Drooling over the picnic spread we laid out in our Summer Entertaining section but can’t get to Royal/T and Cupcake & Cookie? Have no fear, we have the recipes just for your right here, right now! Make and bake away. (Save some for me!)
Tuna Tartare by Royal/T
Have you ever met someone whose primary diet consists of carrot cake and banana nut muffins and ice cream? Whose sweet face belies her even sweeter tooth? Meet Dorothy, our resident Dessert Tourist. Dorothy will be Audrey’s resident Dessert Tourist, zipping in and out of bake shops and dessert cafes to share with us some of LA’s sweetest. Her first stop? Frosted Cupcakery.
Before I even visited Frosted Cupcakery, I knew I was in for a treat. The two locations have about 600 reviews combined on Yelp with a solid four star rating. They were selected by as the best cupcakes in Los Angeles by myfoxla’s Hot List, and loved throughout the blogosphere. And I have to agree with the hype. These cupcakes are phenomenal.
Frosted Cupcakery has been re-inventing cupcakes since the cupcake craze hit LA. The modernly retro bakery offers simple, nostalgic flavors, executed amazingly well. They offer 17 flavors of cupcakes daily ($2.95 each, $30 for a dozen), but the majority of the cupcakes are vanilla are chocolate, with a variation on the frosting. They also boast ice-cream filled cupcakes and hi-top cupcakes (mini cupcake sandwiches), and they’ll make you a custom order of almost anything.
Red Velvet Ice-Cream Cupcake
The ice-cream filled cupcakes ($4.95) are jumbo cupcakes filled with ice-cream and topped with frosting. The idea came about from customers asking if they carried ice-cream or any other desserts (mind you, this was before there were cupcakeries on every street corner and consumers were still shocked at the idea of a cupcake-only bakery). The owners were always big fans of ice-cream cake, and thought ice-cream cupcakes would be a great modern twist on the dessert. Frosted offers ice-cream cupcakes in four flavors, but call ahead to see what flavor they are serving that day. I went on a day when they were serving the red velvet ice-cream cupcake, but the royal white cupcake filled with pumpkin ice-cream intrigues me the most.
Hi-top cupcakes available in three flavors
A hi-top ($1.45) is a cake sandwich comprised of two halves of a mini cupcake sandwiching a frosting filling. These are available in three flavors every day.
Frosted Cupcakery also hosts a mini social the first week of every month, where they offer free sampling of their cupcake of the month. Check their website for dates and times.
Here are my top picks from Frosted Cupcakery:
Royal White cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream
Royal White/Vanilla Buttercream: One of the best vanilla cupcakes I have ever had. The cake is insanely moist with a delicate crumb. Frosted manages to capture the familiar Vanilla flavor from childhood perfectly.
Royal White/Salted Caramel Hi-top
Royal White/Salted Caramel Hi-top: The royal white vanilla cake here is the same amazing recipe used in their vanilla cupcake. The caramel buttercream filling has a deep caramel flavor, which is complemented perfectly by the coarse sea salt.
Orange Chocolate Chip: This is a seasonal flavor (available only for the month of October!), but I wish it was available every day of the year. Delicate orange cake flecked with mini chocolate chips and frosted with chocolate buttercream. The moist cake has a light orange flavor, complemented by the chocolate.
Banana/Chocolate Buttercream: I actually let this one sit out for three days on purpose to see how moist it would stay. And it was still insanely moist on the third day (that just shows you how moist their cupcakes are to begin with!). The cake has a banana nut flavor to it, and the chocolate buttercream is delicious. Topped with chopped nuts and a salty banana chip.
Other flavors:
Red Velvet/Cream Cheese: The red velvet is a cocoa-based recipe, and has a great, thick, tangy, cream cheese frosting. Didn’t stand out to me, but still very good.
Chocolate/Caramel Buttercream Toffee: The chocolate cupcakes are just not as amazingly moist and delicate as their vanilla counterparts. This was a slight disappointment and surprise to me as I tried the Royal White vanilla cake first and that yanked my expectations for the rest of the flavors way up. Even though texture is not as amazing, flavor is still fantastic. I found the caramel buttercream here a bit sweet (which would work well with a darker chocolate cake, but this one here is a lighter, milkier chocolate cake), but this is the same caramel buttercream in the Royal White/Salted Caramel hi-top. Its fantastic there as it pairs extremely well with the sea salt.
Red Velvet/Cream Cheese ice-cream cupcake: Cocoa-based jumbo red velvet cupcake filled with vanilla bean ice-cream. The vanilla ice-cream pairs well with the cocoa in the red velvet, and the cream cheese frosting was delicious. Definitely takes decadence to a new level.
Frosted Cupcakery has two locations, one in Hollywood and one in Belmont Shore. The Hollywood location boasts a bright blue store on the corner of Lexington/Highland. As an added bonus, there is parking!
Frosted Cupcakery has become one of my favorite cupcakeries. Be sure to visit if you’re in the area! And if you’re not, these are definitely worth the drive.
belmont shore – long beach
4817 e. 2nd street
long beach, ca. 90803
phone: 562-987-1080
hollywood – los angeles
1200 n. highland avenue
los angeles, ca. 90083
phone: 323-467-1080
