Animated Cupcakes

They don’t sell cupcakes anymore. They must be buying reviews. This place has no desserts to speak of when I walked in to get cupcakes. Not exactly how this place is still on Unilocal as Animated Cupcakes. **Update** The owner left me a pleasant update about how she has been trying to get Unilocal to drop the Animated Cupcakes reviews. It’s a new Genki dessert bar, they sell beer/​wine and desserts, it’s a unique idea, I hope it works out, she obviously cares… but there was still no desserts in their cooler or any other customers at all.

The husband and I got the cupcakes and I must say one of the best cupcakes we have had! Not even $ 10 cupcakes we had at SF compare to these! A must try! And staff is very friendly! Definitely coming back to try the food!

I came in to taste cupcakes for my cousin’s wedding this past June. So we wanted to try the feeling blue, red velvet, and green with envy, one of each. At the time, they didn’t have the feeling blue cupcakes. That was ok. The guy went in the back and asked them how long it would take, they told him an hour so that’s what he told us. We bought one red velvet and one green with envy and went home to try it, thinking we were going to come back in an hour to get the feeling blue cupcake. The red velvet was dry but the green with envy was pretty good despite not being a traditional cupcake.
An hour later, I called to ask if they had any Feeling blue cupcakes available. The girl who answered with just a «Hello?» so I was confused about whether or not I had called the right number. I had to ask if it was genki living. She just answered with a short «yes». At this point, its already awkward because I feel like I’m bothering her. Either that or she didn’t know what she was doing. Anyway, the cupcakes were still not available, it’ll be another hour. Ok, that’s fine, but I was already annoyed. A minute later, she calls me back, without telling me who she was or where she was calling from and tells me that the cupcakes won’t actually be ready until 6pm, another 5 hours. Seriously? It better be worth the wait. When we finally tried it, it was just as dry as the red velvet.
I should have known that the previous experiences I’ve had with genki would foreshadow what would happen within the next week when we ordered 2 dozen mini green with envy cupcakes in person. After the deposit was made, my cousin gets TEXTS from them scolding her for ordering only 2 dozen mini cupcakes when the minimum sale is something like 4 dozen. Excuse me dear, that is not our problem since the poor guy who took our order didn’t inform us of that. Then they have the nerve to tell us that we should have known because its on the website. Seriously?
Train your employees better so they know to inform us of that kind of stuff. Then they say, «by the way, we don’t usually make mini green with envy cupcakes so it’s not our fault if they don’t taste as good as the regular sized ones.» They were right. The mini cupcakes sucked. They were just as bad as their service.
(Copied and pasted from my review of Genki Living)

This has been a very much delayed review.
Service:
I had submitted an inquiry a week before my son’s birthday for 3 dozens cupcakes. I know, my fault for last minute inquiries. I was only expecting it to take no more than two days for a response since Monday was a holiday and like anyone in business, if you have a holiday off, you check your email the next morning you work. Wednesday rolled around and still no response. I decided to text the number given on the website because it does say «call, e-​mail, or text.» Received a response saying I should make inquires through the website. Okay, no problem. I wait another 6 hours until towards the end of the day and text again saying I’ve submitted an inquiry on Sunday. Finally, after all details were exchanged and apologies set aside, the owner asks that I drop off the deposit by the end of the day. So let’s see, website says 3 days in advance, however, she would not allow me to drop it off on Thursday. If I’m not mistaken, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is four days in advance. Set that aside, I really wanted these cupcakes for my son. So I call everyone I can to drop off the money since I work until 11PM.
So I give service a 2 out of 5.
Price:
I honestly feel that the website is misleading. Since it CLEARLY says ANIMATED CUPCAKES and lists that price is $ 34 for one dozen. However, I was charged $ 38 for each dozen because owner claims that the $ 34 for one dozen only had plastic rings. Once again, I wanted these cupcakes with Mickey Mouse on them THAT BADLY.
So I give price 1 out of 5.
Taste:
I LOVE LOVE LOVE cupcakes, donuts, cake, or anything sweet for that matter. Love Casey’s Cupcakes and Sprinkles, which I think is usually on the sweeter side. However, the cupcake here is bland. I had the Chocolate Éclair and Red Velvet. The vanilla cupcake and red velvet cupcake had no taste. I took one bite of it and threw it away. The frosting was very sweet although it had very little frosting on it. In comparison to Sprinkles frosting, this was WAY to sweet.
So I give taste 1 out of 5.
Decoration:
Like I said, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the decoration. The only reason why I ordered these cupcakes instead of going to Sprinkles or Casey’s had been because of the decoration.
So I give decoration 5 out of 5.
So total all my points up, 9 points out of 20 = less than 1. Sadly, I get why this place gets amazing reviews for decorations. However, the cupcake tastes like ones I can buy from Costco. I know they are all made from flour, sugar, etc. However, if you’re charging people over $ 3 for a cupcake, it shouldn’t taste like those premade cupcake mixes.

