Ava’s Cupcake Shoppe & Cafe

Had the elvis cupcakes today and was disappointed at how dry the cake was. It was actually as if it was a couple days old and left out on the counter. I will probably only visit for the gluten free cupcakes for my sister as long as she likes them.

I was dying to try these cupcakes after I saw them on Cupcake Wars, but like other reviews I found them to be overpriced and dry. My husband had a chocolate cake with some vanilla frosting, but said it was very dry. I had the apple cupcake which was okay, but the buttercream frosting on top just tasted like eating a stick of butter.

Overpriced and subpar. Laking finesse and value for the price. Being that it’s cupcakes and cookies, I expected much more. The cookie and cupcake I tried left a bad aftertaste– not worth the price they charge. They have the Food TV sign to show that they were on cupcake wars but they do not have the quality to back it up.

LOVE Ava’s Cupcakes! I stumbled upon them by chance when I was looking for a last minute treat for a birthday. The shop is cute and dainty, and I haven’t had a cupcake that I didn’t like. They have amazing combinations and moist cake… they even had a bunch of special flavors for St. Patty’s Day. I tried and LOVED all of the following cupcakes: strawberry champagne, apple pie, shamrock shake, pumpkin, lemon, chocolate peanut butter. And I can’t wait to try more!
Definitely recommend Ava’s!

Great Shop! I went in to purchase cupcakes for my husbands birthday. As I was there I decided to have selfie cookies made for him. The girl behind the counter was so helpful and made them for me last minute. They are super nice and accommodating.

Not impressed by this place. I tried a red velvet which was comparable to a supermarket cupcake. I also tried the key lime cupcake which seemed stale and the key lime jelly-​like center tasted like chemicals. The price was about $ 1 lower than crumbs but the cupcakes are about half the size. Overpriced.
Two stars for appearance, as the cupcakes looked way better than they tasted.

I’ve tried many different places and while they aren’t awful they aren’t good either. Very dry flavorless cake. The icing lacked any flavor as well. We had a hard time identifying a few of the flavors by smell and taste. Truthfully they did not seem very fresh.
The selection was limited and they were out of a lot of the flavors.
Prices certainly can be lower or at the very least serve a larger cupcake. I paid over $ 13 for 4 cupcakes.
Have individual minis for little kids.
If you’re in the mall and have a sweet tooth then go for one. Otherwise I wouldn’t recommend.

A nationally recognized cupcake bakery in downtown Rockaway!
Love the combination of flavors they do and the seasonal offerings! The girls there are always pleasant and helpful — willing to make suggestions about your preferences! Excellent price for a delicious cupcake! And can we talk about their hand pies!!! OMG!!!

Really great bakery shop! I don’t understand some of the negative reviews; I found these cupcakes moist, perfectly balanced, not too sweet; and full of flavor.
Mind you I came in 45 minutes before closing on Super Bowl Sunday. There was plenty to choose from and everything was super inviting! Even the counter girl, Emily, was super nice and helped us choose some of her favorites. FYI, if you like lemon you have to try their lemon cupcakes, it was definitely the favorite at my Super Bowl party!
I’ve tried gourmet cupcakes from Sprinkles, Crumbs, Sweet Sugar and Sunshine, etc. etc. in NYC, these are definitely up there with the best of them and am glad to see a great shop in Rockaway! Keep up the great work!

Dry, bland, small & overpriced. I dont understand the positive reviews. I bought different varieties for various people… and no one thought they were that good. When I told them the price, they thought I got ripped off given the result.
Try Jared’s Stuffed Cupcakes in Nutley… omg!

Finally a real treat for those of us gluten free folk as well as those that aren’t.
Lotsa surprises
In the variety, and the gluten free cupcakes are such a wonderful treat!!!
I am a raving fan !!!
Oh, and the staff, especially Cassie, are fantastically friendly!!!

