Vanilla Sunshine Cupcakery

The My Delight Cupcakery off Mountain is better in my opinion however just a little bit more expensive. The cupcakes here are nice but just how they taste is sometimes something to be desired. The prices however are great so if you’re looking for a quick sweet treat then by all means hit this place up!

I love this place but their hours of business are not suitable for anyone that would like to purchase cupcakes for events that start in the morning. They open at 11:00 AM and that is WAAAAAY to late. I usually end up buying cupcakes at Some Crust because they are open by 5:00 AM some mornings.

I love this place. I usually come for happy hour (T-​Th, 2 – 4 pm), when you can buy one and get one free. Prices are very reasonable for this type of shop: minis are $ 1, regular cupcakes are only $ 2.75.
My favourite flavours are Triple Chocolate and Red Velvet, which they bake every day. My husband’s favourite is Mint Cookie, which is only on Tuesday. Some of the flavours aren’t for me, such as Monkey, which is peanut butter and banana; or Rise n Shine, which is blueberry with bacon and maple… Just too much for me! But I love many of their flavours, like Lemon Raspberry (just a delight), Blackberry Passionfruit (surprisingly complex and flavourful), and of course the Triple Chocolate!
Staff are friendly, and will remember your favourites, especially if you come regularly/​at the same time each week.
It’s a simple joy to eat a cupcake. This place always brings a little sunshine into my day.

NOOOO! Come back please!!!
I used to come here all the time for their delicious home made cupcakes. They were the best cupcake place in town… much better than Some crust for sure. I really hope they re-​open somewhere else soon. I was so excited to go get my binge eating on last week until I noticed their dark store front :(
I noticed that the website is even shut down. I hope they keep their fans posted if they ever reopen.

I attended a birthday party and these cupcakes were brought for the celebration. I can’t say I was too impressed with anything. There were several comments about having to fight through the frosting and «is there any cake under there?»
My cupcake did topple after one bite since the tower of frosting was so high and it turned into the leaning tower of Pisa before it toppled. But in all fairness, I always say too much frosting isn’t so bad because you have the option of removing it if you don’t like a lot, and for sugar fiends, they get their overload.
But I found the cake on the chocolate frosting to be a bit dry and the frosting a bit to light and moussey for my preference.
The carrot cake was pretty basic. Cake was a tad dry. Much better at My Delight Cupcakes in Ontario. Others complain the cream cheese frosting was TOO cream cheesy. Wish I had that problem. I LOVE cream cheese frosting, but my cream cheese frosting was too light and buttery. Not much cream cheese flavor. Just sweet sugary fluff.
The hostess cupcake style cupcake was okay. Unfortunately, nothing I would go out of the way for here. Wonderland in Pasadena is still the only cupcake place that has my attention.
Maybe they will finesse their cupcakes in time to come.

Recently purchased two dozen regular cupcakes (assorted flavors) and one dozen mini cupcakes (assorted flavors) for a family birthday party.
I ordered in advance over the phone and the staff person taking the order was extremely helpful and knowledgable about the product. The order was ready exactly as ordered at the time and date needed. All at the party commented about the cupcakes were visually very good looking, that the cake was moist and flavorable and the frosting was good and not overly sweet. All in all the cupcakes were a hit by all at the party… young and old.
We will definately be going back to Vanilla Sunshine Cupcakery!

I don’t get all the negative reviews. I mean, yes, there could be some improvement, but which one of you can say you’re perfect?! NONE OF Y’ALL! So back up off my Vanilla Sunshine!
Rise n Shine — This cup o’ cake is an entire breakfast. I think their intention, with the cake, was blueberry pancakes, but the texture is more blueberry biscuits, which is just fine by me *yum* The flavors are the star here — I tasted melting butter and Vermont dark maple in the buttercream. I’m sure the bacon makes the perfect last note; I’ll take your word for it. #vegetarianproblems
Blackberry Passion Fruit — The cake and passion fruit filling was YUMMY! Probably my favorite. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much blackberry flavor in the frosting, which was surprising because all the other buttercreams were loaded with distinctive flavors. Great cupcake though. The passion fruit really elevates it. .
Ok, Vanilla Sunshine, you’re gonna wanna pay attention to this part:
1. Thanks to your frosting, I found a baby cavity I had no idea existed. Your buttercream is ridiculously sweet. It literally hurt my teeth. Which was really disappointing because it’s so delicious and flavorful. There was also WAY too much of it. For each cupcake, I scraped off more than half of the frosting. Way, way, WAY too sweet and too much. If you cut the sugar and quantity by half, these would be prefect.
2. In my experience, the daily flavors listed on your website do not always correspond to what you actually have that day. All flavors are delicious, but I wont have my heart set on what’s shown on the site just to be disappointed at the store again.
Vanilla Sunshine is reasonably priced ($ 2.75 ea, $ 15 half dozen) and they have day-​old cupcake packs for $ 7 (6 cupcakes) that are still very tasty. I’m never around for Happy Hour but still appreciate that it’s there. Love that most of their toppers are fresh fruit. Hate that parking is a pain in the butt. Employees are… fine. Not super amazing customer service, but not bad either, ya know?
Anyway. Vanilla Sunshine — I love you :)
FOR MY FANCY FATTIES:
This place is über cute inside. There a few meager, round tables that aren’t very big, but will comfortably fit 2 of me. Perfect for staying just a little while to eat your cupcake (s). I wouldn’t stay for an extended period of time though, because a couple girls who work there aren’t very eager to help out the fat girl (which is a shame, because I buy A LOT of cupcakes).

