‘Incredible sweet treats’: Satisfy your sweet tooth at this beloved local cupcake shop
Visitors come for sea salt chocolate caramel cupcakes, cookies filled with frosting, brownies, and whoopie pies.
When you visit Little Miss Cupcape, you’ll find yourself in a wonderland for lovers of all things sweet. People come for the freshly baked cupcakes and other confections, but there’s something special about the feeling of the shops themselves, according to owner and founder Taylor Stump.
“It’s an experience [where] you feel warm and fuzzy whenever you walk in,” she said. “You get greeted by highly bubbly, very kind individuals. Even if you’re in a bad mood, you can’t be in a bad mood [anymore], when you step into Little Miss Cupcape.”
Ahead of the holiday season, we asked readers to share their recommendations for the best small businesses in and around Boston. Little Miss Cupcape, which has locations on Cape Cod and in Back Bay, got high praise from readers, who especially love that the cupcakes are made from scratch, without preservatives, and come in a variety of nautically themed flavors.
One reader, Jessica from Boston, told us she admires the care put into the customer experience.
“The customer service is always top tier, and the owner herself is such a sweetheart,” Jessica said. “She replies to your messages and feedback. I really appreciate when business owners take time to get back to their customers. [It] keeps me coming back and supporting them. My family loves visiting her shop — it’s such a cute, welcoming place. The lemon cupcakes, the cookies with frosting, the brownies, and the whoopie pies are my family’s favorites.”
Little Miss Cupcape first opened its doors in Hyannis in June 2014. Early success led to the opening of the Newbury Street location in November 2019. The inspiration behind the business comes in part from Stump’s childhood, when she would vacation with family in Cape Cod. She knew that she wanted her shop to be near the ocean, but specifically, she hoped to recreate those memories of the Cape Cod seashore that she grew up with. Stump told Boston.com that she recalled driving from her home in Ohio all the way to Massachusetts, just to be by the seaside.
Launching Little Miss Cupcape, an “all-American bakery,” was something of a dream come true for Stump. Opening her own shop was a vision that she had since high school, when she baked for graduation events and other special occasions, imagining herself becoming a “cupcake millionaire.” At the beginning of her senior year studying at Manhattan College, she decided that she could not wait to launch her own business and began preparations.
“We found a space on Cape Cod, and that’s when the ball started rolling,” Stump said. She added, “I wrote a business plan in college. Anything that I could do torward the cupcake business, I would. I graduated in May and opened up my shop in June.”
Stump’s parents are entrepreneurs, and they agreed to help her launch Little Miss Cupcape. Although she had her family’s financial support behind her, she knew very little about how to run a bakery and had to learn through trial and error. The first space that she found in Cape Cod was a scrapbooking store, and she had to “gut everything” to transform it into a cupcake shop.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” Stump said. “My parents had never been in the baking industry… I’d only seen what was on TV. I didn’t even know how to frost a cupcake, [when] I opened up my doors… I really went into it blindly, but with a lot of passion and energy.”
Inside Little Miss Cupcape, you’ll find murals of sprinkles and cupcake swirls and whimsical chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. It’s a bit of a step back in time, with music from the 50s and 60s playing. Staff members, who Stump refers to as her “crew,” wear cupcake-themed shirts and bows. In both locations, the kitchens are open, so that guests can view the desserts being made.
Nate W. from Dorchester told Boston.com Little Miss Cupcape turned him into a cupcake lover. He and several other readers said it’s the delicious flavors that keep them coming back.
“I thought I didn’t have a sweet tooth, but man was I wrong! I was dragged in at first, but when I tried the little lemon cupcake, the density and inner filling was better than anything I’ve ever tasted. I’ve been getting a weekly fix now for…months,” he said. “Everybody needs to try this place!”
When Stump first started baking cupcakes for the shop, she relied on recipes from America’s Test Kitchen, which she tweaked and perfected, and learned from YouTube. She’s since evolved her recipes but still uses fresh ingredients, such as fine chocolate, salted Cabot butter, and sour cream, which makes the cupcakes moist. The most popular flavors include sea salt chocolate caramel and “Ships Ahoy” chocolate chip cookie dough. Visitors also enjoy the Red Sox red velvet, and the Little Miss Cupcape, which is strawberry flavored.
Also on the menu are cookies, brownies, whoopie pies, cinnamon rolls, frosting shots, edible cookie dough, and more. At the Cape Cod location, they can even sip on beer, wine, and specialty cocktails with just as much creative spirit as the rest of the menu. These include the Gumby, a frosé with gummy bears on top and the Cupcape bomb — a fun take on the Jägerbomb that uses champagne and a mini cupcake.
MacKay L. said that the bakery has “absolutely incredible sweet treats, great collaborative and creative spirit, and is just an all-around fun and sparkly place to be!”
For Stump, one of her hopes for Little Miss Cupcape is to be a cheerful place that will “spread the sweetness.”
“It’s truly just a place to not think about everything in life, and what I mean by that is, it’s a safe place,” she said. She added, “We keep it very neutral. We keep it fun. We keep it light… It’s just a place of joy and good fun, a place to feel like a kid again.”
Little Miss Cupcape, 388 Main St., Hyannis; 250 Newbury St., Boston
This store is one of over 100 local businesses recommended by readers as among the best in the Greater Boston area. See Boston.com’s guides to local businesses in and outside of Boston, and nominate your own below.
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