As many of you know (as I have shared a lot on the forum), we started out last year making high end, gourmet cakes and cupcakes from scratch, out of a rented commercial kitchen.
Our cakes were made from the best ingredients we could find, and we put our heart and souls into each and every one of them. But we struggled to find 'competitive pricing' in our area, as the cost of good ingredients and labor pushed our cake prices beyond most of our local bakeries.
We also learned quickly that Cute & Cheap is far more important (in this area) than quality. Which is ok, but it put us in a bad place, focusing on good quality ingredients.
Then, it happened by accident. We made a few cake pops in our store with the scraps. They not only sold out, but we suddenly had fans that were addicted. In very little time, our pops were our main selling item.
Being a small bake shop, we soon found it was way too overwhelming to do cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and pops. We decided to change plans, and go with what was working.
Cake Pops. We now use the same high quality cakes, and all butter flavor infused buttercreams to create our cake pops, but we are able to better manage our time and efforts by being able to focus on one type of product. Now, we do one thing and do it very very well.
We have our pops in several stores now, and we ship throughout the US. We have more stores lined up, and we are growing rather quickly. This is fun. It used to be so stressful. Now it is what it should be - fun and rewarding. Still, very hard work (I put in 20 hour days, 7 days a week). But the stress is gone.
It was sad to move away from the cakes, and cupcakes which we love - but as a business we needed to do what was right to survive and keep our customers happy. Maybe one day we can bring back the cakes . . but for now POPs it is!
We even have a new cake pop site (http://tcpops.com).
Hoping to grow the business more and more . . maybe even hire a few temps before the year ends, if things keep moving in this direction.
HOLDING MY BREATH!!!!
PS . . I recall someone asking a while back if anyone knew of a 'Cake Pop' only bakery? The answer is: "Yes, I do."
I miss my cakes though!!
Good for you in finding what works and going with it! I wish you much luck.
I have seen cake pops made several different ways. I want to attempt them this weekend. Is it best to crumble the cake and mix with frosting, or use the pan and just decorate the outside?
Shanienee, it really comes down to your personal preference. We mix the frosting. But we do that because we make it all from scratch . . the cakes, the frosting etc. We put a lot of effort into creating very unique flavor infused butter creams. If it was a can of pre made frosting, I would skip it . . but that's just my personal opinion.
Baked round cake balls that you decorate on the outside will be more will be more dry (which some prefer) and less work (which lots of people prefer lol).
Mixing the frosting will be moist, and your hands will hurt like crazy form mixing it. It is very thick like road tar that is half dry lol. Also, dipping a wet cake pop takes extra care that you don't add took much buttercream, or your pops will be top heavy and fall off the sticks.
Good Luck !
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