**Denver Area Cupcakery Reviews**

Right now I am working on some vegan chocolate cupcakes with vegan buttercream, which will be up soon!! In the meantime, I recently visited three Denver area bakeries/cupcakeries that I am going to share my thoughts about: Happy Cakes, Big Fat Cupcake, and Nomélie Cupcakes. Happy Cakes is right in the middle of the Highlands Neighborhood in South Denver. It's a really cute area, and the bakery has a really youthful, hip vibe that is just great. I checked out Happy Cakes because last year I tried a cupcake from the bakery that was so good I thought my head was going to explode. It was a french toast flavor and I was seriously so sad that I only had one cupcake to eat!  For this visit, I had a LivingSocial voucher for half-off a dozen cupcakes, normally valued at $35, so I took the opportunity to try a mix of different flavors.

Maybe it was the fact that I had never tried a french toast cupcake before, but Happy Cakes tasted a lot better to me the first time around. I was kind of disappointed with the cupcakes this time around. They were very dry - not just one, but all of them, which was a bummer. I also thought the cupcakes were frosted strangely, just a little swirl right in the middle of the cupcake, with the edges of the cupcake totally unfrosted. Maybe it's just me, but I tend to prefer cupcakes that are totally frosted, especially if they are on the dry side. Otherwise, they get dangerously close to the "Muffin Zone" OH NO!!

I did, however, really enjoy the Raspberry Passion Fruit flavor. It was a vanilla cupcake with passion fruit flavored frosting and a dollop of raspberry jam on top, and it was super tasty. The frosting was so flavorful, and the passion fruit and raspberry complimented each other very nicely; I loved it. Overall, I would give my visit there a 7/10, I probably wouldn't make a special trip there in the future.

Moving on, I visited Big Fat Cupcake on Colorado Boulevard last week. Oh my word, these were some of the best cupcakes I have ever eaten. As the bakery's name suggests, these are LARGE cupcakes. They run about $5 bucks a pop but oh man, are they worth every penny. The flavors are super creative, and they offer 20+ every day, instead of rotating 5 or 6 flavors like many bakeries do. I tried the Hostyes, Chocolate on Vanilla, Cookies n' Cream, and PB Chocolate. Every single one was moist, delicious, and beautifully frosted...cupcake HEAVEN, you guys! The Hostyes cupcake was my favorite, it resembled the Hostess brand cupcake, but tasted so much better! This is one of my favorite bakeries now, and I would definitely make the trip to Colorado Blvd. just to have one; 9/10.

Finally, there's  Nomélie Cupcakes. This bakery is not new to me, I've been there a few times before, but I have yet to review it so here it goes. Nomélie's cupcakes are some of the best out there. I have never had a better cupcake than any of the ones offered there. I don't know what their secret is, but the cake always comes out dense and flavorful, and the frosting light and fluffy, but never grainy. This bakery is actually located in Parker, and each cupcake runs about 3 dollars each. They tend to sell out pretty quick though, but if you arrive and they are sold out of  cupcakes, they also make amazing macaroons and sugar cookies that are worth trying. 10/10, hands down my favorite bakery in Colorado. 




So there ya have it. Stay tuned for vegan chocolate cupcakes in the near future! :)