Growing Pains

When I was little, I used to get leg aches. My mother would say that it was "Growning pains." There was even a TV sitcom called "Growing Pains." What a strange way to start of my blog this time, right? Well, I should have known that when we decided to take a leap of faith back in mid-November to have our own bakery facility and storefront, that it would come with it's own set of Growing Pains. There's that word again, it sounds painful doesn't it? Well, when trying to open a food service business, it can be a bit painful, but in the end, instead of an inch taller, you are rewarded with a beautiful business and if you're lucky, room to grow a bit bigger. I will say that once, we found the "right" person to deal with, things got done and got done in a timely manner.

So, in case you don't follow us on Facebook or Twitter, I'm talking about our brand new store!

We signed a lease the end of November and after a two month process of getting everything permitted, built, inspected and approved, we are ready to move! Our new store location will not only allow us to be more streamlined for our shipping customers, but will give the residents of the Springfield MO area a new bakery to visit and of course, buy our famous Cake Pops! We are expanding our line of local customers to include cupcakes, mini cupcakes, cookies, muffins, brownies and even a few individual pies. We're very excited, if you can't tell. (big smile)

Our new address is 1805 E Seminole, Springfield MO 65804. Our new phone number is 417.886.CPOP (2767). How cute is that phone number? I love it!
Our store hours will be 9am - 6pm Mon - Sat.

I actually meant to write more as the process unfolded, but with the Christmas holiday, time for writing a blog was not found and I thought January would prove to have more time, but between orders, being sick with the flu and store stuff, the month flew buy. I am hoping that having 1 facility that houses our commercial kitchen and my office, will afford me time to work on the blog more often, as well as being more organized. It was hard to have my office at home and everything else at the shop.

We are planning our Grand Opening on February 7th from 9am - 6pm. The ribbon cutting will be at 11am, which is done by the Springfield Chamber of Commerce. If you are in the area or within driving distance, I do hope that you will try to make it on the 7th. We will have merchandise give aways, free samples of our newest flavors of Cake Pops as well as other bakery items. We will also be introducing our newest Cake Pop, The Vanessa. Named after one of our celebrity customers.

Here is one last teaser photo of the new shop.
Enjoy!
Deb

Ring in 2011 with $11 Cake Pops!

It's a New Year and so many exciting things are happening for The Cake Pop Company, LLC. To celebrate and ring in 2011 we are going to have a 1 Day Sale on our Classic Cake Pops! There isn't a discount code to enter, we're just lowering our price for New Years Day to $11 (get it? 2011....$11, tehehe) per dozen. We do ask that you limit your purchase to 2 dozen. Your special purchase will need to be used/shipped by January 31, 2011. This is our way to say Thank You for making 2010 a successful year for us. We could not have done it without you, our customers.


Now, on to some exciting news that some of you may or may not know about.......we will be moving soon, into our own facility and storefront! We are very excited and are ready to have room to grow and a storefront to service the "sweet" needs of Springfield. The plans have been approved by me and our landlord and now we are just waiting for the good people in the city building office of Springfield MO to approve them and issue the building permits. Once we get that, I'm sure that it won't be long until we can move. I have purchased new appliances, the new tile floor has been installed and the remaining details are being purchased and/or ordered this week. I can't wait to show you the progress.

We are planning on extending our product line and hope that some of the items that we will make and carry can be shipped nation wide along with our delicious Cake Pops. We will have some new Cake Pops to unveil and of course, there will be a Grand Opening party that is guaranteed to be the talk of the town. So, stay tuned for more details.

Christmas Rush

The Christmas rush is over, and what a rush it was. We were making Cake Pops around the clock from Thanksgiving until Christmas. I'm not joking, our average day was 16 hours in the shop, but some days it was 18 hours! We started the day after Thanksgiving with a huge Corporate order that we received from a major pharmaceutical company, 600 dozen to be exact. Yes, that is correct....600 dozen or 7,200 Cake Pops! 1,800 of those Cake Pops were the adorable little panda bears that are pictured. We recruited some of our customers/fans to help, as well as family members taking vacation time to help out. We couldn't have done it without our friends and family, that's for sure! It took us about 12 days to get this accomplished. The whole time that we shut down for this huge order, other corporate orders and individual orders started flooding in. Our long days and nights didn't end until Christmas Eve. Apparently, our Cake Pops were a popular gift to send to loved ones this year. We are thankful for each and every order and that you trust us with your gift giving needs.

We have exciting changes that will be happening in 2011 and I will be blogging more so that you can share in our growth and changes. We are moving into our own kitchen facility soon and will be opening a storefront. I will share the progress with you, as things change.

We hope that you had a lovely Christmas and want you to know that we appreciate YOU, our blog followers, as well as our Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

Sugar Rush & Charities

Something exciting happened recently, I saw my simple idea come to life and it was bigger and better than I expected. I'm talking about Sugar Rush. While making Cake Pops, I usually have time to do some thinking and soul searching. As far back as I can remember, my Mother would help others; by supplying a meal to someone that had lost a loved one or had been in the hospital. She was selfless in her giving and prayers. I knew that when I started my business, that I wanted to give back to my community, to carry on my Mother's tradition of helping others. I try to donate a Cake Pop arrangement as a auction item, to every charity that approaches me for a donation, but it didn't seem like enough. One day last year, I came up with the idea of a dessert sampling paired with a charity and so Sugar Rush was born. Right after that, my business really took off and I could not find time to work on this new project. That is until the Drury University SIFE team approached me about helping me promote my business. I explained my idea and they jumped at the chance to help me plan and get this off the ground.

