SweetSpot Baker’s Workshop

Whoever gives this place more than 3 stars is on crack.

I don’t know what I was thinking. I wanted a cupcake badly and this was the only place in the Irvine spectrum that had it… but now that I think about it, I should have gone to target…
Dry cupcakes that crumbled… what the… with some overly sweet frosting
Expensive too, over $ 3 for one… I can get a pack at Ralphs

It’s a good thing that my son doesn’t mind sharing his cupcakes with me!
Although I have a serious sweet tooth and LOVE chocolate cupcakes, I don’t get to eat them as often as I would like. So I ordered a couple for my very «sweet» son. He loves chocolate almost as much as I do, and he so kindly let me try some of both.
The Chocolate Lovers cupcake was my favorite. It was a moist, wonderful chocolate with an amazing chocolate frosting that wasn’t too sweet.
The other cupcake, the Cookie Monster, was also a chocolate cupcake that had a vanilla frosting with an Oreo cookie on top. It wasn’t as good as the first cupcake, but my son and I are still fans.
Although they didn’t have the greatest selection or ambiance, I still liked this little place. The cupcakes and service were both pretty good here. We can’t wait to go back soon!

so after walking the Irvine Spectrum for a while, i remembered there was a cupcake shop in this mall. craving for a sweet red velvet cupcake I decided to walk a little further for my sweet reward.
as i was about to hand the lady a $ 20 bill, she looks at me and says oh… do you have anything smaller? I’m like sorry I only have 20’s…then she proceeds to tell me she doesn’t have change for a 20 dollar bill… i was like what? so i stood there still holding the $ 20 dollar bill in my hand deciding what to do… well luckily my sister had change and gave me $ 4 because i would have just left.
How could they not have change for a 20 dollar bill??? I would understand if it’s like a 50 dollar bill or 100… but it’s $ 20! The freakin cupcake is like $ 3.50…I would just need $ 16.50 back… so she’s telling me she doesn’t have $ 16.50 in her register??? even if they switched out registers… which bakeries don’t usually do in the middle of the day unless they made over $ 500 dollars in cash in the register… and even if they did, they would always have at least $ 200 in the register. so then when I left I realize the lady was possibly trying to get me to buy another one… but i only wanted one so she would rather not earn that $ 3.50 and i would have just left if it wasn’t for my sister’s 4 bucks. –_​-​«
the worse part yet was not the service but the cupcake itself! it wasn’t very pretty to begin with… but it was also dry and the frosting was wayyy too sweet. =/​overall i wasn’t very happy with my cupcake or this place. –_-»

The only serious craving my wife has had during her pregnancy has been cupcakes. And boy do we visit this place quite a bit.
We like all of the flavors, and find that the presentation is great (not that it matters as fast as my wife scarfs them down!) My favorite is the red velvet though.
The service is always friendly, and the wait is never too long. I’m shocked at all the less than stellar reviews.
We even attended a birthday part here a couple of years ago, and my kids had a good time.

I hate giving this place a one star… but it’s that bad. i’ve given this place 3 tries in hopes of having a good batch of red velvet cupcake and honestly, i’ve had better cupcakes from my local albertson’s than this place. i understand that cupcakes these days can cost about the same as a deli sandwhiche. but heck, this place is just blehhhhh. :(
A cupcake can cost $ 3.25. but it’s just not worth that price here!
im not rating this place on ambience or any other frills but by the cupcake itself and it just… wasn’t… good… at all… thrice.

My sister and I went here after lunch at Wahoo’s and when I asked the girl behind the counter what her favorite cupcake was, she replied «Oh, I don’t eat sugars or carbs. Once you cut that stuff out of your diet, you don’t miss it.» She should at least lie. What a horrible way to try to sell cupcakes. now my half eaten cupcake sits here as I wonder if I should try cutting out sugars and carbs.
Sprinkles is my all-​time favorite. And even Dots in LA is good.

