Who doesn’t love a little Sparkle in their life? I know I do especially when it’s jewelry but now I have an entirely new desire when I think of adding some sparkle to my everyday!
The other day I had the most amazing experience! I was invited to Sparkles, the most chic bakery in Bangkok frequented by Thai celebrities, foreign dignitaries, expats and locals, for a tasting and an interview with Sophie Promarin, the owner of this amazing cupcakery. Sophie, a Thai American, born and raised in California has had a passion for food that started with her mother’s delicious Thai cooking as a child and developed even further during her travels around the world. She has not only developed a passion and a love for good food but more importantly the flavors and how to work with them.
Sophie loves to bake but as any stay at home baker knows once you bake it you are more than likely going to eat all of the goodies you have created. Six years ago, Sophie decided to open her first Sparkles, located right off the Thong Lo BTS on Soi 53. She had a dream of a bigger shop and that dream came to fruition with her second location, also on Soi 53 about 400 meters from the BTS. For all of you expats that are brave enough to drive in Bangkok, this new location has parking and if you don’t drive you can hop a motorbike for 10 baht. I had the pleasure of visiting her newest location, when you walk in the décor of baby blues, silver and white take you to a place of whimsy and just puts a smile on your face. There is comfortable seating for her customers to come in and enjoy conversation, a glass of tea and a scrumptious cupcake. This new location also offers rooms upstairs to host events such as baby showers, wedding showers, birthdays or any type of get together. If you would like to have a gathering at her newest shop, you can also discuss the possibility of Sophie catering her delectable finger foods.
Sophie’s love of baking really comes through in her products. Sparkles has over 90 flavors of cupcakes and 45 flavors of cookies, each day there are 10 different cookie flavors and 16 cupcake flavors available. Each day she arrives at the shop at 6am, where she mixes each batch herself, by memory and to taste for the specific flavors of the day based on the stores calendar of flavors. These delicious cupcakes are priced at 80-90 baht per cupcake, which is a reasonable price considering almost all of the ingredients are imported, for example vanilla beans from Madagascar, lavender from Provence and Haas avocado from California just to name a few. At Sparkles, they “make it their top priority to provide the best quality products by using the finest natural ingredients available to our guest and putting emphasis on your health at all times.” These baked goods do contain fresh dairy products, natural hormone free eggs, natural and unbleached sugar and Madagascar vanilla beans. You will never find corn syrup, glucose syrup, shortening, palm oil, margarine, preservatives, artificial flavors or trans fat in any Sparkles products.
Sophie’s past career in the jewelry business was the inspiration for the name Sparkles and each cupcake is named after a precious stone. At my tasting I had the green topaz made with fresh avocado icing and dark chocolate cake, the champagne diamond with a peanut butter cream cheese icing topped with maple syrup on a banana cake and finally the brown diamond, which is a chocolate sea salted caramel with imported French sea salt, a dark chocolate ganache and fresh caramel. I also tried two cookies, the peanut butter bacon and black and white chocolate chip. The flavors here are so spot on I seriously welled up with tears when I tried them. The beauty of these baked goods, besides the special ingredients, is how the flavors come together in such a way that they complement each other so well and you as a novice in baking can appreciate every aspect that Sophie is trying to share with you through her masterpiece. You don’t have to have a sophisticated palate to enjoy these cupcakes or cookies, if you can take small bites and savor the flavor it will be a dessert experience like you have never had before.
I will be a Sparkles regular from now on and I am sure Sophie will be making cupcakes for the rest of my birthdays while I am here in Bangkok. To be honest now that I have had Sparkles I can’t help but think what am I going to do when I go back to the States and can’t find anything remotely close to the ambrosia that is Sparkles…
Sparkles is open Monday-Saturday 12pm-8pm and Sunday 12pm-6pm. Well behaved children are welcome! If you would like to order cupcakes or cookies for an event you can contact Sophie by telephone at 081-136-3367 or email at sparkles.sweetlife@gmail.com but please give at least 3-4 days notice. You can also follow her blog for more information.
From Palmetto Pride to Pad Thai 
Love reading your blogs. Thanks for sending. Sparkles looked wonderful. Your pictures are always so good!
Great job Becky! Fun to read.
I’ve always wanted to go here! So jealous, it looks delicious 🙂
Go!! It’s unreal!!! Tell Sophie you read the blog if you go I’m sure it will make her happy!
Becky you need to be a restaurant reviewer. What an excellent way you have with works. And yes my mouth was watering as I read.
yummmy!!! i want a cupcake now…
Pingback: Who Says Cupcakes Have To Be Sweet? | Becky, Chris, & Killian's Excellent Adventure