The queen of cupcakes is headed to the Disneyland Resort.
Candace Nelson, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes and a Food Network celebrity, is bringing her bakery to Downtown Disney. The cupcake shop is replacing the Something Silver retail shop in November.
This is the second Sprinkles Cupcakes on Disney property. In May, a Sprinkles opened at Disney World’s downtown equivalent, Disney Springs, in Orlando.
“We are thrilled to partner with Disney on both coasts. Launching Sprinkles in Downtown Disney was a natural fit for us when deciding where to expand our California presence,” Nelson said in a statement released Monday morning. “With its widespread appeal to vacationers and locals, Downtown Disney is an ideal spot for everyone with a sweet tooth to converge.”
The shop will serve the same menu of scratch-made gourmet cupcakes and cookies found in the chain’s Corona del Mar store, which opened in 2006. Though its ice cream will not be sold at Downtown Disney, a Sprinkles representative said the brand hopes to take advantage of its location by serving some Disneyland-inspired treats.
“At the time of opening, we will not have Disney-themed cupcakes, but we hope to bring this option to our customers in the future,” a Sprinkles representative told the Register in an email.
Sprinkles Cupcakes is considered a pioneer in specialty desserts – responsible for an explosion of haute cupcake shops that opened across Southern California before the Great Recession hit.
Nelson, an investment banker turned baker, opened the first Sprinkles in 2005 in Beverly Hills. She sold 200 cupcakes in two hours on opening day. That number eventually jumped to 1,000 a day once word spread that celebrities such as Tyra Banks and Barbra Streisand were devotees.
Sprinkles has 20 locations nationwide and a mobile cupcake truck. It sells its cupcake mixes at more than 250 Williams-Sonoma stores throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 2012, it made more headlines when it debuted a string of “ATM” cupcake dispensers and premium ice cream shops. One of its ATMs recently opened on the USC campus.
Sprinkles’ second shop at Corona del Mar Plaza offers ice cream and is slated to get an ATM dispenser, a company representative said.
The Anaheim store hours will be Sunday through Wednesday from 9 a.m. to midnight, and Thursday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.
In recent years, the mix of stores and dining options have changed at Downtown Disney. In 2014, Starbucks opened a cafe. Earlier this month, Disney announced plans to raze the 17,000-square-foot-plus House of Blues building. The concert venue, which closed earlier this year, is reopening at the nearby GardenWalk mall.
From Mark Eades and the Orange County Register
Disney News Today 