On a mobile device? Try our mobile site, optimized for faster browsing.
Categories: Bakeries, Desserts
Neighborhoods: Civic Center/Tenderloin, Union SquareOur passion is creating gourmet desserts that excite your senses and make you want more!
Try us out for the holidays!
Loading...
My boyfriend and I came here after reading Yelp's Connie C.'s good review on this place. Being that they're right downtown~ a block up from the O'Farrell parking lot ~ this is a great spot to stop by for your sugar fix when you're shopping in the area. They're a small little shop that has small, medium, and large size cupcakes. The small are mini 2-3 bite size and are great for people who are looking to get a taste of the different ones they have.
NOTE: They do have different sizes, but they don't have the same flavored cupcakes in all sizes.
We got the red velvet, peanut butter, nutella, and smores cupcakes in the medium size (about 5 bites). When they pack them, they have containers that individually fit each cupcake so they don't get all smooshed together. The cupcakes were all good ~ not too sweet and each had it's charm. The red velvet was your typical red velvet. The SMORES was our favorite with their graham cracker bottom crust and their marshmallowy topping. YUM!
The service was okay. The cupcakes would be the reason I could be going back though.
Truth be told, ive never been a fan of red velvet. I know its a favorite amongst loads of people, but me, meh, not so much. One year for my birthday my mother surprised me with a huge red velvet cake. I almost cried i was so upset. I didnt have not one slice of my own birthday cake. How can you confuse my request for strawberry shortcake with red velvet? It was like she was begging for a kick in the throat.
Now despite my disdain for red velvet, im head-over-heels for sweets. Cakes, ice cream, pies, tarts...i love em all and I love trying new dessert spots. When i first heard about Cako, honestly, i was expecting to hate it. Well, maybe not hate it, but i was expecting a huge let down. Im very particular with my taste for things. Actually, i think thats just me being picky.
So after our sushi dinner, we headed out to do a little bar hopping and on the way i had a craving for something sweet. I walked passed Cako and decided to grab a treat. Expecting them to be mediocre, i went with a mini red velvet with cream cheese frosting and a mini chocolate on chocolate. Now i know, red velvet, why would i even go there. I have no idea, guess the cream cheese frosting looked appealing. And let me just say, that thanks to Cako i have let go of my grudge against red velvet. My red velvet cupcake was a mini treat of deliciousness! I loved every single tiny little bite and the frosting just made it that much better. No one has ever made a red velvet cake that i could stomach, not even some of my favorite sweet shops. Cako.....Cako has made me a believer. And the chocolate on chocolate was just as finger-licking delicious. Calories? What calories?
They were the perfect mini sweets to enjoy on our crisp winter walk.
"Why an octopus, sweetie?"
I saw the image of an octopus in their whiteboard on the wall.
(See my pictures, please.)
The name of this place is "Cako" but in Japanese, an "octopus" is called "Tako".
It has nothing to do with cupcakes.
And the octopus says "Try them all ! " but I couldn't.
I only had 8 dollars and 27 cents.
I bought three cupcakes just for myself.
Chocolate Decadent, Mocha, Raspberry.
Cupcakes may remind you of your happy childhood but not me.
I grew up with mochi, manju and rice balls.
The icing was not too sweet. I liked it.
It was different from the deadly icing of Safeway cupcakes.
The base was still moist and as far as I read the other reviews, I was lucky.
They will give you a card if you wish.
They punch a bear-shaped hole each time you spend $5.00.
When you have 5 bears, you get one free cupcake.
(No previous reviewers posted a pic of the card so I did.)
I don't need to eat more cupcakes but I would be happy to have some cupcakes so that I can throw them at illegal drivers using cellular phones.
Happened to stumble across this place in October. It was so cute and I'm a sucker for cupcakes. Since then I went in and bought cupcakes for my birthday soiree as well. They were all a hit, but my personal fav is the regular with sprinkles and the lemon with raspberry frosting. I LOVE that their mini cupcakes come in a variety of flavors as well, as opposed to maybe just having 2 or 3 options.
I've brought a few friends here to try them as well since, and everyone is in agreement: THEY ARE DEELISH!
P.S. They make great chocolate chip and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies!
P.P.S. They're prices are really good too!
Bleh! Worst impulse buy ever!
The service was okay. The nice guy behind the character was super sweet. The other guy, not so much. I bought two medium cupcakes to reach the five dollar min. for credit cards. I got the red vlevet and the pumpkin cheesecake. I've never had red velvet cupcakes before, so I though I'd give it a go. It was okay. The cake was kind of dry and the frosting was kind of hard. It was around 4:30 when I got there so I assume they left these cupcakes out for a bit. The second one was such a disappointment. I threw it away after one bite. Two dollars in the trash. I just couln't eat it. It was too spicy. The cinammon was overpowering and I couldn't even taste the pumpkin. I think the only thing that made it "cheesecake" was the crumbly (and not in the good way) graham cracker crust.
