Cako
Neighborhoods: Civic Center/Tenderloin, Union Square
211 O’farrell Street
(between Powell St & Cyril Magnin St)
San Francisco, CA 94102
Rated: ♣♣♣
Over the weekend, I drove by this neat little bakery with an impressive display of designer cupcakes in the window and I had to stop by to try one, or three. I was intrigued by the Andes mint cupcake they had at the window, but they were sold out for the day. With the interesting flavors they had to offer, I decided o get 1 lemon meringue, 1 smores and 1 chocolate raspberry.
Maybe because it was the end of the day, the cake wasn’t as moist as other cupcakes I’ve tried at other bakeries. I split each cupcake into fours and the cake just crumbled.
The cakes:
S’mores cupcake – I was very disappointed in the s’mores cupcake. The cupcake consisted of a chocolate cake with a graham cracker crust bottom and a marshmallow frosting. I give Cako credit for being original with the graham cracker lining at the bottom of the cake, but it just didn’t taste like a s’more to me. The frosting was actually crunchy as if the sugar didn’t get a chance to dissolve.
Chocolate Raspberry cupcake – Next I tried the chocolate raspberry cupcake. This cupcake was made from a chocolate cake with a raspberry frosting topped with shaved chocolate and a fresh raspberry. I’m a huge fan of the combination of chocolate and raspberry, so you can marry those two together in anything and I’d love it. The frosting was delish though. Not too sweet, and strong in the raspberry flavor.
Lemon Meringue – This one is the best cupcake out of the 3. The cupcake was made from a lemon batter with a generous amount of lemon zest, a lemon filling, and a meringue topping. The cake almost tasted like a lemon bar. The meringue was light and fluffy; a perfect match for the sweet cake.
All-in-all, Cako was a satisfactory cupcake shop. What really makes a great cupcake is the consistency of the cake. If it’s not moist, you don’t got it. I give Cako props for it’s originality though. I’d like to go back to try the Andes mint cupcake.
-
- Cako Chocolate Raspberry
-
- Cako Lemon Meringue
-
- Cako Shop Front
-
- Cako Smores
Thanks for the review! I too find that end of the day cupcakes are a bit more dry (crumble when you cut them) and it’s a bit disappointing. Especially when bakeries say they bake in small batches. To me I infer that they are baked throughout the day. But many times it feels as though they’re all done in one swoop and left to sit in the slightly chilled display case (which also dries it out a bit, but keeps them fresh).
I’m not a fruity cupcake fan, but I might just have to try that lemon cupcake now.
Cheers!
SusieBites
Hi SusieBites! Thank you for the comment! The lemon cupcake was very good. I’ll have to go back and try the cakes earlier in the day to see if the texture is different.