“Having the pink box immediately became a trademark in our area and helped to make Babycakes special,” Natalie explains. Soon she opened her Babycakes Cupcakery storefront in her hometown of Abingdon, Virginia. Babycakes is a gourmet cupcake bakery, coffee shop and “unique eats” café. She used to have a second location in Kingsport, Tennessee, but after about three years she realized it was too much work having two locations while being a mom of three busy kids.
So now Natalie focuses on the Abingdon restaurant and makes the locals very happy with her yummy food and baked goods including her most popular cupcake – Salted Caramel. Her version is a chocolate cupcake filled with caramel sauce then a swirl of chocolate frosting, drizzled with caramel and sprinkled with salt. Customers love this sweet and salty combination. Natalie adds, “We use fresh ingredients, sweet cream butters, pure vanillas, and make everything we can from scratch and love!”
With over 7,000 fans, Facebook has become their go-to place for free advertising. Every Wednesday they have a free cupcake giveaway announced only through Facebook.
You can see Natalie’s fun video for her Cupcake Wars audition here. They made it to the second round, but were unfortunately not selected for the show. Maybe next time!
Consistency has been the key to Natalie’s success. She explains, “When I first opened my store, sometimes I would sell 8 to 10 cupcakes in a day. But no matter how slow business was, I kept the same business hours from 8 am – 5 pm so that my customers could count on me to be there! Now we sell hundreds of cupcakes a day!”
Watch our short video to get more great ideas using our 100% recycled, Made in the USA bakery boxes:
