Let Them Eat Cake!

You won't find Let Them Eat Cake!'s indulgent cake recipes published anywhere, since founder Paulette Coffman and her daughters Brittany and Chelsea fiercely guard their culinary secrets from competitors and town criers. But an interview with Sacramento Press in 2010 reveals three signature flavors that are served each day: red velvet, Guinness Stout chocolate, and vanilla. "We’re really kind of geared towards childhood favorites,” Paulette divulged. "But we’re also a little bit more innovative…You can find your standard red velvet here, but you can also find a margarita cupcake here."

In fact, the mother-daughter trio's three staple flavors are joined by a weekly rotation of 24 flavors, and customers can also commission more than 80 other flavors—including vegan and gluten-free options—via special order. These desserts always include real butter, fruits, and pure vanilla, and forgo preservatives since they're baked fresh each morning. Paulette, Brittany, and Chelsea stack the cupcakes into towers, line them up in boxes, and fashion them together as specialty cakes, donating $2 of their Flavor of the Month sales each Wednesday to charity. Alongside steaming mugs of Ritual coffee and Mighty Leaf tea, the Coffman women also dole out scones, breakfast sandwiches, and gourmet cookies that, like hand weights divvied up in a divorce settlement, weigh in at a 1/4-pound each.