You can find these cute cupcakes at Genki. They look so cute but they don’t taste as good as they look. The cupcakes were dry and tasted old. Cupcakes tend to get drier as they left out longer. There should be a date to inform customers when they were made. I got a durian and I did not taste durian in the cupcake. I got some other ones and the topping did not go well with the cupcake.

I’m so glad we tried these on our recent trip to the area. I’m usually disappointed by the cake quality when I go to a cupcake shop but I really liked these. Even better than the cake is their icing, which usually is heavy and gloppy but theirs is very light and sweet and fruity (for fruit flavors anyway).
We tried a whole bunch of flavors, my favorite was the kiwi/​lychee — perfect in every way. My second favorite was the Good Humor. My kids liked their chocolate/​pb/​bacon. Just for «yucks» we ordered a Durian cupcake because durian is infamous for being stinky and tasting bad. Well, my husband and the kids were hit pretty hard by an aftertaste that really only passed my palate for the merest fraction of a second. They made me eat the rest of the cupcake so that I too would be hit by the pain, but it never came. I actually really liked the frosting on that one. We thought it was funny because in our family I’m the supertaster (literally) and have the most sensitivity to bad smells, but really I thought the Durian was fine. I probably wouldn’t order it again over the delectable kiwi/​lychee but that’s ok.
My husband would have preferred a straight chocolate cupcake w/​o PB & bacon, but they don’t offer that here. That would be a nice addition to the menu for «traditionalists». I ended up getting him the vanilla cupcake with the chocolate ganache filling, which he said was decent and I thought was pretty good.
Prices seemed about standard for cupcake shops, they seem ridiculous when you can bake a whole box of cupcakes for the same price, but when they are this good I don’t mind.

My best friend is a surgeon and has a lot of «stuff» so it was so hard to think of a gift for her. Animated Cupcakes was THE BEST! Unique, personalized, customized and absolutely PERFECT! The artistry of Ana’s work was spot on. She was truly perfected her talented craft and found her calling.
Beautiful designs + Delicious taste + Gourmet flavor options + Great customer service = Recipe for a top notch bakery

7÷6÷12 Anna has done it again! We liked our cupcakes so much we ordered from her again!

The good humors was really good. It was just like the strawberry shortcake ice cream. Great service! The girl was really sweet and they were prompt with water.
We didn’t know there was a $ 10 minimum for credit cards, so we bought extra cupcakes. They ended up giving us a few free cupcakes which was really sweet of them!
I had the Fruitaria which was a strawberry cake with a strawberry frosting, it was delicious! I also tried their «Feeling Blue» which was a blueberry cupcake with blueberry frosting with a hint of lemon. It was yummy, but I personally prefer the strawberry.
I only give 4 stars because the price is $ 2.75 per cupcake…

I was excited to find a 4.5 star cupcake shop in the OC and after checking out the pictures, I decided to give it a try. First off, their cupcakes are sold inside a place called Genki Living and there are no visible signs so it can throw you off. I called and finally found the place after the kind worker explained this to me. The cupcakes are cute and colorful but disappointing and not satisfying. I am not sure if I just ordered the wrong kind but it’s the one that was recommend to me by the worker. The durian cupcake looks cute and delicious but the cake was hard and dry (probably because it was kept cool?). The frosting was the worst part for me. It was not creamy and had that sandy texture that some grocery store cupcakes have. I left unsatisfied and wanting more dessert.

I found this place on Unilocal because I needed to get some cupcakes for a birthday and since then, I have gone back several times because their cupcakes are delicious.
One thing you should know, is that this place doesn’t sell animated cupcakes for everyday sale. You need to pre-​order them with the owner, a mistake I made when I first went. There are perhaps a dozen different types of cupcakes she sells, which are very good. The cupcakes are not overly sweet which is always a good thing and each one of them are very unique in taste and presentation.
I have tried 5 of their cupcakes and the Oreo «surprise» is definitely my favorite cupcake. GET IT!
I’m definitely going to order some animated cupcakes from this place in the future and will definitely recommend this place to all my friends.

