was sweet, savoring, and mouth watering
and just breath-taking. The icing was cold and as you took your first bite out
of the cupcake and it felt like paradise. The red velvet cupcake was my favorite
cupcake, and also the best cupcake I have ever tasted. The bread was dark
maroon in color that was warm on the inside and slightly cold on the outside.
The icing was a beautiful egg-shell color with little pieces of sprinkles on
it. Once you took a bite into the cupcake you felt the rush of all the flavors
just bursting on your taste buds and rushing down your throat.
I highly recommended
this place for cupcake lovers who are open-minded about trying new flavors
because the best flavors are here …. Seriously. Kara’s cupcakes is also eco
friendly so go check out this place.
Cristian Zapien’s Review
Looking at the box with big eyes. Feeling like you were
about to fight a lion for what was in the box. Our mouths were getting watery,
our stomachs growled, and we were almost falling out of our chairs in
anticipation.
Our class prepared to eat cupcakes from a company called
Kara’s Cupcakes, which was opened by a woman who graduated from a pastry school
and now owns nine streets. They are what’s called a green company and have 26
types of cupcakes. These stores are all around the Bay Area, with the first store
in Palo Alto. They have gluten-free flavors, regular flavors, filled cupcakes,
and seasonal cupcakes. They also have wedding cupcakes.
The pink box is like a rectangular prism with a sticker on
it. It is bright pink, like a classic donut box, with cupcakes in it. The
flavors are: chocolate velvet, s’mores, and vanilla chocolate. They are all
chocolate-y, sugary, sweet, and all smell good. They feel broken, crumbly, and
soft. The chocolate velvet has a butter, chocolate-y taste, while the s’mores
flavor has something caramel that makes me want more. The vanilla chocolate is
a gooey mix of vanilla and chocolate.
You should go to a Kara’s Cupcakes near you because you can
enjoy a lot of cupcakes that will make your full stomach growl with hunger. You
should go because you could try cupcakes that are different from those at chain
stores like Walmart.
