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Best Cupcakes in the U.S.

Filed under: Dining

Luxist Readers have nominated their favorite cupcake bakeries and the top five are:

Baked (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Crumbs Bake Shop (New York, N.Y.)
Magnolia Bakery (New York, N.Y.)
Sprinkles (Los Angeles, Ca.)
SusieCakes (Los Angeles, Ca.)

Gallery: America's Best Cupcakes

Vote for the company you believe makes the best cupcakes. Readers' Choice Winners will be announced on March 1st.

Tags: awards-main, baked, baked new york, BakedNewYork, best bakeries, best bakery, best cupcake, best sweets, BestBakeries, BestBakery, BestCupcake, BestSweets, crumbs, Crumbs Bake Shop, CrumbsBakeShop, katie holmes, KatieHolmes, luxist-awards, magnolia bakery, MagnoliaBakery, russell crowe, RussellCrowe, sprinkles, sprinkles cupcakes, SprinklesCupcakes, susiecakes, sweets-main, tyra banks, TyraBanks

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Sprinkles: The Original Cupcake Bakery

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Los Angeles, Ca.-based Sprinkles has been nominated for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cupcake.

Sprinkles is a favorite of Hollywood stars from Tyra Banks, Russell Crowe and Paris Hilton to Katie Holmes, Oprah Winfrey and Teri Hatcher, all of who proclaim love for the sumptuous treats. "I love Sprinkles Cupcakes," says Banks. "I am addicted to them." Ryan Seacrest is a fan, too. "These are not just cupcakes, they're a lifestyle," he says. Barbra Streisand once sent a box of Sprinkle's cupcakes to Oprah Winfrey. Oprah enjoyed them so much she ordered enough to share with her entire studio audience. Sprinkles is also known for its star topped variety served at Oscar parties.

Luxist readers describe the cupcakes this way:

"Amazingly delicious and beautiful with a variety of flavors."
"The best cupcakes anywhere! Long lines, but worth the wait. Their butter with vanilla frosting will change your life."
"The original luxury cupcake store."
"Their entire range of flavors is executed masterfully, from classics like Red Velvet to more exotic editions like chai latte. The cake is light and not too sweet with rich frostings that balance each other perfectly."

Company founders Candace and Charles Nelson opened the first Sprinkles in Beverly Hills in April 2005. People thought the couple were crazy to open a cupcakes-only bakery in the middle of "thin city" at a time with low carb mania was at its peak. Despite naysayers, they sold out within hours of opening, and sales haven't slowed since. Today, Sprinkles is known as much for its long lines and devoted fans as for its delicious cupcakes. Sprinkles is credited with inspiring a national cupcake craze as reported by the New York Times, USA Today, the Today Show and Nightline.

Gallery: More from Sprinkles

Sprinkles evokes the memory of European bakeries flooded with the smell of baked goods and awash in natural light, with a modern touch. Its cupcakes are baked in small batches throughout the day, so that they will be as fresh as possible for Sprinkles' devoted customers. The cupcakes are handcrafted from the finest ingredients, including sweet cream butter, bittersweet Belgian chocolate, pure Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, fresh bananas and carrots, real strawberries and natural citrus zests.

Sprinkles offers more than 20 tantalizing flavors (15 or so of which are on sale on any given day), from simple vanilla to creative chai latte. Topped with Sprinkles' trademark modern dots, rich chocolate sprinkles from France or seasonal sugar decorations, Sprinkles Cupcakes are perfect for occasions of any kind.

Sprinkles' famous gift box is a sleek rectangular box that holds one dozen freshly baked cupcakes. The bakery also offers a tray, produced by Heller in a variety of colors, that fits right into the gift box and can be kept to display the cupcakes.

Sprinkles also offers signature cupcake mixes in red velvet, vanilla, dark chocolate and lemon. The mixes are made from the same high quality ingredients used in Sprinkles bakeries and are complete with Sprinkle's trademark modern dots. In addition to Sprinkles shops, the mixes are sold at Williams-Sonoma's 250 stores nationwide and in Canada.

Its original store is two blocks west of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, but today, Sprinkles has six additional locations in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Newport Beach, Scottsdale and Palo Alto. More locations will be opening soon in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Denver, Kansas City, London, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

Vote for the company you believe makes the best cupcakes. Readers' Choice Winners will be announced on March 1st.

Tags: awards-main, Barbra Streisand, BarbraStreisand, best cupcake, BestCupcake, beverly hills, BeverlyHills, candace nelson, CandaceNelson, charles nelson, CharlesNelson, katie holmes, KatieHolmes, luxist-awards, oprah winfrey, Oprah Winfrey Show, OprahWinfrey, OprahWinfreyShow, oscars, paris hilton, ParisHilton, russell crowe, RussellCrowe, ryan seacrest, RyanSeacrest, sprinkles, sweets-main, teri hatcher, TeriHatcher, tyra banks, TyraBanks

Tyra Banks Launches Online Fashion Magazine

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Services, Cosmetics and Fragrance, Celebrity Design

Tyra Banks Launches Online Fashion Magazine

Tyra Banks has been all over the celeb news radar in the last few days because on the September 8 season premiere of the Emmy-winning The Tyra Show, she went au naturel with her hair -- "no wigs, extensions, no nothing," she said.

Doing this is part of Banks's mission to help redefine the emotional issue of beauty for women, both within and without, she said in a widely-circulated AP article. Banks said she's learned from past shows, especially when it comes to trusting the insights she developed in the fashion industry. "It's more honest. There's nothing worse than sitting there and pretending" ignorance while a guest delivers tips she could share herself.

And to do so, Banks, who appears on Forbes magazine's 2008 Celebrity 100 list of the rich and famous, launched her online magazine the same day that her natural hair made its debut. WWD reported that Tyra: Beauty Inside & Out -- which she's dubbed a "magaline" -- will share her expertise. "I'm really interested in helping women take control of their futures, take control of their destiny. One of my lines in my manifesto on the website is to be the CEO of your own life, be in control of your own life," Banks said.

Tags: fashion, fashion magazine, FashionMagazine, magaline, online magazine, OnlineMagazine, Tyra, Tyra Banks, TyraBanks