A New Cupcake Bakery in Seoul

My last cupcake in Seoul was quite disappointing, but from what I hear, a number of cupcake places have been popping up around Seoul. One of those new cupcake bakeries is Lynn's Cupcakes in Hannam-dong, which just happens to be walking distance from The Hagwon. Sweet!

Today, in honor of Seong's birthday (my hagwon BFF), we, including my lil' cousin, Emi, went to Lynn's for some celebratory cupcakes.















This was my first time trying Lynn's Cupcakes. Their cupcakes can't hold a candle to the moist deliciousness of Sibby's or Kara's Cupcakes back in the Homeland, but Lynn's cupcakes weren't half-bad. I enjoyed the flavors of the frosting and the cake, but did not find the soft texture of the cake to my liking (I prefer a more dense cake). Lynn's cupcakes also aren't the prettiest cupcakes I've ever had, but I would definitely return to Lynn's if I was craving a cupcake.

I'm told that Lynn's Cupcakes has several locations throughout Seoul, including a shop in Itaewon, but I can't give you their whereabouts.

Lynn's Cupcakes in Hannam-dong is located right across the street from UN Village. It's pink facade is hard to miss.
Business Hours:
10 - 8 pm
(010) 2893-6687
(02) 792-0804

The owner of Lynn's lived in America, so you can probably get further information in English if you give the bakery a call.















A funny thing happened on our way into the bakery...

A producer from KBS2's 문화지대 (Yeah, I hadn't heard of it either) was filming a segment on Lynn's cupcakes and was looking for some customer commentary. The owner of the shop, immediately pointed to Seong, who had been Lynn's first customer.

The producer, with his little DV camera, looked to the three of us and asked who wanted to speak on camera. I think Emi, Seong, and I, all short of took a step back, and tried to avoid making eye contact with the camera. Seong ended up explaining (in Korean) that neither Emi nor I spoke very much Korean. That's when he found out that we were all English-speaking gyopos, and decided to have us give our comments in English (even know he could not understand a word we were saying). Poor Seong had to translate everything!

So, the filming began easy enough. He filmed us as we picked out our cupcakes. Then, he asked us about cupcakes in America and Britain (where Seong went to school). I akwardly muttered something lame and giggled like an anime character with beat-red cheeks. I'm embarassed just thinking of it.

Just when we thought our agnozing 15 seconds of fame were over, he asked us to eat some of our cupcakes in the store. Though none of us really wanted to be on camera, we blindly followed him, like some starlet wannabe being asked to take some "artistic" nude shots. That's when the shop owner offered to give us some free cupcakes to eat on camera. She placed each cupcake on its own pedestal and brough out candles in honor of Seong's birthday.
















For the following fifteen minutes, the three of us had to get all fake excited about the cupcakes, sing "Happy Birthday", stuff cupcakes into our mouth, and lavish Lynn's cupcakes with complimentary remarks.

I've seen a lot of Korean food programming, but I never realized how challenging it would be to act normal with a camera hovering just a few inches from their faces.

The segment on Lynn's Cupcakes airs on Thursday night. I'm not sure if any of our footage will make it on the program (I'm kind of hoping not), but at least we got some free cupcakes.

And, last, but certainly not least...

Happy Birthday, Seong!