Cupcake Trend Fuels Urbandale Baker's Business

Cupcakes, as a food trend, skipped right over Urbandale. We have frozen yogurt shops, but no cupcake shops.

Joan Habel discovered that last year.

"Last spring, I wanted to serve assorted flavors of cupcakes at a birthday party (thanks to all of the cake shows on TV) and researched bakeries in the Urbandale area. Other than grocery stores, my only options were to either contact cake bakers in their homes (uncomfortable) or drive to Valley Junction (which is what I did)," she wrote on Urbandale.Patch.com.

What's so special about cupcakes? They're not new, but food shows like Cupcake Wars, DC Cupcakes and Cupcake Girls have elevated them way above their status as a staple for kids' birthday parties or picnics. 

Cupcake shops started popping up in major cities a few years ago and soon people literally were lining up to buy specialty cupcakes. The trend doesn't seem to be ebbing. The Food Channel named cupcakes one of the [#

That's when Jenny Seese got the idea for, her cupcake catering business. Seese and her family were living just outside Phoenix, AZ. One day while she and her daughters were shopping, they stopped at one of many trendy cupcake shops there. 

"My girls were like: 'Mom, you make better cupcakes than these'," recalled Seese. "I thought, what a fun idea — making cupcakes for a living. I just went home and started messing with some ideas."

Seese, a stay-at-home mother of three, knew she didn't want a full-time job or a store, but she thought cupcakes would make a good in-home business. So she began experimenting with her grandmother's recipes for coconut and red velvet cake.

Valentine's idea: Instead of sending flowers to your sweetie at work, send mini-cupcakes to share. You'll be instantly popular with your loved one's co-workers. 

Her children were in plenty of activities, so Seese built her reputation as a good baker by bringing the cupcakes to many of their events. Soon people were asking her to bake cupcakes for their children's birthday parties.

Seese runs the business out of her Urbandale home — taking orders online or over the phone. Customers can pick up their order at her home, 15314 Northview Drive, or for a small fee, she'll deliver them.

Her business has branched out into making cupcakes for baby and wedding showers, formal dinner parties and even weddings. Her biggest order was 120 dozen mini-cupcakes for a wedding. She made them all fresh, with a little help from her mom and her best friend, in her one-oven kitchen.

What's your favorite cupcake flavor? Tell us in the comments.

Her most popular flavors are red velvet cake and peanut butter cup, which is chocolate cake with Reese's peanut butter chips and peanut butter frosting. She has more than 30 flavors. "I try to make the flavors you want to eat," she said.

She often suggests that people order the mini-cupcakes because them people can sample two to three flavors.

"I don't know that they're gourmet. I try to make them look cute, but I'm more concerned about how the cupcakes taste," she said.

And she sticks to cupcakes — no cakes, tarts or other baked goods. "That's just too much fuss."