Correction: The original version of this story contained an error. Sprinkles Cupcakes began its catering service in
2002 and opened a bakery in April 2005. Yummy Cupcakes began its
catering service in March 2004 and opened a bakery in December 2005.
The cupcake, once just a childhood treat, is all grown up. Gourmet cupcake bakeries have popped up all over Los Angeles and they’re changing what a cupcake can be, provided you have three dollars to spend on a miniature cake.
Gourmet cupcakes first found popularity in New York City at home-style bakeries like Magnolia Bakery, which offered cupcakes along with other baked goods like pies and breads.
The famed bakery will make its way west this summer with a location at Orlando Avenue and Third Street in Los Angeles.
Crumbs Bake Shop, also with New York roots, started in Manhattan before moving out to Los Angeles. Initially offering a few cupcakes on founder Mia Bauer’s whim, Crumbs Bake Shop’s cupcakes took center stage alongside the growing trend.
“We had no way of knowing where it was going to go, and a couple years later it kind of just exploded,” Bauer said.
Just how it exploded, however, is the subject of some debate, but in the past few years, cupcake bakeries all over Los Angeles have been experimenting with the cupcake formula.
Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills opened its doors as the one of the first cupcake-only bakeries anywhere in April 2005. Sprinkles founder and executive chef Candace Nelson said that before her shop came along, cupcakes were only for kids. She decided to elevate her favorite dessert.
“I thought, “˜There’s no reason (cupcakes) can’t be as elegant as a special occasion cake, perfect for a wedding ““ or a kid’s lunch box,'” Nelson said.
Tiffini Soforenko, one of the founders of Yummy Cupcakes, tells a different story. Her business started in March 2004 as a Burbank-based cupcake catering service without a walk-in location.
“There were literally no cupcake-only stores anywhere,” Soforenko said. “People thought I was a little bit crazy.”
One bridal show led to movie studio clients, and her business grew from there. In December 2005, Yummy Cupcakes opened its first storefront location.
Yummy Cupcakes offers over 185 flavors, from Tomato Soup to Pancakes n’Bacon, and carries vegan cupcakes every day and sugar-free options once a week. Yummy Cupcakes customers can also buy a Cupcake in a Jar (mushed-up cake and frosting in a glass jar) or on a Stick (mushed-up cake and frosting on, well, a stick).
Many shops, including Sprinkles, offer seasonal flavors like Irish Chocolate for St. Patrick’s Day, and rotate the available flavors daily to mix things up for frequent customers. But for all the variety, the most popular flavor just about everywhere, by a huge margin, is red velvet.
“It’s different and it’s a little bit unique, compared to the usual vanilla or chocolate,” said second-year pre-psychology student Izzy Nastaskin. “Doesn’t it just sound better? Red velvet. It just sounds “˜mmmmmm.'”
Flavor preferences aside, cupcake bakers all agree on one thing: Good ingredients are the key to a gourmet cupcake.
“The chocolate has to be the best, the dairy has to be the best and the vanilla has to be world-class,” Nelson said, whose bakery uses $100-a-gallon vanilla from Madagascar.
Another constant: Nearly everyone involved with gourmet cupcakes took inspiration from her grandmother. Susan Sarich, owner of SusieCakes Bakery in Brentwood, brought her grandmothers’ cupcake recipes out to Los Angeles from Chicago, and SusieCakes’ trademark frosting-filled cupcakes are made that way because that’s how her grandma did it. She, among many others, feels the nostalgic aspect is what drives the cupcake craze.
“I think a good cupcake is not highly composed and looks like something that grandma would actually make,” Sarich said. “For students especially, it’s comforting in times of stress or finals or just being in Los Angeles, away from home, it’s comforting.”
Those childhood memories don’t attract just students, however.
“We had a grown man try to make a U-turn in the middle of Magnolia Boulevard because he saw a bunch of pink cupcakes in the window,” Soforenko said.
Still, there is an emphasis in these gourmet cupcake bakeries on making cupcakes something more than kid stuff.
“In the past, we had to kind of leave them behind in childhood because they just were kind of gross after that,” Nelson said. “But now they’re being made with amazing ingredients, being made fresh every day. They’re almost an artisanal product now.”
With fancy ingredients comes a higher price ““ usually $3-$4 per cupcake. What keeps these businesses afloat, however, is that commitment to quality for even the most childish dessert.
“You’re not spending $3 to buy a cupcake that you could make in your home or could get from a grocery store,” Soforenko said.