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To sample and rate five local cupcake shops (listed in alphabetical order), we assembled a team of 20-something women: Corey Neukom, Caitlin Tittl, Courtney Thomas and Sadie Neri. The tastings, over two days, left them dreaming of cupcakes.

Buttercream Bakery & Café

3825 Ming Ave.; 827-8484; mybuttercream.com

Open: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

Buttercream is the upstart, open just a few months in the Office Max/Ross shopping center on Ming west of Valley Plaza. You can expect to find four to six different cupcakes as well as scones, miniature coffee cakes and cookies shaped like a bee (the house specialty). The girls loved how fluffy the frosting was on the cupcakes, and how pronounced the taste of the butter was in the frosting. There was a lot of appreciation for the artistic touches on the cakes, too, particularly the realistic-looking carrot on top of the carrot cake. The small café also serves breakfast sandwiches, lunches, coffee and tea.

Connie's Kupcake Kreations

1230 H St.; 322-5253; connieskupcakekreations.com

Open: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday (closes at 3 p.m. on Wednesday), 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

This small bakery located just east of the Bakersfield High campus offers fewer cupcakes each day than some competitors, but they do concentrate on larger, wider cupcakes. Stout rather than dainty. No ribbons around these bad boys.

The panel sampled a marble, a "neo" (chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, which we used to call a neopolitan), a mini chocolate cupcake with coffee frosting and a s'mores cupcake that was clearly the most photogenic of the four, with a graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate sauce on top. They were disappointed in how dry that particular cake was but were wowed by the neo, which had a nice strawberry taste and a moistness that suggested a good homemade cake. Like Gimmee Some Sugar, Connie's has a substantial chunk of its business coming from custom cakes and is the in process of building up its retail cupcake trade.

Frosting Ink

1818 G St.; 327-9331; frostingink.net

Open: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

If you judge a cupcake by its appearance, you will absolutely love what Frosting Ink offers. Not only does each cupcake look Martha Stewart perfect, but there were bows tied around each cake outside the paper cup.

The decorations included a straw for the root beer float and colored rock candy for some of the birthday cupcakes.

Availability is also an issue. We went one day at 2 p.m. and all that was left were two vanilla-vanilla cupcakes, which are probably always the last to go.

When we went back the next morning when the small bakery near the downtown post office opened, an office worker picking up a dozen said the best selection is always available at opening. She bought her box and had the staff set it aside "because if I bring them to the office they'll never make it home."

The panel loved the root beer float, which sounds gross but actually tasted like it should, even without the hard candy root beer barrel on top. The cherry cheesecake was very rich, and the chocolate, while simple, had the moist texture of a homemade cake. The banana split was like a great banana bread topped with vanilla frosting and a few hints of the other ingredients in the real thing (chocolate, nuts, etc.).

The strawberry was quite close to the standard set by the Sprinkles version from Beverly Hills, which is made from pureed fresh strawberries.

Gimmee Some Sugar Cake Design & Cupcakes

2100 19th St.; 321-9922; gimmeesomesugar.com

Open: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday

Gimmee Some Sugar, tucked away in the back half of the old Fike's grocery store building in downtown Bakersfield, is the opposite of Frosting Ink. Instead of some perfectly frosted creations, the toppings on some look like a child applied them: thick, imperfect, wavy, less photogenic. The taste inspired real passion in the panel, particularly the Butterfinger. Both the cake and the frosting of that and the Snickers cupcake seemed to be just like the candy bar.

The most startling in appearance was the chocolate dipped, a chocolate cake with vanilla icing that was then dipped in hard chocolate, like an ice cream cone. The Andes Mint was a love it or hate it. Some thought it was perfectly like the famous mints, but another panelist said it reminded her of toothpaste. (If toothpaste tasted that good, no one would have cavities.)

Gimmee Some Sugar appears to do a lot of wedding cake business, and the website also lists cooking classes. Owner/Executive Pastry Chef Stephanie Caughell says everything is made on the premises, without using mixes or anything other than the best ingredients.

