For years we’ve chased these beauties from café to café, delighting in the retro revelry that Cake Monkey bakes up. The once passé pop tarts and hum drum Ho-Ho’s have turned into masterpieces that rival wine and cheese in the affections of adults, while still keeping plenty of kid-appeal with sweet simplicity. There’s no business like monkey business, and cakes are finally baking in their first brick and mortar in Mid-City, so you can find them all day, any day.
At the Intersect of Memory Lane and Candy Cane Lane
That’s where you’ll find the brand new Cake Monkey. Ok, it’s actually on Beverly Boulevard, right across from CBS Studios. Easy to miss if not for its trademark pop of pink, it’s a pint sized storefront, aptly housing their diminutive delights: pies to tarts, cookies to cakewiches and knee bending breakfast pastries. With the little chocolaty swirl cherry topping a bubble gum pink blink of a building—it looks like a teensy little dollhouse smack dab in the middle of the city street.
So Many Options, Such Little Monkeys
Sized just right, since resistance is impossible. With 3” cakes being their claim to baked good fame, these miniature marvels pack a whole lotta luscious per bite. And it’s so wonderful to waste not, especially with littles in tow, whose eyes are inevitably bigger than their tummies. Cake Monkey bakes right on point for little people, which is key, because you’ll want to try one of everything. Make that two.
But, the Holidays are a Wonderful Time to Bake
In theory. In reality it’s as you load the kids into the car that you realize you were supposed to bring a box of something to the class holiday party. And that gifts for the principal and office staff never even entered your mind, until right this second. Cake Monkey to the rescue. Seasonal swoons to the tune of Peppermint Cakewiches (two slices of chocolate cake sandwiching pink mint buttercream and crushed candy canes all dunked in smothering of bittersweet chocolate) or your pink princesses personal pick: Pink Peppermint Cake. It’s pink and pepperminted on the outside, chocolate brown butter cake on the inside, and decked in holiday pearly best. Vanilla Gorilla, Almond Orangutan, go bananas. They’re all available in multiple sizes, and perfect for all occasions (including scarfed in secret in the car after the kids have reached their destination).
Eat and Run
Designed for take-out, don’t plan on sticking around. With two barstools at the window, they made just enough room for all the important stuff, but not quite enough to linger and enjoy it. Plan on perusing or calling ahead, but know it’s standing or (bouncing, once the kids get a gander at the bakery case) room only in there. Maybe leave the double strollers at home.
Plan for Parking Challenges
Located right across from CBS and near the Grove, parking comes at a premium. There’s metered parking on Beverly, but you’ll probably have better luck checking residential streets to the immediate north.
Order Up
Take note moms and dads. One visit and your little monkeys will likely identify their next birthday cake. Cake Monkey’s ready; the writing is quite literally on the wall. Magic bars to pop pies, cakewiches to rolls in the hay, they are party favor perfection and a special occasion safety net. And finally with a flagship to frequent.
Cake Monkey Bakery
7807 Beverly Boulevard
Mid-City LA
323-932-1142
Online: cakemonkey.com
If you’ve ever eaten the cakewich, you know why it’s so exciting that Cake Monkey found a permanent home. What’s your favorite retro treat in town? (The Bouchon TKO—Thomas Keller Oreo—is a close second, we humbly suggest…)
—written and photographed by Jolie Loeb
