ElleBee

As one of our longstanding dreams is to someday open some sort of cafe/bakery/bookstore/music venue, Kelly and I decided to get a jump on researching by visiting all of the recently opened cupcake shops in Denver. We invited Dorrie along, since we the three of us like to do baking/eating type things together.

We had a light lunch at Steuben's to make sure we received some sort of nutrition before the great sugar gorge, then headed to Yum Yums Delights, an adorable shop in the Uptown neighborhood.

We sampled their Chocolate Duchess, Dolce de Leche, and Boston Creme cupcakes. The cakes were moist and rich, and I thought the buttercream frosting was spot on (it was a bit too light for Kelly and Dorrie).

Next, we visited The Shoppe, a combination cupcake bakery/cereal bar on East Colfax. They had a serious Halloween theme going, as the block was sponsoring a neighborhood trick-or-treating party for kids. The Shoppe had the widest variety of flavors and sizes. We all liked that there were mini-cupcakes of each flavor available for half the price of the larger cupcakes. I tried the Chocolate Pumpkin cupcake and the S'mores cupcake. The were both delicious, though the frosting was a bit overbearingly pumpkin flavored on the Chocolate Pumpkin. As well, the appearance of the cupcakes wasn't as pleasing as at our other two stops. I'll give The Shoppe a break though, as it was the day after Halloween and they are open until 2 a.m. I imagine they had a busy night and were lucky to be stocked at all.

Both Yum Yums and The Shoppe had fairly large seating areas, which was lacking at our final destination, Happy Cakes. Even though we couldn't enjoy our cupcakes on the spot, Happy Cakes was charming and cozy and the proprietors seemed lovely. (And, to be honest, I don't think any one of us could have eaten another cupcake at this point.) Happy Cakes seems like a perfect fit in the Highlands neighborhood. Unfortunately, I can't weigh in on the quality of their products, so I'm hoping Kelly or Dorrie will comment on this post. I purchased a Red Velvet cupcake to enjoy at home, but Milan found it in the front seat of the car and scarfed it down while I was in the grocery store. Bad dog!