Name: Eileen Peebles, Gordy Cisneros and Jake Jacobsen
Occupation: Owners, Cupcake Craving
Ages: 47, 41, and 41
Popular cupcake flavors: Red velvet, monkey mania, s’more galore What made you all decide to go into the cupcake business? Eileen: Jake had left UPS and I had left Enron. We were stay-at-home parents and we met when volunteering at (their children’s) school. [Jake and Gordy] had been friends since the third-grade. After a few years, I was like ‘I have to get a job." We looked at our complementary skills and thought, “What can we do together?” How can we incorporate our family and what can we do that’s fun instead of stressful. There is a stress to running a bakery, but it’s a different stress. Everyone that walks through the door is happy. We wanted to be in a business that was positive.
How do you come up with new flavors for cupcakes? What are your bestsellers? Gordy: We just sit down together and come up with ideas and sometimes people come in and ask for a flavor and we will make it if it sounds interesting. Our top seller is the red velvet (white cake with cocoa powder, red dye and cream cheese icing) and then it’s plain old chocolate. Even with so many varieties, that’s what people always like.
Does everyone get to bake and create? Eileen: I’m allowed now to fill cupcakes and frost them. Gordy: We are bringing her along slow. Eileen: I’m the one that comes in and says somebody wants "X" flavor and how are we going to do that. Sometimes I come up with ideas [for cupcake flavors] and they look at me like I have completely lost it.
What have you learned about the cupcake business that has surprised you? Eileen: People really like a variety. We made a decision that we would have standard cupcakes—about 16 to 18 of them—that we would have every day. And we were going to supplement that with a monthly flavor. But what’s surprising is that customers really have a following for flavors and are not reluctant to tell you to keep it.
With the number of cupcake shops opening in the area, is there room for everyone? Eileen: Absolutely. We are each different and each [cupcake shop] has a different angle—the more cupcake businesses, the more people will think about cupcakes.
Cupcake Craving 2100 Arden Way Sacramento (916) 923-5995
» DOWN BY THE SEA Crab lovers feasted at the Sacramento Children’s Home’s crab feed and auction, Down by the Sea, at the Folsom Community Center. Originally an orphanage, the home now serves as a safe haven for abused and neglected children.
» DOWN BY THE SEA
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