To be fair, I am really disappointed only because of that last cupcake. Red velvet was okay. But I'm going to try it somewhere else.
We went here during my Thanksgiving break. We got 9 cupcakes. We were eating with our eyes, as my mom says and probably didn't need that many. And I can say that the cupcakes were alright.
There wasn't anything distinctively delicious about them. They did LOOK really good tho.
Visiting SF. Hopped off the bus and what do I see? A cute shop window with cupcakes galore. They had some samples of their Lemon Raspberry cupcakes - pretty tasty~
Picked up their "sampler" mini-cupcake pack (a dozen for $10, a $2 discount if you were to buy 12 separately) in 4 different flavors. You can't pick the flavors because they're already prepackaged.
Great location. Nice detail to the cupcakes. Taste - well, can you really go wrong with cupcakes?
Looked like they were a bit skimpy on stock - but I did walk in at around 230pm on a Thursday afternoon.
My friend and I went to the Starbucks across the street, sat down and saw this cute place. So we decided to go check it out..
The decor was.. eh. I honestly thought they were still renovating. ONE of the walls is nice- the brown and pink one.
I guess the wall of actual cupcakes are cute too, but won't that attract a lot of flies?
Their sign could be better. For now it's just a dry eraser board.. Maybe it's on the way?
But as for the actual cupcakes, I ordered two large red velvets ($7). They put both of them in one big box that could fit four. I later asked if I can change it and put them into two separate little boxes. The girl at the register looked at me if I was speaking Chinese to her. I mean, what part of what I said did you not understand? Two cupcakes, two little boxes. HELLO?
Anyway, the taste. The cake itself, was pretty good.It could've used a brighter red color dye. But the frosting.. Blegh. I know it's cream cheese frosting, but I didn't know it's supposed to just be cream cheese.. It was pretty gross.
Overall, I would come back to try the other flavors, but I'll just stick to my usual cupcake places: Kara's and Tuttimelon Polk's red velvet.
I incidentally went to Union Square right after the tree lighting ceremony and somewhat accidentally soaked in all of the glittery festivity vibes before coming here, so there's the possibility I was on some kind of high when I came here.
Or maybe I just like cake too much.
BF and I were walking away from the hubbub when my cupcake radar went off. I don't know when pink became the official cupcake color - I guess it must have happened around the time purple was inducted into the Official Halloween Colors realm. I saw the little frosty shapes in little militaristic rows through the windows and was drawn in. The actual inside is disappointingly spare, in spite of the balloon arch outside. Little acrylic shelves of sweet treats in the window are the highlight of the decor... and that's it.
The cupcakes themselves are esthetically appealing, with the usual little edible baubles indicating the flavor. Flavors are straightforwardly named, from the chocolate vanilla to the vanilla chocolate to the nutella to the obligatory red velvet. The counter and display case is a little uncomfortably close to the door, or the spread is too wide, so a newcomer would have a difficult time ordering because those waiting for the register are blocking the view of all of the flavors. The menu lists all the flavors and sizes:
1.00 for small (like a mini)
2.50 for medium (a standard size cupcake with tapered sides)
3.50 for the large (slightly larger in circumference than the medium with straight sides - think a smaller version of a Costco muffin)
We arrived at the perfect time for trying - BOGO time! They only had large and mini sizes, with most cupcakes available in large and only a handful of flavors in mini. BF and I each got a large cupcake, two for the price of $3.50 - obligatory red velvet for me and peanut butter chocolate per the employee's recommendation for the BF.
We shared the red velvet first. The cake was dry, but the frosting was excellent. The cake had a more chocolately taste than red velvet is traditionally supposed to be. It's still tasty in spite of the dryness. It was a little more dense than what we're used to.
Because of an unfortunate misunderstanding later that night (and BF's inability to enunciate his words) BF gave the other cupcake away to a mentally ill homeless woman. He says he said "Do you want to share this cupcake with her?" but he really said, "Do you want to share this cupcake?" and turned his head toward the crowd and said a bunch of unintelligible syllables, to which I responded, "Yeah!"
Needless to say, I was peeved and he owed me half a cupcake. So, like the fatties we are, we went back the next morning. I instead ordered the more appealing nutella cupcake (per a different employee's recommendation). They actually had medium sized cupcakes, but there were only five of their dozen or so flavors. No BOGO in the morning, apparently, so I had to pay full price for this puppy. It was totally worth it. The cake was lighter and moister. It lived up to my expectations much better overall.
