The Cupcakery

The Cupcakery
at Monte Carlo
9680 South Eastern Avenue #100
Las Vegas, NV 89123
(702) 207-2253

Surely you didn't think I'd go to Las Vegas and not visit a cupcake shop? Well I did. Twice. The first day I went it wasn't open, that was disappointing as business hours weren't posted on the screen. But we didn't give up and came back on our last day to see the cases filled with cupcakes:

Lots of different flavours to choose from, let's take a closer look!

Here were some of my top contenders, Strawberry Shortcake: strawberry cake with heavy cream and strawberry buttercream.

The Coco Frauline that looks like a giant Ferrero Rocher is a devil's food cake with German chocolate filling, iced with ganache and covered with chopped pecans.

Always present, Southern Belle: red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

Peanutbutter Jammer: peanut butter cake with grape jelly filling and peanut butter topping.

The Julius: orange and pineapple cake with orange buttercream. Well, I haven't seen this one around before!

The Julius it is!

The cupcake smelled good, just like an orange smoothie from... well Orange Julius! The cake was moist and while I didn't find orange chunks, I did find the pineapple ones. The buttercream was smooth and worked very well with the cake. Notice that there's edible disco dust on top, everything is flashier in Vegas!

Bouchon

Bouchon
at the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino
Venezia Tower-9th Floor
3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 414-6200

On our last night in Las Vegas, Howard and I treated ourselves to Bouchon. We made the reservation the day before and decided on an early dinner. We had a long flight back home the next day!

So we were there 5-10 minutes before our reservation and got to wait at the bar because dinner service hadn't begun yet. I was extremely excited as I kept an eye on their clock. On the dot, our hostess for the night, Amy came over to greet the "Chang's." I guess we'll play along that I am Mrs. Chang! =)

In my opinion, I think we got the best seat in the house! We were near the centre and had a view of the fountain in the courtyard:

After we ordered, we got to nibble on pistachios and fresh baked bread. As a fun aside, in Chinese, pistachio translates to "happy nuts." Yes, we were happy!

We're going to apologize for the low lighting, but hopefully you can still see the dishes we tried! First up, we ordered the Soupe du Jour, which was celery portage.

We also tried the Confit de Canard which consisted of crispy duck leg confit, honey-preserved huckleberries, wilted spinach with juniper berry, with a foie gras vinaigrette.

As our main dishes, Howard had the Steak Bouchon. A New York strip steak with Yukon gold potato rösti, broccolini, and sauce béarnaise.

I had the Steak Frites. A pan-seared prime flatiron steak with caramelized shallots, maître d'hôtel butter, and French fries. It turns out that most people don't finish the mountain of fries. I think we ate through maybe 3/4 of it!

We really want to thank Amy for being so great, helpful, and funny. Thank you to the chefs for the wonderful meal, we wish we had the ability to cook like you! If you're ever in Las Vegas, we highly recommend that you try Bouchon!

Wait, we're not done! There is also the bakery on the main floor of the Venetian Hotel!

That's right, you can pick up baked goodies and desserts here without going to the restaurant!

Are you interested in a financier, bouchon, or madeline?

Or some macarons, eclairs, shortbread, or cookies?

I think you know what I zoned in on. Red velvet and Valrhona chocolate cupcakes!

Valrhona chocolate please! =)

Jean Philippe Patisserie - Aria

Jean Philippe Patisserie
at Aria
3730 Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 590-8550

This post is mainly eye candy as you've already seen Jean Philippe's Bellagio location. Remember how I mentioned that the Aria location is bigger? Well, here's how amazingly spacious it is:

Mini wedding cakes surround one side of the patisserie.

Lots and lots of chocolates.

More displays and treats. The Grinch centerpiece there? Yup, made from sugar.

Here comes the best part. This longgggg display case filled with desserts!

Let's go from left-to-right.

Almost to the middle!

Middle section!

Almost to the end...

Finally, we're all the way to the right! It look me quite a while to have a look at everything before ordering.

I went with the light and flaky Nutella Napoleon and picked out a Pie Crust flavoured flan for Howard. Seriously though, how many days would it take for you to try everything Jean Philippe makes?

Jean Philippe Patisserie - Bellagio

Jean Philippe Patisserie
at Bellagio
3600 Las Vegas Blvd South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 693-8788

Before our trip, we actually saw an episode of Fabulous Cakes (Las Vegas edition too) on TLC that featured Jean Philippe and his chefs working on a wedding order. They still have the clip showing him making sugar flowers posted here.

Keep in mind that this isn't the last post about Jean Philippe. He was two locations in Las Vegas, both worth having a look at. The Bellagio location is smaller but features this:

Behold! The largest chocolate fountain in the world (certified by Guiness World Records)! The fountain goes from floor to ceiling behind the glass partition. I'm kind of glad that the glass is there to prevent any waste. Can you imagine if it was opened to the public? *shudder*

But don't worry, you can still get a piece of that chocolate!

Wedding cupcakes rotating on display. It is worth seeing some of their cake designs at this location, but it was very crowded both times we went. There are people snapping photos of the fountain and the lines go all around, making very little space for you to browse the displays and shelves.

The first time we stopped by, I didn't get anything at the Bellagio location because I was waiting to see the Aria location. We did eat desserts at Aria, but on our last day, I came back (this location was closer to our hotel) and got the carrot cake. I kept thinking about how delicate this carrot cake looked - I couldn't resist!

With mixed feelings, I finally sliced into the cake. I was excited to get a bite, but heartbroken that this little piece of art had to broken up into small slices. The filling inside the cake was still moist, you can see the nuts and carrots in it. That cake though, wow! So light, fluffy and delicate!

Payard

Payard
at Caesars Palace
3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109-8924
(702) 731-7849

They're on facebook and twitter too!

Has breakfast ever looked so good? Since we were staying at Caesars Palace, we had breakfast at Payard. François Payard is a French Pastry Chef with locations in New York, Japan, and Korea. He also has three cookbooks (Chocolate Epiphany, Simply Sensational Desserts, and Bite Size) with delicious looking covers that I want to have a look at.

But let's go back to breakfast. I ordered the brioche French toast with sauteed berries and whipped cream. At this location for breakfast, you sit around the buffet and cooking area. I got to watch the Chef make my French toast and sauté the berries and top the dish with whipped cream. When it was ready, I was eagerly waiting for our server, who fondly chuckled at my anticipation.

It was quite good. The lip smacking kind of good. I neatly sliced my French toast and dipped it in the berry juice and for good measure, whisked the whipped cream onto it. Mmm!

Howard went for the continental breakfast buffet and would come back with low fat yogurt with berries and granola, flaky croissants, smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels. Howard's not a fan of breakfast like I am, but he was captivated by the croissants (which I sadly didn't have a bite of). And anywhere that serves good smoked salmon gets a nod of approval by Howard. =)

Besides the dining room, Payard also has a storefront where you can get meals to go.

There was also this construction, I see the chocolate showpieces and the moving gears, but what does it do? Does chocolate pop out into the tray?