LA Cupcakes #7: Crumbs

For the 7th LA Cupcakes Meetup we were invited to New York’s cupcake chain Crumbs, which recently opened shop in Beverly Hills. Decorated for Halloween with orange cobwebs, the pink and black awning shop near Rodeo was surprisingly inviting. Inside, the staff was super friendly asking our opinion on each cupcake that we tried and offering mini sized cupcakes as "samples" to each customer. I tried their sample of Cotton Candy, which was too pretty to resist in pink, blue and purple. It was basically a vanilla/butter cream cupcake with cotton candy like rocky sprinkles on top of pink frosting. It was moist and simple.

The first thing I noticed when entering the shop though was the huge sizes of the cupcakes on display. I’m also a fan of diverse flavors and Crumbs did not disappoint with large cupcakes for $3.75 in varieties that included key lime, blueberry cobbler, pina colada, banana split, cookie dough, Boston cream, caramel apple, pistachio, hostess, carrot cake, fluffernutter and so many more. My favorite though is the Raspberry Swirl, which is a vanilla cake with raspberry jam swirled inside it and on top of the frosting. Yum.

Later the owner, Harley Bauer, introduced himself and so generously wow’d us all further by giving our group 20 free regular sized cupcakes to try. So with a handful of forks, napkins and drinks, the 18 of us headed to a nearby outside seating area in front of a Wells Fargo to try them all. Overall, everyone was saying that Crumbs was now their favorite stop yet and I found it hard to disagree after eating the creamy, massive and inventive cupcakes. It seemed that people especially liked their pumpkin and raspberry swirl.

Harley also mentioned that they plan to open a total of five Crumbs stores throughout the Los Angeles area! In response to mentioning that he had a friendly staff, Harley said that he had wanted Crumbs to be the exact opposite of nearby Sprinkles (only two blocks away) meaning that hewanted Crumbs to be a "fun experience" for eaters. With the fun decorations and knowledgeable and welcoming staff it didn’t have the sterile or pretentious look of Sprinkles, so I’d say that so far he’s succeeding.

I brought home some leftovers for Raphael and he said they were the best ones that I've brought back since starting the group and considering that all he had this time was some crumbs (no pun intended) and half eaten cupcakes, that's pretty impressive. I need to go back and try the key lime and pina colada (more photos).









Which bakery in your area has the best cupcake dessert recipe? Oftentimes the best cup cake recipes come from bakers who love sweets and know how to make great treats. The biggest cupcake lovers even turn festive cupcakes into traditional Christmas food!

5 comments

  1. Ooh, YUMMY entry here. :)

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  2. We have Crumbs near my job and i LOVE it. They are so yummy and HUGE! The rasberry swirl one is awesome, and there is a peanut butter cup one that was pretty good too.

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  3. I am a huge Crumbs fan, and they are always nice at every location. Our first NY Cupcake Meetup was at Crumbs near NYU. They gave us each a free cupcake as well. I went to the Upper West Side location with a friend and they gave us free treats because they were closing up soon. The service and generosity has made me a loyal customer. Their coffee is delicious, too! My fave is the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cupcake.

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  4. Anyone who LOVES cupcakes has got to checkout this website which sells the CUTEST cupcake T-shirt I've ever seen!

    www.blacksheepstyle.com

    The shirts are done by a professional artist from the Bay Area. Definitely check it out -- I already bought six shirts for holiday presents!

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  5. Big Sugar Bakeshop in Studio City is leading the MyFoxLA Hotlist - Best Cupcake catagory.

    Hope you have a chance to travel to the valley. They have the cutest aprons and most delicious coconut cupcakes ever.

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