Custom Cupcakes by Sarah is a local business that makes your cupcakes to order and personalizes them to suit your event or occasion. Also, they are delicious!

I usually make a homemade birthday cake for my kids on their birthdays, but this year I decided to try something different. There is a local business that I started following on Instagram a while ago, Custom Cupcakes by Sarah, and they post the most amazing photos of cupcakes, so one day before the first birthday rolled around, I contacted the owner and found out she will make the cupcakes and decorate them to suit the occasion, be it a baby shower, a birthday, even a themed party.

We worked together on this. My kids’ birthdays are 8 days apart, and we were not planning a big party, so even a dozen cupcakes (the minimum order) would be too many for just one celebration for this family of four. So we decided to do half for one and half for the other. I consulted my kids and asked them what their favorite things were, and presented this information to Sarah. “They like video games and cats,” I said. “Hmm,” she said. “I will figure something out.”

And behold, these adorable, hand-crafted, high-end cupcakes:

They are amazing, right? Before I tell you about the bells and whistles, know that these delights begin with the basic – a delicious cupcake. Sarah Buxbaum spent years perfecting her recipe for the cake itself and the buttercream frosting. She also makes a very tasty gluten free cupcake, and can make allergy-free cupcakes too, and she’s working on perfecting the vegan cupcake.

Okay so then, Sarah creates a custom design to decorate them, cutting out each little piece of this paper creation by hand. Herself. Even the little paper cups they come in! She wants the decor to be durable, something you can save and put in a scrapbook (or in my gamer’s case, pasted to a poster board for show and tell at school). For the cat lover she made this cute little cats, and for the video game lover these are little X-box controllers.

Sarah opened her business within the last year, after spending several years working in the hospitality industry and learning entrepreneurship working in the trenches of a startup business that took off. She got her Thousand Oaks kitchen certified, chose her business name, and does most of her marketing by Facebook and Instagram and in person at events. She will make your cupcakes and deliver them to you (included in the order price!) within 25 miles.

A dozen cupcakes starts at $36 with only $4 extra for the custom decorations. She makes several different flavors including allergen- and gluten-free options. Decorations are not limited to paper on sticks, though – Sarah does edible flowers, creative use of icing, marshmallows, popcorn, anything you want! Delivery is included in the order price – Sarah delivers them herself. She boxes the cupcakes in a handy cardboard tray inside a box that opens from the front for easy display and removal, and she advises you store them at room temperature in this box (putting them in the fridge causes them to dry out).

I can tell you from experience that the leftovers from the first birthday dinner stayed fresh for 3 days in the box, and we saved one in the freezer for a week and it was moist and delicious once it defrosted.

The true test was taste: these cupcakes got unanimous approval and the 11-year-olds each ate two! Our entire family highly recommends this new local business!

Custom Cupcakes by Sarah
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Even the kitty was interested

Photos with white background courtesy of Custom Cupcakes by Sarah. Our family received a complimentary custom cupcake order. All opinions are our own (plus an 11-year-old guest who ate 2 cupcakes so I’m guessing he liked them.)