First off… what’s up with all the cupcake aficionados? It’s a piece of iced cake, get over your pretentious selves!!!
I for one and happy that this whole cupcake fad is starting to die down.
So it’s hubby’s birthday. I thought it would be sweet to surprise him with a couple of cakes for our Laguna hotel room and a candle he could blow out. I was at the Spectrum and remembered seeing this place. I’ve never been to a cupcake shop before and I really don’t see myself turning it into my life journey to find the «perfect» freakin’ cupcake.
What I ordered: one lemon and one red velvet. They were really yummy! Not dry in the least. Not too sweet. The perfect little cakes to share.
The price however was a little ridiculous. Perfect example of why you can’t really have a successful cupcake business for the long term and make any kind of money. That’s why they are all going out of business… there’s only so much you can charge for a cupcake, people!
They had the candles but only let me have one. That’s fine but the way she was so adamant about it made me wonder if she thought I was planning on torching the place.
The shop itself is big but the display case is little. There’s zero ambiance. Definitely a take away place.

At the rate I’m going, I’ll be scouring all over the OC for comparable cupcakes to Ontario’s My Delight. My second cupcake expedition in a week and this one was more successful than the previous one from the Cupcake Store in Downtown Disney, Anaheim.
My bestie and I wanted to hit this place up for awhile. We finally got the opportunity today and we walked into a festive little place where there was a kids’ birthday going on. I love that they can have a cupcake decorating party with a lot of ammenities (check their website for specifics) for only $ 15 per person! Bestie and I are seriously considering having a combined birthday celebration here for us 20somethings in June or July.
Anyway, I had to try their cupcakes first! I bought a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting and a Reese’s piece on top. The frosting by itself is sweet but still not as sweet as Sprinkles’ but eaten with the not-​so-​sweet chocolate cake, it works. It’s a pretty good cupcake, though the price is a tad high for the quality. I also bought a red velvet cupcake but that’s Mr. J’s territory so I’ll ask him about it later.
Three stars for the cupcake, and extra star for the decorate-​yourself party. I’d hit this place up again.

I guess I just can’t find what I’m looking for in Orange County. The descent continues…
Walked in looking to kill my cupcake craving and begin a long adventure of cupcake satisfaction. The cashier wasn’t too thrilled that we interrupted her leisure time and I wasn’t too excited about the selection and didn’t really feel like designing a cupcake with toppings found in most FroYo shops.
The cupcakes are huge. I’ll give them that. They could easily be a meal and after eating one; you’re pretty full but the price is crazy. $ 3.25 for one cupcake? I could buy all the ingredients with that price and bake twice as many!
I settled on an Oreo, Marble, and Strawberry. The frosting was super sweet and the cake was dry. Overall, not a good first adventure into cupcake land.

Cupcakes are all the rage these days. SweetSpot is definitely a little different than your typical bakeries as far as aesthetics. Most cupcakeries have color coordinated cutesy-​esque ways of presenting their cupcakes but SweetSpot has them on plain, unattractive trays in a glass case. They also have a miniscule candy selection off to the side.
Their cupcakes are bigger than let’s say Dots. I didn’t know you could build your own cupcake! Darn! Anyway, they had a pretty enticing selection. I wanted to get them all! They had some sort of Reese’s Pieces flavor, Oreo flavor, etc. I decided to get the Strawberry Shortcake and Red Velvet. I liked the fact that the cupcakes weren’t overly sweet. Sometimes I’ll come into contact with cupcakes that are so sweet my eyes start twitching. It’s not pretty people. The Strawberry Shortcake had the strawberry frosting and pink and white sprinkles. The bread itself was a bit dry and the middle part of the cake looked like it was slightly dipped with strawberry. The red velvet was way better but the cake tasted sort of weird. I can’t really put my finger on it but it just seemed off.
SweetSpot is a pretty average bakery but it’s a nice place to kick your shoes off and satisfy your sweet tooth after a day of shopping.