Ava’s just keeps getting better and better. I go here for my sugar high! More yummy goodness, and online ordering. I ordered the sugar selfies for my daughter and it was a huge hit.
Everything is made with real ingredients just like your grandma made! No artificial anything.

Vegan Cupcake Alert!
I’m a huge fan of cupcakes, so even if I can’t eat them, I love to go in and at least look to see what creative flavors or designs they’ve come up with but nothing makes me happier then going into a Cupcakery and stumbling upon vegan cupcakes!
And that’s exactly what happened at Ava’s! I’m not going to lie the huge «Food Network Cupcake Wars» signs around the place is what really lured me in — I love that show — but I don’t remember these guys being on it (must be one that I missed).
Not only did they have vegan cupcakes — but they had more options than just chocolate & vanilla — which makes me even happier.
They day that we went, they had Vegan Pumpkin, Peanut Butter Cup, Cookies & Cream, Chocolate and Vanilla. I got the Pumpkin and my boyfriend got the Chocolate.
Other than Sweet Avenue (NJ), Sticky Fingers (DC) and Vegan Treats (PA), most vegan cupcakes I’ve had just don’t seem to have as much flavor as their non-​vegan counter parts. I’m not sure how these guys make them but let me just say that they were definitely up there with the three that I mentioned above. Both the pumpkin frosting and cake were distinctly pumpkin tasting — kinda like having a little taste of fall in your mouth.
Unfortunately, I’m not in the Rockaway are all that often, but I will be sure to find my way in the area more often now :)
Note: They also carry gluten-​free cupcakes.

I drive by Ava’s everyday from work since moving here in June and haven’t noticed it until one day I tried to go to the pharmacy across the street. The pharmacy was closed but when I looked across the street I saw the cutest cupcake shop with a sign that said winner of cupcake wars. That drew me in. I ordered 6 cupcakes from them. My favorite, which is in the photo below, is the salted caramel cupcake. The icing is really good and not overly sweet. The cake portion is fluffy and moist. I definitely recommend and am glad Ava ‘s is in my neighborhood.

Moist cupcakes, innovative flavors. Can’t wait to come back and try their version of the cronut!
Came in on a Saturday and had the following:
Coconut Macaron– not too sweet
Reg Carrot Cupcake– good cupcake if you’re not looking for raisin/​carrot chunks inside the cupcake– I like mine filled with raisins, nuts, carrot shreds so I’ll have to skip this next time.
Reg Banana Guava Cupcake– So delicious and moist! filled with banana bits and buttercream. The banana overpowered the guava taste so I’d add more guava purree if I were to keep calling it banana guava.

I discovered this place on my way home. After several drives back and forth to work I noticed the «cupcake wars winner» that sparked my curiosity to stop and give them a shot. Just as a side note — I love LOVE baking and sweets! especially cupcakes (they’re mini bites of happiness =)) So after trying Ava’s I was hooked! I stop by here every couple of weeks. Also, now whenever I go over to someone’s house or celebrate a birthday or as a thank you instead of bring wine I bring cupcakes and they are always a hit!
I am pretty sure I’ve made half of my friends and coworkers addicted to Ava’s!
Personal favorites — Guava Banana (what an amazing combo!) and
Salted Vanilla caramel or the salted chocolate caramel — tie
btw, if you join their facebook page you can see their specials of the day and which flavors they have available.

I thought with Crumbs located in Rockaway Mall, Ava’s would have competition but I don’t think they have much to worry about. I tried cupcakes at Crumbs but I wasn’t impressed. The cupcakes at Crumbs are too big and $ 4. Why go there when you can go to Ava’s and enjoy variety of flavors for $ 3 a piece. And on some days, the cupcakes are $ 2 each.
I also love the fact that Ava’s is keeping up with the trends. They are now serving dossanuts (a cross between donuts and croissants). They have good service and opened late.
Here are my favorite Cupcakes so far:
Chocolate Salted Caramel
Red Velvet
Banana cream pie
Pink Champagne and Strawberries
Cherry cheesecake
Toasted Coconut
The Grasshopper (tastes like Andes mints)
And so many more to try… will update this list soon!