So I wanted to take my wife somewhere different tonight. Just to get out of the house. I had planned to take her to get desert, we were going to head over to the Orange circle to get cupcakes. So I jumped on Unilocal really quick to check out the reviews for the place in Orange. It only took a minute to realize, there was no way we were going to go there after the horrible reviews they received again and again. So I decided to find another place to go. I came across Animated Cupcakes on Unilocal.
So I didn’t tell my wife where we were going, I wanted it to be a surprise. When we got to Animated Cupcakes (which is inside Genki living) we were a little intimidated. I wasn’t sure we were in the right place. However, as I looked inside the store front I saw the sign for Animated Cupcakes. We headed on in and met Ana, who I’m guessing is the owner. She told us about the different types of cupcakes they had to offer. We selected four and took them to go.
We chose the following:
Heart Attack-​Dark Chocolate cake with Peanut Butter frosting & topped w/​Honey glazed bacon.
Red Velvet — Mild chocolate flavor, moist cake and classic cream cheese frosting.
Frugaria — Fresh Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting.
The «Anthony Bourdain” — A Durian fruit cupcake.
I thought they were really great, however I must say I am no cupcake expert. However, my wife is a pre-​school teacher in Newport Coast. Instead of the kids bringing her apples, they bring high end cupcakes. My wife ranted and raved about Animated Cupcakes. She told me that she felt they were the best cupcakes she has ever had, even better than Sprinkles and SusieCakes.
The cupcakes were very moist. The frosting definitely seemed fresh, not hard like when they sit forever. Ana said that she is very concerned with the freshness of her product, so much so that she switches them out mid-​day to insure that customers are receiving the freshest cupcakes possible. This seems to make a huge difference, as serving old cupcakes seems to be so popular at many other establishments.
Bottom line, Ana and Animated Cupcakes have two new fans, and we will be back soon. Keep up the good work!

O M F G
We would say this is the best cupcake we’ve ever had. Seriously.
It has a moistness to it that you do not get anywhere else. Moist, light, perfectly sweet… perfectly delicious!
We came at 10PM and there was limited cupcakes still left, but the Chocolate Éclair was all we needed to be repeat/​future/​customers for life. The frosting was so light and the perfect amount of sweetness to pair perfectly with the moist cupcake. Inside, oh you’re in for quite a treat… inside was a type of bittersweet meltinyourmouth chocolate center. BOMB.
Aside from the actual cupcake, everyone is SUPER friendly here. We were greeted by 2 girls as we entered, and everyone at the counter greeted us and asked if we had questions. Super friendly, super talkative.
5+ stars for cupcake, 5+ stars for customer service, 5+ stars for plenty of parking, 5+ stars for being open LATE. 5+ stars for… well you catch our drift.
Great, now we want more.

I told My friend scott A. About this cupcake baker I found on Unilocal and I fell in love with the hello kitty cupcakes!!! He later surprised me with a box of custom hello kitty cupcakes omg I was in love. What I got:
Strawberry shortcake: omg my fav it a white cake filled with this strawberry filling that had the texture of popsicles and it was so refreshing it was my favorite.
RV: ohh one of the best I ever had… Love the cheesecake frosting
If I could I’d eat a dozen cupcakes!!! The only down side no store… It’s all order and pick up

ANA, thank you again for the last minute order, you always come through, my wife loved the Heart Red Velvet cakes… so good! Thank you, see you soon!

