Soo Many Treats For You On The Way!!

Sorry about the lack of posts, we were getting fat. And we've been busy working on our SOCALCUPCAKES CREW gang signs. BRB with sexy reviews of Susie Cakes in Newport Beach, Five Sweets in Costa Mesa, Zov's in Newport Coast, baking-at-home adventures and MORE! Just a preview of what's to come:


Stay tuned to find out WTF is up with this picture


hearts and sparkles,

SOCALCUPCAKES CREW

French's Cupcake Bakery Costa Mesa: Wowza

Get stoked ...

*French's Cupcake Bakery*
273 E 17th St.
Costa Mesa, Ca 92627
(949) 642-0571
frenchsbakery.com

This is not your mother’s French’s Bakery (your mother’s French’s Bakery being the one at 1170 Baker St, Costa Mesa – we’ll get there, don’t worry!) – This is more like your Italian Grandma’s French’s Bakery. Which means it’s homey, old-world and delicious (and confusing ... ), has everything from anise cookies to deli sandwiches ready-to-serve, and lets you eat 3 cupcakes in one sitting without telling your mom. Here are the top 5 things that rule about French’s Cupcake Bakery:

1. Their cupcakes are half the price of most cupcakeries
2. They have twice the flavor-variety you would expect, everything from German Chocolate to Lemon Blueberry to Chocolate Ganache Happy Mouth Explosion (or Killer Chocolate, as they call it)
3. Apparently they make this cake sometimes:(image from their website)
4. It’s easy to find and is in a center with plenty of parking. Need directions?
   
5. There’s indoor and outdoor seating, so you can munch your cupcakes while gazing at display case to decide what you’re going to taste next, and daydreaming about being adopted by the nice woman behind the counter.

You should probably stop reading now and just goooo!!!!

Wonderland Bakery: Take 2 (cupcakes in yr mouth at a time)

Our new motto is "frosting is thicker than water," (feel free to quote us) and with that sentiment, we're going to consider our disappointing first visit to Wonderland Bakery water under the bridge and focus on the frosting.

*Wonderland Bakery*
Bluffs Shopping Center
1314 Bison @ Mac Arthur
Newport Beach, CA 92660
888-WB-COOKIE
http://wonderlandbakery.com/

The frosting at Wonderland is tasty, especially the cool, silky cream cheese frosting swirled on bright Red Velvet cakes. But the bakery is focused just as much, if not more, on the delicious and pink cupcake-loving lifestyle and Wonderland-branded swag.
Think Disneyland: Where you spend 2-minutes on the ride (in this case, the cupcake eating adventure), and 25-minutes in the gift shop connected to the exit.

This shop is a GLITTER-EXPLOSION, right down to the sparkling silver floor reflecting multi-colored gleaming trinkets on shelves stretching up tall walls. Other than a few chocolate bars, all the edible merchandise is at the rear of the store. Scratch that: the display case that you order edibles from is at the rear of the store. The actual edibles are behind a curtain -- after you place your order and pay, the cashier exits through the curtain to prepare your order.
What's in that secret room?
Should we even ask?
It's a mystery I'm not entirely comfortable with.
Whatever's back there, the cashier reappeared less than 10 minutes later with 8 freshly frosted and sprinkled cakes and it was time to eat them all.

We're just going to review the Razzle Dazzle for now, because it's the most important:
Pretty pink frosting drizzled with chocolate, on a chocolate cake. Frosting was pleasantly grainy, with bits of real raspberry throughout - no seeds, thankfully. The addition of fresh fruit could be the reason the frosting melted in the car ride home - although it was an awfully hot day, the vanilla and chocolate-frosted cupcakes remained solid. The chocolate cake was moist and fudgy, with plenty of air bubbles, making it chewy and not too heavy.

Overall: Wonderland is an experience for sure, and the cupcakes are pretty good ... but there's something missing ... LIKE A SOUL!!! Sealing the deal on this sentiment: their little girl model on the brochures, etc. is a dead ringer for JonBenet Ramsey

Too soon Wonderland, too soon.