We met on a weekly basis and my admiration for these students grew. They worked so hard to help get this idea off the ground and I am proud to say that it was a big success! I had chosen the charity, Care to Learn Foundation. They help children in our area, who are in poverty, by meeting their daily needs for items from shoes, coats, food and even hygene products. It was so fun to work with Morey from Care to Learn.

The event was held on November 16th at The Veridian, who graciously volunteered their venue. The evening was magical and a total Sugar Rush! We definitely named it correctly! Ha! There were over 350 tickets sold and more than 400 in attendance, including vendors. 24 restaurants, bakeries and coffee shops brought their best desserts for sampling. We even debuted our new flavor of the month for December; Chocolate Peppermint Cake with crushed Peppermints on top. Deee-lish! I'm still not sure of the amount that we raised but will find out the final numbers next week. We are hoping that the funds that we raised will be matched by Care to Learn founder's brother, Brad Pitt and by Bass Pro owner, Johnny Morris.

If you are in the Springfield, Missouri area and missed this wonderful fundraiser, you only have to wait 1 year. Yes, we will be hosting the event again next year and hopefully it will be bigger than ever!

Flavor of the Month & Charity of the Month

Aren't they just the cutest little Cake Pops? Our Halloween Characters are online ready for orders now.

This month, we have started something new. We are now offering a Flavor of the Month. Sometimes there might even be 2 Flavors offered, but this month there is only the one and it's a fan favorite: Pumpkin Spice. It is like a piece of pumpkin pie made into a Cake Pop and it is so yummy! You will not be disappointed.

Along with our Flavor of the Month, we decided to start a Charity of the Month too. When you order the Flavor of the Month 10% of the Retail Sales of this special flavor will be donated to a special charity each month. This month's charity is Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month and since my own mother had breast cancer and passed away, it is a cause that is near and dear to me. There is no special code to enter, just place an order for the Pumpkin Spice Cake Pops and we will donate 10% of your order to BCFO.

Half Price Sale on Tuesday

Classic Cake Pops on SALE Tuesday for HALF PRICE!

You read that right, I'm putting our Classic Cake Pops on Sale this coming Tuesday for Half Price! No, I haven't lost my mind, I just wanted to do something for my wonderful customers, fans and followers. So, this particular blog is going to go over the ground rules for this once in a lifetime kind of sale.


GROUND RULES:

This sale is only for Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010

Limit: 1 Dozen Classic Cake Pops for Half Price. ($10.50) By Classic Cake Pops we are referring to our round Cake Pops, like the photo above. You can choose 2 cake flavors and 2 candy coating colors. You also have a choice between swirls or sprinkles.

Order must be done online at www.cakepopco.com (NO phone calls please - you MUST order online)

Shipping (if needed) will be included with payment. Your options are FedEx Priority Overnight and 2 Day service. The temps are still too high for Ground Shipping. Please do not pick Local Springfield MO pick up option if you do not live in the Springfield MO area.

Orders must be paid for on day of sale, but you will have 30 days to use your half price dozen. (You can use a credit card with PayPal, if you don't have an account already set up)

You need to specify what date you'd like your order to arrive in the "comment" section of the order form. This is very important. We are anticipating over 100 orders and it will cut into production time, if we have to email or call every person to find out when they need their order. If you are unsure, try to estimate the best you can, so look at those calendars for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

The Secret Code for this 1 Day Half Price Sale is: yum half off

Enjoy!
Deb

Far too long

It's been over a month since my last post. I'd like to say time flies when you're having fun, but moving 4 people into 3 different directions is anything but fun! My husband and I have moved into a new phase of our lives......we now have an empty nest. The transition has been easy because all three of our kids live in the area, but we're excited to be able to focus on the business more and have time to ourselves.

So now that I've explained my absence, let me catch you up on what HAS been happening with The Cake Pop Company. I am working on a new line of Cake Pops. I don't want to let too much out of the bag, because we're working up a big release and a whole campaign for the new products. For years I worked in an office setting and didn't have the chance to be creative, so this is so exciting for me to actually create new flavors and designs. I'm anxious to share them with you, but all in good time.

Earlier in August we received an order from Toulouse Gourmet in New Orleans. They needed 450 Cake Pops for the HBO Premier of the new Spike Lee Documentary called "If God is willing and Da Creek Don't Rise." Of course we jumped at the chance to be apart of this film premier. My husband and I have a special connection to New Orleans, because we spent our honeymoon and our 1st Anniversary there. We decided that with the heat it would be best for us to drive the order down to NOLA ourselves. My sister-in-law lived there for many years and hadn't been back since Katrina, so the three of us set out with Cake Pops in tow, south bound to New Orleans. We delivered the beautiful Cake Pops to Toulouse Gourmet the morning after we arrived there and met Russ and some of his staff. They were so nice and so great to work with. I look forward to working with them on some of their other events. After delivering the Cake Pops, we were then able to spend the next three days reacquainting ourselves with the fascinating and amazing city of New Orleans. The shops! The sights! The Riverwalk! Bourbon Street! The FOOD!!!! We basically ate our way through the city. It was the most amazing food and desserts that we had ever eaten. I can't wait to get back down there. Don't you just love the old world charm in the photos below? I miss it already. I know that we won't wait another 25 years to visit there!
As if moving and a trip to New Orleans didn't keep me busy enough, we threw in a local Bridal Expo. We made 1,200 sample size Cake Pops to give out to local brides, mothers of the brides, best friends, etc. It was amazing to see people get so excited about our Cake Pops. We literally had people coming to our booth, telling us that someone had told them that they HAD to come try our Cake Pops! Cake Pops caused quite a buzz! We even recognized a few customers and Facebook fans. Thank you to everyone that stopped by.

I promise that I will try to do better about posting new blogs on a semi-regular basis. August was such a whirlwind of a month, but then again.....Christmas is coming! (Yikes!)