A new bakery brings French mousses, cheesecake and more to South Coast Plaza

For the last two years, South Coast Plaza has hosted the Asian Pacific Food Fest during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month as a way to showcase the plaza’s Asian American chefs and restaurant owners, of which there are many. Yu Cakes, an upscale dessert shop concept, has drawn lines the past two years at the event building the anticipation of its first Orange County location. On July 4, Yu Cake officially opened its doors on level 1 of the Saks Fifth Avenue wing.

Owned by Bruce and Yu Guan, the couple started Yu Cake in 2019 in the San Gabriel Valley. Yu is a self-taught baker turned pastry chef who uses Japanese Casarine baking flour and European chocolate in her confections. The shop is known for elegant and extravagant cakes like mille crepe cakes, made from layers upon layers of crepes with different filling, and cheese cakes, using organic ingredients and tropical fruit flavors like mango, dragon fruit and durian.

Today, Yu Cake has four Southern California locations with stores in San Gabriel, Rosemead, City of Industry and now Costa Mesa.

“South Coast Plaza is so influential … we thought it was a perfect fit for Yu Cake,” said Bruce Guan. “It’s a great opportunity to introduce our high-quality desserts to O.C. residents.”

Yu Cake at South Coast Plaza offers the cakes the brand has become known for, as well as pastries and cookies and a variety of iced fresh fruit drinks, milk teas and coffee. The menu also contains offerings that can only be found at the new location.

“Yu Cake has launched a range of exclusive products at our South Coast Plaza location, including French mousses, double cheesecake and a hot coffee series,” said Bruce. “The tiramisu coffee is becoming a favorite of shoppers.”

This week the shop launched two additional cheesecake flavors exclusive to South Coast Plaza: brown sugar boba cheesecake and Oreo Basque cheesecake. Bruce said the couple has plans to eventually introduce a menu of Japanese-style sandwiches, more popularly known as sandos using Yu Cake milk bread.

“My wife, Yu, who creates all our offerings, has perfected the milk bread that is used for the sandos,” said Bruce.

Yu Cake is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.