My recommendations for Cako: nix the medium size. No cupcake place needs more than two sizes unless there is a "Mondo" size that is essentially the size of an actual cake. Also, I understand the overhead is pretty high there, but enough with the just-opened look. Hire a student graphic designer and jazz up the place. You're right by Union Square, you're representing our city down there!
These four stars are in the preemption of your improvement. Don't let me down.
I don't quite understand the explosion of cupcake places in San Francisco; I guess it's a little like the FroYo boom. Except for being downtown and really accessible from my usual routs, Cako is good, but nothing special.
I like that they have three different sizes to suite my mood and their $3.50 large is DEFINITELY bigger than Kara's or That Takes The Cake's. If you go at the end of the day, though, the top edges that aren't covered in frosting get a little dried out. I bought mine today for 2 for 1 and, honestly, I don't think I would have otherwise.
Saw Cako as I got off the bus, and of course I had to go in.
The place is pretty plain. No decorations. I thought it had just opened. But it's been around for 2 months already.
Their cupcake menu offers more than 10 different flavors: banana split, chocolate, andes mint chocolate, vanilla chocolate, red velvet, carrot with walnuts, mocha, chocolate strawberry and many more...
It's smart for them to offer different size cupcakes. And it's even smarter to only have the more interesting flavors in larges only.
Small - $1
Medium - $2.50
Large - $3.50
I bought 2 large ones. Unfortunately, while they look really good and cheaper than other places, they tasted pretty bad. Not disgusting, but not good either. Besides the decorative elements, there's nothing special about the cupcakes. They tasted like products easily made from cake mixes and royal frosting.
Nutella: dry cake. barely any nutella flavor.
Chocolate strawberry: dry cake. no strawberry flavor. pretty sure it's strawberry cake mix. and if not, it taste just like something that came from a box.
Cako has a great location, right off the convenient (for me) 31 line. So I very much wanted to like this place.
The cupcakes look good, but looks are deceiving in this case. Like many of the other reviewers, I found the cake to be dry. The frosting was fine, but overall, I wasn't impressed. If I had stopped there, I probably would have given Cako a 3-star rating. However, being the intrepid critic, I had to investigate one rave review of Cako's cookies. Needless to say, the reality did not live up to the glowing endorsement. Despite being promised that they were made that day, the cookies were hard and not in a pleasant way.
The Asian employees and sub-gourmet products will give you the impression that Cako is a Chinese knockoff of a good cupcake place. That could work, but not at these prices.
Like so many others i stumbled upon this place on my way to dinner. On the way back I of course had to stop in for dessert!
I opted for a mini red velvet cupcake. It was decent but not the best ive ever had. It was kinda dry, but smothered in delicious frosting which made up for it. Luckily it was small enough that it was still just the tasty little treat i needed.
Id say that all in all a cupcake is a cupcake is a cupcake. Even when its bad, its good.
I'm really not a big fan of cupcakes, but I'm always willing to try new cupcakes out.
Came here only because their window displayed all their different kinds of cupcakes which completely lured me in.
The prices are a bit much, but they had this 12 small cupcakes for $10.
Me and my BF were very excited to see all the different flavors and decided to get 2 large cupcakes for dessert.
I ended up getting the apple pie cupcake and he got the peanut butter cupcake.
Now, I'm not a big fan of sweets and i was surprised that the cupcake itself was good. I notice that at other places they like to specialize in their toppings and frosting, but this place took care of the ENTIRE cupcake. 5 stars just for that.
My cupcake had the yummy frosting on top and apple chunks in the cupcake.. the peanut butter cupcake had straight peanut butter on top, which was peanut butter chocolaty goodness. I don't think I'd come back to this place since I'm not a fan of sweets, but if i met someone who was in love with cupcakes, I'd recommend this place.
So much to love about Cako! Great Union Square location. The folks working there are always really friendly. Love how there are small/medium/large cupcake options. And of course, delicious cupcakes! The Chocolate-Vanilla cupcake is particularly yummy.
Point off only because the cupcakes aren't as moist as they could be. I definitely wouldn't say "dry", but they aren't quite at that melt-in-your-mouth level.
With the cupcake craze going on lately, walking through Union Square on my way to the SF shopping Center with my dog, I had to come to a complete hault and stop for a cupcake. There was a yelp special that if you said "I saw you on Yelp", you could get 1 cupcake, and get a cupcake or cookie for free. Who am I to refuse a bogo deal, right? So, I got a red velvet cupcake, and a chocolate chip cookie. I don't know what it is, but I think my body is averted to cupcakes these days. I took a bite of the red velvet and decided to save the rest for later. About an hour later, the cupcake turned as hard as a brick, and i couldn't even take a bite! Booo!!!
