Cupcake competition is fierce these days. Even narrowing the field to the dairy-free, Orlando has a surprising surfeit of places to get your pastry rocks off; it would take a big bite out of this space to name all the challengers this new bakery/coffeehouse/music and art space faces, so I won't. But few can boast such a convenient ' and charming ' location as Raphsodic, nestled on Mills Avenue near the intersection with Colonial Drive.
Luckily, they have enough Chinese five-spice brownies and sticky cinnamon buns and dense, moist carrot-ginger spice cake (and of course, the omnipresent red velvet cupcakes) to shut down your critical faculties, so any vicarious worries you may have as to whether owners Katherine Mosher and Charles Elliott can survive and thrive will be drowned in sweet, animal-friendly baked goodness.
The old-fashioned tile floor, glass-fronted display cases, exposed ductwork and high ceilings give the room a pleasingly industrial-cum-apothecary feel ' just right for a fix of healthy decadence. My only quibble is the weekday hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (9 p.m. Friday and Saturday), not quite early enough for a morning coffee and scone nor late enough for an after-dinner sweet.