Fresno Famous

The Bacon French Toast cupcake at Frosted Cakery is a bit gluttonous, sure.

But as you're spooning frosting into your mouth with a part-slab of thick-cut bacon, rolling your eyes at the sugar-coma goodness of it all, you just don't care — you've maybe found your new favorite thing in the world.

The Bacon French Toast cupcake at Frosted Cakery is a bit gluttonous, sure.

But as you're spooning frosting into your mouth with a part-slab of thick-cut bacon, rolling your eyes at the sugar-coma goodness of it all, you just don't care — you've maybe found your new favorite thing in the world.

The shop, which opened on Wishon Row last month, is one of a collection of hip new Tower Districts spots that includes Twee Boutique and Cafe Corazon. It specializes in wedding and celebration cakes, cake pops and custom cookies and cupcakes — just about any kind of frosted dessert. Though originally started as a custom shop, the owners — Beverly Gable and her daughter Megan Mooney — kept getting requests for the cupcakes.

"It was like, OK, I guess we're doing cupcakes now," Mooney says.

They offer six to eight flavors most days, from Vanilla Bean and Red Velvet to Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Spice. This week they introduced a vegan chocolate offering.

And they work hard to make sure that each one is not just good, but mind-blowingly good.

Before opening shop, they traveled down to Los Angeles to try out the best-of-the best, places like Sprinkles and Vanilla Bake Shop — the places people talk about and make trips to experience.

“They were good,” Mooney says, with an emphasis that means there's a but coming.

“But they weren't so good.”

And that is what Mooney and her mom are after.
Gable lays in bed at night thinking up new ideas and flavor combinations. They watch all the cake shows on TV. Of, course, they're not in it for the drama. They watch the shows with a keen eye.

“We're thinking, what is that machine, what is that tool there,” Gable says.

They also keep up with blogs like Bakerella. It's how they stay ahead of the game.

So, cupcakes are big time. As are cake pops.

Their newest addition is a cupcake in a jar — layers of cupcake and frosting sealed in a mason jar and available in 4 or 8-oz. sizes. They'll keep for days, can be shipped almost anywhere and make great gifts.

The shop is sort of tradition for Gable, who's been doing cakes for 21 years. Her parents owned Jimmie's Bakery and she grew up decorating, learned everything from her mother. But the industry has changed a lot, she says.

Used to be most people wanted simple, traditional stuff. Layer cakes and the like. You would get someone wanting to get creative, she says, “but it was here and there," and even then they wouldn't take the big risks for something truly unique.

Now, the information is out there. People have seen what is possible. So the customers are educated and expect something special, something out of the ordinary. The Frosted Cakery motto is "Dreams in Butter Cream" and they have created any number of spectacular cakes.

They've only said no to one idea and that was because the cake would have been obscene. Literally, Gable says.

"Customers are not afraid anymore."