The famous (and unphotogenic) banana pudding!

Pistachio cupcake: a pistachio cake with a pistachio meringue buttercream

Place: Magnolia Bakery

           8389 W 3rd Street

           Los Angeles, CA 90048

Genre: Bakery

Hit or miss? Hit!

My opinion:

I could not be happier that Magnolia has expanded to the west coast. Nothing is more comforting that a bowl of banana pudding. Seriously, it's better than the feeling you get when you eat out of the ice cream tub plus what's inside the tub is 10,000 times better (if you like banana, of course). It's perfectly fluffy, not too sweet, just the right amount of banana slices. If you go to Magnolia for the first time, or anytime in general, you need to try the banana pudding! Magnolia is also well known for their delicious cupcakes. Since I've never had a pistachio cupcake, nor had I ever seen one, I decided to try it. I definitely made the right choice in picking the pistachio flavor. The cake it self was just right: not too dense, flavorful, and not too subtle as to be overpowered by the meringue butter cream. The buttercream is probably what brought the cake together, since it wasn't a "frosting," which is typically overpowering and takes away from the flavor of the cake. The bits of pistachios just tied off the bow. Their saltiness brought out the flavor of the buttercream and was a good reminder of the natural flavor of pistachios.