The Frosting Never Stops Here

MILL VALLEY
After visiting Tyler Florence’s charming store here, I spotted a cupcake store across the street. So you know I had to stop there for a try.

Frosting Bake Shop is a quaint cupcake shop that looks like a combination bakery and gift shop. Painted in festive colors and happy dots, the store is made up primarily of gift products in the front.

At the counter, you’ll find the 11 regular flavors of cupcakes all under these slender glass domes, almost like precious jewels under glass. The cupcakes lacked the sophisticated look of, say, Kara’s or Georgetown Cupcakes. Instead, they had this craft project look, like the head cupcake designer is a 5-year-old. I’m not pointing that out as a negative; I sometimes like playfully decorated cupcakes.

The flavors also have playful names like Razzleberry and Willie Vanillie, as well as standards like Red Velvet. A couple of the flavors were already sold out, but in the end I settled for the Lemon Twist ($3), which is a lemon cake with sweet lemon butter cream frosting.

Also at the end of the counter were cupcake truffles, which the owner says is the latest fad in cupcakes. Basically, they’re miniature cakes covered in chocolate to resemble chocolate truffles. I would have tried a few, but I was headed to dinner and I was already spoiling my dinner with the lemon cupcake.

The Lemon Twist had this huge pile of frosting on top, so it was a bit difficult to eat. I pretty much had to just eat the frosting with no cake. But you know what? I loved the frosting, so I didn’t mind just eating it alone. It didn’t have the thick butter cream texture, and leaned more toward a light frosting. It was very airy and not sickly sweet, so it was perfect for me.

The cake itself was good, although slightly tough on the edge, which might just be a sign that it had been sitting around all day. Still, I thought it was a nice cupcake treat. Frosting Bake Shop looks like the perfect cute cupcake match for the tiny downtown Mill Valley.

Frosting Bake Shop, 7 E. Blithedale Ave., Mill Valley. PH: 415.888.8027. www.frostingbakeshop.com

Around cupcake country:
Georgetown Cupcake, Washington, D.C.
Crumbs Bake Shop, New York
Kara’s Cupcakes, San Francisco
Cake Coutore, Honolulu