A friend and I suddenly found ourselves with some time on our hands while in Serendra yesterday morning, so we decided to break our fast at Cupcakes by Sonja.
This store was Manila’s first ever cupcake store, opened by Sonja Ocampo to bring the cupcake experiences she had in New York to our shores.
The store has the charm of a corner bakery: from its colorful storefront, the quaint bric-a-bracs inside to the lovely display of goodies available.
Cupcakes by Sonja features whimsical pastries baked fresh daily, using premium ingredients and no preservatives. Expanding its repertoire beyond the classic cupcakes flavors, its menu now includes hybrid cupcakes, full-sized cakes and pies.
Today, the shop offers these goodies paired with house-made hot beverages such as in Hey Hot Stuff Combo 1 which gives the diners a slice of cake and a choice among latte, cappuccino and hot chocolate for only Php179.
I got myself a Reverse Salted Caramel + Latte. The Valrhona chocolate cake base is richly flavored and moist, wrapped in layers of salted caramel buttercream. The latte I had with it is not too sweet, a good complement to such a decadent dessert.
My friend got the Rainbow Fiesta + Hot Chocolate. The cake is made of six layers of fluffy vanilla chiffon cake in different rainbow colors finished with marahmallow frosting and garnished candy sprinkles.
I also got myself a Red Velvet Vixen Cupcake (Php95). Did you know that Cupcakes by Sonja was the first store to offer this classic Southern American cupcake flavor in the Philippines? I remember having my first taste of this confection in this very store more thab a decade ago, and this cupcake still holds its appeal to me. With a decadent Belgian chocolate cupcake base, colored with that deep red hue, and topped with a luscious cream cheese frosting, it has become quite a local favorite.
I had a lovely return to this wonderful store for my morning sweets.
This Cupcakes by Sonja branch is located at Ground Floor, Serendra, Bonifacio Global City, open Sundays to Thursdays from 8am to 11am and Fridays to Saturdays from 8am to 12 midnight.
Other branches are located at:
- Ground Floor, Mega Fashion Hall, SM Mega Mall, Ortigas, Mandaluyong City
- Second Floor, Glorietta 2, Ayala Center, Makati
Check out my reviews of other dessert shops in the metro:
- Hui Lau Shan, Eastwood Mall
- Loraine’s Coffee and Pastry Shop, Santa Lucia
- Hui Lau Shan, SM North EDSA
- Coffee Time, Santolan
- Taki Taki, Century City Mall
- Aqua S, SM North EDSA
- BLK 513, SM North EDSA
- Hui Lau Shan, Greenhills
- Affojeans, SM North
- Gelato Lab, Tomas Morato
- Hobing, BGC Stopover
- The Lost Bread, SM East Ortigas
- LlaoLlao, Glorietta
- Sugarhouse, Glorietta
- BLK 513, SM Megamall
- BLK 513, Glorietta
- Elait, Tomas Morato
- Elait, Eastwood Mall
- Cold Stone Creamery, BGC
- Chocolatier, Tomas Morato
- Jang Da Bang Cafe, Ortigas
- Auntie Anne’s, SM Hypermart
- Sugar Fix, Tomas Morato
- Coreon Gate, Metrowalk
- Indulge, Cubao
- Le Reve Patisserie, Ugong
- Hui Lau Shan, SM Megamall
- Hobing, SM Marikina