As far as the concept of decorating your own cupcakes goes, I love this place! I’ve never heard of a place like this so when I came across it on Unilocal I knew I had to check it out.
I didn’t expect the cupcakes themselves to be that great, but they were… meh, decent? It is a bit pricey but I guess it’s because the amount of toppings you choose is unlimited.
After you’ve finished your masterpieces, the owners ask to take pictures to display in their store.
I skimmed through some of the other reviews and I understand where they’re coming from, but I think the focal point of this shop is it’s DIY (DECORATE it yourself) concept. But I’ll admit, it’s something I’d only do once because I could always go home and make my own batch of cupcakes for a lesser price.
Note: probably better suited for kids.

$ 3.55 after taxes… for something Sprinkles pricing, I was expecting much more.
I went in because I saw they advertised half of their space to cupcake decorating for kids and thought it was a great idea. The kids can color just one if you want and I didn’t see a minimum requirement. For the prices though, its cheaper still to make it from scratch at home.
The actual cupcake: toasted coconut. Frosting: too sweet. Cake: oddly bright yellow but I like the semi-​dense texture (Sprinkles is a tad too dense sometimes for me.) Toasted coconut: plenty and toasted to a delightful thick crunch. Its only on the top however… I was hoping the cake would be flavoured too.

Taste was decent, selection… more than sprinkles, and cool concept for little ones that you can decorate them.
I would go here again to try other flavors and it is a great location by the Ferris wheel area of the nice outdoor mall in Irvine.
Though they are good they are not crave-​worthy that I would make a special stop just to go and get one.

For $ 3.25 (plus tax!), these cupcakes are more like homemade and non-​identical to one another in comparison to Sprinkles. I got the Chocolate/​Vanilla cupcake and was a bit upset to find it to be vanilla cake coated with chocolate frosting. :-(Even the frosting was more grainy than creamy. With every bite, I kept reminding myself every gram of sugar I was actively consuming.
The simplicity of the cupcake only made me wished that I’d actually buy a box of cake mix and chocolate frosting for about the same price, bake it at home, and it will make at least a dozen cupcakes! The cake was moist and fresh though, but next time, I might stick to Sprinkles instead! At least the frosting wouldn’t be so grainy!

I loathe this place. You call these things cupcakes?! It’s disgusting! They may look cute but the taste is what matters the most.
There’s nothing special about these cupcakes that would make me buy them because I could do it at home like their cupcakes where they let you decorate it and everything. It’s a cute idea but small and for the price, i don’t think so. I’d rather bust my butt doing it at home for the fraction of the price.
I got the strawberry cupcake. It looked pretty. But the description clearly said that it was strawberry buttercream. It was cream cheese with a hint of strawberry artificial flavoring. It was nasty.
There cupcakes are just nasty. But their idea of decorate-​it-​yourself is brilliant. It would be nice if they had bigger and better cupcakes plus more reasonable pricing.

I stopped here really quick after getting my mom a birthday present. They have a variety of cupcakes that are all cutely decorated. There is also a make your own cupcake option where you can put an unlimited amount of toppings on the cupcake. The make your own cupcake option seems really cool especially if you have kids with you and if you are at the spectrum there is a good possibility you do have a kid with you.
Because I lack creativity, I went with an already decorated cupcake. I got the vanilla caramel crème cupcake. It was a vanilla cupcake with caramel sauce on top. The actual cupcake was nice and fluffy but like others have mentioned, the icing is very sugary and there is lots of it.
Overall, SweetSpot is a good place, just be careful of the icing.