I don’t buy into the Food Network hype unless a place can back it up… and Ava’s did just that. I had tried Ava’s cupcakes before, I think someone had brought them into work for a birthday. However, this time they were fresh and they were pretty much exactly what I needed at that exact moment.
On this occasion, I wasn’t even at their storefront location… they had come to a fundraiser we were doing for my daughter’s softball team and had a little booth set up. One table, one over their plastics multiple-​shelved containers, and boxes of extra underneath. First thing I did when I got there that evening was to buy three cupcakes (wife was away so she missed out… too bad for her). We took home a peanut butter cup, an Oreo madness and a salted caramel creation that had I known ahead of time hoe friggin’ good it was going to be I would have bought all of them.
I don’t have to get too technical with my description:
Oreo Madness-​I would have lost a finger had I tried to take a piece from my son
Peanut Butter Cup-​my daughter, I don’t think she tasted anything after the first bite she ate it so fast
Salted Caramel (or whatever it was called) – was simply baked perfection. A delicious balance of sweet and salty in each bite.
I’m glad the cupcake trend hasn’t collapsed quite yet because there are still a few places doing it right – and Ava’s is high on that short list. Winning cupcake wars might have gotten them more business, but with cupcakes like these they’ll keep ‘me coming through the door for a long time. Next comes the all important red velvet critique from my wife. She can’t TELL you what the perfect red velvet cupcake is like, but she knows it when she tastes it… hmmmm.

The Banana Guava Cupcake was nothing short of amazing! It’s not difficult at all to see why it won Cupcake Wars.
I bought a six pack sampler composed of Red Velvet, Snickers, Peanut Butter Cup, Blueberry w/​Açai, Cannoli, and a S’mores cupcake and they were all delicious. The only complaint I have and reasoning for only 4 stars is the fact that the S’mores cupcake was super dry. My favorite would definitely have to be the Snickers. A delicious topping of peanut butter (I think?) icing and chocolate with a delicious chocolate interior with more peanuts was AMAZING. I’ll definitely be coming around more often!

Yum!
The cupcake trend is still going strong, I see. Ava’s is located less than a mile from my office so after reading the great reviews, I decided to head over to formulate my own opinion. I was greeted with a bright «Hello!» when I walked in, which was nice, and immediately got a lot of help from the employee. She informed me that there was a second window of cupcakes to choose from on the side of the counter and let me know that each cupcake is $ 3. Nice to have that price tag bring you back to reality when you want to stuff your face full of sugary calories.
I hate the show «Cupcake Wars» so I wouldn’t have known about the banana guava cupcake if not for Unilocal.However, since I don’t care much for the taste of either guava or banana, I decided to try the pink champagne cupcake because it was covered in edible glitter and the salted caramel chocolate cupcake because I LOVE salted caramel. Though, I have to say that the banana guava cupcake did look pretty; all of the cupcakes looked cute and appetizing.
I’m guessing that the majority of these cupcakes are filled — I think that’s a growing trend in the cupcake industry — because the pink champagne cupcake was filled with a strawberry jam and the salted caramel cupcake was a chocolate cupcake filled with salted caramel. I didn’t really get champagne from the pink cupcake — just tasted like a plain cake to me. But both cakes were sweet and delicious, though a bit too cloyingly sweet for my taste, especially with the overwhelming amount of frosting dumped on top. Then again, my sweet tooth is tiny and I can’t take much more than a bite of chocolate before I start to feel a little icky. The cake itself was soft and moist on the inside though the outsides were kind of crunchy, as though they might’ve been a day or two old.
Overall, they weren’t the best cupcakes I’ve ever had but they were pretty good and the variety of flavors and creativity is refreshing. Also, the shop itself is cute with a few tables and seats if you want to get your cupcake to stay.