Photos by Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Adam Miller (from left), Sara Gick and Linda Gustad decide which cupcakes to order.

Cupcake flavors include white coconut (from left), chocolate turtle pecan and caramel, and red velvet with cream cheese frosting.

Dreamsicle (from left), the Cosmo cranberry cupcake made with cranberry vodka and lime frosting, and a chocolate butterscotch-drop cupcake are offered at Viva la Cupcake.

Self-taught baker Pennie Ahuero, owner of Viva la Cupcake, located at 1302 Grandin Road in Roanoke.

For owner Pennie Ahuero, baking and selling cupcakes at Viva la Cupcake has been an "amazing" experience.

"I love it," she said, "and I had no idea it would be this much fun for everyone."

Every time I've been to her shop at the corner of Grandin Road and Memorial Avenue in Roanoke, Ahuero has radiated enthusiasm. It's the first time she's owned a business, and she said she wouldn't trade it for anything.

Viva la Cupcake proffers some imaginative, distinctive, flavorful cupcakes, and most of them are a sweet pleasure.

Meet the owner

Born and raised in Roanoke, Pennie Ahuero spent 15 years serving as a medic in the Navy before returning home in 1996. She's married, has three sons and is a self-taught baker. She said her ideas come from books, magazines, the markets where she shops, and her growing imagination for creating different cupcakes. Last summer, Ahuero and her husband kept thinking about the potential of the soon-to-be vacated corner space in Grandin Village, and decided it would make a great bakery. After an unexpected meeting with the owner, they came to an agreement and that's where Viva la Cupcake is today.

The vibe

Ahuero's shop treats customers to some appealing cupcakes neatly displayed on trays in the glass-enclosed case. Some are regally set under glass domes on top of the case, and all reflect in the mirrored wall, suggesting a vast room abounding with a garden of little cakes.

It's a classy look I like for a bakery.

There are a few small tables and booths, as well as an eight-seat table at the window where children can congregate. A sweet aroma fills the air, and while I was in a reverie over the fragrance, someone behind the counter asked me about selections.

The menu

Ahuero has close to two dozen cupcakes in her repertoire, and offers at least four to six different kinds every day. Some days she'll decorate them differently, but underneath the embellishments, consistent flavor shines through.

Ahuero told me, "All my cupcakes and frostings are homemade and they contain the freshest and finest ingredients."

Chocolate dominates the cupcake list, and you'll hear no complaint from me. The signature Viva la Cupcake is a rich devil's food, while Totally Turtle brings together a caramel chocolate cupcake with a mixture of fresh caramel, pecans and chocolate glaze on top.

Other flavors include Tropical Delight, filled with pineapple and topped with coconut fluff, while Pineapple Upside Down has pineapple within and a topping of brown sugar glaze over a pineapple slice with a cherry.

Just Peachy uses a freshly baked cupcake stuffed with peaches and glazed with homemade peach sauce. For Peanut Butter Cup, Ahuero lavishes a chocolate cupcake with peanut cream filling and crowns it with a peanut butter frosting.

What we tried

Over a couple of forays, I bought two dozen cupcakes encompassing every flavor, filling and hue available on those days. I treated family, grandchildren and calorie-conscious friends to slices of these treats, while I focused my attention on demonstrating how to taste and opine. Thus, on separate occasions, I had fun consuming slivers of the house signature Viva la Cupcake, Life Gives Lemons, Grass Is Greener, Pink Flamingo, Tropical Delight, Gone Coco Again, Berry Delicious, Red Velvet and Cookies-n-Cream.

Presentation

We all agreed the cupcakes presented an attractive, even fetching, look. While they baked a little higher and larger than the usual supermarket versions, they were of uniform height and size. The frosting enhanced their appearances without giving cluttered or tacky impressions.

Easy to eat?

All of the cupcakes fared well in this group because the frosting was an essential part of the whole composition. In baker's parlance, the frosting had snap -- it harmonized with the cake and did not separate from it. Whether eaten out of hand or with a fork, these cupcakes and their frostings had defining flavor, stayed together and were not messy.

Flavor

Each cupcake had its distinctive essence and seasoning. Pink Flamingo, a white almond cupcake with pink almond buttercream frosting, looked like a little girl's dream. Its strong vanilla and almond aromas partnered well with the moist, flavorful cake. Gone Coco, a white coconut-filled cupcake crowned with coconut fluff ranked as just OK because of its dry crumb. Berry Delicious, a creation topped with raspberry glaze and chocolate drizzle, impressed us with its rich flavor.

Our favorites

We liked all of the cupcakes, and most of them made above-average grades, but didn't quite equal the excellence of the two winners. Two cupcakes earned perfect scores and came in first: the devil's food Viva la Cupcake and the Caramel Apple Delight.

With a rich chocolate fragrance and flavor, Viva la Cupcake pulls out all the stops with its hidden white chocolate center surrounded by lusciously dark, moist cake, all topped with chocolate buttercream, fudge ganache and a decorative finial.

Caramel Apple Delight, a golden cake with apple bits, was topped with more of a glaze than a frosting. It lacked fancy decoration but had a delicious honey-nut flavor and a delightful cake texture.

The bottom line

Without reservation, I recommend the cupcakes at Viva la Cupcake. These cupcakes are genuinely tasty, easy to eat and sweet fun for the young and young at heart.