Next after Groupon, Living Social (LS) is where I have made the most group-buying purchases. No doubt LS is doing a good business for itself but I’ve noticed they got a fancy new logo (can’t even remember the old one) and differentiating itself with family-oriented Family Edition coupons as well.
I didn’t know about Kreation Artisan Cakes, itself a narrow shop tucked between narrow shops on the west side of Cambie Street between West 17th and 18th Avenue. Their LS deal of $7 for a half dozen cupcakes (reg. $14.25) and $14 for a dozen cupcakes (reg. $27) sounded reasonable and their Cambie Village location sealed the deal for me–I could pick it up easily and support an independent, local area business!
Staying open until 7 p.m. was convenient for me to leave work without rushing and when I arrived, I think it was the owner, Kaeko giving a consultation to a couple about wedding products. I was not allowed to reserve cupcakes over the phone but learned that the LS cupcakes were pre-boxed and set aside. Coupon-wielders do not get to choose their flavours, as indicated in the fine print, “Flavors subject to availability”! But they pre-boxed six different flavours and that pleases the novelty-seeker part of me: the flavours we got included mango, passionfruit, cherry (with vanilla cake), chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry (with chocolate cake).
Honestly, I was relieved the cupcakes were not overly large; at the same time, just based on size they hardly seemed to justify their regular $2.50 price tag. In NPY’s health-conscious household, they went like hotcakes and I was further relieved that they were superbly light in taste and flavour! I had the mango vanilla cupcake first and I could tell from the first bite that the cake mix was, surprisingly, Chinese sponge cake. The mango buttercream had real mango flavour to it. And it all means I was quite nervous to try the chocolate cake. It was also the Chinese sponge cake flavoured with cocoa powder–not at all a decadent cupcake. The chocolate buttercream also tasted a bit like mocha.
I wonder how many other bakeries in this funny city are using Chinese sponge cake in lieu of the normal, sweet Western fare. So, contrary to expectations, I prefer and recommend their vanilla cupcakes more.
I can only blog about their cupcakes but want to also mention that Kreation also makes fun custom cakes and beautiful wedding cakes in some mouthwatering flavours.
The galleries certainly showcase Kaeko Kanno’s experience in the craft of cake-making but I wish the website told me now long her company has been around. The marketing-wannabe part of me also would like to see proofreading of the website (a bad typo in the page title for some pages) and a custom sticker with the company name/logo on the plain white boxes would make the exterior look as special as the contents.
