Kara’s Cupcakes is a boutique cupcake bakery located in Napa, California.
Parking is ample. Parking isn’t easy to find but it’s also not hard either. It mainly depends on what time of day you visit. When you walk inside Kara’s Cupcakes, you instantly fall in love. The walls are colored a bright and pretty bubblegum pink. The cupcakes are displayed neatly! You’ll have trouble deciding which cupcakes to choose from. Kara’s Cupcakes offers a variety of different flavors. They are known for their gluten free and organic ingredients which will explain why they don’t carry the ever popular, Red Velvet flavor.
Due to the high prices of $3.25, I only purchased three different cupcake flavors. I bought Fleur de Sel, Vanilla Chocolate and Java Chocolate. The Fleur de Sel is a chocolate cupcake filled with caramel and topped with chocolate ganache and sea salt. I was taken back by the sea salt because it mixed it with the sweet taste of the chocolate ganache. The sea salt with the chocolate ganache created a bitter taste for the topping. The Vanilla Chocolate is a typical vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream. There was nothing special about it but the cake itself was a little dry. The last cupcake I tried was the Java Chocolate which is a chocolate cake with espresso buttercream. The chocolate was rich in color but not in taste and the espresso buttercream topping lacked the true espresso coffee flavor.
All three cupcakes were on the dry side which was surprising considering I’ve heard people rant about the moistness of these cupcakes. The ganache and buttercream toppings were dried up but once it hit your mouth, it would melt instantly. The cupcakes were fairly smaller than your average size cupcakes. I believe these cupcakes were overpriced for their lack of flavor and small sizes.
I wouldn’t visit Kara’s Cupcakes for a second visit. I feel I can get my money and taste worth elsewhere for not only cheaper but a more satisfying taste.
