Encountered this lineup for Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica. The line was 20 stylish ladies deep with a sprinkling of guys. I asked one of the would-be cupcake customers who she was buying cupcakes for and she just said, "A friend." Another customer behind us wondered aloud why there were so many women and not really any guys. I guess women are more apt to buy cute cakes for each other and maybe......

Santa Monica seems to be the epicenter of cupcakes these days, now that there are not one just one (Yummy Cupcakes one block closer to the Promenade) but two cupcake places there -- four on the Westside, if you count Susie Cakes in Brentwood and Butter Cake Bakery on Pico. Vanilla Bake Shop is dessert caterers Amy and Jeremy Berman's first bakery, and it's very charming. A lot of people in this town are......

Time and time again, the small little boutique bakery on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks keeps on building its reputation. First, Leda's Bake Shop comes on to the scene with its whimsical cupcakes and baked goods, put together in their clean-cut 1960s open style kitchen. Then last fall, to appeal to soccer moms with lactose intolerant sweet teething children and vegans, they added vegan cupcakes. Then came vegan chocolate chip, oatmeal cherry and snickerdoodle......

Is is "so last year" of us to really love cupcakes? We think not, considering so many of us rang in the new year humming SNL's "Lazy Sunday" hommage to New York's finest--cupcake that is. Now, we've been in that frantic line at Magnolia, and wrestled and wrangled our way to a box of those little gems, and that's a pretty high standard for the West Coast cupcakeries to compete with. LAist started to......

There's a brand new bakery in Sherman Oaks and we can't get the flavor of its buttercream frosting out of our heads or stomachs. Leda's Bake Shop is right next to Señor Fred's on Ventura Boulevard just west of Woodman. We stumbled upon it after lunch yesterday. We didn't think it could be a better day after we sat directly across from Wanda Sykes and watched her toast margaritas mid-afternoon much like her "faux-reality"......