I was actually looking for «Sweet Lorraine’s» but I guess they changed the name to Sweet Spot. I read the other reviews and the cupcakes I had today were incredibly moist with no hint of dryness! Maybe they learned from past mistakes and improved. At $ 3.50, the prices are steep, but the cupcakes here are slightly bigger than the ones you’d find at Sprinkles. What appalled me was the «make your own cupcake» price — $ 4.50!!! In this economy? These people are nuts! Yes, they do have a «make your own cupcake» section that you can do for events or kiddie birthday parties… I think the concept is kind of lame, but kids might enjoy it… though I don’t see why you can’t just open up a box of Duncan Hines and have your kids decorate those, haha.
I got the red velvet and carrot cake cupcakes for myself. At first bite I grimaced a little because the cream cheese frosting on both were WAY too sweet. I think they want to turn people diabetic or something. However, the cake itself was very moist and I actually enjoyed the taste of it! The red velvet had a strong cocoa flavor and I found it more fragrant than the Red Velvet at Sprinkles. The carrot cake was okay, but since this is my favorite cake of all time, I’ve had better. It had chunks of whole golden raisins and shredded carrots in the cake. Good texture.
I do have to mention one thing about the presentation. Though I do think the cupcakes here taste better than those out of a box or from Ralph’s, I am disappointed at the presentation — the cupcakes all look sloppily done and the decorations on top are incredibly cheesy (a drawing of a carrot for the carrot cake). The frosting is so messy and some of the cupcakes are different sizes. If you’re going to charge $ 3.50 per cake, I expect near perfection.
Sweet Spot does satisfy my cupcake cravings, but Sprinkles is still the one to beat in my book. My no means would I go out of my way for this place.

As a conclusion to the semi-​blind date with Mytocin gone wrong this is what entailed after our Wahoo’s encounter. Coming out of Barnes & Nobles, after our ongoing conversation to «get to know each other,» she merely suggested under the tip of her breath that «I have quite a sweet tooth.» Well then Ms. Babycakes Gangsterlicious (She swears on her OG Vietnamese Hard Knock Bolsa Childhood), I’ll give you a taste of sweetness, cupcake sweetness that is.
Conveniently I’ve always walked by this spot when visiting spectrum but I’ve never stepped afoot inside. Like most places who usually cater to girls and couples/​families (who constantly gaze and adore at such treats) Sweetspot, couldn’t have came at a better time. Walking inside, you get greeted by one of the employees behind a clear glass display of all the delicious delicacies, a cupcake connoisseur should be aware of.
From Red Velvet to Carrot Cake, this place has a good selection to choose from, and at $ 3.25 a cupcake you can taste the savory goodness it has to offer. My choice of poison? Well you could have guessed it.
–1 order of Chocolate Marble Cupcake; consisting of: Marbled Vanilla and Chocolate Cake w/​Crème Cheese Frosting and a Swirl of Fudge
We got it wrapped up in a nice little package, took some napkins and sat outside near the ice skating rink for constant people watching and kosher conversation. I urged her to eat out of it first (heh), that way she wouldn’t be disgusted by the grossly large bites I would take it out of it shortly after. Mytocin approve, but to a degree of which it was a bit sweet for her (weird, I thought you had a Sweet Tooth), whereas for myself. If I were dating Hillary from Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I would be dating fraternal twins in the process.
Needless to say, the date despite how «charming, intelligent, humorous, and arrogant I was (Swagger on a Hundred Thousand Trillion)» with all the cupcaking (hah) of compliments she provided. It just wasn’t good enough for the ex-​Vietnamese Gangstafied girl, gone Humanitarian UNICEF worker to handle for a second serving (I felt, there was a bit of deceit on her part but eh go figure). You win some and you lose some, in this case you hit the sweetspot alright, just enough to not viciously tear my wallet apart.
Cheers, ’til my next encounter with you!

This place use to be Sweet Lorraine’s over the summer but now I guess they’re the Sweet Spot.
I have to agree with Rhea B. their concept is pretty cool and can be very appealing to younger kids. But for young adults and adults who are on the go and just want a sweet snack, their cupcakes fall short.
We ordered the infamous Red Velvet cupcake and they just had it all wrong. The frosting was too too soft and way too sweet, whereas the pastry itself was hard, maybe even stale. It was a burden to eat and about half way through this small cupcake, we threw it away.
Sorry but Sprinkles by far still have the upper hand.