Redwood City's Sweetest Secret

It's perhaps Redwood City's best-kept secret.

SweetCakes specialty bakery, owned and run by the husband-and-wife team of Rey and Karen Garza, is a truly sweet place, indeed - both because of its delicious, made-from-scratch, all-natural desserts; and because of the smiling faces and friendly service each and every person gets when they walk in the door.

"The people who work there are super-nice and very helpful!" raves Jessica H. of San Jose on SweetCakes' Yelp.com page. "Not to mention, they're super-patient when I sit there for 5-10 minutes staring at the cupcakes, trying to decide which one to get! The flavors are absolutely delicious."

Though SweetCakes has been open for business a little more than a year, Redwood City Patch is touting them as a "sprout" because, due to their slightly hidden location at 810 Bradford St., they're still somewhat new to the city, in terms of people learning about them.

However, the Garzas are definitely not "new" when it comes to experience - Karen has more than 20 years of experience baking sweets like cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pastries and more, and Rey is affectionately known as the "brains" of the business.

SweetCakes offers a wealth of different flavors, and feature different ones each day in the store for sale to walk-in customers. You can usually find out which flavors will be available for purchase each day by visiting their Facebook page. Some of the regular favorites include Red Velvet, Chocolate Vanilla, Marble, Lemon Buttercream, Mocha, Carrot and many, many more.

The Garzas also love to get into the spirit of the holidays with themed favorites like Sleepy Hollow Pumpkin and Candy Corn cupcakes for Halloween, and currently, Gingersnap cupcakes are a favorite for the upcoming holidays. Karen will even be teaching a class later this month on how to bake a Yule log cake and decorate it.

Other reasons customers are loving SweetCakes so far is that all of their ingredients are fresh, all-natural and made from scratch, and the bakery is nut-free.

"We use no mixes. It's all Karen's recipes," said Rey. "And that's what makes it all taste so good and so different."

SweetCakes is also known for the clever designs and themes they can do, for just about anything. Companies love to order shipments of SweetCakes cupcakes because they can duplicate almost any logo on the delicious creations, and families love to order cupcakes with their child's favorite characters, like princess themes for girls and even "Angry Birds" characters from the popular smartphone game, for birthdays and other special occasions.

"We can customize to just about anything," Rey said.

"And, everything is edible on the cupcakes," Karen pointed out. "We have an 'edible printer' that can make almost any design out of rice paper and edible ink."

Rey and Karen say, they deliver within five miles of the downtown store for free, and, they can accomodate orders as small as one cupcake. Their biggest order to date has been around 1,300, when they were called upon by DreamWorks movie studios to provide cupcakes for the premiere of Kung Fu Panda 2 recently.

"With enough notice, we can do as many as you need," he said.

Or, if you just have a hankering for a sweet and tasty snack, you can stop by the SweetCakes store anytime and buy a cupcake from what they have on display for the day. Take it with you to go, or enjoy it at one of the few small tables and chairs set up in the lobby.

In addition to cupcakes, SweetCakes will often offer other desserts like cookies and cinnamon rolls from time to time.

"We will probably try to get back into cakes soon, too," Rey said, describing how, for many years, Karen worked in wedding cakes before they opened their store.

All in all, the Garzas, who live in San Mateo, are loving their new business, and giving back to worthy causes as well. They have donated cupcakes to many local causes such as the recent event downtown, local school fundraisers, the and more.

And, they say, owning a business in Redwood City has been very pleasant, as well.

"The City has been really good to us, really helping us along," Rey said. "We've had a really good experience working with them."

Visit SweetCakes at 810 Bradford St., off Veterans Boulevard near the Kaiser Permanente parking lot. Call them at 650-368-5577 or visit them online at www.sweetcakes1.com.