Sugar Bear’s Cupcake Shack

Wow! We stopped in for a before lunch pick me up.
The lemon cupcake and the sweet potato with nuts with a toasted meringue topping were great!
The comment we both made: the size is perfect.
Sometimes you get stuck in cupcake places with too big a cake.
This was excellent texture, perfect size and great variety.
I really thought both tasted like something I would want in a wedding or a party too.
Loved it.

I ordered 9 doz cupcakes for a work function and was pleased with the service and quality of the product. Kayla was responsive to my needs and delived as promised.
The Cupcakes were enjoyed by all and the size was perfect for people to have two each and not feel too guilty.
I’ll be back next time I have cupcake needs.

I got the beary lemon. Very doughy and heavy. The frosting was good. The cost 3 bucks. Wouldn’t go back cause there is better that I tried. But the taste is in the mouth so that’s just my take.

Preface: I used to live in LA, where you could find a cupcake shop on every corner. I used to frequent Susie Cakes in Brentwood since I lived within walking distance. Cupcakes there were $ 3; however they were large, moist and delicious with both amazing frosting and moist cake!
The Sugar Bear’s Cupcake Shack is pretty much the only place that specializes in cupcakes in Ventura; therefore, they have no competition and charge $ 3 for a teeny tiny cupcake. I’d say the diameter is about 2 inches, if that gives you any idea of the miniscule size. I really don’t mind paying $ 3 for a cupcake, but come on… make it a decent size! I asked if they give discounts for ½ dozen or 1 dozen cupcakes… no!
I don’t think I’ll be back. I’ll have to limit my cupcake cravings to the times I pass through LA!

Amy S was right… the place was a little ho-​hum in terms of décor (although the sign out front had promise), and the counter helper was lacklustre. Add to that, hardly any flavors left at the end of the day when we arrived… not sure how many they started with (they boast over 30 flavors). There were maybe 5 flavors out when we got there, and I have to say, they were really small… not small-normal…not mini… just small. I know I’m making this place sound bad, but as UNimpressive as it all APPEARED to me, we decided to buy one of the lemon and one of the brown sugar cinnamon (Sugar Bear Classic) cupcakes. My husband and I took one bite of each, and OMG, it was FANTASTIC. The lemon was PERFECT… and this brown sugar cinnamon, DAMMMMMMN, it was heavenly. The flavors knocked us over… such flavor explosion. Two of my faves… LEMON and BROWN SUGAR/​CINNAMON. Whooo-​hoooo. The cake had flavor and perfect texture, the frosting had flavor, and they were EXCELLENT EXCELLENT. I’m just upset more weren’t available to try. We need to go back EARLY in the day and see what else they have to tempt our palate with. So far, so GREAT… except for one thing… $ 3.00 for that size of a cupcake, uhhhhhhh, welllllllllll, that’s really not cool. They’re SMALL.

What a bummer, you turn the corner to enter this lovely courtyard and you actually get excited to eat cupcakes there! Then you enter the shop and the excitement is gone. It really was a bummer because the atmosphere outside their doors is so special. There is no décor inside and the young girl that helped us wasn’t as bubbly and friendly as she should have been for selling cupcakes! Cupcakes! They are cute and fun and exciting, she kind of took that away…
My coconut crème cupcake was delicious but if you sell a standard size cupcake for $ 3 (which in general is not expensive) I expect more in presentation. I say this place has good enough cupcakes for the average person who doesnt have time to bake their own. For me, I will spend less to make my own gourmet cupcakes and present them in a special way.
I am glad I found this place on Unilocal though because otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten to hang out (and shop) in this adorable courtyard.

Wanted to treat my family to a sweet treat and looked this place up on Unilocal.Finally found the place after many drive by’s.
Place is tiny with no place to sit inside. They offer over 20 flavors but I only saw 5 on display. Tried the double chocolate… very dry. Tried the rasberry lemon, which wasnt as dry but still not $ 3.00 worth.
Probably wont go back, Vons gourmet cupcakes are so much better and you can get them for $ 1.99!

