Review: Frostings

As I reported last week, Frostings is officially open! It took me a couple of days to get there, but last night the cupcakes at Frostings were given the Cupcake Activist's rigorous taste test.


I picked out three of my favorite flavors (out of about 10 flavors available). Frostings has eight flavors that will be available every day and four flavors that will change, depending on the day of the week.


First cupcake on the chopping block: Red Velvet. Red Velvet is a favorite for many people so it is important for a store to get this one right! I usually test this flavor when I am reviewing a new store. Plus, Foodie in Disguise highly recommended this flavor as his favorite.

The Red Velvet did not disappoint! The red velvet cake was moist, but still solid. The cream cheese frosting had just the right amount of tangy cream cheese without being too sweet. The frosting was almost perfectly proportionate to the cupcake. It wasn't overhelming like the frosting on Sprinkles tends to be, but I could have used a tad more. Putting that tiny issue aside...delicious! I definitely highly recommend!


Next up: Chocolate. I'm not a huge chocolate-chocolate cupcake fan, but I know my husband is, so I picked this cupcake to tempt him to share it with me. The frosting was milk chocolate and was very creamy. The chocolate cake was not as moist as the other two cupcakes. It also had a very slight bit of hardness around the edges. When I say slight, I mean, it was barely noticeable. I hate to even mention it, but as someone who is looking for cupcake perfection, I feel obligated to mention everything that I find. For all I know, I was just unlucky enough to get the one chocolate cupcake that was slightly imperfect.

So what is my overall impression of the Chocolate cupcake? It was good, but not as great as the other two cupcakes. If you like chocolate, you should give it a try. It was a grade A cupcake, so I will still order it in the future. Plus, look how pretty it looks with those chocolate sprinkles!


Last, but not least: Pumpkin. This flavor became one of my favorites during the holiday season. I don't see it much during the rest of the year, so I was excited to see it available at Frostings. The cream cheese frosting was the same as the Red Velvet's frostings. I love good cream cheese frosting. The cake was also equally as delicious as the frosting. Pumpkin is such a wonderful flavor, especially paired with cream cheese. Thumbs up for this cupcake!


Let me mention a few other things about Frostings.

• First, their cupcakes have foil wrappers. I'm not sure why I like this, maybe it's because I haven't seen foil wrappers on cupcakes from anywhere else before.
• Frostings opens at 7:00am and serves breakfast cupcakes and beverages. I have always thought breakfast cupcakes are a great idea. I even suggested it for The Perfect Circle's Sweet Joe cupcake. I'm curious to see if this catches on. I've never seen any other cupcake store combine these items together like this before. If I lived closer, I would find it hard not to stop by every day for a cupcake and hot chocolate for breakfast.
• The to-go box and bags were perfect. The box had holes to hold the cupcakes in place. I hate it when the frosting gets crushed inside the box. Also, they put my to-go box in a nice bag. I'm happy to see that they were prepared with these items.
  
• All of Frostings' cupcakes have a small flower piece on top. This is similar to the Sprinkles dot, EXCEPT Frostings' decoration is actually edible and tastes good. Everyone who tried these cupcakes made note of this, so it was definitely worth mentioning.

Frostings Cupcakes is located in Lake Forest, off El Toro Road. It is a little further away from my house than I would like, but lucky for me it is only one mile from my mother-in-laws house. Frostings will definitely become a pitstop every time I visit her. By the way, their cupcakes are $3.25 each.

I really enjoyed my experience at Frostings. I was able to talk with one of the co-owners (John Frank) for a few minutes to talk about the store. He said their biggest problem is keeping up with the demand. That's always a good thing to hear. I think that Frostings will be very successful. They have a good location (right off the freeway and no other cupcakeries near by), they have a nice-looking store, they have differentiated themselves by making breakfast a part of their brand, and they have great cupcakes. Good luck Frostings! I will back soon to try out more of your flavors!

Frostings
23624 El Toro Rd.
Lake Forest, CA 92630
949-458-1337