It's a Peace of Cake! serves up gourmet cake pops

2011-07-30T03:25:41Z

You’ve probably seen cake pops on food blogs or at bridal showers or even at Starbucks. The bite-sized treat is becoming a popular alternative to cupcakes.

South Sacramento resident Wendy Bell has made an online business out of her made-from-scratch cake pops called It’s a Peace of Cake!

After seeing a cake pop recipe online, she decided to make her own version using her five basic cake recipes: lemon, chocolate, vanilla, red velvet and coconut.

Bell crumbles the cake and combines it with frosting, rolling it into a ball and then dips it in a chocolate shell and finishes it off with her signature chocolate swirl.

Each cake pop has a different combination of cake and type of chocolate.

· The Decadent Double Fudge has a milk chocolate shell and a dark chocolate swirl.
· The Deeply Red Velvet (the most popular flavor) is dipped in white chocolate and topped with a chocolate swirl and rainbow sprinkles.
· The Luscious Lemon has a white chocolate shell and lemon swirl.
· The Very Vanilla is dipped in dark chocolate with a white chocolate swirl.
· The Crazy Coconut is dipped in milk chocolate and topped with toasted coconut swirl.

She made a batch of Luscious Lemon cake pops for Mother’s Day last year and shared them with her family.

Her niece Candi Fuller, who works as a sign language interpreter – unbeknownst to Bell – brought them to work the next day.

“Everyone just loved them,” Fuller, 33, said. “They thought it was a great idea – this was before Starbucks had come out with their cake pops, so it was a pretty new concept (then).”

Word of mouth has helped grow the business.

Bell made some for her friend who lives in Brentwood. Her friend brought them with her when she went wine tasting at McGrail Vineyards and Winery.

The owner tried the Decadent Double Fudge cake pop and invited Bell to be a vendor at one of the winery’s events.

Winery president Heather McGrail said a lot of customers kept telling her that the chocolate cake pops went really well with the wine, so the winery invited Bell to a Valentine’s Day event where desserts were paired with specific wines.

The Decadent Double Fudge pop was paired with the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.

“That specific wine you get a little chocolate flavor as well as dark cherry,” McGrail said. “It complements the moistness of the double fudge cake pop.”

McGrail said she really likes the presentation of the cake pops and plans to have them at future winery events.

“I think the biggest thing is you see them and they’re adorable and then you taste them and they’re even better than they look, which is hard to believe,” she added.

They were a hit with adults, and they were a big hit with kids, too, as Bell found out when she made 300 cake pops for a school function and every last one sold.

“I remember having to run home and get more – it was just crazy,” Bell said.

She officially began the business in September of last year when she got the license.

The name – It’s a Peace of Cake! – reflects the hippie in her, she said.

“I started looking up idioms for cake,” she said. “When ‘it’s a piece of cake’ came up I thought that was so perfect. That’s where I got it.”

But running the business has not been a piece of cake.

“I’ve learned that there are a lot of components that go into building a business – it’s not just the product,” she said.

However, Bell said she enjoys it, especially the baking.

“No matter how much work I put into it I still enjoy it,” she said. “When I can just sit and bake and dip and roll my cake balls … It’s therapeutic to me.”

All of the baking and assembly is done in a kitchen she rents on 16th street.

She makes about 300 cake pops at a time. She spends three-hour blocks in the kitchen and divides the work into three sessions: first, baking the cakes and making the frosting; then, rolling them into balls and dipping them in chocolate; and last, packaging and displays.

Whenever she can, she uses in-season ingredients such as eggs or lemons from the farmers market. She also uses recycled gift boxes.

Because of the chocolate coating (she uses Guittard melting chocolate), the cake pops should be kept refrigerated.

They last about two weeks in the refrigerator or a month in the freezer, she said.

Yummy Yogurt Cafe on J street recently started selling her cake pops.

Rod Avery, lead partner of the Yummy Yogurt Cafe J Street location, said that as a newly opened business, they were looking to carry other items like pastries in addition to their yogurt.

“It was a good fit for us,” he said. “I’m a small business owner (so) I support small business owners where I can.”

The cake pops are featured in the display case near the register. The cake pops are $2.50 each and come individually wrapped.

Yummy Yogurt Cafe General Manager Samanthia Warren said the cake pops are popular.

“You’re really getting the freshest cake pop around,” she said. “It’s a nice little treat (but it’s also) kind of health-conscious” because the portion is small.

“Not all of us ladies like to give up our cake,” she added.

For now Bell does not have a storefront and operates her business solely online. Cake pops can be ordered by the dozen for $2.50 each or in larger quantities for a discounted price.

She said lately she’s been getting orders for bridal showers, baby showers and birthday parties.

The cake pops can be customized with different flavors and different colors.

“(If) you’re having a baby shower and you’re having a boy we can customize to blue to fit your theme,” she said.

Bell also does cake towers – where multiple cake pops are arranged in the shape of a cake – which are popular for weddings.

“They’re designed to mimic a wedding cake,” she said. “(You) can add a cake on top or flowers.”

Bell does almost all of the baking herself but she said her family and her three children help out a lot.

She is experimenting with new recipes to incorporate liqueurs in her cake pops and she is also working on a gluten-free recipe.

“My hope is soon to have my own kitchen,” she said, adding that she would like to have one by the end of the year.

When asked if she ever thought she would have her own cake pop business, Bell said, “I knew I wanted to do something with food, I just didn’t know what.”

“It’s kind of taken on a life of its own and I’m going with it,” she added.

Bell did her first public event in Sacramento at the Sacramento Cyclefest Bicycle Show earlier this month. She and her cake pops will be at the 13th annual A Taste of Sacramento Oct. 14.

“I’m looking at that being my Sacramento launch,” she said.

Her niece Fuller said she has yet to meet anyone who doesn’t like her aunt’s cake pops.

“She has the potential to go far with it,” she said of the business. “Hopefully we’ll see it on Food Network one day.”

For more information about It’s a Peace of Cake! or to place an order, visit the website or Facebook page.

Business

It's a Peace of Cake! serves up gourmet cake pops