Adding a Little Something Extra at Hapa Cupcakes - CLOSED

Hapa Cupcakes

1210 Jefferson St. Suite Q

Anaheim, CA 92807

One of the fringe benefits of writing this blog is going to some great food events. For most of these food events, maybe about 90 percent, I bring my partner in crime and in life, Katie, with me. Sometimes, she can not make an event because of her eight-to-five job, and that is when I get to ask someone else to be my plus one. I have tried to spread it around so no one gets hurt. I always ask someone who will like the kind of event we are going to. When I heard this event was all about cupcakes and alcohol-infused cupcakes, there was only one person I had in mind to be my sidekick at this event, my sister Kristin.

My sister has been known to enjoy a cocktail or two in her time. She's also a good baker, making some of the best chocolate chip cookies out of anyone that I know. This event worked out even more perfectly because it was on her way home from work, and because it was summer, there were no kids to pick up from school. It all fell into place perfectly.

We met at the Hapa Cupcake's place just after 4PM on a recent Friday. Hapa Cupcakes, for the time being, shares space with Bedazzled Deli and Catering. Bedazzled works out of the space for the first part of the day, and then Hapa takes over at 4PM. Most of their ordering is done online. You order online the day before you want your cupcakes with their easy-to-navigate website. Then, you can pick up the cupcakes or have them delivered to you. Cupcakes run between $29 to $34 a dozen, depending on whether they are alcohol-infused or not.

The masterminds behind Hapa Cupcakes are lifelong friends Akemi and Hanayo. These local OC girls started this business about a year and a half ago. Akemi is more on the business side of things, while Hanayo is the culinary force behind Hapa Cupcakes. She used her friends and family as a guinea pig to help perfect her recipes and try out new flavors that pop into her head. Lucky them. Her latest creations are Hot Cupcake Sundaes, which can be tried at their storefront. We were lucky enough to get to try these for ourselves.

We were offered two versions of their Hot Cupcake Sundaes ($4.95). I am more of a chocolate guy, so I went with the Chocolate Jameson Sundae. The base of this sundae was their Valrhona Chocolate Jameson cupcake, which was warmed just enough to melt the vanilla ice cream on top of it. The sundae is topped with vanilla bean whipped cream and Oreo cookie crumbs. I made quick work of this sundae. The cupcake part was very moist, and the chocolate flavor was delicious. I detected a hint of the Irish whiskey used in this, but it did not overpower the sundae. Kristin went with the Banana Sundae. We both liked this one out of our two. The banana cupcake is infused with Meyer's dark rum, topped with vanilla ice cream and vanilla bean whipped cream, and then sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon. The banana was very pronounced here, and the rum was more evident in this sundae. This will be my choice on future visits back to Hapa Cupcakes.

After we devoured our sundaes, the girls from Hapa Cupcakes gave both my sister and me a four-pack of cupcakes to take with us. I was very excited to try their cupcakes. Hapa Cupcakes was recently featured on the Food Network TV show Cupcake Wars. I have never seen an episode of the show, but I'm looking forward to catching it on repeats to see the Hapa girls in action. Spoiler alert: They told me they did not win but seemed happy with their performance. I always like eating at places featured on TV, which added to my anticipation for these cupcakes.

Since I was headed to my parent's house after this anyway, we decided this would be the perfect opportunity for a cupcake-sampling party. My Mom did all the work of cutting the eight cupcakes into quarters, so we all got to sample each one. Let's see which of the four would come out on top in our version of Cupcake Wars.

First up is the Will You Remember Me in the Morning Cupcake. The batter used in this cupcake is a mix of Madagascar vanilla and Kahlua. It is then topped with their signature cream cheese frosting and cinnamon streusel. We all really liked the cream cheese frosting on this one, even my Dad, who is no fan of cream cheese frosting. The vanilla batter was good, but we needed more Kahlua flavor.

I have always wondered why red velvet cupcakes have gotten so popular. It is a chocolate cake with red food coloring. Don't get me wrong, it is good, but this is everyone's favorite cupcake flavor of the moment. The red velvet version of this at Hapa Cupcakes is the Red Velvet Stiletto. This was our third favorite of the four that we tried. The cake portion was very moist; again, the cream cheese frosting was not heavy on the cream cheese and not sickeningly sweet like others have been known to be. An excellent cupcake.

Our second favorite of the night was a secret cupcake from the secret menu at Hapa Cupcakes. The Vanilla Raspberry Cupcake is not to be missed here. It is a vanilla cupcake with a dollop of raspberry sauce on top of it. This cupcake reminded me of the Hostess O's I had as a kid. They were powdered sugar donuts with raspberry jelly on the inside. I miss those donuts, but this cupcake returned some of those old memories. A little more raspberry was used on this, and I would have been transported back to Saturday mornings watching cartoons in my PJs.

No surprise to me, but our favorite cupcake of the night was this Jameson Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake. We really liked everything about this cupcake. The base of this was a Valrhona chocolate Jameson batter, which had an incredible richness while not too sweet. The peanut butter cream cheese frosting was spot on. Excellent peanut flavor that played well with the chocolate cake. It was hard for me not to eat more than my fair share of what was allocated for this cupcake. A week later, this is the cupcake I keep returning to in my mind.

So my thoughts on Hapa Cupcakes? I really liked them. Some bright spots for me were that the frosting was just a little over the top, like at other gourmet cupcake places. I was also happy that these are a more manageable size than their cupcake competitors. If I want a huge cupcake, I'll have a piece of cake. I really just liked the whole vibe at Hapa Cupcakes. Being a guy, some of the cupcake places are just so girly and prissy. That is not the case with Hapa Cupcakes. They are a little on the naughty side, with the names of their cupcakes, the flavors they are coming up with, or the inclusion of alcohol into their cupcakes. Just by talking to Hanayo and Akemi, you can tell they love what they are doing, which shows in their excellent product. These cupcakes were a hit with not only me but with my sister and parents as well. Glad I could share this experience with my family.

If you would like to experience Hapa Cupcakes for yourself, go to their website here: http://www.hapacupcakes.com/