Dolcissimo in Costa Mesa, or, How A Red Velvet Cupcake Saved My Soul

After leaving Wonderland Bakery unsatisfied, our cupcake quest led us to Dolcissimo in Costa Mesa. And there, the most perfect Red Velvet cupcake EVER.

*Dolcissimo*
560 W. 19th Street
Costa Mesa, CA, 92627
(949) 548-4700
dolcissimobakeshop.com

Dolcissimo is simply cute, clean and focused. The immaculate, pretty-pastel interior compliments the impeccably arranged and decorated cupcakes. Nothing about the decor is too loud, and the cupcakes shine.

On this first visit, we each ordered 3 cupcakes and each paid $9 -- not bad, for Orange County.

The treats were wrapped in an adorable brown box, perfect for toting to the table outside, where we proceeded to devour the entire order. It was impossible not to: Dolcissimo's cupcakes are *#$@%^#$%&*explicitexplicit$%^$%@$*&DELICIOUS.

The Red Velvet was the perfect hue, texture and light chocolate taste. The cake was super dense, with the tiniest air bubbles I've ever seen: pure perfection. I almost wept. I'm almost weeping recalling it now. The cream cheese frosting: Perfectly smooth, fresh, addictive, dreamy, and topped with a petite violet candy.
Dolcissimo has perfected the Red Velvet cupcake.

Here are some dramatic before and after photos:

I guess this is technically a "during" photo

This is "after." Le sigh ...

The Chocolate Fantasy cupcake was what I've always wanted in a chocolate on chocolate on chocolate cupcake, but never been able to articulate: Fudgy cake, light cocoa frosting, completely covered in fine chocolate sprinkles.
It was like taking a nap in a See's Candy truffle. I wish it never ended, but it did, so I ate my final cupcake: Lemonberry.

Dolcissimo's Lemonberry was a nice choice for a closer: Its light cake is almost muffin-y, and topped with a fluffy blueberry frosting cloud. The top of the cake was chewy and the inside was moist, but they flavor could've been zestier. However, my tastebuds were so deluged with flavor from the first two cupcakes, I may just be talking nonsense now. Lemonberry would be perfect with afternoon tea, when you have to feign light and lady-like. But those of us who refuse to feign will save the Lemonberry till after we've eaten 3 - 5 Red Velvets or Chocolate Fantasies.
Yum.

-Dolcissimo wins the "Most Likely to Make Your Friends/Co-Workers/Enemies/Puppies go 'Awwww!!'" Award for their pretty and preppy presentation.

-They get extra points for fresh and delicious taste, and variety of flavors -- check the site for details: Dolcissimobakeshop.com

-The mini-cupcakes inspire even the most composed among us to do crazy things to get them in our mouth A.S.A.P. (See image at the beginning of this post.) Ordering 3 minis for $5 is a great way to sample more flavors with less shame. Thanks Dolcissimo!!

Wonderland Bakery, First Attempt = Sugar-Free Mess of Failure

Wonderland Bakery, Cupcakes & Gifts
Bluffs Shopping Center
1314 Bison @ Mac Arthur
Newport Beach, CA 92660

Our first experience at Wonderland Bakery in Newport Beach was less than stellar. We arrived at 5:30 p.m., bouncing with pure pre-sugar joy, ran up to the entrance, pulled the glass door... and it was locked. We made sad faces at the lone employee inside the dark store, pointing to the lock and shrugging our shoulders. No dice. WTF???

Both the website and the store's 800 number say it's open till 7 p.m. So WTF? I called the store (and heard the message about the 7 p.m. closing time again) and left a message relaying my disappointment and confusion, and asking for a return call to confirm the store hours. No one ever called me back.

This is how I felt inside:


Notice that the mouth is both sad AND empty.

First visit to Wonderland: FAIL
It's gonna be a couple weeks before we make a second attempt, but for the sake of frosting and blogging, we will.