photos by DK Crawford, key used to give an idea of size
I am $6 lighter and two cupcakes heavier. Today I popped into the new cupcake shack in Ventura for a sweet treat. It's in the El Jardin courtyard at 451 E. Main St., part of the old location of Zoey's downtown. It's owned by the same folks who brought We Olive to Ventura.
The place is small and sweet, bedecked in pink. A delightful teen helped me and was really fluent in information about Sugar Bear's.
They had 6 cupcake flavors today: Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate, Red Velvet, Lemon and a Cinnamon Butter Cream Cupcake, their signature cupcake named the Sugar Bear. Cupcakes are $3 a piece and they also have small mixed dozens of mini cupcakes available for $21.
All the cupcakes look pretty simple and begged the question of what makes them gourmet? I was told they use local ingredients, specifically olive oils from We Olive, local oranges and lemons, more natural ingredients and they aren't overly sweet. They plan on creating seasonal flavors as well as special vegan cupcakes. I bought a chocolate cupcake with olive oil and the signature Sugar Bear to try.
The cupcakes are medium sized and travelled well in their plastic cupcake container. As Chris watched me take them out of the container, he said he thought the prices were high for their size. "I expect them to taste like heaven on earth," he mumbled as I was slicing the knife through, making bite-sized wedges.
First smell of the Sugar Bear signature cupcake was pure butta. The cake itself was light and airy and delicate and yes, not overly sweet while the icing was buttery with a hint of sour cream. The icing itself was quite sweet -- sweet enough to make me cough when I got a good bite of it. But it was really tasty and had flavors I could lose myself in for a while -- like a decadent summer day.
"It's pretty damn good," surmised Chris. "If I were at a wedding and they had these, I'd have more than one." I looked at him suspiciously "Chris, you'd have more than one no matter what!" He agreed and said, "Ok, you're right, maybe I'd have more than two!" We laughed and moved on to the chocolate.
It smelled like a rich, fudgy brownie. When I pushed the knife through it, it was effortless until I hit something hard in the center. I pulled out the knife a bit and a dark chocolate chip fell out. The chocolate cupcake was very very rich and intense. Made with olive oil, the intensity of the flavor carries through each bite. The cake itself was denser than the Sugar Bear and the chocolate crumbles a bit messy as they tended to fall out of the bottom into the paper cup underneath rather than stay part of the bites. Both cupcakes were difficult to try to take pieces of which only shows how tender they were.
The chocolate is perfect for those moments when you're going to bite someone's head off if you don't get chocolate n-o-w! We enjoyed it but ultimately finished the Sugar Bear together and left half of the chocolate because it was too much, too rich.
Having opened just last week, Sugar Bear's is still finding its feet as a new business. The cupcakes were humble in appearance and the flavors, all fairly predictable so far, were limited. The Sugar Bear Cinnamon Cupcake was the most unique and it was delicious. As they've just opened, I know they are keeping it simple for now. They do have some great starts with the local idea and keeping the cakes themselves not too too sweet. I haven't come to a conclusion about them yet, I'll keep watching.
Meanwhile, here are thoughts on two other cupcake makers in Ventura I've tried.
Michelle Michelle's Couture Cupcakery Cupcakes are full of flavor and punch and are artistically presented, like small, jeweled packages. Her flavors are terribly exciting and varied -- tart, sweet, spicy, you name it, it comes through the compact cupcakes. The Jeter Jeter Pumpkin Eater, Cup of Lemonade and After Dinner Mint are a few of my favorites. I could order different cupcakes from her for every occasion or season and never tire. I wrote about her for Ventana and spent a few months trying to sample all her flavors. They are hard to beat.
Also SHoCAKES, formerly sold at Cooke's Smokehouse, (currently figuring out where her next cupcake home will be), are large, sloopy, messy orgasmic madness in the form of a cupcake. I remember trying to cut them into pieces to share at a party and instead I made an icing, cupcakey stew on the plate but that stopped no one. Her Smores and Peanut Butter n Jelly Cupcakes were as close to bathing in cupcakes as I've ever come. They're large, indulgent and a blast!
