Fat Cupcake: the Charlie, peanut butter cup in the center

We have been treating Fat Cupcake like a birthday-errand shop, and we FINALLY went in for the cupcake the owner actually names: THE CHARLIE! Chocolate cake. A peanut butter cup BAKED IN THE CENTER. Peanut butter buttercream. Ganache drizzle. That is the sentence Anjelica Otness tells on the homepage, from the first day the ovens were hot, and we are not going to walk out with a unicorn if we came for that one.

Otness opened the first Fat Cupcake on September 1, 2014. She writes that her mom used to say “Life is unpredictable, eat dessert first,” and that friends and family told her she would open a bakery, and then she did. Five years later there were three counters, and they are still three counters: Lents at 8730 SE Woodstock Blvd, Happy Valley at 13203 172nd Avenue Suite 170, and Oregon City at 19273 Molalla Avenue. The Portland shop MOVED. Their own banner says they relocated just 15 blocks east on Woodstock and 87th. Do not drive to an old address and then blame the GPS. The Woodstock number is 8730. Call (503) 775-0731 if you are already in the car.

HERE is what we order. The Charlie. That is the must-try. Then we look at the rest of the named cupcake menu like people who read the board: Daisy Hayes (white cake, strawberry mousse, vanilla buttercream), Lemon Doodle, Raspberry Rex, Suit & Tie with the sea salt and caramel drizzle, White Velvet, Black Velvet. Flavors change DAILY. They print that. Call the shop you are actually driving to and ask what is in the case, because we will not invent a seasonal tray we did not see.

If you need a cake, the cake menu is a separate page. The Executive, The Breakup, Pretty and Pink, Lemonade Stand, Marion Monroe. That is a mixed bakery. Buttercream is the default. Do not walk in and announce that the whole shop is vegan. It is NOT a vegan bakery. It is NOT a dedicated gluten-free kitchen. What they label, they label: two cupcakes titled “Vegan & Wheat Free,” vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, ORIGINAL SIZE ONLY. Two cakes: vegan vanilla, and vegan chocolate. Wheat-free is not dedicated GF. Mixed kitchen. If you need a dedicated kitchen, that is a different list on this site, and Fat Cupcake is not on it.

Wedding tasting is a real page, not a rumor. Cake or cupcake tasting at the S.E. Portland shop on 87th and Woodstock. $20 per tasting. In store or to-go. Call. Do not email an order. The contact page is blunt about that: call or come in. Happy Valley is (971) 224-4286. Oregon City is (503) 518-0110. Happy Valley hours on that page: Monday through Thursday noon to 6, Friday 11 to 6, Saturday 10 to 3, Sunday closed. Oregon City: Monday through Thursday 11 to 6, Friday 10 to 6, Saturday 10 to 3, Sunday closed. Woodstock hours on that same page are a mess of overlapping Saturday lines, so we are not going to invent a clean schedule for Lents. CALL.

We keep coming back because a cupcake shop that tells you the origin story AND the peanut butter cup in the center is a shop that knows what it is selling. Take the Charlie. If the labeled vegan cupcake is out, that is the labeled vegan cupcake, not a secret second menu. Then pick a counter: Woodstock if you are already on the eastside, Happy Valley or Oregon City if that is the drive. Three shops. One Charlie. Do not email it!

More on the shop pages: Fat Cupcake in Lents, Happy Valley, and Oregon City.