Sugar and Spice Bakery, La Mirada

One of Sugar and Spice Bakery's cupcakes is like an edible choose-your-own-adventure novel. The customer guides every step of its creation, starting by selecting mini, regular, or jumbo cupcakes. Next, they pick one of 11 flavors—such as spice or vanilla—and decide on fillings such as banana cream. They then opt for cream-cheese, peanut-butter, or housemade buttercream icing. Final touches might include sprinkles and slices of strawberry.

The talented bakers use the same ingredients to create round and sheet cakes, which present larger canvases for designs. Icing and fondant transform into superheroes, logos of favorite sports teams, or even a photograph of the birthday boy or girl.

And Sugar and Spice Bakery isn't limited to sweets. Customers can nosh on sandwiches such as hot meatball and mozzarella, corned beef on rye with swiss cheese and pickles, or the veggie sandwich, topped with avocado, mozzarella, and peppers.