Coffee & Treats in Larkspur

A shingled two-story home has housed Muffin Mania since January 4, 1983, when late musician Rocky Sullivan opened the bakery to fulfill his Sicilian family's culinary legacy. Today, Rocky's wife, Ilona Agress, and his son, Dylan Galante, carry on the epicurean heritage by trekking to that same idyllic dwelling at 3 a.m. six days of the week to whip up fresh batches from scratch.

The duo shuns preservatives while assembling the café's rotating roster of muffins and instead brandishes all-natural ingredients to create such flavors as jalapeño and cheese and maple walnut. Sweet scones, croissants, and pastries join forces with top-quality coffee to devise powerful breakfasts, and Muffin Mania's fresh-baked bread cushions the hot and cold sandwiches that headline a smattering of lunch fare. A multitude of gluten-free and vegan muffins accommodate dietary requirements and some scavenger-hunt participants.

Founders Dena Tripp and Debra Shwetz started Nothing Bundt Cakes in Las Vegas with the simple aim of making cakes for their families and friends. But thanks to their handcrafted recipes, pure ingredients, and innovative decorating ideas, their business soon grew from a small home kitchen to a franchise, with locations in 13 states.

The custom-designed cakes—made with fresh eggs, real butter, and cream cheese—arrive in flavors ranging from white chocolate raspberry to lemon and chocolate chocolate chip. Thick, frosted petals atop each cake showcase the signature velvety cream cheese–frosting, which must be eaten swiftly before it glides away on a summer breeze.

Delighting North American taste buds for a quarter century, Yogen Fruz's scoopers blend vanilla and chocolate frozen yogurt with a dozen fresh fruit flavors available in low-fat and no-fat varieties. The yogurt base combines with fruit mix-ins, such as blueberries, kiwis, and mangoes, to fashion sweet treats healthier than a high-fiber medical degree. Patrons can speckle their probiotic-infused scoops with 16 toppings, adding texture and flavor with options such as cereal, nuts, fresh fruit, and chocolate. Smoothies, fruit cups, and fruit-yogurt combos are also available.

Yocup specializes in healthy, delicious frozen yogurt that tastes less like excessive sugar piles and more like the creamy, tart yogurt of yesteryear. Its menu consists of original tart, blueberry tart, and chocolate flavors, as well as a flavor of the month that rotates and differs at the two locations. What really jazzes up the treatfest is a veritable cornucopia of delicious toppings, ranging from nutritious strawberries, lychee berries, and sliced almonds to decadent bits of Oreos, Heath bars, and honey. With such variety, it’s easy to customize your Yocup to be as simple and healthy or gigantic and rich as your squealing sweet tooth desires.

Doc PopCorn's kernel crafters scoop up heaping bags of naturally flavored, fluffy treats in a variety of sweet and savory varieties. Husband-and-wife team Rob and Renée founded the business with the goal to fuse health and flavor into one snack item, packing each morsel into recyclable and compostable bags that agree with Mother Nature's digestive system. Traditional tastes such as classic kettle and sweet butter dust and drizzle onto each piece's nooks and crannies, and inventive flavors such as Hoppin' jalapeño, Sinfully cinnamon, and triple white cheddar satisfy cravings without the hassle of grating cheese or massaging teeth with cinnamon-flavored floss. The pop doctors offer their favorite pairings of flavors, filling gift packages and decorative tins.

In 1983, Jeff and Jill Summerhays began concocting smoothies with fresh fruit and nonfat yogurt to avoid the temptations of unhealthy snacks. The couple sold their creamy, natural beverages on their travels across the US and Australia's Gold Coast, planting a taste for then-exotic flavors such as passion papaya and pina colada. Still blended to order in each of Maui Wowi's 400 locations, each smoothie brims with a whole fresh banana, live yogurt cultures, and a straw so mouths can burn calories with each slurp. On the steamy side of the menu, Kona beans pour in from Hawaiian farmers and roasters to be brewed into rich drip coffee and pressed into potent espresso shots.