Mix the posh cupcake craze with the feel of beachy Ventura and you’ve got a tasty treat without all the fuss.
Hidden in a charming brick courtyard, just like you would find in NOLA, Sugar Bears waits with a just right sized selection of cupcake flavors. Sort of a grab, drool, and go place, you walk in and order from the no fuss counter.
We ordered the chocolate peanut butter, the coconut, and the brown sugar. The cake was neither dry nor too moist. The frosting was a balanced butter cream. The coconut had a cream filling, which made the cake. The chocolate peanut butter also had a chocolate filling.
We quickly unwrapped our cupcakes and started nibbling… biting…licking the frosting off our fingers. Needless to say, those cupcakes did not make it all the way back to Main Street.
Need a cupcake fix without the fuss? Sugar Bear’s takes the cake.

Went here yesterday. Difficult to find, but thankful for Ciao Bella’s for showing me the direction to walk. Would have walked right passed by it if it weren’t for the sign that says «Cupcake Shack» on the sidewalk.
My boyfriend and I tried their Strawberry, Lemon & Sugarbear cupcakes.
The cake is alright. A bit spongy not as moist (mmmoooiiiisst).
There are people out there who aren’t a huge fan of frosting, such as my boyfriend. But, he actually liked it. The frosting is on the sweet side, but tastes fresh — especially the lemon (it has lemon zest in it) and the strawberry (which tastes like strawberry ice cream). Their Sugarbear was a little too sweet. You can taste the brown sugar and cinnamon though.
The cupcakes were the average size cupcake you make at home & they were $ 3 (compared to the size of Sweet Arleen’s and Sprinkles, which are a bit larger).

I have to admit, after reading some of the negative reviews about Sugar Bear’s I was a little skeptical of their cupcakes but I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. When we arrived for our appointment we were greeted by the Executive Baker, Kayla, who was so nice and came really prepared for our meeting along with the five cupcake choices we wanted to taste; double chocolate, tiramisu (made just for our meeting), vanilla bean, chocolate peanut butter, and red velvet.
My first bite was of the vanilla bean and I was pleasantly surprised as I am a chocoholic all the way. It was a great balance of flavor and sweetness and not too sweet which I find to be very common with vanilla. I actually preferred it over the double chocolate cupcake which I had my heart set on. Ultimately our favorite three of the five flavors were vanilla bean, red velvet (so moist!), and tiramisu.
I was also very pleased with Kayla’s service. I showed her pictures of what I wanted the cupcakes to look like and she was very willing and able to accommodate my requests without hesitation.
To cut a long story short, the cake, the service, and the price are unbeatable. They’ve only been open six months and other bakeries could learn a thing or two from them. Yesterday I placed my deposit to have them do the cupcakes for my wedding and I am so confident that they will deliver my vision (and excited to see what extras Kayla comes up with!)
Highly recommended!

To get some background info. I’ve tried the following cupcakes places: Sprinkles, Crumbs, Casey’s, Dots and now, Sugar Bear’s Cupcake Shack.
I had the «beary chocolcatey» because I’m a huge choco fan and it was very moist and fluffy. It was delicious. My friend had the «strawbearilicious» And usually I don’t like strawberry cupcakes, but the touch of strawberry in this was yummy!
Each cupcake is $ 3.00 and it’s a little hidden, so be sure to check out for that sign which points to its location. Of course you can check out the other flavors they have their site by typing their name in Google.
If I could, I would have tried all of them!

Downtown Ventura could use cute stores like Sugar Bear’s Cupcake Shack. The alley location adds to its charm. The store has cute cupcake plates and accessories for sale. Check out the cupcake hangers on the wall.
They had about 10 or so cupcake varieties on plates ($ 3 each). All featured a swirly frosting design and pretty metallic foil wrappers. The flavors are named after bears (they have contests on Facebook to come up with the beary names). They even carry some gluten free varieties.
* Sugar bear: it’s supposed to be brown sugar and cinnamon cake but those flavors are very faint (tastes like vanilla cake with a hint of cinnamon). The cake part was on the dry, dense side. The frosting, dusted with brown sugar, was interesting (smooth buttercream, on the soft side) — but that’s probably because the coconut flavor was so faint.
* Bearmisu: the vanilla cake wasn’t as dry, probably because it was injected with coffee syrup, I didn’t like the thick, heavy frosting.
For Ventura, it isn’t bad at all (so three stars) but it can’t compare to the better cupcake places in other cities.

