Napa Valley, California – Sift Cupcake & Dessert Bar (Cupcakes)

Restaurant: Sift Cupcake & Dessert Bar
Cuisine: Desserts/Cupcakes
Last visited: November 8, 2010
Location: Few locations -Napa Valley, California (Wine Country/Bay Area)
Address: Unit 100 – 1000 Main Street, CA (In a clothing boutique store)
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5
Service: n/a
Ambiance: 5.5
Overall: 4.5
Additional comments:

• Freshly baked cupcakes
• Home made
• Creative flavours
• Seasonal flavours
• Gluten free options
• Named “Best Cupcake”
• Voted “#1 Cupcake”
• Friendly service
• Few locations
• Shop & eat
• Open late

**Recommendations: Red Velvet Cupcake

I was in San Francisco, California for the Foodbuzz Food Bloggers Festival and my cousin and I decided to spend a day exploring Napa Valley. We started the early afternoon at Bouchon Bakery, followed by the most delicious late lunch at Redd, both in Yountville. We decided to leave Yountville and hit Napa Valley in search of… well more food. Actually, it was supposed to be just drinks, because we were incredibly full, although Sift Cupcake & Dessert Bar was in the back of our minds. (Funny thing, we actually ended up for more food at Morimoto after these cupcakes 😉 )

Anyways, my cousin had mentioned a clothing boutique store selling amazing cupcakes, but she didn’t know where it was. However, leave it to me, the foodie and dessert queen to find it. It took me seconds to turn on my cupcake radar and I spotted it instantly (no joke). My cousin gets credit for the awesome photos though!

Fashion + Food. That’s pretty much my perfect combination, so I was all over Sift. Yes, it was really cute, pink, and girly just like every other cupcake place out there, except half the store sells clothes and pretty stationary. Having hosted Vancouver’s 1st Cupcake Challenge, my standards are pretty high for cupcakes. For some reason trying the “best cupcake” in every city I travel too, seems to be something I’m doing quite often.

I tried Sugar Mama’s Bake Shop in Texas, Babycakes in San Diego, and Mission Minis in San Francisco and I won’t even begin with how many in Vancouver, BC. However, the ones from Sift were very impressive, as they should be for being named “#1 Cupcake” and”Best Cupcake” by various media and locals. They were incredibly moist, and very sweet, but honestly one of the most moist I’ve ever had.

Sift Cupcake & Dessert Bar had actually just closed when we arrived, but luckily enough the girl closing saw the cupcakes in my eyes. Without hesitation she opened the door and gladly offered to bring out 6 cupcakes on the house. :O What?! Yup! She actually ended up giving us a box of 12 cupcakes free. So sweet! And sweet they were!

On the table:

**Red Velvet Cupcake – 5/6

• This was my favourite and I think one of their most famous and popular flavours.
• It was delicious and decadent! The texture blew me away more than the flavour did though. I couldn’t taste any of the cocoa powder.
• The red velvet cake was super moist and it had this fluffy creamy cream cheese frosting that wasn’t overly sweet as icing. It was slightly tart and not too cheesy.
• It’s a cupcake that requires water to cut the sweetness, but definitely not to help you swallow. (Wow, that sounds bad… )
• I would say it’s one of the best red velvets I’ve tried, but I can’t 6/6 it because the absence of cocoa flavour bothers me.

Vanilla Cupcake – 4/6

• Again, the texture was awesome and incredibly moist, but I couldn’t taste the vanilla. I don’t expect a gourmet cupcake with vanilla bean seeds in it, although that would be nice, but I still want an obvious vanilla taste. It was more like white cake than vanilla.
• It was quite sweet with a creamy fluffy icing on top that was quite sugary. It didn’t seem like a butter cream to me, but more like a traditional sweet frosting.
  

Gingerbread Cupcake – 4.5/6

• This was for the Christmas holidays, so he’s a seasonal flavour.
• It was very well spiced and flavoured and this one actually tasted like a gingerbread cupcake, with a bit of carrot cake qualities especially with the cream cheese frosting.
• It was very gingery with spices of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, but it was a bit too sweet for me.
• The texture was moist and fabulous just like the others.

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