I really don’t understand all of the bad reviews for this place. Vanilla Sunshine is one of my favorite bakeries in the area!
My boyfriend and I stopped in on a whim months back when we were strolling along in Claremont, and the cupcakes that they had on display looked absolutely delicious. We lucked out and happened to walk in during Happy Hour (between the hours of 2 PM and 4 PM!)– which means that we got a free cupcake with the purchase of one. Score!
The Happy Hour deal alone would be enough to keep us coming back, but the cupcakes are legitimately delicious. I’ve stopped in on several occasions since my first visit, and I’ve never been disappointed with the cupcakes that I’ve gotten.
I just stopped in today and got their Strawberry Nutella cupcake (flavor of the week, I believe the sign said), and it was absolutely, 100% the best cupcake I’ve had there. The frosting was just sweet enough, drizzled with Nutella, and topped with a strawberry, while the cake itself was nice and moist with hints of strawberry in the batter.
I’ve also tried their red velvet (my second favorite, I’d say!), s’mores, mint chip, and dulce de leche flavors; as well as sampled a bite of my boyfriend’s purchases before– caramel cheesecake, tiramisu, triple chocolate, and chocolate raspberry, and I really never have been disappointed. The flavors certainly do not all taste the same, and I’ve never had a cupcake that tastes too dry or bland at all.
Their prices are very reasonable, as well– not overpriced like so many smaller, trendy cupcake places. Again, the Happy Hour deal itself is great, and they even sell mini cupcakes for $ 1, if you just want a petite bite!
If you like cupcakes at all, consider giving it a shot!

I have never, I mean never not finished a cupcake… not even from Ralphs (well I actually quite like Ralphs cupcakes, but you get the point)…until today.
A box of cupcakes were delivered to our office by a vendor. As you can imagine, we vultures descended on the beautiful cupcakes instantly! They were real beauties.
I grabbed the cookies and cream one, my cube neighbor had the chocolate with chocolate chips in the frosting and another cube neighbor had the mint/​chocolate. None of us finished our cupcakes. They were bland and very heavy on the equally bland frosting. Since they didn’t cost us anything, the whining was minimal… but based on our cubicle trash cans, I’d say no one will be driving to Claremont anytime soon…

in response to the business’ comments above, I did indeed buy those flavors on the same day and at your cupcakery. I specifically sought you out because of an advertisement I received in the mail. I may not have the cupcake names right but they were definitely as described. The only thing I can think of is maybe some of them were day old? That would explain the dryness.
I really have no desire to come back, and your response solidifies that.

I happened to be in downtown Claremont and needed to bring home dessert one night when I saw Vanilla Sunshine so I figured why not grab some cupcakes. I got a half dozen which should have lasted us a few nights but it didn’t and not in a good way.
When you get a half dozen assorted flavors, you expect that the cupcakes will taste differently which was not the case. They tasted like bland sweet cake, even the chocolate was understated. The frosting had the same problem though to be fair the Dulce de Leche had a hint of caramel that we could detect. If you go in expecting cupcakes a shade better than you get at a grocery store then you know what to expect.
I have to agree with the other posters that noted how good the cupcakes looked but how bland everything was. There was nothing notably bad so 1 star would be too harsh IMO but I will definitely not return.

These cupcakes look wonderful and if that’s all you need, then by golly this is the place for you. If you want your cupcakes to taste good too, then you should probably go somewhere else.
I tried the one with coconut all over it and a little candy lemon wedge on top. It was a white cake and it tasted like white. Not vanilla. Not coconut. Just white. It was totally lacking any flavor. The frosting tasted like cream cheese. Not sweetened cream cheese, just cream cheese. It was pretty gross. The coconut would be good but it was impossible to eat it without the cream cheese.
A very basic (but delicious) cream cheese frosting recipe is two packages of cream cheese (8 ounces each), 1 stick of butter, 2 cups of powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Cream it all together.