FOOD
We got the 3 peanut butter chocolates and 1 strawberry. The frosting on both was amazing — light but creamy and full of flavor. Cake was a bit dry, but we will definitely be going back.
SERVICE
Friendly.
ATMOSPHERE
Casual.
PRICE
Prices are reasonable. We are used to seeing prices at $ 4 — $ 5 per cupcake so $ 3 was a nice surprise. Well worth it.

When I heard there was going to be a cupcake store in Ventura I knew I had to find it and find it quick. Cupcakes have a special place in my heart. They give you the birthday-​esque joy of being able to unwrap a present and have cake, and you can have them more than once a year.
Without the sidewalk sign I probably would not have found this place it is the back of an alley like row of shops.
It is not particularly stroller friendly especially with a double stroller. There are steps and a slight incline, not a good combination. I had to ditch the stroller halfway, but that was ok there was cupcakes at the end of the tunnel…
I was expecting a cute shabby chic café and found a small store front with a glass case and not much else.
The cupcakes were $ 3 each, not unheard of, escpecially with the new cupcake craze taking over the nation. I’ve paid more. But in each of those times the quality of the cupcake would have to be excellent.
My kids and I shared the StrawBEARlicious (Light strawberry cake with a fresh and fruity strawberry frosting.) & Chocolatey BEARnut Butter
Chocolate (peanut butter cake filled with a chocolate ganache, peanut butter chips, and topped with peanut butter frosting.)
The ones I really wanted to try the Red Velvet & Tiramasu were sold out.
They did have bite size cupcakes but you had to buy them in bulk. It would have been nice to be able to buy those individually to sample their flavors.
The cupcakes themselves were not as moist I expected them to be (but it was later in the day so they may have been sitting out for a while) and there was a bit too much frosting (that is a personal preference I can’t fault them for that).
Will I go there again? Probably not. Palermo’s down the street has killer Red Velvel Bundt cakes and other assorted baked goods. (See my review on them).
Is it worth a try? I say yes. All cupcakes need a chance.

I needed to try this place since I was in the area. It’s in a cute area in Downtown Ventura. It’s a little tricky to find, because the storefront isn’t on the main street, rather, it’s in a shopping center that is diagonal to the street that it is located on (did that make any sense??? Hahaha).
I tried the…
* BEARy Lemony (Sweetly tart lemon cake with zingy lemon frosting and fresh lemon zest) — There was something about the frosting… it makes your taste buds run in different directions within the first second of tasting it. The frosting was sweet, then shocked you with a burst of bitter/​tart (almost like the taste of tequila) but ended on a lemony note. It was very interesting. The cake was bland but moist… nothing special.
* StrawBEARilicious (Light strawberry cake with a fresh and fruity strawberry frosting) — The frosting was GREAT… you could tell they use fresh strawberries because it didn’t taste artificial. The frosting wasn’t too sweet either, which I liked. But the cake, was lacking in flavor, however was very moist. This was my favorite of the 4 I tried.
* Velveteen BEAR (Fluffy red velvet cocoa cake with cream cheese frosting) — The cake was good but the frosting wasn’t cream cheesey enough for me. If the frosting had a little more of a cream cheese taste to it, I would have voted this as my favorite. I did appreciate the moistness of the cake and the semi sweet frosting.
* Lime On Da CocoBEAR (Gluten-​free coconut cake with a tropical whipped lime frosting and shredded coconut) — I did not take this cupcake into consideration when rating them… because if I did, I would give them one star. I don’t know how people who are allergic to gluten do it… more power to you, if you are because this cupcake was HORRIBLE. I didn’t even want to chew/​swallow it after I took the first bite. The frosting was unique (it has lime zest and coconut shavings in it), but the cake… no comment.
Overall, the cake itself is moist, but is bland, so the taste/​flavor comes from the frosting itself. I still would suggest giving them a shot if you are in the area and craving something street.

