Kara's Cupcakes Are a Sweet Treat

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.

Horror movies not scary anymore by Hannah Valdez

Slight scare after slight scare, ghoulish scream, after ghoulish scream- do we really get the same effects after watching the same types of horror movies over and over again? This time of year, there seem to me so many repetitive movie ideas. The viewers are not very amused, which brings us to the question: Should modern movie directors take notes from the older, classic horror movies? The viewers are not getting as scared as before, so the directors are doing something wrong. 

Recent horror movies have been based on the same paranormal, demonic idea. Jenna Refuerzo, a Breakthrough student, shares the same view. "Modern movies are so predictable. They're scary, but can't beat classically suspenseful Hitchcock films." The whole idea of a horror movie is to scare the viewers, but what is the point of making the same movies over and over again? 

Old horror movies like "Psycho" or "Vertigo" definitely scare audiences, but have rather simple concepts. Today's horror movies have too much going on and too much for the viewer to keep track of to be truly scared. 

"It's not how much blood, guts, or jump scares it has that make a movie terrifying, but rather the idea, and the way the idea is perceived." says Esfuerzo. Today's horror movies are becoming too boring. We want a horror movie revolution, and we want it now. 

Why do boys think they’re better than girls at sports? by Esmeralda Mendoza

Many boys feel that they are better than girls just because of gender and other reasons. Girls hear that boys are “naturally” stronger and faster, all the time. Boys and girls can be well-matched rivals in many sports.

To begin with, one of the most commonly male-dominated areas is being able to play sports with boys. Boys won’t take a girl seriously unless they’re the best player. The costs to a girl playing with a guy are higher than simply getting laughed at and called names. Also, a woman’s body supposably isn’t made to function correctly while participating. Apparently, if girls play with boys they lose their femenity.

Boys have many excuses to not let a girl play like “But you’re fragile”, or “Then you’ll go crying to your mom if you get hurt.” If they do let you play, they play hard until they get what they want which is for a girl to quit. Boys judge girls after seeing them play one time (without you trying). However, it is important that people don’t blame it all in guys because girls are drama queens as they say. For them it’s not worth it getting dirty or sweaty.

Many girls that were interviewed and asked “Why do you think boys think they are better than girls?”

 “Well, most likely to get a girls attention and show off how good they ‘supposably’ are,” said an anonymous source.

Another girl answered, “I think they descriminate our gender just because we have a different body but we dedicate our life to a sport and put more effort than they do. For them its just like an instruction and the “Oh yeah this is easy, so I’m the best but no its more far beyond than the word easy.”

Boys at Hillbrook were asked the same question, and their answers were a little bit different. “Maybe because we’re stronger and have the ability to do more things. We can also stand the pain more.” You may not agree with some opinions but this is a problem. There should be equality between boys and girls.

  

Bullying by Hannah Valdez

Fat, ugly, pathetic. These are all words and names that can be heard down the halls of schools, over the internet, and in public. Bullying has been extremely popular in America, especially among adolescents. There are teens committing suicide everywhere, and every day they’ve been called a new name.

Hannah Valdez, a Breaking Through member, believes this is a subject that should not be ignored. She happens to be of the many children that were bullied in America. She and other children that were interviewed believe that bullying is a terrible thing, and is possibly the worst thing a human being can do to a child. “I felt so alone. I didn’t know anyone would care, because I was told anyone wouldn’t care.” says an anonymous interviewee. You must realize when you’re bullying a child,that not only are you lowering their self-esteem level, but you may change the way they feel about themselves for the rest of their lives.

”I never felt the same way about way about myself after I was bullied.” says Valdez. Valdez was bullied from Kindergarten to 7th grade. She says that the bullying was severe and did in fact change her. She believes that if children have the support and love from other people, then they may be able to pass this time of depression in their life. Breaking Through believes the same thing and are now working on to stop bullying for good.