Tucked between a children’s store and a bank sits Frosted Cupcakery, where you are greeted with a contrast of bright white chairs and tables against calming blue and warm walnut brown simplistic décor.
You’re immediately embraced with a comforting sense of longing for when things were baked in your mother’s kitchen.
“We wanted things nostalgic, without it being retro,” said Stacia Samartan, co-owner of Frosted Cupcakery.
Samartan and her mother, Nancy Hanley, are both Cal State Long Beach alumnae. They opened the bakery in April 2006 at a small 500 sq. ft. space off Claremont Avenue. They now sell their evocatively swirled cupcakes in a 1,500 sq. ft. spot on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore.
They were inspired to open a bakery after seeing one in Vancouver, Canada, five years ago and by noticing the cupcake craze following Magnolia Bakery in New York.
Samartan is not culinary trained by any means, but instead uses long practiced recipes that have been in the family for years. The recipes are always a work in progress and the mother-daughter team works consistently to find ways to improve them.
Customers are not complaining about the changes. On average, Frosted Cupcakery will sell anywhere between 1,000 to 1,200 cupcakes a day and on a busy Saturday they can sell more than 2,000 cupcakes easily, Samartan said.
What makes this bakery different than every other cupcake place that pops up is that they carry at least 17 flavors every day (not including their flavor of the month), they use the best quality ingredients and the signature swirl in their frosting is done by hand.
They also offer custom baked mini-cakes, ice cream cupcakes, jumbo cupcakes, and special ‘pup-cakes’ that are meat cupcakes made for dogs.
The cupcakes are made fresh early every morning and they continue baking them well into the afternoon, sometimes even right up to an hour before they close.
They have a second location in Hollywood that opened in January, and it didn’t go unnoticed, especially by ABC-TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. He mentioned the bakery on his show late that month.
Two tips Samartan gives to people that want to start their own bakery is to first, have a business plan; know exactly what you want to do and how you want to be represented. Second, check your city’s food regulations so you can safely handle and prepare your food.
“You have to want to run a business, not just love to bake,” Samartan said.
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