I decided to give Vanilla Sunshine Cupcakery a try even though my friends have told me that it’s not as good as My Delight Cupcakery in terms of moistness. I tried a mini red velvet and mini banana chip, and I was really happy with my choice. Minis are $ 1 and regulars are $ 2.75, which are very reasonable prices for cupcakes.
They had lots of other options such as Pina Colada (weekly special), S’mores, Chocolate, Vanilla, and some other fun ones. The red velvet cupcake was really good I thought, but I wasn’t really crazy about the sprinkles on top of it. It was moist for a mini cupcake though! I really liked the banana chip cupcake. It had a cream cheese frosting and mini chocolate chips embedded in the cake part, which were a nice surprise. My friend tried the banana chip and smores cupcakes. She thought the s’mores was a bit bland and dry.
Customer service was excellent! The employee was super friendly as I would have expected from any cupcake place =)
Décor was so cute! They sell a variety of cupcake/​baking gifts, wrapping paper, pins, etc. The atmosphere is very lively, bright, and cheerful!
Vanilla Sunshine Cupcakery is not my favorite cupcake place, but if I’m ever craving cupcakes while studying, at least I know I can get a quick fix down the street in Claremont!

I used the Unilocal deal.
bought a dozen mini’s and half a dozen of the regular.
All the cupcakes were really good, except for this one with little chocholate straws.
My favorite was one with a little lemon candy on top, it was so good, I would probably eat it everyday.
Red Velvet is also good, not as moist as I would like but I would buy it again.
tues-​thur is happy hours– BOGO
buy these Unilocal deals, they are worth it! Even the day old cupcakes are delicious.
Great prices, friendly faces and nice location.

Never again. How can you go wrong with red velvet? Felt like I was eating pure unsweetened cream cheese… gross! The cake was also dry and too dense.
I won’t be revisiting them anytime soon. A shame since the shop is sweet, albeit a little hollow. I agree, their cupcakes need a lot of work… too bad… and good luck.

I stumbled upon this cupcakery after walking around the village with my sister. The prices are very reasonable: the normal sized cupcake is $ 2.75 and the mini cupcakes are $ 1.25.
As per my red velvet cupcake quest, I ordered the red velvet cupcake and it was pretty decent. The cake itself was what made the cupcake decent: it was a bit crumbly and not as moist, but the flavor was alright. You still get the hint of cocoa and it wasn’t overly sweet. The main thing I seriously dislike is that the cream cheese frosting tasted like a light, fluffy version of cream cheese – with a very subtle hint of sweetness. It’s unsettling to eat because it feels like I’m eating cream cheese. Not tasty. Their frosting recipe needs work to make it sweeter and more like cream cheese frosting. I definitely won’t order it here ever again.
I’m willing to come back to try their dulce de leche, since the girl behind the counter said it was one of their best selling cupcakes. Plus, they have happy hour from 2−5pm Monday-​Friday: buy one cupcake, get one free – and for the price, it’s worth it to give Vanilla Sunshine Cupcakery another shot since they’re new.

Eh we tried this place out when it opened up and it wasn’t anything special. The place is clean, people are friendly, but 2.75 for a small cupcake is way more than i’m willing to pay.
The cupcake was bland, dry and nothing to write home about. Prices were waayyyy to expensive to justify going back there again.
I decided to rename this place «Rich Man’s Bored Wife’s Project»

Yuck

I had one of the marble cupcakes. The cake was dry and didn’t have much flavor. The frosting also lacked flavor. The cupcake was very pretty, but it didn’t really taste like anything — not chocolate, not vanilla, just nothing — it’s really quite odd and disappointing.
I’m giving it two stars instead of one because the staff person was nice and the store was clean and well set-​up.

Stopped by cuz we saw the Grand Opening sign… they were nearly out of all their flavors minus the chocolate ones —- so we got their vanilla cupcake w/​chocolate frosting.
I liked it – the cake was in good proportion of moist: dry. I don’t really like how Dots/​Sprinkles and other cupcake places have such moist cakes (too much butter?) so I definitely appreciated the cake here. Frosting is definitely different — it’s less sweet (which, again I liked) — because they use Swiss cream… it’s lighter and fluffier but it doesn’t lend itself to making the overall cupcake very distinctive. So, while I did like it, it felt like the flavors all ran together.
Each cupcake is $ 2.75. and they have a cute takeout box for you. I’d probably be back to try out their more exotic flavors next time I’m in town. =)