When it was showtime all my girl friends were gushing over the Hello Kitty custom CSU Fullerton grad cake hahaha. My six-​year-​old niece was better composed than them chicks! They couldn’t control themselves. My god, what is it with women and Hello Kitty?!? I was the envy of every chick there and I’m not even that big a fan (sad huh? not really –I liked being the center of attention ba! haha!)
If you take a look at my photo I didn’t get to my cake tasting till I devoured the other three cakes (no joke — everyone and their moms brought me a cake for graduation — no, I’m not ungrateful but … juss sayin lol)
You can view a photo of my cake off the Animated Cupcakes FB page here:
Two days into refrigerating my cake, the first bite was surprisingly moist! Based on experience it’s pretty much hit or miss when you order a cute cake when it comes to the taste test ~ I simply LoOoved the way it had just the right amount of frosting, red velvet, and fondant. Excellent move. I felt so bummed w/​myself for not eating it right way … would’ve been BOMB.
Sorry for the essay but here goes …
Service +++++
Cake quality ++++
Price $$
Back in mid-​May I ordered the HK CSUF grad cake after reading Unilocaler’s feedback and scouring the website in search of my perfect cake. I had asked for blue and orange tassle/​decoration grad colors — Ana said, «Free of charge, no problem.» :)
I really liked that from the first inquiry I made via Facebook msg to texting and/​or calling to check up on my order Ana was prompt and always available.
Next couple of events could have been a disaster but weren’t — thank goodness!
My pickup time had to be adjusted after I was running around like a headless chicken worrying about my party set in the afternoon. Family members and friends were slowing me down from leaving the house asking what to bring/​what time this and that would be.
So I texted Ana a few minutes before the arranged time cuz I was gonna be late. Given this was my first time ordering experience I felt pretty crappy since I knew she had errands/​business of her own to take care of. Besides Genki Bakery was under construction and had only been open during certain hours so this was really out of the norm for me … having her wait was just inconsiderate.
Luckily I drove over in a fury and breathlessly thanked her profusely. She was so chill and sweet about it — I was so shocked LOL. I paid for my cake and had her keep the change since the tardiness was on my part.
Driving it back in one piece was like holding my damn breath. I blasted the A/​C to keep HK cool hahaha. Overall I didn’t give a complete 5 stars because I see some room for improvement such as wishing Ana had a full-​service bakery and more open hours.
My friends were pretty confused and tried to drop by the bakery expecting to meet her and order a cake right then and there but it’s an unusual arrangement.
I would strongly recommend checking out her website «portfolio» with Animated Cupcakes first then message her on Facebook and next follow up with a phone call to submit a cake order. Be prepared with questions and stay involved so there’s clear understanding. Ana was wonderful at that and helped me eliminate any guess work: D
Can’t wait till she’s got a place of her own: D She’s frikkin talented in my book ;D Good luck to ya, fellow Titan!

Ana is so sweet! She walked with me through the entire process when I was interested in cupcakes. She is also extremely attentive concerns and request. She advised me what she thought was the best options for my cupcake gift. She put my interest first, and not what would give her the most $$. The cupcakes I got for my friend turned out quite well and I will definitely be going back to her for future gifts.
Girls love cupcakes.

Genki Living puts the cupcakes inside the fridge after Ana makes ‘em, but she has no control over this. It severely compromises the integrity of the cupcake when subjected to low humidity and cold temperatures. Just observe how nasty bread is when you leave bread in the fridge overnight. It turns out dry and a lot of the moisture has been wicked away by design of the fridge.
I e-​mailed her a couple of times and she quickly e-​mailed me back and was even open to discussing why the cupcakes are falling short of expectations. Being humble enough to openly talk about the flaws of one’s product is a hallmark of a good business person. I really hope she will be able to open her own shop one day and have full creative control over her products,

In response to Ana H’s comment–
If you paid the same attention to your other reviews as much as my review you’ll notice that they have as much detail or even less detail then the review I wrote… hmm? I wonder why that is?
No, your cupcake «wasn’t too dry, too sweet, too dense nor was it sweet enough.» because I DID NOT WRITE ANY OF THAT IN MY REVIEW. When I’m comparing your product to what I can purchase at a grocery store what I’m saying is the cupcakes I purchased at Genki Living lacked quality, freshness and flavor.
I stand by my 2 star rating.
so-​so definition
1. mod.
average; mediocre.: It was just so-​so. Nothing to write home about.

I was throwing a vintage/1920’s themed dinner party for my birthday and turned to Unilocal for where I can get cupcakes as party favors. I stumbled upon these reviews for Animated Cupcakes and then Ana’s blog and completely fell in love with the designs of her cupcakes.
I emailed Ana about the type of cupcakes I wanted, how many I needed, when I needed them and some details about how I wanted the cupcakes to look. She responded back quickly and elaborated on the design details I had emailed her about. From looking at her blog, I told her I would defer to her artistic judgment and she was able to provide me with a reasonable quote. We communicated frequently over the span of a few days with her emailing me pictures of the cupcakes and with me even ordering an additional amount of cupcakes.
Pick up was easy at Genki Living in Garden Grove and once I saw the cupcakes, I was incredibly happy with how they turned out. I brought them to my party and after everyone else had their cupcakes… I realized that I didn’t save any for myself!!! So I never actually got to taste the cupcakes but all of my friends said they were delicious (and some of them even said they were too pretty to eat but ate them anyway). Can’t wait to come back to Genki Living to finally try one of these cupcakes!
Five star rating for the amazing customer service, communication, design and care Ana provided.