So, I went to my chocolate chip cookie, which i LOVED! It's not too sweet, and it's not too chocolately, not too dry and not too moist. It was perfect. It's even better than my fav, which is the chocolate chip cookies at McDonald's that are 3 for $1. But....$1 for a cookie at Bako is pricey. I'll just go back to McDonald's. =P
Date & Time: Sunday November 1, 2009 @ 3:30pm
Company: Michael
Crowd: Cute Young Asians in Small Groups(Not Us)
Atmosphere: Adorable
Decor: Cute Small Space. Palette of White, Pink & Brown. Over-Sized Jars of Big Cookies & Cupcake Counter
Service: Nice Friendly Asians
Devour: Lemon Raspberry, Strawberry Vanilla & Banana Split Cupcakes- Minus One Star for The Overly-Sweet Thick Frosting. Will Try S'Mores Next Time
Total: $10.50
My fiance and I stumbled on Cako while shopping in the Union Square area. We enjoy cupcakes so we decided to give this spot a try. They definitely have a great location with tons of food traffic... but I'm not sure how many repeat visitors they'll get.
The decor is OK... just bland and par for the course I guess at most of the similar bakery, boutique cupcake shops.
They've got a lot of flavors to choose from as well as sizes... but I'm not sure that would help the experience. We tried a Strawberry Cream and Red Velvet. Red Velvet because that's usually one of those standard if they don't get it right they suck flavors and Strawberry Cream because I like strawberries.
Red Velvet was pretty much awful... good thing we didn't get a large one just the mini. It was pretty dense and a tad dry - I almost thought it was old. Way too much overpowering chocolate flavor... and the cream cheese frosting taste just like cream cheese.
Strawberry Cream was just okay... they sprinkled some sugar on the berry to make it sweet which was okay. The cake was again dense and dry and didn't taste like vanilla like we were told... more like sweet wheat box cake? Frosting was OK just a tad too sweet.
Wish it was a better experience so it would be a regular stop while shopping in the area... but I guess not.
I've tried a number of cupcakes from this new Union Square bakery. Not all during the same visit or in the same sitting as I do have some self-restraint with baked sweets, though not much. So far I've had or taken a nice huge bite out of the nutella, red velvet, s'more, carrot cake, and strawberry-chocolate cupcakes and even had a chocolate chip cookie from here as well. The good: s'more cupcake with a roasted-brown whipped marshmallow top, tasty chocolate cake and very crumbly graham cracker crust on the bottom. The chocolate chip cookie also falls in this category. The pretty good: nutella cupcake and strawberry-chocolate cupcake topped with an entire white chocolate-dipped strawberry with extra milk chocolate drizzled on top. The not so good: the red velvet and carrot cake cupcakes.
All cupcakes are not created equal here in terms of taste, but they are in terms of moistness. Essentially they are all just a little lacking in the moistness department. You'll want to make sure you have a glass of milk nearby.
They are open late, which is nice, in case you have a late evening sweet tooth hankering.
Accidentally found this shop on the way to do a tourist walk about my first afternoon in the city.
Cute small shop with great looking cupcakes. The glass display offered a few normal flavor combinations, with cute decorated frostings and bright colors, and a few unique flavors. I took a raspberry lemonade medium sized cupcake to-go. When I ate it hours later it had great!! frosting taste and a moist flavored well cake bottom.
FYI's~
* Don't have togo containers made specifically for cupcakes so they do not travel well
* Sell mini, medium, and regular cupcakes
* Have cookies for purchase (out of jars) and a open cooler of drinks
* No tables or places to enjoy cupcake in shop
* My medium specialty cupcake was $2.50
I literally stumbled upon this place when walking through Union Square. I heard it had opened, but already picked out my cupcake bakeries for my San Fran visit, so I really wasn't seeking it out. However, glad to have tried it.
The cupcakes themselves are very big- almost too big. They cost $3.50 a piece, which is honestly too high. I don't mind paying a lot of money for amazing cupcakes, but these cupcakes weren't amazing.
They have a few flavors of mini cupcakes, but I went with the regular sized chocolate peanut butter. The chocolate cake was very unoriginal. There was nothing "bad" about it, but it tasted like boxed cake. For a place commanding such a price, there should be something unique; throw some peanut butter chips in. Chocolate chips. Peanut butter filling. Something? My friends mint chocolate had chocolate chips in the chocolate cake, and it was much better.
The frosting, however, was delicious. Extremely smooth and creamy, and I liked the pieces of lightly salted peanuts on the outer portion of the frosting.
Aesthetically, these cupcakes are very pretty, and Cako has a great selection; however, the quality of product really needs to improve to command the cost. It's not always about size! Quality over quantity.
My friend brought a Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcake back to me in our hotel room, after I'd worked all day while she got to play in the city.
I saved it for a night time snack, so it's possible that my criticism may have to do with the fact that it was not eaten immediately upon being purchased. Then again, I'd think that it's pretty common to purchase cupcakes and serve them at a later hour, so maybe not . . .
