Jeanette Fitzgearl on the love of baking, ‘Cupcake Wars’ and all things cupcake
Cupcakes. Is there a human alive that doesn’t at least kind of love them with their entire soul? I think not. Santa Cruz has its fair share of boutique cupcake shops, including Cutesy Cupcakes, started by a mother-daughter-grandmother team. We spoke with Jeanette Fitzgearl, one member of that team, about their 100-plus flavors and the love of baking. They recently expanded their location in Scotts Valley to include frozen yogurt. Enough about yogurt, let’s talk cupcakes.
GOOD TIMES: What’s your most popular cupcake?
JEANETTE FITZGEARL: From the beginning of our business our lemon cupcake has always been very popular. It is filled with lemon filling and is frosted with lemon cream cheese frosting.
It is tough to make a delectable cupcake that is vegan?
Our vegan cupcakes taste very similar to our non-vegan ones. The difficulty with them is that the frosting is more perishable and so the cupcake needs to be refrigerated. We are able to make most of our flavors vegan.
What’s so special about cupcakes?
Cupcakes are appealing because they are self-contained. Ways to decorate them are almost infinite and there are so many different combinations of cake flavors and frostings. We have close to 100 different flavors of cupcakes, featuring a new flavor each month. It’s fun to be creative and come up with new cupcakes.
Do you make custom cupcakes for people?
We make custom cupcakes for different occasions and holidays. We have at least 100 different chocolate molds to make embellishments to top off the cupcake for almost any occasion—baby showers, weddings, sports, special interests, birthdays, etc. We have a fun cupcake for Fourth of July picnics that looks like a hamburger. We do cupcakes for many weddings and enjoy seeing the result of the brides’ choices of colors and decorations.
What’s that burnt almond cupcake taste like?
Burnt almond was one of our more recent Cupcake of the Month features. Now it is on the menu twice a week, but always available for special order, with no minimum order required. It has a distinct almond flavor along with a caramelized nutty flavor and is one of our personal favorites.
Do you have any other cupcakes with interesting back stories?
We used to have a cupcake that we called The Loser. The name came from the time we participated in the TV show “Cupcake Wars” and were given some unusual ingredients to incorporate into our cupcake: Sweet potato, banana, toasted oats, prunes, and applesauce. It didn’t win but it was really good so we decided to feature it in our store. Hence, The Loser.
235 Mt. Hermon Road, Suite A, Scotts Valley, 430-9500. PHOTO: Jeanette Fitzgearl of Scotts Valley’s Cutesy Cupcakes with a freshly baked tray of strawberry caramel cup cakes. CHIP SCHEUER