Clearly, cupcakes are the big thing right now. Soon, there will be too many people selling them, and, like thousands of yogurt shops and smoothie shops, many will go under.
I can understand this culling because some people just do it better than others. Sugar Bear’s is good, but for $ 3 a pop, I have had better. The cupcakes certainly weren’t bad, but the flavors weren’t as fresh or «homemade» tasting as I would have liked.

Let’s be honest with each other — 3 bucks for a cupcake? I realize its the cool thing to do lately with all the cupcake shows etc. and little bakeries popping up … but seriously? 3 bucks? Ok, I am over it … Still, I am giving them a 5 star review because the kids loved them, and that is what truly matters here, plus I realize that I am in Ventura Ca, on the main strip in downtown — so it is a must that I pay more for everything — right?
The peanut butter one was killer, but everyone that I tasted was great. Very over the top and sweet buttercream frosting. Again, the main reason we did it was for the kids — and they LOVED them and kept talking about them. Thanks grandma for buying them hahaha

Guess I’m gonna have to be the jerk that rains all over this parade…
Tried this place a couple of weeks ago with my daughter and my girlfriend. Went in very excited to finally have a cupcake place in Ventura. Up to this point we had been having to drive 30 miles to Whodidily to get our cupcake fix. And now, after trying Sugar Bear’s I will continue to drive 30 miles to get my cupcake fix.
I could easily get into a long winded review as to why it wasn’t great, but I feel the fact that my 9 year old didn’t like a chocolate cupcake says it all. What 9 year old doesn’t like a cupcake? She is a freak for chocolate, but didn’t even finish it because she said it was too dry.
I had the tiramisu, girlfriend had the strawberry. I tried hers, she tried mine, and neither of us were impressed. Cake was a tad dry. Frosting was over the top sweet on the strawberry. She was unable to finish it and said something about a diabetic coma when she gave up. Mine was little much on the cream cheese flavor and really didn’t have a tiramisu flavor to it. It wasn’t terrible, just sort of odd.
Each cupcake was 3 dollars. I have no issue paying this for a good cupcake, but I felt the price and the quality were way off.
The place is brand new, and I will give them another chance to see if they have worked the kinks out, but for now it’s just not very good.

I’m a sweets kind of person, and when I heard that a cupcake place opened up in Ventura I had to try it out… Normally I go to Whodidly’s up in Montecito but being broke it was nice to stop by and see what this place had in store.
my friend and I each split a Red Velvet and a Sugarbear cupcake.
The cake is a little stiff — not stale or anything just seems like they’ve been thawed from being frozen. The red velvet is a load of shit, it’s a plain cupcake and the «red velvet» is just a chocolate cake and the sour cream frosting is OK. But the sugarbear cupcake frosting is AMAZING. It really blew my mind, anyways… If you don’t like too sweet of stuff, pass on the sugarbear. It’s like a cinnamony-​waffley thing.
I’m sure I’ll bring friends around again, hoping maybe they will in crease their quality in time since they just opened. But I’d rather go to Montecito. They do have a flavor suggestion box which was really nice, the store itself is kind of hidden in a ‘back alley’ kind of area so I’m questioning their business.
Try it, it’s pretty good if you don’t wanna drive out of V-​county to get cupcakes. It’ll satisfy.
EDIT: I will also add that $ 3.00 for a SMALL cupcake is pretty crappy. Whodidly has better pricing (same thing maybe a little more) but much bigger. These are pretty small and I noticed some sizes were not proportionate. Keep this in mind!

Hooray! A cupcakery in Ventura! I’ve been waiting for this day. I had high hopes for this place after hearing about it’s opening. I was not let down. I am lucky enough to have such an adorable little cupcake shack in my neighborhood and can grab one whenever I’d like now. It’s going to take some serious self-​control not to go in every day after trying them out. After finally making my selection of the lemon cupcake and the Sugar Bear cupcake which tasted like a snickerdoodle cookie in cupcake form, I took them home and gave them a taste. Moist, flavorful and decorated so cute! I can’t wait to try more cupcakes!