Cako Bakery - Westfield Mall. San Francisco, CA.

By Sandy Daenerys

Cako is a bakery and dessert shop located inside the Westfield Mall in downtown San Francisco, California. They are famous for their cupcakes but they also offer other types of desserts in case you are not a cupcake person; hey, it happens! They offer french macarons and donut muffins, and even ice cream just across from their bakery, called Cako Creamery! I took some photos of a variety of their desserts in case you have that amazing intuition about whether something is worth putting into your mouth just by looking at the photos. =). I've only had their cupcakes so I am going to provide a review on that.

Maple Bacon Cupcake. Cako - Westfield. San Francisco, CA.

SANDY RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

REVIEW

When I took my first bite of the Maple Bacon Cupcake, I simply thought, "Just heavenly. This is one of the best tasting cupcakes I've ever had!" The cream and white cake had great textual contrast; the thick and sweet vanilla rich cream blended so well with the moist and fluffy vanilla cake interior. But that's not what you remember most about this cupcake! It's the savory and smokey bits of candied bacon on top of this cupcake that offers a surprisingly pleasant back palate that pairs so well with the sweetness of the cream. The maple syrup drizzle added a very subtle yet complimentary flavor with the candied bacon and cream.

Overall, this was a very memorable cupcake! I would definitely recommend you try it if you want something that's a little different than your ordinary chocolate or vanilla flavor. It wasn't a type of dessert that was too sweet for my liking; it had the right amount of sweetness of the cream and maple syrup drizzle and the right amount of savoriness of the candied bacon. The not-too-sweet vanilla cake paired exceptionally well with the boldness of the cream, bacon and maple syrup flavors.

The only suggestion I would give is for them to add some more bacon bits, add some extra cream on the inside of the cupcake and to have some candied bacon mixed nicely within the cream mixture so that every bite has a hint of savory and smokiness vs. the current setup where the bacon is piled in the top center only. Check out some photos that I took of the shop below (including a fun new "Photo Carousel" feature) and judge for yourself! I can't promise you won't drool! =P. I would definitely try some of their other flavors next time, such as Oreo Cookie Monster or Reese's Peanut Butter!

PRICE

The large cupcakes were $3.50 - $3.75 each (before tax) and the mini cupcakes were $2.00 ($22/dozen) which is the average price for stores in touristy downtown San Francisco. In my mind, this is a bit pricey for a cupcake; if they were priced slightly conservatively, say $2.75 (total including tax), there would definitely be more frequent visits from me. When I went there, I was able to get my first cupcake free by downloading and trying out the Cako mobile app so take a look to see if that promotion is still available.

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