The other day I was doing a little derive in the Marais, and decided for once that I was going to follow my nose. That's right, I was going to go in the direction in which it smells best. Yes. Like a dog. My senses led me to a bakery, a restaurant, another restaurant, another bakery, a perfumerie, a park, and lastly - A CUPCAKE SHOP.
That's right, my nose led me to one of the Marais BEST hidden secrets. Berko is probably the closest thing to a Magnolia's I've been able to find in Paris, and what a find it was! I was first awestruck by the AMAZING cakes they had in the window. I thought it was a wedding cake shop upon first impression. Then my eyes wandered off to the blur of cerulean, bubblegum, and daffodil dots under the glass display. Upon closer inspection the multi-colored specks were actually tiny little cupcakes!! They reminded me of my all time FAVORITE bite-sized cupcakes that I would get all the time last summer at Baked by Melissa in Soho.
My mouth started watering, I've been yearning for a perfectly moist cupcake with frosting as light as air ever since I got here. That's one thing I really miss about the US - well actually just Manhattan - the multitude of cupcake shops and fro-yo stands. They do have Myberry in the Marais, but it's a total rip-off of Pinkberry and infinitely worse. They have no business charging 6 euro for that shit.
As I scanned the flavor options, my heart stopped as I read two words. RED VELVET. It's like they knew I was coming. It's like they knew that red velvet cupcakes are my ALL TIME favorite cupcake. I looked under the glass display to see if they had any left and all the way at the end I spotted a single lonely tiny red cupcake with fluffy white frosting and sparkling red sprinkles. There was no way I was just going to leave it there. It would have felt left out because all it's cupcake friends were gone. But maybe it was just waiting for me. It was love at first sight. I happy bought my tiny little cupcake and ate it on the tiny table in front of the bakery.
As I bit into the creamy frosting and the ultra moist cake - I knew this was well worth my investment. Maybe it's because I havent had a good cupcake in some time, but I would say that this little red velvet is almost on par with the red velvet at Magnolias. But just my opinion - I will definitely be heading back for others.
