Retro Bakery, Las Vegas

Oh, Sweet Mystery of Life at Last We've Found You ...

Jay and I are not big cupcake eaters. We do enjoy a tasty cupcake now and then, but it's not our sweet treat of choice and I certainly had no intention of ordering any for the man's birthday while we were in Vegas. And then one of our internet friendies sent me a link to this bakery ... not only has she partaken of their cupcakey goodness but she knows the people who own the bakery ... and she swore upside down and inside out that we'd never had a cupcake like the ones they make at Retro Bakery.

Initially I was skeptical, but then photo after delicious photo of their cupcakes appeared before me along with the most drool-inducing product descriptions I've ever read: Salted Caramel Crunch; Chocolate Fountain; Coffee and Donuts. That's all it took - I was on the phone, credit card in hand, faster than you can say sugar high with a side order of tooth decay.

I ordered one dozen cupcakes to celebrate Jay's birthday and satisfy my gut worm: Peanut Butter Cup (2); Chocolate Fountain (2); Cookies & Milk (2); Coffee & Donuts (2); Maple Bacon (2); Salted Caramel Crunch (1); and Chocolate Covered Banana (1). We paid $30 for the dozen plus another $20 for the delivery fee and while that initially might seem like a steep price for cupcakes, my friends I'm here to tell you that these were worth every every cent. The cakes were moist and tasty, and the buttercream - dreamy, calorie-laden, artery-clogging buttercream - was light and sweet with incredible flavor. To sum it up allow me to quote my dearest hubba, "these cupcakes tasted exactly like what they were supposed to taste like."

Who are you calling cupcake?


Although Jay's birthday treat was delivered to our hotel late on Thursday afternoon, we didn't bust into them immediately because we were leaving for the Bradley Ogden signature dinner over at Sleazer's Palace. Friday morning, once we had our coffee in hand, we started on the cupcake love. They were everything we'd been told they would be and more!

Coffee and Donuts


This was a wonderful choice to start the morning: vanilla cupcake dipped in donut glaze and topped with coffee flavored buttercream. The cupcake was like a dense cake donut that had been coated with sweet glaze, but it was the buttercream that took this from really good to nirvana. It was sheer creamy, coffee-infused joy and I wish I was eating one right now!

Chocolate Covered Banana


The chocolate banana cupcake was specifically for Jay. I've said it before and I will say it again: the only way I enjoy bananas for dessert is when they are doused with rum, set on fiyah, and called Foster. Jay really enjoyed this one which was a deep chocolate cupcake topped with banana flavored butter cream and then dipped in dark chocolate ganache; he said it was like eating dark chocolate banana cream pie.

Cookies & Milk


My second choice for the morning was cookies and milk: a luscious chocolate chip cupcake covered in vanilla buttercream topped off with a chockie-chip cookie that would melt Cookie Monster's furry blue heart. Like the others, this cupcake was incredibly moist and flavorful. The cookie was the happy surprise with this selection - slightly doughy and bursting with chips, it was just plain delicious!

Salted Caramel Crunch


A little cupcake goes a long way, so we had more than enough to hold us through our stay. In the picture above you see the Salted Caramel Crunch which was my personal favorite of all the cupcakes we tried. Jay and I split this treat one afternoon and it was wonderful - a sticky, decadent dark chocolate pillow of joy topped with caramel flavored buttercream and then drizzled with caramel and sea salt. It was so good that it rendered us incoherent. All we could do was lick our fingers and nod approvingly at each other while saying, "Nom ... ummmm .... oooooh ... yum ... burp!"

Chocolate Fountain


As the weekend was nearing its end we were celebrating Jay's upcoming 40th with Frank and Fran - we had brought our remaining cupcakes to share with them and finally took a bite out of the chocolate fountain cupcake, which I like to call death by chocolate. It needs no detailed exposition - chocolate cupcake, chocolate buttercream, and chocolate ganache pretty well sums it up, don't you think?

Maple Bacon


We also tried the maple bacon and here I have to admit that I just wasn't crazy about the flavor combination, which surprised me because I normally love bacon when it's married with something sweet. It ended up being saltier than I expected and I just didn't care for it. Jay seemed to like it a little more than I did, but also agreed that the other cupcakes were much better.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that we neglected to try the peanut butter cup, which is a horrifying and inexcusable lapse of food love on our part. We adore peanut butter and chocolate combinations and I am positive that Jay and I would have been really pleased with a chocolate cupcake topped with peanut butter flavored buttercream, but we were stuffed full of birthday cake and just couldn't eat another bite. We left them behind where I'm sure they found a good home.

You could do a lot worse than to place an order with Retro Bakery the next time you're in Vegas, whether you have a reason to celebrate or not. They provided great service along with a wonderful product that was as fun as it was delicious. I've included a link to their website so that you can check them out in greater detail should the spirit move you. And a special thanks to Kelli who made the recommendation in the first place and was absolutely correct - best cupcakes evah!

Retro Bakery:
http://www.retrobakerylv.com/about.html