While the cupcake was tasty, I found the cake to be dense and on the dry side. The cupcake was quite crumbly and thereby difficult to eat while relaxing in my hotel room.
The flavor was good, although, for a pumpkin cheesecake cupcake - it wasn't overly cheesecakey. Just pumpkiny.
I wouldn't say no if someone invited me to join them sometime again. But I wouldn't make a point to visit a second time, either.
While these cupcakes looked cute, their flavors sounded intriguing, and their logo was admittedly adorable, I think Cako was kind of yucko. I tried the mini Lemon Raspberry and my friend had the mini Red Velvet.
Both of the cakes very very dry. The lemon cake had a nice flavor, but the raspberry frosting was cloyingly sweet. The red velvet cake was much less sweet which was nice and the only thing I'd say they got absolutely right was the cream cheese frosting on the Red Velvet cupcake.
I'd say, if you want a great cupcake, go to Miette.
Cako wins on creativity, presentation and frosting! So many different varieties with beautifully crafted tops. The frostings tend to be the best part (obviously). The cake bases were very dry and disappointing except for the s'mores which gave some hope. This hope coupled with awesome toppings barely brings these cupcakes into the 4-star fan rank.
S'mores: Pretty brûléed top, but unfortunately there was no crunch to it. The frosting was somewhere between cream and marshmallow. Tasty frosting, but the sugar wasn't dissolved enough. The chocolate cake was extremely rich due to the chocolate ganache interspersed and at the bottom. Right below the cake was some crumbly graham cracker that was a tad boring by themselves, but worked well with the combination.
Chocolate Peanut Butter: Sure would suck to be allergic to peanuts! The frosting was like a peanut butter mousse with salted peanut bits on the side and chocolate drizzle on top. The chocolate cake beneath had a lot less flair. It paired well for bites with the frosting, but was too bland by itself. A layer of pure peanut butter on the inside could help set it right.
Red Velvet: Once again, the frosting reigns supreme! Extremely light and creamy with the signature red velvet cream cheese taste. The red cake itself is mediocre: dry, dense and bland.
I have to admit that while I'm not that impressed with Cako, I've been in several times hoping that either a) I find that flavor worth coming back for or b) their cake baking skills magically improves from week to week. The truth is that cako is alll about the frosting. The cake to frosting ratio of this palace is out of control! Personally I like frosting to be a complement to nice moist cake. Here are the flavors I've tried or shared with friends.
Chocolate Peanut Butter - simple basic chocolate cake with a very rich peanut butter moose frosting. The cake isn't special but the frosting is soo rich you almost need plain chocolate cake with it.
Lemon Raspberry - The lemon cake is very flavorful but pretty dry. The raspberry frosting is nice light and fluffy.
Coconut - I love coconut but this was a very boring cupcake, that I could have made at home. Chocolate cake, vanilla frosting, coconut flakes on tip. Meh!
Smores - This one at least gets points for creativity. Graham cracker base, chocolate cake with chocolate bar pieces in it, light gooey marshmallow frosting with almost has a meringue like consistency. It's very hard to eat but good.
Red Velvet - Very dry cake, nice cream cheese frosting!
Mini-Red Velvet - Why review this one separately? Because they got this one right. Despite the large version being super dry. The cake on the bite-sized version is perfect. The problem is a $1 a bite it's way too expensive.
The truth is there isn't a Sprinkles nearby my commute to work, so I'll probably be back. But this is not my first choice in cupcakes!
The 2 stars are for the mini cupcakes.
With one or two bites, I thought these cupcakes were mediocre, at best. Very sweet frosting and the cake was on the dry side.
Weak presentation. One tray of cupcakes had melted frosting running. Poor lighting at night. The cookies look stale and aged.
This place should be called CRAPO!! Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am somewhat of a cupcake fiend and I know a good cupcake vs a bad one. I have driven all the way to Palo Alto to get my hands on a Sprinkles cupcake.... truthfully this place makes a REALLY bad cupcake. They seem to use sub-par ingredients that make for a cupcake that is lackluster and boring and downright NASTY!!
The look of the place is GHETTO with a capital "G" I mean it looks like the joint is being held together by ummmmmm scotch tape. Their flavors seem really interesting...peanut butter cup and Smores. On my way to Macy's to try out Burger Bar (review to come) I was given a buy one get one coupon so I decided to give them a try. I went for the standard red velvet, and took the free lemon raspberry mini version. My husband and I did not care for the look of the place and as he called it..."this looks like a wanna be fancy version of a hole in the wall". We paid $3.25 I believe and left with our red velvet and freebie in hand,. They were both placed in a rather large box which made them swish around back and forth...not good for the frosting (any good cupcake establishment would have boxes that fit just one)
As we walked we decided to bite into the freebie...URGH...GROSS..YUCK were the three comments that came out of our mouths. THe freebie may have been two bites worth and we did not even finish it...did I mention the gross film that was left in our mouths from them having used margarine yep margarine not butter in both their frosting and cupcake. The same thing happened with the red velvet too much margarine in the frosting and the cupcake itself was dry and yucky. They got me once but I will never spend another $3 bucks in this place even if I do get something for free. Do yourself a favor and buy a hostess cupcake because those may taste better than this.
