Nothing Bundt Cakes

Co-founded by a Huntington Beach native in 1997, Nothing Bundt Cakes began expanding into a national chain around a decade after its first store opened in Las Vegas, including multiple Orange County stores in the 2011 to 2012 timeframe. Today, the chain has 10 locations nicely distributed across the county, including north OC stores in Anaheim and Brea, south OC stores in Laguna Hills and San Clemente, and more central locations in Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Mission Viejo, Orange, Santa Ana, and Westminster.

“Stores” is the right word here, as Nothing Bundt Cakes goes further than some ready-to-eat food businesses in not even pretending to be restaurants. On our most recent visit to the Tustin location at The District at Tustin Legacy, a lone temperature-controlled display case showed off mostly plastic-wrapped bundt cakes in various sizes – Big Bundts ($46+), Bundts ($33+), and single-serving Bundtlets ($6.50+) – with cupcake-sized Bunditinis offered solely by the dozen ($33) in either “signature” or “seasonal” assortments. That’s all, and Nothing Bundt Cakes is pretty serious about its name: With no dining space, tables, or chairs for guests, it didn’t even offer utensils to eat its cakes, and when asked for forks, a worker suggested that we go and steal some from a nearby Whole Foods. The store does sell cake stands, decorative cake toppers, and light party-related merch, though; one of the merch sets apparently includes forks if you’re willing to buy them in a set.