Sugar tsunami hits Denver

Cupcake mania from New York has arrived

By Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 25, 2007 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Linda Mcconnell / Special To The Rocky

Owners, from left, Laura Reynolds, Sara Bencomo and Lisa Herman stand ready to satisfy sugary cravings at Happy Cakes.

Photo by Linda Mcconnell / Special To The Rocky

Joe Yoder, 3, gazes at a display of cupcakes on opening day at Happy Cakes in Denver's Highland neighborhood. Only cupcakes are sold there.

Nearly a decade after the cupcake craze started in New York, the bite-size buttercream confections have finally arrived in Denver.

Happy Cakes, which sells only cupcakes, opened in Denver's Highland neighborhood this month, and Yum Yums Delights, which displays bouquets of cupcakes alongside other baked goods, set up shop on the 16th Street Mall in October. On top of that, catering companies and restaurants like Steuben's Food Service have made the retro-food chic cakes a centerpiece of their dessert offerings.

"There's serious demand. People have been waiting for something like this in Denver," said Heather Maiurro, who opened Yum Yums with her business partner, Tara Langenderfer, after their farmer's market offerings were repeatedly wiped clean this summer.

These aren't Betty Crocker's bake mixes.

Happy Cakes' specialties include Jack & Coke, French Toast and Strawberry Pretzel (described as "a classic Midwestern jello treat wrapped up in a cupcake"). Yum Yums boasts a Joanie Loves Chai Chai and Mango Tango Spice alongside the staple chocolate and vanilla.

The humble cupcake has been around since the 19th century, of course, but it wasn't until New York's Magnolia Bakery gained fame in the 1990s, thanks to a Sex and the City cameo, that adults began to line up for $3 sugar bombs.

Within a few years, cupcakes joined gourmet coffee and grilled cheese in the hipster food pantheon. Cupcake-centric shops popped up from Portland, Ore., to Pittsburgh.

Happy Cakes co-founder Lisa Herman had long heard about cupcake fever bubbling elsewhere. When one of her Regis University MBA classes required her to craft a business plan, penciling out the numbers for a cupcake shop seemed a natural fit.

It might have remained an academic exercise if it weren't for the intervention of Herman's hairdresser. It turned out that two other clients - cupcake mavens and Stapleton neighbors Sara Bencomo and Laura Reynolds - also longed to open their own shop.

"All three of us have baked since we were children," said Bencomo, sitting in the Highlands shop surrounded by more than a dozen cake stands, including several family heirlooms.

So the three self-taught bakers met and decided to give it a go. For nearly a year, Happy Cakes operated online, taking catering orders for birthday parties and corporate clients such as Neiman Marcus and Exclusive Resorts.

But the lure of brick and mortar remained strong.

"We needed a store to make this into a real job," said Reynolds, who juggles raising two young kids along with the business.

Her partners are similarly multitasking: Herman works full time while earning her MBA - she earned an "A" on her cupcake business plan, incidentally. Bencomo worked at an actuary firm and is the mother of a 3-year-old, who coined the name Happy Cakes.

The entrepreneurial story behind Yum Yums shares some of the same themes. Maiurro and Langenderfer for years toiled away at neighboring office cubicles at a promotional marketing company, all the while dreaming of opening their own baking business.

About a year ago, they finally did. Yum Yums also started with an Internet and farmer's market trade before opening their downtown storefront.

Now Maiurro and Langenderfer's typical day starts at 3:30 a.m. in the bakery, and ends some 18 hours later when they close up shop. And they haven't regretted a minute of it.

"People come into our store and, seriously, stand in front of our display cabinet jumping up and down," Maiurro said. "We smile and know we did the right thing."

Both Yum Yums and Happy Cakes think there's enough room in Denver's waistline to accommodate more than one cupcake shop, and a bake sale held earlier this month appears to buttress that view.

Marketing firm Amelie Co. set out 1,500 cupcakes on Dec. 13 for its first-ever "Trendy Cupcake Sale for Charity." Within less than two hours, all the cupcakes were sold out - ending the sale three hours earlier than planned, said Annie Coghill, Amelie's media director. The event raised $2,700 for Operation Frontline.

Happy Cakes' Reynolds chalks up cupcakes' popularity to childhood nostalgia and their simple democratic appeal.

"Everyone gets their own," she said. "And you don't have to share."

davisj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2514

Where to get your cupcake fix

Happy Cakes

happycakesdenver.com

3815 W. 32nd Ave., Denver

* Cupcake flavors include Happy Together (vanilla on chocolate), Red Velvet, Lemon Drop and Cosmo

* $1.50 for minis, $2.50 regular, $3.50 jumbo, 75 cents for frosting shooters

Yum Yums Delights

yumyumsdelights.com

Denver Pavilions, 16th Street Mall

* Cupcake flavors include Mimosa Cream, Egg Nog, Crazy Coconut and Black Forest

* $2.50 each for regular, $4 jumbo

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