Eating (cupcake) crow: French’s Bakery
August 1st, 2008, 11:03 pm · 8 Comments · posted by Kat "I eat 'til my pants hurt" Nguyen
I have one word to say regarding the unintentional exclusion of French’s Bakery from our O.C. Cupcake Challenge.
OOPS.
I know, I know, so many of you scolded me for forgetting French’s the first time around. In our attempt to nab goods from the new wave of nearly a dozen trendy cupcakeries, we inadvertently left out the ol’ classic. Finally popped into French’s today and was pleasantly surprised by the variety of flavors, even near the 6 p.m closing time.
The shop has been around for three decades — way before cupcakes became the “it” dessert and long before glossier joints like Sprinkles ever came to town. French’s is crammed with baked goods like cakes, breads and easily more than a dozen kinds of “gourmet” cupcakes for a reasonable $2 a pop. I grabbed a small assortment: Lemon Blueberry, Key Lime, Orange Mimosa, Chocolate Raspberry, Double Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Chocolate and Strawberry Cheesecake. Just enough to nibble on, ha.
I’ll be honest, I expected grocery-store quality at best. I had a cupcake from French’s awhile back and remember not being impressed at all. I stand corrected. For the most part, the cupcakes — which were slightly chilled — were moist and the frosting creamy and well-flavored …
My favorite of the bunch: The Lemon Blueberry. The yellow cake — which came embedded with large fresh blueberries, yielded the right amount of tangy lemon flavor and the cream cheese frosting was gooey but smooth. The Peanut Butter & Chocolate was another favorite. The chocolate cake was fluffy, moist and was studded with chocolate chips, but the luscious frosting might be the best peanut butter version I’ve had — perfectly smooth, without any grittiness and smelled wonderful. It’s also likely the most elegant cupcake offering there, with a crown of pretty chocolate shavings atop the frosting. The Chocolate Raspberry was another decadent pick, again — silky frosting with a smattering of sugar crystals and you can definitely taste both chocolate and raspberry flavors.
I was most curious about the Orange Mimosa — the cake was marbled, yellow and orange and tasted like pound cake — and what I initially thought was a too-firm or dry texture turned out to be due to the chilled temperature. Great kiss of orange flavor — the frosting, while a bit too granular and pasty for my liking, yielded a hint of bourbon? The Key Lime had an injection of tart key lime pudding and the cake had a faint green hue to it, too. The crushed graham cracker dusted across the frosting was a nice touch. The Strawberry Cheesecake, unfortunately, represents the cupcake I feared I would get at French’s: Too sweet of frosting and the additional goopy swirl of red gel atop the pink frosting looked sloppy. This one reminded me of what you get at Mrs. Beasley’s.
I can’t speak for the rest of the taste-testing panel, but French’s Bakery would have definitely ranked up there with a few of their offerings — we just need a few more cupcakeries to open and do round two of the cupcake challenge …
273 E. 17th St.
Costa Mesa, CA
949.642.0571
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:52 am
We had some French’s cupcakes yesterday! They were awesome. They will always hold a special place in our heart, because we got our wedding cake there. I answered you back on your post on my site. Take care Kat!
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
French’s Cupcake Bakery on 17th is the absolute best bakery in Southern California!!!! I have had French’s birthday cakes for 30 years!!!! So yummy!!!! Their famous wagon wheels invented by the owner Jerry!!
French’s was doing cupcakes before cupcakes were the trend of today. Trends come and go but French’s will always be the number one top quality bakery experience in SoCal!!
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I love French’s. My BF and I eat there all the time. Great food and the two of us share the Wagon Wheel. Its so delightful and devine. we try to stop by a few times a month. The best cupcakes and desserts around. mmm mmm delicious.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Yeah, leaving French’s CUPCAKE Bakery out of the competition is like reviewing Orange County Theme Parks and leaving out Disneyland.
We did a taste test when we were planning our wedding cake. Nothing beat a French’s cupcake. So we did a multi-tier platter filled with cupcakes. Everyone got what they wanted, everyone got 3 or 4 different kinds. We’ve been to a dozen weddings since, nothing has come close.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
LOL Oh boy!!! I thought I was the only one that has bought a wagon wheel at French’s and did not make it to the car with it. Borrowed the table next door my kids and I dug right in.
My husband must think they sell them cut in half! LOL
Great memories!!!!
BTW we bought our wedding cake there. White chocolate shavings and 7 tiers in all. If you want to impress your wedding guests go to French’s for your weddking cake! Even now 12 years later people are still talking about that cake!!
August 7th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I hear that they do a “scrumptious” apple pie. have you tried those out yet? I’m curious to know if it’s worth my money and time to pop by there
August 8th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Divina, they have a couple different apple pie’s at French’s on 17th, their traditional 2 crust & a Dutch apple that has a struesel ? topping that is great. The Virginia Peach pie that they make has some pecans in the topping, and is my favorite, with a little vanillia ice cream of course!
August 13th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Kat, I thought you brought up some wonderful points. We do refrigerate our cupcakes because of health reasons. Using heavy cream, butter, cream cheese, sour cream, etc. they should be refrigerated, but if possible, it is best to let them come to room temperature before eating (if you can wait. lol). Also, as you stated, some of the icings were a little sweet for your taste. Everybody has a different view on that and people have to find what is to their liking. We love to get feed back from our customers as to what they like. We get many of our new ideas for types of cupcakes from our customers. We have been the Cupcake Bakery since the 50’s and French’s Cupcake Bakery since the 70’s. The name was just a cutesy bakery name for a 50’s bakery and has just been very beneficial since the cupcake craze. We have always made cupcake and they were small versions of cakes we already made. White , chocolate, yellow, carrot, banana nut, German chocolate, lemon blueberry , etc.. Not until the cupcake craze have we stated to make cupcakes that were not already a cake we make. In fact, the cupcakes are now starting a new like of flavors of cakes instead of the other way around. It has been a lot of fun creating these new flavors. Our customers, bakers, cake decorators, front end help, and my wife have all contributed with their ideas. We keep about 16 types of cupcakes in the store at all times but we make closer to thirty types. With just a days notice we can make any of them for you and probably even make a flavor you yourself are craving and want to create.