We came for their BOGOFree offer and totally regretted it.
See, I'm the type of guy who never got into the whole cupcake fad but has a girl friend who loves them. So, I've tried a few.
Sometime last week, we were walking through Union Square and we had the munchies but didn't want to ruin our appetite for dinner. We saw on Yelp that this place had a Buy One, Get One Free offer and since it was close and quick, we paid them a visit.
We purchased four, two to eat and two to gift. I got the Peanut Butter-Chocolate (because simply put- I LOVE peanut butter) and the GF got Strawberry-Chocolate. At first bite we noticed the cake was super stale, to where our mouths were at the point of instant dehydration. It wasn't fluffy, the peanut butter wasn't creamy and (to top it all) the GF didn't have the look of delight on her face.
But the torture didn't come until later that night. To make a long story short: I've decided to take a break from cupcakes and if I find my way back I'll stick with the ever so simple mass produced supermarket brand.
UGH!!! this place needs to go outta business. I'm a HUGEEEE cupcake fanatic, but this place is downright nasty. I love the color pink and I pass by this almost everyday when I go downtown and today i finally deceided to try it with my bff. We walked in and noticed their store window was re-deorated with cupcakes instead of the usual cookie jars, I got a large lemon raspberry( because it was PiNK and oh-so-cute!) and my bff got a red velvet. We we heading to a friends place in ct so we got it to-go. They had a snotty dumb asian girl worker ...nicole was it??!!! who was snotty and rude and she put our 2 cupcakes in a big plastic box thats meant for 4 cupcakes and when we asked for a smaller box she gave us this idiotic look like she didn't understand english... so we were like w/e just paid and walked out frowning hoping the cupcakes would be a lot better then the customer service there, but boy were we wrong =[ the cupcakes were stale and the frosting was oily hard dried crusty and gross. and the fruit on top tasted disgusting. my bff's red velvet wasn;t any better, hers was stale and dry and hard. that being said I'm never retuning, NEVER!! Best cupcake place in the world is still pink sugar in victoria. =)
I JINXED MYSELF!!!
I said on my Kara's review that I haven't found a cupcake that I didn't like and now I found it. I was debating if I should give 1 or 2 stars but I decided to give it a 1-star rating because I do not plan or want to go back. Atleast with a 2-star rating there's a chance that I would give them a 2nd chance.
My boyfriend and I were in the city for a birthday dinner and we had plenty of time to spare so we Yelp-ed nearby cupcakeries and found this place. Cako was having a "buy one, get one free" special if you mention Yelp so we decided to give it a try. It worked. We bought 4 cupcakes: Strawberry Chocolate, Peanut Butter Chocolate, Red Velvet and Nutella. We tried the strawberry and peanut butter and gave the other 2 as our birthday gift. The cupcakes were neither moist, soft or fluffy. The frosting were too sweet, tasted like it was a day old and had a weird after taste. It just didn't taste right; nothing like other cupcakes we've tried. Even the grocery store kind were much better. They were the complete opposites of what a cupcake should be.
Cupcakes are suppose to make people happy but these cupcakes did not make us happy at all, especially our tummies. =*( We got sick from the cupcakes that we actually called the birthday girl to tell her to throw it away; we felt bad for even giving it to her. Someone please buy me Kara's or Teacake Bake Shop cupcakes to restore my faith back on cupcakes... STAT!!!
Read about Cako on Yelp so decided to check it out today. This new cupcake bakery is conveniently located downtown right off O'Farrell up the street from Macys. I nearly passed right by it today when I was looking for it! The bakery is pretty plain and very simple. There were cookie jars displayed in front which I guess is self serve?
Nice selection of cupcakes. I liked the fact they had different sizes...they had more of a variety for the large sized ($3.50) and a smaller choice for medium ($2.50) and small ($1) . I picked up a red velvet, lemon raspberry, and mint chocolate medium sized cupcakes.
The red velvet was good and the other two were not bad also.
Would be willing to come back and try more flavors but I might have to splurge a little bit to get some large ones!
Also like the fact they provide cupcake holder plastic containers so the cupcakes don't get knocked around.
Would be cool if they added some small tables or chairs in here also.
Stop #2 on my cross-country cupcake crawl and it didn't disappoint!
