These are not your grandma's cupcakes

By Erin Souza

Walking into the newest addition to Davis Square, the scent of warm home-baked goodness wafts throughout the small but sleek bakery’s fire red walls and tantalizes customers of all ages. Dorchester resident and southern California native Sara Ross came to the East Coast four years ago with her husband to live the city life and to continue to do what she has been doing for the past ten years – bake some kickass cupcakes.

Kickass Cupcakes has been open at 378 Highland Avenue for just over two weeks and for proprietor and pastry chef Ross, business appears to be booming.

“Cupcakes make people happy,” Ross said, clad in an apron and black T-shirt bearing her Highland Avenue bakery’s red cupcake logo. “It’s hard not to be happy when you’re eating one.”

And if the line eight customers deep, leaving some patrons waiting on the sidewalk outside the bakery is any indication, Ross may be on to something.

Anyone with a sweet tooth can choose from an array of cupcake flavors, ranging from the simple chocolate with butter cream frosting to the gooey cinnamon chai pecan sticky variety, all displayed on simple silver metal trays. “Dreaming up the flavors is the best part of the job,” Ross said. She said the store bakes 800 to 1,000 cupcakes a day.

Ross, who worked at Dancing Deer Baking Company before setting out on her own venture, drew inspiration from successful cupcake shops in metropolitan areas across the country, namely Magnolia Bakery in New York City, she said, and decided on Davis Square as home to what she hopes will be the next hip stop for everyone in the city. “I liked the vibe I got from Davis,” she said, “and it was more affordable than Boston.”

For $2.75 a pop, customers can indulge in treats baked in-house daily, though some customers found the price tag a bit hefty for an individually-sized confection. “They’re a bit pricey,” said Colin McAuliffe, a 31-year-old Somerville resident trying out Kickass Cupcakes for the first time. “But the cream is great,” he said of the strawberry shortcake cupcake he and fellow Davis Square dweller Alison Sands, 32, were sharing. “We were going to have ice cream,” Sands said, “but then we thought we’d try these cupcakes instead.”

The customers streaming in and out of Kickass Cupcakes’ tight quarters on the official kick-off of autumn included adults of all ages and plenty of people with children in tow. While Ross thinks the name of her shop is one of the things people like most, she understands it might not be so popular with the parental crowd. “That’s why we have the star in the logo,” she said, referring to the red star on the store’s sign in place of the “a” in kickass. “Parents can tell their kids, ‘it’s Kick Stars Cupcakes,” she laughed.

With Highland Avenue’s La Contessa bakery now gone and the space soon to be home to a sushi restaurant, Davis Square patrons have few options, outside the franchises of Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts and independent coffee shop Diesel Cafe, to find a sweet treat. “There’s nothing like it in this area,” Ross said.

Kickass Cupcakes’ other offerings, besides seven flavors of cupcakes and daily specials, include cupcake towers, fried cupcakes and specialty pet snacks for cats and dogs. The bakery also offers delivery service for one dozen cupcakes or more during the afternoon hours, according to its menu.

With a list of unique flavors, delivery service and not-your-average pet treats, Kickass Cupcakes offers city dwellers a pretty sweet deal.

Comments

[Kate]

It's funny to see this article here, today. I stopped, for the first time, at this bakery. I didn't know about it, I took a right onto Highland Ave., spotted the sign, and dashed into the nearest parking spot. My daughter, granddaughter and I went inside and saw many different kinds of cupcakes, all looked very appetizing. HOWEVER, the price is $2.75 per cupcake, they are not even as large as the cupcakes one makes at home. I bought only one, and that was only because I didn't want to disappoint my granddaughter. The frosting is tasty, but the cake is nothing special -- what a disappointment. Now, I've never met a dessert I didn't like, but no matter how these might have tasted, $2.75 is waaayyy too expensive for a less than medium-sized cupcake. They should make the cupcakes at least as large as a large muffin, similar to the size you buy at Stop & Shop/Star, but even then I wouldn't pay $2.75. Too bad -- good idea, poor product pricing.

[Somerville Reader]

Hmm, I honestly thought that $2.75 seemed fairly reasonable for a fresh baked cupcake. I tried kickass cupcakes for the first time last week and I thought they were yummy.

[Jennifer]

These are some of the most fun cupcakes around! I think the price is very reasonable for a freshly baked, exotic cupcake. I would never go to the trouble of making such flavors as the Lucky Cupcake, Mojito Cupcake, or Bananarama at home, but they're SO GOOD to enjoy as a treat! I hope that Kickass Cupcakes stays around for a long, long time.

[Kate]

I honestly do hope that they make a 'go' of it. I know how much money and work goes into starting a business. Much success to you, Kickass Cupcakes.

[Mouth- O- plenty]

Not only are the cupcakes WAY TOO EXPENSIVE...
The owner looks exactly like she does in the photo in person . Grumpy....no smile....She looks at you like you're going to steal one of her precious over-priced gobs of cholesterol.

[somervilleoldtimer]

I took my grandkids over the weekend. Tasty, but small. I don't think we'll go back.

[somebody]

I heard more bad reviews than good, but I still decided to try for myself. They were tiny and expensive. So I thought, maybe they are good and worth it. Nope. Frosting was pretty good, but cake was bland and boring. Plus the frosting wasn't even evenly spread over the cake. It was just a large dropping on the cake. My sweet tooth was disatisfied, so I went immediately to Lyndell's bakery in ball square. With the same $6 I spent on 2 tiny cupcakes, I got a bag full of goodies that last me a few days.

I should also point out that kickass cupcakes is trying to be this Newbury st upscale place by serving cupcakes for dogs and cats. Give me a break!