For quite a few months I’ve been driving by a bakery called Just Baked on Woodward in Royal Oak, thinking “that looks like a cute place, I should go in there sometime.” Yesterday I got my chance when the kids & I attended a cupcake tasting at this cute little bakery.
Just Baked is a cupcake shop with locations in Livonia, Novi, Ann Arbor, & Royal Oak. When I first checked out the website to make sure I was correct on the location I realized it was a chain. I was a bit worried about this…I thought I was going to a cute little shop, with delicious home-baked cupcakes, not some chain. So of course I was pleasantly surprised-and quite impressed-when I found out that the owner, Pam Turkin, opened her first shop in Livonia in January 2009! Just a short year & a half later she has 4 locations! How amazing, especially in Michigan in this economy.
And after tasting the cupcakes, I completely understood why she has had such great success. I should mention that I’m not much a fan of cake. I tend to be quite picky with it. I like it, but only if it’s really, really, really good. These cupcakes were amazing. Every one that I tried was decadent & moist with creamy frosting on top. Tyler had a
Chocolate Stuffed cupcake & devoured it (which is funny as he’s typically not a chocolate kid). Zachary chose an
Oreo Cookie Cupcake which included a topping of gooey marshmallows & Oreo cookie pieces which he ate with no hands, much like the kid in ‘A Christmas Story.’ We shared a
Red Velvet Cupcake, which was awesome, and also a
Fat Elvis Cupcake, which is a banana cake topped with peanut butter buttercream. Wow-it was amazing! I also tried their
Vegan Cupcake-the Grumpy Cake (comes in vegan & non-vegan). It’s a bumpy cake cupcake. I never would have known this was vegan-very, very good. I have some more that the owner was kind enough to send home with me that I cannot wait to try-including a
S’mores Cupcake! (FYI Girl Scout Cookie lovers…they also have a
Samoa Cupcake).
Their menu is huge. I never knew you could have so many cupcake creations! The store was very clean & open. And the owner, Pam, was just a sweetheart. As I mentioned, I brought the kids (the only person who attended to bring kids). My kids were, shall we say, being a bit wild? Emmy was fussy, Zachary made a gigantic cupcake mess, & he & Tyler thought they had the run of the place & were literally running everywhere. She took it all in stride-didn’t make me feel like a bad mom even a little bit. She was just so kind & I appreciated it greatly.
Just Baked also offers birthday parties & based on what the flyer says, I think it’s a great deal. For $8.95/person you get 1 hour room rental, free 6 inch cake for birthday child, 3 cupcakes to decorate, beverage, & room cleanup is included. If you choose to include pizza the price jumps to $11.95/person. I would highly recommend trying them out. Seriously delicious.