I got the mint chocolate cupcake which was delicious! Chocolate cake with some chocolate chips, mint buttercream icing, an Andes chocolate, and some green sprinkles!
I agree with others that they might be a bit overpriced ($3.50 I think), but they are on the larger side (kinda like Crumbs) and I think this flavor is worth it.
My friend Sara S. had a chocolate peanut butter one and while she said the frosting was good, the cake itself was too plain. I sampled a piece and her chocolate cake was plain compared to mine...I think the addition of the chocolate chips in mine helped.
They have a frequent buyer card. Every $5 spent earns you one punch of the card...can't remember what you get as the perk though! Oops!
Staff were nice, they saw Sara S. and I running across the street grinning about Sara's find; we weren't planning on or expecting to go here. It was a nice surprise!
(See pics)
More of 3.3 stars.
Got detoured with the whole commotion of Obama traffic I passed by this place that was once short lived froyo place, which seems to be becoming a thing of the past.
The cupcakes are quite flaky and the frosting is very light and fluffy too. Taste is heavy and good and can definitely satisfy your sugar sensation.
The buy 1 get 1 free is a steal. 7 bucks for 4 gigantic cupcakes!
The place is minimally decorated and do think they can use some brighter lighting since the place looked a bit dim and pale, though I am pretty green so would recommend some yellow / green shades to make the place more cute looking and can attract more walk-by(s) to pop in.
The cupcake flavors are hot, the prices are not!
My boyfriend and I dropped by this quaint shop for a post-shopping snack. We were blown away by the creative flavors like Andes mint, S'mores, Nutella, and caramel apple pie (to name a few of the standouts). However, these creative cupcakes were $3.50 a pop. My god that is expensive for about 5-6 bites. We settled on the S'mores because the toasted marshmallow topping looked magnificent. The cupcake itself was dry, but they crushed graham crackers to make a bottom crust that was out of this world.
What stinks about this place is that they have nowhere for you to sit and enjoy your cupcake. They do have a counter top, but provide no chairs. I think the maximum capacity is like 10 people, because it felt pretty cramped between my boyfriend and I along with the 2 workers. I also wish I had known about the yelp special because 2 cupcakes for $3.50 feels a lot more reasonable.
The cupcake aesthetics do a lot more for your eyes, than the quality does for your taste buds.
This place is very vibrant and chic.
The cookies are self-served --they're in cute jars (peep the photo!). I had the Snickerdoodle, Peanut Butter & Jelly, and Coconut Krispies. All cookies were $1 each which is expensive because the cookies were very small. Nonetheless, the cookies were very delicious --I'm just not sure if they were worth $1.00 each because that's asking for too much for that size!
I tried the Nutella Chocolate Cupcake. This was a pricey cupcake and I was so bummed that there was a Yelp deal going on because I actually bought one and didn't get one for free. The cupcake was mediocre. The frosting wasn't my cup of tea and was too buttery tasting. The cake itself was fluffy and not dense which is good but the taste of the cake itself just wasn't impressive to me. It leaned more towards the darker taste than a sweet one --it wasn't equal in balance in flavor for me.
Would I go out of my way to return to this place? No. However if I am around and feel like eating a cookie, I'd probably purchase one Snickerdoodle if there wasn't a better bakery around.
The parking here is near impossible... I feel like this is a shop more for the tourists and the locals who frequent the area often.
I've been here twice for cupcakes and have enjoyed their mini cupcakes a lot. And that's saying something because I think cupcakes are overrated and with commercial cupcakes I'm almost never satisfied with the frosting. But the frosting at Cako is always good.
I've enjoyed their carrot cake cupcakes, the red velvet (I guess - personally I don't understand the thing people have for red velvet cake at all. But they have red velvet cupcakes and people like them.), and they have amazing chocolate ones too. I had the white with chocolate frosting and really liked it.
Their mini cupcakes are $1 and that is the perfect amount for me - I like to try a couple different flavors though :-D
A cupcake shop replaced the old Swirl Culture fro-yo shop...and I wouldn't mind that if the cupcakes were actually good. The chocolate frosting is so dark that it really does look like crap/turd. The cupcakes looked more home style than pretty. They had 15 full size varieties ($3.50) like lemon raspberry, red velvet, carrot, mint chocolate, etc., three kinds of mini cupcakes ($1), muffins and cookies in glass jars. Cold drinks, coffee and tea are available.
* Mini vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting: The cake part had a nice flavor but was very, very dry. I couldn't eat the thick, heavy, super sweet turd looking frosting. Yuck
* Smores cupcake: This was a weird cupcake. There was a crumb crust on the bottom (kinda like graham cracker bits) that kept falling off. The chocolate cake wasn't as dry as the vanilla cake. The meringue frosting was soft, slightly gritty and super sweet. Ick.
