Sweet Success: Two students cook up weekend profits
She’s been baking for about two hours—and it’s already 5 p.m. For someone who usually begins her Fridays in the kitchen at 7 a.m., this is an unusually late start.
Now, to any professional baker preparing her shop for the day, 7 a.m. isn’t early at all. However, on a college campus it’s a torturous time, and one that is avoided at all costs. So while the lights are out in most dorm rooms, the cramped, tiny kitchen is wafting the first scents of sweetness out to greet the morning. But the 21-year-old inside isn’t a fulltime baker at all. She’s a college student who is busy juggling a Human Relations major, a division one sport and oh – a cupcake business.
A Sweet Idea
Manika
Gamble, a senior at High Point University, began “Baby Cakes” at the beginning of the second semester of her junior year. With family ties in New York, she gained inspiration from trends in the city. “Actually, I wanted to start my own yogurt business—frozen yogurt—because I know that’s really big in New York,” Gamble stated; but her sister helped to steer her in a more practical direction. “She was emailing me one day, and said ‘Cupcakes are really big in New York too—do cupcakes!’”
Thus began her life as a budding entrepreneur.
Gamble’s friend and teammate on the Women’s Track and Field team, sophomore Shannon Corbett, jumped at the opportunity to partner with her in the business venture.
“We went to the library for two hours and we made up a menu,” Corbett recalled. “We just kind of teamed up.”
Strolling through the grocery store on one of her first shopping trips, Gamble had 10 boxes of cake mix in her cart. “[The cashiers] always have something to say. They’re always like, ‘You bakin’ cakes today?’” she said.
Two-hundred dollars later, they were ready to hit the kitchen. However, for the two young and inexperienced bakers, the reality of starting a business was much harder than they expected.
Recipe, what recipe?
The girls had taken money in advance for orders that customers had placed, and considering that they had yet to perfect a recipe, Gamble and Corbett wondered how they would pull this off.
Seeking help from the recipes of Betty Crocker and Martha Stewart, Gamble and Corbett relied on their taste buds, and those professionals, to guide them to a great tasting cupcake.
Still after filling small orders, they were wanted a challenge, and boy did they get one!
“Shannon got the first big order,” Gamble said. “It was a dozen red velvet cupcakes and that was before we even had a red velvet recipe!”
She was in HPU’s student center when given their first bulk order. “I was just going around asking people if they wanted to buy cupcakes. One girl just randomly came up [and said] ‘I’ll have a dozen of your red velvets’,” Corbett recalled.
Bursting with the excitement about the order, Corbett immediately informed her partner. “I was so pumped!” she exclaimed. After that, “Baby Cakes” started to get a good amount of business.
Although the majority of sales result from single cupcake purchases around campus, Baby Cakes did provide 100 cupcakes for HPU’s Benefit Ball last year.
Another teammate, Sebastien Bonnot, helped spread the word by starting a Facebook and Twitter page for the girls to post information about their business.
At that point, Baby Cakes was operating almost every day, making a hectic schedule for Gamble and Corbett. However, in that time they learned a lot about what it would take to run a business. So when the two returned to school this fall, they resumed their business with a greater understanding of what does and doesn’t work.
Behind the Scenes
The alarm sounds at 5:30 p.m., “I gotta get this,” Gamble says, jumping in her grey track shorts, T-shirt and Adidas sandals. She runs to tend to the six red velvets and six chocolate cupcakes that have just come to life at the sound of the oven’s buzzer. With her black oven mitt in hand, she plunges a knife into the center of the fluffy delicacy—looks like these are finished!
She pours the last of the chocolate batter into her cupcake molds, lined with coffee filters. “I’ll probably get three more out of this, and then I have red velvet left to make,” she says.
Considering those are her favorite, it’s no surprise that Gamble is saving the best for last. “I’ll probably try one in a little bit when they’re cooled off, to see how they taste,” she says. Such a daunting task that comes with running a bakery!
Manika heads to the sink and begins to wash a chocolate-covered mixing bowl, which has finally surrendered after a long day of baking. From the look of the countertops, now covered with measuring cups, batter-filled bowls and naked cupcakes waiting for icing, there’s no question she’s done this a few times before.
“We [started during] the peak point in the [track] season last year, so there was a lot going on, but I feel like this year we’ve been able to manage it better. I feel like we’re more organized with it,” Shannon said.
Not only have they nailed a cake mix consisting of a secret recipe, paired with one special ingredient, but they have perfected their homemade frostings too. They have also developed new flavors.
The bakers offer everything from red velvet, to vanilla and chocolate; Funfetti and chocolate chip, to mint chocolate chip and marble. The frostings are also available in a wide variety. Customers can choose from vanilla, chocolate, cream cheese, Oreo, peanut butter and mint.
As opposed to an every day schedule, Baby Cakes operates primarily on the weekends, giving the bakers time to breathe between classes and track.
“Don’t ruin your social life for cupcakes,” Corbett said laughing.
Even with the schedule change, the girls remain hard at work. They have designated Saturday, their only day off from track, as their day to sell.
How do they manage? Manika bakes the cupcakes and Shannon helps deliver.
“She usually has them in these big containers, so we lug them from place to place going around to whoever we know will buy them. There are always certain people that we know are going to get them—like security,” Shannon said.
They usually sell about 100 cupcakes a weekend at $2.50 a piece, profiting roughly $250. Sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Club on campus, Baby Cakes can even accept payment through passport cards.
The Future of “Baby Cakes”
With Manika in her final year, the fate of Baby Cakes lies in Corbett’s hands. “It’s gonna be really hard without her—I don’t like to think about that yet,” Corbett said.
Gamble seems to think otherwise.
“Shannon’s gonna be able to take over pretty well…It’s probably gonna boom as soon as I leave!” she said jokingly.
As far as Gamble’s future goes, surprisingly baking has no place in it. But it was valuble entrepreneurship experience.
“I just knew [cupcakes] were popular; I’m not planning to do this after I graduate,” she said.
Corbett agrees that this was a way to develop business experience rather than to develop a deep passion for baking. “People keep asking me when we go around, ‘Oh, do you guys wanna be bakers?’” A simultaneous “no” from both girls, followed by laughter, is their typical response.
As Gamble puts it, “It is and will be a college thing.”