Sweet Surrender

6439 Ming Ave.; 835-8530; sweetsurrenderbakery.com

Open: 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday

Sweet Surrender is the grande dame, the veritable institution among local cupcake bakeries, having been tucked into the corner by the Orchard Supply Hardware store at the corner of Ming and Ashe dating back to 1989.

Though hard to find, they specialize in cakes, candies and other sweets that are seldom found in Bakersfield. Like Sprinkles in Los Angeles, they have a specific schedule of availability for all 22 cupcake flavors, though some (such as red velvet) are available every day.

The panel sampled 10 cupcakes that were available on the day we visited, including vanilla white, Hershey, peanut butter chocolate, Matterhorn, red velvet, Hostess, banana nut, Almond Joy, Snickerdoodle and English toffee. By far the best was the snickerdoodle, which had a superb cinnamon taste, a smooth and velvety frosting and was crowned by a cookie.

The banana nut also had fans for its moist texture in the cake, and the Almond Joy was judged the best of the candy bar-inspired cupcakes, rich as it was with coconut and nuts as well as chocolate chips.

The peanut butter chocolate, with its peanut butter cake, was judged a dry disappointment.

The matterhorn (chocolate cake, vanilla frosting, chocolate shavings on top) just confused rather than inspired the panel.

The Los Angeles version of the nationwide cupcake madness goes by the name Sprinkles Cupcakes, 9635 S. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. (sprinklescupcakes.com) Charles and Candice Nelson, two former investment bankers, went to pastry school and concocted the recipes that, as at Magnolia in New York, has them lined up around the block. According to their Web site, their secret is first-rate ingredients such as sweetcream butter (no oils), Belgian chocolate, fresh strawberries that they puree, etc. Sprinkles also offers a dog cupcake made out of carob and yogurt.

Stories in the Los Angeles Times, Oprah and on the Food Network have hyped the bakery. The business is now expanding to outlets all over the country. And if you follow Sprinkles on Twitter you can get alerted to opportunities for free cupcakes by whispering secret words at the cash register. (If you were among the first 100 at any Sprinkles on a recent day to whisper "Florida" at the cash register, you were rewarded with a free key lime cupcake.)

While in Los Angeles, we did pick up a dozen Sprinkles cupcakes ($36), and found them to be a mixed lot. The red velvet was exceptional, as was the orange (lighter than some of the others), but the absolute killer muffin was the peanut butter chip (available only on Tuesdays).

Like all the Sprinkles cupcakes, the layer of buttercream frosting on top was thick, in this case flavored with peanut butter. The cake inside was the moistest of any of the cupcakes, laced with chocolate chips. Milk chocolate was another solid choice, as was the dark chocolate (available every day). The chocolate marshmallow was too dry.

We also picked up a special dog cupcake for $2.25 made with carob instead of chocolate and gave it to our golden retriever, Jack. I'm not sure what the other ingredients were (beef fat?) but from the moment he smelled it he was hypnotized. He gobbled it down, and now looks suspiciously and with intent interest at anyone who walks near him with so much as a muffin in their hand. That dog never forgets.

Three of our local contenders offered red velvet cupcakes and the panel did something of a vertical taste testing, sampling those from Buttercream Bakery & Café, Gimmee Some Sugar and Sweet Surrender.

There is a chance that you may be one of those who, like a customer in one of the local shops, wondered out loud "What is red velvet?" As anyone with Southern roots knows, it's a distinct type of chocolate cake if you consider that it's made with cocoa and buttermilk but not melted chocolate.

Our testers had a hard task choosing a winner among the trio. The Gimmee Some Sugar version had frosting crowned with sprinkles of cake dust, a nice touch, and a thick cream cheese frosting. It was very moist.

The Buttercream version was noteworthy for a fluffy, almost melt-in-your-mouth frosting that was not as thick, and each of the cakes had "RV" written on top with red frosting. The Sweet Surrender version was much moister, and the tasters immediately noticed the taste was more chocolately. They were slower to notice that the cake batter had been spiked with bits of chocolate the size of BBs! While purists would undoubtedly consider this cheating, it made for a far richer red velvet cake and they declared that cake the winner.

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