Also, the frosting of the red velvet cupcake melted off one hour later. It was gritty too.
I appreciate the buy one, get one free Yelp promotion. It's a cute shop (the textured white wall is still there, left over from the Swirl Culture days) without any seating. Good effort, bad cupcakes.
On Monday I ran down to Cako to buy some cupcakes for my coworker's birthday. I checked Yelp for the closest, downhill bakery to our office and found Cako, complete with a buy one get one free cupcake offer with the mention of Yelp. Hell yes.
Their website mentioned fruit tarts but when I went inside, they only seemed to sell cookies sequestered in glass jars away from everything and cupcakes for $3.50 each (mini for $1).
The cupcakes aren't the prettiest things in the world. They don't smooth out the frosting, so the dark chocolate strawberry cupcake looks like a beautiful strawberry on a pile of crap. They use sprinkles, which I think look a bit tacky, but not on all of them.
I ended up ordering 8 cupcakes: 2 carrot walnut, 2 kahlua mocha, 2 smores, 1 red velvet and 1 strawberry.
When I got back to the office we sang happy birthday and opened inappropriate birthday cards. I split a cupcake with a coworker because I wanted to try both the carrot and the smores. The cakes I got weren't as dry as other yelpers seem to say. I liked the candied orange peel on the top of the carrot cupcake, but I thought the cream cheese frosting was a bit too sweet and too thick. I LOVED the smores cupcake with the whimsey of the toasted marshmallow cream instead of frosting. It totally made my day, even if it was a bit messy because of the graham cracker bottom.
Best of all, when the lady rang up my bill, it came to only $14 for 8 cupcakes. I told her she made a mistake and she said no. Because I got 8 cupcakes, I bought 4 and 4 were free. That never happens and that's probably not correct (since a buy one get one deal usually applies to the first item only, not the entire order), but I'm not going to question it.
I've had better cupcakes, but this place was inventive with very helpful service. They described the sort of flavors in the different cupcakes and helped me pick a nice selection. And that smores cupcake was quite nice.
After sampling cupcakes all afternoon at CupcakeCamp, I was in the mood for....more cucpakes! I remembered reading some reviews for a new cupcakery near Union Square, and made my way over to Cako Bakery. I'm grateful for my bad memory in this case, because we noticed a buy one get one free deal when you mention Yelp while looking up the address. Thank you Yelp!
We decided to each buy one and get a second free so that we could try four different flavors...moderation is not in my vocabulary.
We went with:
1. Andes Mint: Chocolate cake with bits of Andes baked into the bottom, mint frosting, topped with an Andes mint and green sugar crystal sprinkles. The frosting was delicious, but the cake was dry. I liked the bits of Andes, but they were all at the bottom, not evenly distributed throughout the cake. And I think the green crystal sugar cheapened what could have been a classier cupcake.
2. S'mores: Chocolate cake with a crunchy bottom of graham cracker crust, topped with a toasted marshmallow meringue. My favorite by far! This cake was the least dry of the four and the graham cracker bottom was the perfect finishing touch.
3. Lemon Raspberry: Lemon cake with raspberry buttercream frosting, topped with a raspberry hot pink sugar crystals. The cake was dry, buttercream was good and flavorful. But again with the cheesy sprinkles.
4. Chocolate Raspberry: Chocolate cake, raspberry buttercream, decorated with a raspberry and white chocolate shavings. By this point the dry cake was predictable. The raspberry buttercream was good, and it was a very pretty cupcake.
The prices are reflective of the size, $3.50 each for very large cupcakes. Overall, the shop itself is all kinds of adorable, but these cupcakes look better than they taste. Just like people, food is best when it's beautiful on the inside as well as out!
Take advantage of the buy one get one free deal while it lasts people!! And let's hope Cako works out some of the dryness issues in their cake recipes.
I'm a chocolate peanut butter kind of gal... Their version in a cupcake is divine!!!
Moist, creamy peanut and salty taste to match the complexity of the flavor..it is sooo good!
The smores had a very fluffy icing top, presentation of these goodies are soo pretty you don't want to eat them.
I take one star away due to the cost.. a bit pricey I say but I love the fact that they have promo deals (buy 1 get one free )..be aware the free one is a smaller cupcake.
I've yet to try their red velvet..hmmm
I will come back for more.
A mix of touristy and not-so-touristy stuff. I…
Destinations along my nationwide cupcake…
Got a sweet tooth? Here are some of my favorite…
Places I have ate at when I am visiting the city…
A listing of bay area sweet shops (froyo /…
Licking sweets off your fingers has never been so…
Ranked in order of preference...with more places…
Cookies, Chocolates, Cakes, Pies, Ice Cream, Froyo…
