Who can resist a cupcake?

Especially one as good as those from Kara's Cupcakes?

This sign showed up on the corner of Chestnut and Scott St. in the Marina announcing the opening of a new place to tempt me every time I run an errand down the block. The inside of this bakery storefront is as pink as their takeout boxes but neat and simple leaving the cupcakes to be the focal point. They make all the cupcakes daily using local ingredients all highlighted on a map in the store. Regular cupcakes come is ten flavors from Buttery Buttermilk Vanilla to Raspberry Dazzle to Kara's Karrot and cost $3.00 each. On my first visit I had the Buttery Buttermilk Vanilla cupcake with a creamy Madagascar bourbon vanilla buttercream & ate it before Matt could pick out his & pay for them, it was that good. I am not a huge cake fan but these are moist and not too sweet. Also I'm one of those odd people who prefer less icing but the icing here was so creamy and delicious and didn't overpower the cake.

The also have 4 flavors of filled cupcakes, Passion Fruit, Meyer Lemony Lemon, Banana Caramel and Fleur Del Sel for $3.25. Last night Matt brought home the Fleur Del Sel (I think I've mentioned the current obsession with chocolate and sea salt).

These are chocolate cake with a creamy caramel filling topped with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with fleur del sel, fabulous! I think my only criticism is they could have had a little more caramel in them.

Kara's has already become very popular in the neighborhood & I often see people walking around with their little pink boxes. If you want to try a particular flavor I would suggest getting their early in the day especially on the weekend. The first Saturday we stopped by it was about 4 in the afternoon & choices were limited (the girl before me got the last Raspberry Dazzle much to my dismay). Next time we'll stop in early enough to try the Passion Fruit.