Americans are absolutely food obsessed! It’s become alarmingly obvious in our culture of caloric overachievers that few of us miss any meals. It’s also telling (yet seemingly innocuous) that many of the terms of endearment we use for one another are related to food. Terms such as honey, sugar, pumpkin and others are regularly used by sweet talking lotharios of both genders.
One term of endearment which has grown out of fashion is “cupcake” which in today’s vernacular refers to a woman whose front and back body fat hangs over the waistline, giving the woman the “top of the cupcake” look. While “cupcake” may have become an intended compliment which will get your face slapped, cupcakes themselves have been reestablished as a cool, viable and in-demand dessert option.
The innovative Slate Street Cafe may have reinvigorated the “cupcakes as dessert” trend in Albuquerque, but with the March, 2006 launch of Cake Fetish, “Cupcake Carrie Mettling” (formerly an architect) took it to the next step. Her tiny gourmet cupcake bakery celebrated all great things cupcake with a luscious line-up of colorful (and colorfully described) cupcakes of all varieties, each one seemingly more delicious than the other.
Note: In 2007, Carrie sold her business to Ron and Caryn Koerner who will hopefully maintain her uncompromising standards for quality and freshness. Cake Fetish’s to-go menu defines fetish as “an abnormally obsessive preoccupation or attachment; a fixation.” While that definition may have been intended to describe her labor of love in crafting confectionary perfection, her patrons may find themselves cupcake obsessed, too. Her cupcakes are absolutely addictive!
The cupcake menu features a selection of twelve different cupcakes available every day at the bargain price of $1.75 each or $10 a dozen. You can also get a dozen “mini” cupcakes (about the diameter of a silver dollar) for $6.50 a dozen. You’ll be hard-pressed to choose which ones to try first and will undoubtedly make return visits to ensure you haven’t missed something truly special.
Culinary historians know that the Mayans were marrying chocolate and chile creations centuries ago, but it’s unlikely they ever crafted anything quite as wonderful as the Hot Chocolate cupcake, a chocolate cake dipped in chocolate ganache with a kiss of red chile infused butter cream. The red chile sneaks up on you and gives the chocolate an unexpected flavor explosion. If New Mexico’s state legislature ever decides to name an official state cupcake, this one should be it.
If citrus producing Florida named an official state cupcake, perhaps it should import the Creamsicle and lionize it as a wonderful representation of the freshness you’ll find in the state’s oranges. The Creamsicle is adorned with vanilla and orange swirled French butter cream. You’d swear you were eating a Creamsicle were it not for the fact that this cupcake isn’t served off-the-freezer cold.
My other early favorite is called the Inside-Out German Chocolate. It’s made with coconut and pecan icing then crowned with chocolate French butter cream and toasted coconut. If you’re an aficionado of German chocolate cake, you’ll be besotted by this wonderful cake.
Cake Fetish has been feted with numerous awards including best cupcake honors from both the Alibi and Albuquerque The Magazine. Google it and you’ll find a surprising number of bloggers waxing poetic about this wonderful restaurant.
Your dogs will also go wild over Cake Fetish’s cupcakes for dogs. Available in several canine pleasing flavors, they’re miniature, dog tried and tested versions of the human kinds. Just don’t stand between your canine and his or her cupcake.
In an era in which the word “fetish” itself has connotations of deviance, it’s refreshingly delicious to know that the word can be applied to something as wonderfully delicious as cupcakes.
Cake Fetish
2665 Louisiana, N.E.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 883-0670
Website | Facebook Page
LATEST VISIT: 7 July 2007
# OF VISITS: 3
RATING: 20
COST: $
BEST BET: German Chocolate Cupcake, Dreamcicle Cupcake, Hot Chocolate Cupcake
I agree about Cupcakeology…I avoid it like the plague. I had a similar experience to TammyQ. I wanted to order a cake…identical to one I had ordered from them six months before…and the owner insisted that she could not and would not make such a cake. It was not a difficult request. Fresh berries in the middle with ganache…that was it. We got into a heated argument and I ended up going elsewhere. I really like Cake Fetish and they also have very good customer service.
I had passed Cake Fetish Cupcakes many times but finally stopped by today and omg!!! The best cupcakes I’ve ever had! Perfectly sweetened and beautiful! If you haven’t visited the bakery, you must! I will be returning often!
AVOID CUPCAKEOLOGY!!! I consider myself a cupcake connoisseur, I love cupcakes! These cupcakes were right on par with many of the other bakeries that I have visited nothing exceptional. The difference between the other cupcake stores and this one is that it is owned and operated by The Cupcake Nazi. I had a couple questions about using a gift certificate which I had purchased online and was asking the owner questions when she blew up on me! Stating that “Everyone wants something for free” and that I need to leave her store and never come back. In addition she suggested I get a refund on my gift certificates because she would not allow me to use them. She had already boxed my 2 dozen cupcakes and decided to throw my keys off of the box and put the cupcakes back in the display case. I decided to drive over to Cake Fetish where they were more than willing to help me out with my cupcake needs. While it would make for a great episode of Seinfeld it doesn’t translate very well to real life. If you are looking for a good cupcake served with a smile then stay away from here – No Cupcake For You!
I agree with Kathleen – Cupcakeology is superior to Cake Fetish. Their cupcakes are super moist and dense with just the right amount of frosting.
Three words – Just A Bite.
You have to try Cupcakeology on Carlisle just south of Indian School in Albuquerque. I think their cupcakes are better than Cake Fetish and they have a wonderful selection that varies day to day.